تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13

English (machine translation) 13

Language: English

13.1 — 1 part
13.2 — 8 parts
13.3 — 2 parts
13.4 — 5 parts
13.5 — 5 parts
13.6 — 2 parts
13.7 — 1 part
13.8 — 3 parts
13.9 — 4 parts
13.10 — 1 part
13.11 — 24 parts
13.12 — 2 parts
13.13 — 4 parts
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13.16 — 4 parts
13.17 — 4 parts
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13.23 — 7 parts
13.24 — 3 parts
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13.28 — 11 parts
13.29 — 3 parts
13.30 — 12 parts
13.31 — 7 parts
13.32 — 2 parts
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13.38 — 2 parts
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13.45 — 11 parts
13.46 — 2 parts
13.47 — 21 parts
13.48 — 5 parts
13.49 — 6 parts
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13.58 — 7 parts
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13.70 — 5 parts
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13.76 — 2 parts
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13.80 — 4 parts
13.81 — 9 parts
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13.83 — 14 parts
13.84 — 4 parts
13.85 — 5 parts
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13.88 — 7 parts
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13.91 — 3 parts
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13.94 — 4 parts
13.95 — 6 parts
13.96 — 9 parts
13.97 — 1 part
13.98 — 7 parts
13.99 — 5 parts
13.100 — 4 parts
13.101 — 5 parts
13.102 — 13 parts
13.103 — 2 parts
13.104 — 2 parts
13.105 — 2 parts
13.106 — 6 parts
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13.108 — 9 parts
13.109 — 2 parts
13.110 — 5 parts
13.111 — 2 parts
13.112 — 1 part
13.113 — 2 parts
13.114 — 10 parts
13.115 — 1 part
13.116 — 1 part

13.1

History of the reign of Muḥammad ibn Tughluq. The hospitality of Sultan Muḥammad Shāh and his mother to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. Death of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's daughter. The Sultan's kindness to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa in his absence. The Sultan's gifts to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. The Sultan goes out hunting, and Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's presents to him. The Sultan departs and orders Ibn Baṭṭūṭa to remain in Dihlī. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa goes out to Hazār Amrūhā. The Sultan's return and his sending Ibn Baṭṭūṭa to China.

13.1.1

When the Sultan succeeded to the kingship after his father and the people swore allegiance to him, he summoned Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Bahādur Būra, whom Sultan Tughluq had taken captive. He showed him favour, removed his fetters, gave him lavish gifts of money, horses and elephants, and sent him back to his kingdom. He sent with him his nephew Bahrām Khān, and made a pact with him that the kingdom would be shared between them, that both their names would be inscribed together on the coinage and mentioned together in the sermon, and that Ghiyāth al-Dīn would send his son Muḥammad, known as Barbāṭ, to be a hostage with the Sultan. Ghiyāth al-Dīn went back to his kingdom and observed the conditions laid on him, except that he did not send his son; he claimed that he had refused, and was insolent in his words. So the Sultan sent troops to his nephew Ibrāhīm Khān, under the command of Duljī the Tatar. They fought Ghiyāth al-Dīn and killed him, flayed his skin, stuffed it with straw and paraded it around the provinces.

13.2.1

Sultan Tughluq had a sister's son named Bahāʾ al-Dīn Gusht Asb — with u after the k, unvoweled dotted sh and t above the line, and Asb with undotted s and one-dotted b, both unvoweled — whom he made amīr over a certain district. When his uncle died, he refused to swear allegiance to his son. He was a brave hero, so the Sultan sent troops against him, among them great amīrs such as Malik Mujīr, with the vizier Khwāja Jahān as commander over all. The horsemen met, the fighting grew fierce, and both armies held firm; then the victory went to the Sultan's army, and

13.2.2

Bahāʾ al-Dīn fled to one of the kings of the infidels known as the Rāy of Kanbīla. Among them "rāy" means, as in the language of the Rūm, the sultan, and Kanbīla is the name of the region where he is — with a after the k, unvoweled n, one-dotted b with i, then y, and l with a.

13.2.3

This Rāy had territory in impregnable mountains and was one of the greatest of the infidel sultans. When Bahāʾ al-Dīn fled to him, the Sultan's troops pursued him and besieged that territory. The infidel was hard pressed, his stores of grain ran out, and he feared being taken by force. So he said to Bahāʾ al-Dīn: "Matters have come to what you see, and I am resolved to destroy myself, my family and those who follow me. Go to Sultan So-and-so" — an infidel sultan whom he named to him — "and stay with him, for he will protect you." And he sent with him someone to escort him to him.

13.2.4

The Rāy of Kanbīla ordered a great fire, which was kindled, and he burned his belongings in it and said to his wives and daughters:

13.2.5

"I intend to kill myself; whoever of you wishes to join me, let her do so." Then each woman among them would wash, anoint herself with Maqāṣirī sandalwood, kiss the ground before him and throw herself into the fire, until all of them perished. The wives of his amīrs, viziers and officers of state did the same, as did any other women who wished to. Then the Rāy washed, anointed himself with sandalwood and put on his arms, all except the coat of mail, and those of his people who wished to die with him did as he did. They went out against the Sultan's army and fought until all of them were killed. The city was entered and its inhabitants taken captive, and eleven of the sons of the Rāy of Kanbīla were captured. They were brought to the Sultan and all of them became Muslims; the Sultan made them amīrs and held them in high esteem for their noble lineage and for what their father had done. I saw among them at his court Naṣr, Bakhtiyār and the muhrdār, who is the keeper of the seal with which the water the Sultan drinks is sealed; his kunya was Abū Muslim, and there was companionship and affection between him and me.

13.2.6

When the Rāy of Kanbīla had been killed, the Sultan's armies marched on the country of the infidel with whom Bahāʾ al-Dīn had taken refuge and surrounded it. That sultan said, "I am not able to do what the Rāy of Kanbīla did," and he seized

13.2.7

Bahāʾ al-Dīn and handed him over to the Sultan's army. They fettered him, chained him by the neck and brought him to [the Sultan]. When he was brought before him, he ordered him to be taken in to his female relatives, who reviled him and spat in his face. Then he ordered him to be flayed alive; he was flayed, and his flesh was cooked with rice and sent to his children and family, and the rest of it was put in a dish and thrown to the elephants to eat, but they refused to eat it! He ordered his skin to be stuffed with straw and joined with the skin of Bahādūr Būra, and the two were paraded through the provinces.

13.2.8

When they reached the land of Sind, whose chief amīr at that time was Kishlū Khān, the companion of Sultan Tughluq who had helped him take the kingdom, and whom the Sultan held in high esteem, addressing him as "uncle" and going out to meet him whenever he came from his territory, Kishlū Khān ordered the two skins to be buried. When this reached the Sultan, he was angered by what he had done and resolved to destroy him.

13.3.1

When the Sultan learned of what he had done in burying the two skins, he summoned him. Kishlū Khān, knowing that he intended to punish him, refused and rebelled; he distributed money, gathered troops and sent to the Turks, the Afghans and the people of Khurāsān, and a great host of them came to him, so that his army equalled the Sultan's army or exceeded it in number. The Sultan went out in person to fight him, and the encounter took place two days' journey from Multān, in the desert of Abūhar. The Sultan took precautions at the encounter, placing under the parasol in his stead Shaykh ʿImād al-Dīn, brother of Shaykh Rukn al-Dīn al-Multānī, who resembled him — and it was he who told me this. When the battle grew hot, the Sultan drew apart with four thousand of his troops, while Kishlū Khān's army made for the parasol, believing that the Sultan was under it, and killed ʿImād al-Dīn. It spread through the army that the Sultan had been killed, so Kishlū Khān's troops busied themselves with plunder and scattered from him, and only a few remained with him. The Sultan then made for him with those who were with him, killed him and cut off his head. When his army learned of this they fled. The Sultan entered the city of Multān, seized its qāḍī Karīm al-Dīn and ordered him to be flayed, and he was flayed. He ordered Kishlū Khān's head to be hung over his gate, and I saw it hanging there when I arrived in Multān. The Sultan gave Shaykh Rukn al-Dīn, the brother of ʿImād al-Dīn, and his son Ṣadr al-Dīn a hundred villages as a grant, to live on and to provide food at their hospice named after their grandfather Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zakariyyāʾ. The Sultan ordered

13.3.2

his vizier Khwāja Jahān to go to the city of Kamālpūr, a large city on the seashore whose inhabitants had rebelled. One of the jurists told me that he was present when the vizier entered it. He said: The qāḍī and the preacher of the city were brought before him, and he ordered them to be flayed. They said to him, "Kill us some other way." He said to them, "For what have you deserved death?" They said, "For disobeying the Sultan's command." He said to them, "Then how can I disobey his command, when he has ordered me to kill you by this death?" And he told those charged with flaying them, "Dig holes for them under their faces in which they can breathe" — for when they are flayed, God preserve us, they are laid on their faces. When this had been done, the land of Sind was pacified and the Sultan returned to his capital.

13.4.1

Its name begins with qāf and a hard jīm. This mountain of Qarājīl is a great mountain extending for three months' journey, and between it and Dihlī is a journey of ten [days]. Its sultan is one of the greatest of the infidel sultans. The Sultan had sent Malik Nakbiya, chief of the dawīdārs, to make war on this mountain with a hundred thousand horsemen and many foot soldiers besides. He took the city of Jidya — vocalised with i after the j, no vowel on the undotted d, and a after the y — which lies at the foot of the mountain, and took what lay around it, taking captives, laying waste and burning. The infidels fled to the top of the mountain, abandoning their lands, their wealth and their king's treasuries.

13.4.2

The mountain has a single road, with a valley below it and the mountain above, along which only one horseman at a time can pass, with another behind him. The Muslim troops ascended by that road and took possession of the city of Warankal

13.4.3

at the top of the mountain — vocalised with a after the w and the r, no vowel on the n, and a after the k — and seized all that was in it. They wrote to the Sultan announcing the victory, and he sent them a qāḍī and a preacher and ordered them to remain.

13.4.4

When the season of rain came, sickness overcame the army; they grew weak, the horses died and the bows came unstrung. The amīrs wrote to the Sultan asking his permission to leave the mountain and go down to its foot while the rainy season passed, and then return, and he gave them permission. So Amīr Nakbiya took the wealth

13.4.5

he had seized from the treasuries and the mines and distributed it among the men to carry and bring down to the foot of the mountain. As soon as the infidels learned of their departure, they lay in wait for them in those ravines and blocked the pass against them, and began cutting huge old trees into pieces and hurling them from the top of the mountain, and they struck no one without killing him. Many of the men perished and the rest were taken captive, and the infidels took the wealth, the baggage, the horses and the weapons. None of the army escaped except three of the amīrs: the chief of them Nakbiya, Badr al-Dīn al-Malik Dawlat Shāh, and a third whom I do not remember. This disaster had a great effect on the army of Hind and weakened it markedly. After it the Sultan made peace with the people of the mountain in return for tribute they would pay him, because the lands at the foot of the mountain belong to them and they cannot cultivate them except with his permission.

13.5.1

The Sultan had appointed the sharīf Jalāl al-Dīn Aḥsan Shāh as amīr over the land of al-Maʿbar, which is six months' journey from Dihlī. He rebelled, claimed the kingship for himself, killed the Sultan's deputies and officials, and struck dīnārs and dirhams in his own name. On one face of the dīnār he had inscribed: "Descendant of Ṭā Hā and Yā Sīn, father of the poor and the destitute, Jalāl al-Dunyā wa-l-Dīn," and on the other face: "He who trusts in the support of the Merciful, Aḥsan Shāh the Sultan."

13.5.2

When the Sultan heard of his revolt he set out intending to fight him. He halted at a place called Kushk Zar, meaning 'the Palace of Gold', and stayed there eight days to settle people's affairs. During those days the nephew of the vizier Khwāja Jahān, his sister's son, was brought in together with four or three of the amīrs, shackled and fettered. The Sultan had sent this vizier ahead with his vanguard, and he had reached the city of Ẓahār, which is twenty-four

13.5.3

[days' journey] from Dihlī, and stayed there some days. His nephew was a brave warrior, and he conspired with the amīrs who were brought in to kill his uncle and flee with the treasuries and wealth in his keeping to the sharīf who had risen in the land of al-Maʿbar. They resolved to assassinate the vizier when he went out to the Friday prayer, but one of those they had let into their plot, named al-Malik Nuṣra the chamberlain, informed on them to the vizier, and told him that the sign of what they intended was that they were wearing coats of mail under their clothes. The vizier sent for them, found them so, and sent them to the Sultan.

13.5.4

I was in the Sultan's presence when they arrived, and I saw one of them, a tall bearded man, trembling and reciting the Sūrat Yā Sīn. He gave orders concerning them and they were thrown to the elephants trained to kill people, and he ordered the vizier's nephew to be sent back to his uncle for him to kill him; we shall relate that.

13.5.5

Those elephants that kill people have their tusks sheathed in sharpened irons like ploughshares, with edges like knives. The elephant-driver rides on the elephant, and when a man is thrown before it, it wraps its trunk around him and tosses him into the air, then catches him on its two tusks, after which it throws him down before it, places its foot on his chest, and does with him whatever the driver commands, according to what the Sultan has ordered. If he orders him to be cut to pieces, the elephant cuts him to pieces with those irons; if he orders him to be left, it leaves him lying there, and he is flayed. That is what was done with these men! I came out of the Sultan's palace after the sunset prayer and saw the dogs eating their flesh, and their skins had been stuffed with straw — God preserve us! When the Sultan made ready for this expedition he ordered me to remain in the capital, as we shall relate, and he went on his journey until he reached Dawlat Ābād; then the amīr Hulājūn rebelled in his territory … that. The vizier Khwāja Jahān had also remained in the capital to muster troops and assemble armies.

13.6.1

When the Sultan reached Dawlat Ābād and was far from his own lands, the amīr Hulājūn rebelled in the city of Lāhūr and claimed the kingship. The amīr Qaljand helped him in this, and he made him his vizier. News of this reached the vizier Khwāja Jahān

13.6.2

while he was in Dihlī. He mustered people, assembled troops, gathered the Khurāsānīs and every one of the officials resident in Dihlī, taking their followers; among them he took my followers, since I was resident there. The Sultan reinforced him with two great amīrs, one of them Qīrān Malik Ṣafdār, meaning 'the marshal of the troops', and the other al-Malik Tamūr the sharbdār, that is, the cupbearer. Hulājūn came out with troops, and they met on the bank of one of the great rivers (30). Hulājūn was routed and fled, and many of his troops drowned in the river. The vizier entered the city, flayed some of its people and killed others by other kinds of execution. The one who carried out their killing was Muḥammad b. al-Najīb, the vizier's deputy, known as Ajdar Malik, and also called Ṣagg al-Sulṭān — ṣagg among them means 'dog'. He was a tyrant, hard of heart, and the Sultan called him 'the lion of the markets'. At times he would bite criminals with his teeth out of greed and hostility. The vizier sent about three hundred of the rebels' women to the fortress of Kāliyūr, where they were imprisoned, and I saw some of them there. One of the jurists had a wife among them, and he used to visit her until she bore him a child in the prison!

13.7.1

When the Sultan reached the land of al-Tiling, on his way to fight the sharīf in the land of al-Maʿbar, he halted at the city of Badrakūt — its name is spelled with a over the b, no vowel on the d, a over the r, u on the k, then w and dotted t — which is the capital of the land of al-Tiling, spelled with i on the dotted t and on the l, no vowel on the n, and a hard k. Between it and the land of al-Maʿbar is three months' journey. At that time plague broke out in his army and most of them perished. Slaves and mamlūks died, and great amīrs such as Malik Dawlat Shāh, whom the Sultan used to address as 'uncle', and Amīr ʿAbd Allāh al-Harawī, whose story has been told in the first volume — he was the one whom the Sultan ordered to carry away from the treasury as much money as he could, and he tied thirteen bags to his arms and carried them off. When the Sultan saw what had befallen the army he returned to Dawlat Ābād. The provinces rebelled and the outlying regions broke away, and the kingship would almost have slipped from his hand, had it not been for what destiny had already decreed of the firm establishment of his good fortune.

13.8.1

When the Sultan was returning to Dawlat Ābād he fell ill on the way, and people spread rumours of his death, and this became widespread,

13.8.2

and widespread disturbances arose from it. Al-Malik Hūshanj, son of al-Malik Kamāl al-Dīn Gurg, was at Dawlat Ābād, and there was a pact between him and the Sultan that he would never swear allegiance to anyone else, neither in his lifetime nor after his death. When the Sultan's death was rumoured, he fled to an infidel sultan called Barbara, who lived in inaccessible mountains between Dawlat Ābād and Kūkan Tāna. The Sultan learned of his flight and, fearing an outbreak of disorder, hastened to Dawlat Ābād, followed Hūshanj's trail and besieged him with cavalry. He sent word to the infidel to hand him over, but he refused, saying: "I will not hand over the one who has sought my protection, even if it brings me to what it brought Rāy Kanbīla." Hūshanj feared for his life and sent word to the Sultan, making a pact with him that the Sultan would withdraw to Dawlat Ābād and that Quṭlū Khān, the Sultan's teacher, would remain there, so that Hūshanj could obtain guarantees from him and come down to him under safe-conduct. The Sultan withdrew, and Hūshanj came down to Quṭlū Khān, who pledged to him that the Sultan would neither kill him nor lower his rank. He came out with his wealth, his family and his followers and presented himself to the Sultan, who was pleased at his coming, satisfied him and bestowed a robe of honour on him.

13.8.3

Quṭlū Khān was a man true to his word; people trusted him and relied on him to keep faith. He held a lofty rank with the Sultan, who honoured him greatly; whenever he came in to him the Sultan rose for him out of respect, and for that reason he would not go in to him unless the Sultan himself summoned him, so as not to trouble him with rising for him. He was fond of giving alms, very generous, and devoted to doing good to the poor and the needy.

13.9.1

The Sharīf Ibrāhīm, known as the Kharīṭadār — he is the keeper of the paper and pens in the Sultan's palace — was governor of the lands of Ḥānsī and Sarastī when the Sultan set out for the land of Maʿbar; his father, the Sharīf Aḥsan Shāh, was the one who had risen up in the land of Maʿbar. When the rumour of the Sultan's death spread, Ibrāhīm coveted the sultanate. He was brave, generous and handsome. I was married to his sister Ḥūrnasab; she was a pious woman who kept night vigils and had her litanies of the remembrance of God, mighty and exalted is He. She bore me a daughter, and I do not know what God has done with the two of them. She could read but could not write. When Ibrāhīm resolved on revolt, one of the amīrs of Sind passed by him

13.9.2

carrying money to Dihlī. Ibrāhīm said to him: "The road is dangerous and there are highwaymen on it; stay with me until the road is safe, and I will bring you to a place of safety." His intention was to make certain of the Sultan's death and then seize that money. When he learned for certain that the Sultan was alive, he let that amīr go; he was called Ḍiyāʾ al-Mulk ibn Shams al-Mulk.

13.9.3

When the Sultan reached the capital after an absence of two and a half years, the Sharīf Ibrāhīm came to him. One of his servants informed against him and told the Sultan what he had intended. The Sultan wished to have him killed at once, but then held back out of his affection for him. It happened one day that a slaughtered gazelle was brought to the Sultan; he looked at the cut and said: "It has not been properly slaughtered; throw it away." Ibrāhīm saw it and said: "It has been properly slaughtered, and I will eat it." The Sultan was told of his words; he took offence at this and made it a pretext for seizing him. He ordered him to be put in fetters and chains, and then interrogated him about the charge laid against him, namely that he had wanted to take the money with which Ḍiyāʾ al-Mulk had passed by.

13.9.4

Ibrāhīm knew that he wanted to kill him only because of his father, and that no excuse would help him; he feared being tortured and thought death better for him, so he confessed to it. The Sultan ordered him to be cut in two at the waist, and he was left there. Their custom is that whenever the Sultan kills someone, he remains lying at the place where he was killed for three days; after the three days a group of infidels appointed for this take him and carry him to a ditch outside the city, where they throw him. They live around the ditch so that the relatives of the slain man cannot come and remove him. Sometimes someone gives these infidels money and they look the other way about his slain kinsman so that he may bury him. That is what was done with the Sharīf Ibrāhīm, may God Most High have mercy on him.

13.10.1

When the Sultan returned from Tiling and the news of his death spread, Tāj al-Mulk Nuṣrat Khān, one of his long-standing intimates, whom he had left as his deputy in the land of Tiling, heard of it. He held mourning for the Sultan, proclaimed himself, and the people swore allegiance to him in the city of Badrakūt. News of him reached the Sultan, who sent his tutor Quṭlū Khān with great armies. He besieged him after fierce fighting in which multitudes of people perished. The siege pressed hard on the people of Badrakūt, which is strongly fortified, and Quṭlū Khān began to undermine it. Nuṣrat Khān then came out to him under a guarantee of safety for his life; he granted him safety and sent him to the Sultan, and granted safety to the people of the city and the army.

13.11.1

When famine took hold of the land, the Sultan moved with his armies to the river Gang, to which the Hindus go on pilgrimage, ten days' journey from Dihlī, and ordered the people to build. Before that they had made tents of grass, and fire often broke out in them and harmed the people, so that they made caves under the ground, and when fire broke out they threw their belongings into them and covered them over with earth.

13.11.2

I arrived at the Sultan's camp in those days. The lands west of the river, where the Sultan was, were in severe famine, while the lands to its east were fertile; their amīr was ʿAyn al-Mulk ibn Māhir, and among them are the city of ʿAwaḍ, the city of Ẓafar Ābād, the city of al-Laknaw and others. The amīr ʿAyn al-Mulk supplied fifty thousand mann every day, of wheat, rice and chickpeas for fodder for the animals. The Sultan ordered that the elephants and most of the horses and mules be taken to the fertile eastern side to graze there, and charged ʿAyn al-Mulk with looking after them.

13.11.3

ʿAyn al-Mulk had four brothers: Shahr Allāh, Naṣr Allāh, Faḍl Allāh, and I do not remember the name of the other. They agreed with their brother ʿAyn al-Mulk to take the Sultan's elephants and animals, swear allegiance to ʿAyn al-Mulk, and rise against the Sultan. ʿAyn al-Mulk fled to them by night, and the affair nearly succeeded for them.

13.11.4

It is the custom of the king of Hind to attach to every amīr, great or small, a mamlūk of his own who acts as a spy on him and informs him of all his affairs. He also places slave-girls in the houses to spy on his amīrs, and women whom they call sweepers, who enter the houses without asking permission; the slave-girls tell them what they know, the sweepers pass this on to the chief of the informants, and he informs the Sultan of it. They relate that a certain amīr was in bed with his wife

13.11.5

and wished to have intercourse with her, and she adjured him by the Sultan's head not to do it, but he did not listen to her. In the morning the Sultan sent for him and told him of it, and that was the cause of his destruction.

13.11.6

The Sultan had a mamlūk known as Ibn Malik Shāh who was a spy on the aforementioned ʿAyn al-Mulk. He informed the Sultan of his flight and his crossing of the river. The Sultan was dismayed and thought it would be the end of him, because the horses, the elephants and the grain were all with ʿAyn al-Mulk, and the Sultan's armies were dispersed. He wanted to make for his capital and gather the armies, and then come to fight him, and he consulted the officers of state about this. The amīrs of Khurāsān and the foreigners were the most afraid of all people of this rebel, because he was an Indian, and the people of Hind hate the foreigners because of the favour the Sultan shows them. So they disliked what he proposed and said: "O Khūnd ʿĀlam! If you do that, he will hear of it, his position will grow stronger, he will organise armies, and those who seek mischief and who stir up sedition will flock to him. It is better to deal with him before his strength becomes firm."

13.11.7

The first to say this was Nāṣir al-Dīn Muṭahhar al-Awharī, and all of them agreed with him. The Sultan acted on their advice and that night wrote to the amīrs and troops near him, and they came at once. He devised a clever stratagem in this: when, for example, a hundred horsemen arrived at his camp, he would send out thousands of his own men by night to meet them, and they would enter the camp together with them, as though all of them were reinforcements for him.

13.11.8

The Sultan moved along the bank of the river so as to put the city of Qanūj at his back and fortify himself in it, because of its strength and impregnability; between it and the place where he was lay three days. He marched the first stage, having drawn up his army for battle and arranged them in a single line when they halted, each man with his weapons before him and his horse beside him, and with him a small tent in which he would eat and make his ablutions and then return to his place. The main camp was at a distance from them. During those three days the Sultan did not enter a tent, nor did he seek shade.

13.11.9

On one of those days I was in my tent when one of my young men, named Sunbul, shouted for me and urged me to hurry; I had my slave-girls with me. I went out to him, and he said: "The Sultan has just ordered that everyone who has his wife or slave-girl with him be put to death." The amīrs interceded with him, and he ordered that no woman should remain in the camp at that moment, and that they be taken to a fort there, three miles away, called Kanbīl. So not a woman remained in the camp or with the Sultan.

13.11.10

We spent that night in battle order. On the second day the Sultan arranged his army in divisions and placed with each division armoured elephants bearing towers with fighting men on top; the army put on its armour and made ready for battle,

13.11.11

and they spent that night in readiness. On the third day news arrived that the rebel ʿAyn al-Mulk had crossed the river. The Sultan was alarmed at this and suspected that he had done it only after corresponding with the amīrs who remained with the Sultan. So he at once ordered the thoroughbred horses to be distributed among his close companions, and he sent me a share of them. I had a companion named Amīr Amīrān al-Kirmānī, one of the brave; I gave him one of them, a grey horse, and when he spurred it, it bolted with him, he could not hold it, and it threw him from its back and he died, God Most High have mercy on him.

13.11.12

That day the Sultan pressed on in his march and reached the city of Qanūj after the afternoon prayer, for he feared that the rebel would get there before him. He spent that night arranging the troops himself. He came up to us while we were in the vanguard with his cousin Malik Fīrūz, and with us were the Amīr Ghadā ibn Muhannā, the Sayyid Nāṣir al-Dīn Muṭahhar and the amīrs of Khurāsān, and he attached us to his close companions, saying: "You are dear to me; you should not leave me." That turned out well in the end, for the rebel attacked the vanguard at the end of the night, in which was the vizier Khwāja Jahān. A great uproar arose among the men; thereupon the Sultan ordered that no one should leave his place and that the men should fight only with swords. The army drew their swords and rose against their opponents, and the fighting grew fierce. The Sultan ordered that the watchword of his army be "Dihlī" and "Ghazna": when one of them met a horseman he would say to him "Dihlī", and if he answered "Ghazna" he knew he was one of his own side; otherwise he fought him.

13.11.13

The rebel had intended to attack the Sultan's position, but his guide led him astray and he went for the vizier's position instead, so he cut off the guide's head.

13.11.14

In the vizier's army were Persians, Turks and Khurāsānīs, who are enemies of the Indians, and they fought hard. The rebel's army numbered about fifty thousand, and they were routed at daybreak. Malik Ibrāhīm, known as al-Banjī (with a over the b, quiescent n, and j), the Tatar, to whom the Sultan had granted the district of Sandīla, a village in ʿAyn al-Mulk's territory, had joined him in rebellion, and he had made him his deputy. Dāwūd son of Quṭb al-Mulk and the son of Malik al-Tujjār, who were in charge of the Sultan's elephants and horses, had also sided with him, and he had made Dāwūd his chamberlain.

13.11.15

When they attacked the vizier's camp, this Dāwūd was openly reviling the Sultan and insulting him in the foulest terms, while the Sultan heard it and recognised his voice. When the rout came, ʿAyn al-Mulk said to his deputy Ibrāhīm the Tatar: "What do you think, Malik Ibrāhīm? Most of the army has fled, including the bravest of them. Shall we save ourselves?" Ibrāhīm said to his men in their own tongue: "When ʿAyn al-Mulk tries to flee, I shall seize him by his pigtail (dabbūqa). When I do that, strike his horse so that he falls to the ground; then we will seize him and bring him to the Sultan, so that this may be an atonement for my sin in rebelling against him and a means of my deliverance." When ʿAyn al-Mulk was about to flee, Ibrāhīm said to him: "Where to, Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn?"—for so he was styled—and seized him by his pigtail, and

13.11.16

his men struck his horse, so he fell to the ground. Ibrāhīm threw himself on him and seized him. The vizier's men came to take him, but he prevented them, saying: "I will not leave him until I deliver him to the vizier, or die in the attempt." So they left him, and he delivered him to the vizier.

13.11.17

In the morning I was watching the elephants and banners being brought to the Sultan. Then one of the Iraqis came to me and said: "ʿAyn al-Mulk has been captured and brought to the vizier." I did not believe him, but only a short while passed before Malik Tamūr the sharbdār came to me, took my hand and said: "Good news! ʿAyn al-Mulk has been captured and is with the vizier." At that the Sultan moved, and we with him, to ʿAyn al-Mulk's camp on the river Gang. The troops plundered what was in it; many of ʿAyn al-Mulk's soldiers plunged into the river and were drowned. Dāwūd son of Quṭb al-Mulk, the son of Malik al-Tujjār and a great many others with them were taken, and the money, horses and goods were plundered.

13.11.18

The Sultan halted at the crossing, and the vizier brought ʿAyn al-Mulk, mounted on an ox, naked, his private parts covered with a rag tied with a rope, the rest of which was round his neck. He was made to stand at the door of the enclosure, and the vizier went in to the Sultan, who gave him the drink as a mark of favour. The sons of the maliks came up to ʿAyn al-Mulk and began to revile him, spit in his face and slap his companions. The Sultan sent al-Malik al-Kabīr to him, who said to him: "What is this you have done?" He found no answer. The Sultan ordered that he be clothed in one of the garments of the zamāla, fettered with four shackles, his hands bound to his neck, and handed over to the vizier for safekeeping. His brothers crossed the river in flight and reached the city of ʿAwaḍ; they took their families, their children and what money they could, and said to the wife of their brother ʿAyn al-Mulk:

13.11.19

"Save yourself and your sons with us!" She said: "Shall I not be like the women of the infidels who burn themselves with their husbands? I too will die with my husband's death and live with his life!" So they left her.

13.11.20

News of this reached the Sultan, and it was the cause of her good fortune, for he felt pity for her. The youth Suhayl overtook Naṣr Allāh, one of those brothers, and killed him, and brought his head to the Sultan; and he brought ʿAyn al-Mulk's mother, sister and wife, who were handed over to the vizier and placed in a tent near ʿAyn al-Mulk's tent. He would go in to them, sit with them, and return to his place of confinement! After the afternoon prayer on the day of the rout, the Sultan ordered the release of the mass of people who had been with ʿAyn al-Mulk — the riffraff, the market folk, the slaves and those of no account. Then Malik Ibrāhīm al-Banjī, whom we have mentioned, was brought, and the commander of the army, Malik Nuwā, said: "Khwand-i ʿĀlam, kill this man, for he is one of the rebels." But the vizier said that he had ransomed himself by [delivering up] the rebel, so the Sultan pardoned him and sent him back to his own land.

13.11.21

After the sunset prayer the Sultan sat in the wooden tower, and sixty-two men of the rebel's chief followers were brought, and the elephants were brought, and they were thrown before them. The elephants began cutting them to pieces with the iron blades fitted on their tusks, tossing some of them into the air and catching them, while the trumpets, horns and drums sounded. ʿAyn al-Mulk stood watching their slaughter, and some of them were thrown upon him; then he was taken back to his confinement. The Sultan stayed at the river crossing for some days because of the great number of people and the scarcity of boats. He had his baggage and treasuries carried across on the elephants, and distributed elephants among his intimates so that they could carry their baggage across; he sent me one of them, on which I took my baggage across.

13.11.22

The Sultan, and we with him, set out for the city of Bahrāyij — its name is spelled with a after the b, a quiescent h, r, alif, y with i, and j. It is a fine city on the bank of the river Sarū, a large river with a very swift current. The Sultan crossed it in order to visit the tomb of the pious shaykh and hero Sālār ʿŪd, who conquered most of those lands and about whom there are wondrous stories and famous campaigns. People crowded in great numbers to cross and jostled one another, until a large boat carrying about three hundred souls sank, and none of them survived but an Arab, one of the followers of Amīr Ghadhā. We had embarked in a small boat, and God Most High kept us safe.

13.11.23

The Arab who escaped drowning was named Sālim, which was a remarkable coincidence. He had wanted to come aboard our boat with us, but found we had already set out on the river, so he boarded the boat that sank. When he came out, people thought he had been with us, and an outcry arose among our companions and among everyone else, for they imagined we had drowned; then, when they saw us afterwards, they rejoiced at our safety.

13.11.24

We visited the tomb of the saint mentioned; it is in a domed building which we could find no way to enter because of the dense crowd. On that journey we entered a thicket of reeds, and a rhinoceros came out at us from it. It was killed, and people brought its head. It is smaller than the elephant, but its head is many times larger than the elephant's head; we have already described it.

13.12.1

When the Sultan had overcome ʿAyn al-Mulk, as we have related, he returned to his capital after an absence of two years

13.12.2

and a half. He pardoned ʿAyn al-Mulk, and also pardoned Nuṣrat Khān, the rebel in the land of Tilank, and put both of them in charge of a single office, the supervision of the Sultan's gardens; he gave them robes and horses, and assigned them a daily allowance of flour and meat! News came after that that one of Quṭlū Khān's followers, ʿAlī Shāh Kar — kar meaning 'the deaf' — had rebelled against the Sultan. He was brave, handsome and of good conduct. He seized Badrakūt and made it the city of his kingdom. Armies went out against him, and the Sultan ordered his teacher to go out and fight him. He went out with huge armies and besieged him in Badrakūt; its towers were undermined and his situation became desperate, so he asked for a guarantee of safety, and Quṭlū Khān granted it and sent him in fetters to the Sultan. The Sultan pardoned him and banished him to the city of Ghazna on the edge of Khurāsān. He stayed there for a while, then longed for his homeland and wished to return to it, for God had decreed his hour. He was seized in the land of Sind and brought to the Sultan, who said to him: "You have come only to stir up trouble a second time," and ordered him beheaded.

13.13.1

The Sultan had become angry with Amīr Bakht, called Sharaf al-Mulk, one of those who had come with us to the Sultan, and reduced his stipend from forty thousand to a single thousand, and sent him to Dihlī in the service of the vizier. It happened that Amīr ʿAbd Allāh al-Harawī died in the epidemic in Tilank, and his wealth was with his followers in Dihlī. They agreed with Amīr Bakht to flee, and when the vizier left Dihlī to meet the Sultan, they fled with Amīr Bakht and his followers and reached the land of Sind in seven days, though it is a journey of forty days.

13.13.2

They had horses led alongside, and they resolved to cross the river of Sind by swimming, while Amīr Bakht, his son and those who could not swim well would ride on a reed raft they would make; they had prepared silk ropes for that purpose. But when they reached the river they were afraid to cross it by swimming, so they sent two of their men to Jalāl al-Dīn, the governor of the city of Ūja, who said to him: "There are merchants here who wish to cross the river, and they have

13.13.3

sent you this saddle so that you will permit them to cross." The amīr found it suspicious that merchants should give such a saddle, and ordered the two men arrested. One of them escaped and rejoined Sharaf al-Mulk and his companions, who were asleep from the exhaustion and continuous sleeplessness they had suffered. He told them the news, and they mounted in alarm and fled.

13.13.4

Jalāl al-Dīn ordered the man who had been seized to be beaten, and he confessed the affair of Sharaf al-Mulk. Jalāl al-Dīn ordered his deputy, who rode out with the troops and made for them; they found that they had already mounted, so they followed their tracks and overtook them. They shot arrows at the troops, and Ṭāhir, son of Sharaf al-Mulk, shot an arrow at Amīr Jalāl al-Dīn's deputy and lodged it in his arm, but [the deputy] overpowered them and brought them to Jalāl al-Dīn, who fettered them, chained their hands and wrote to the vizier about them. The vizier ordered him to send them to the capital, so he sent them there, and they were imprisoned in it. Ṭāhir died in prison, and the Sultan ordered that Sharaf al-Mulk be given a hundred lashes with the whip every day; he remained so for some time. Then he pardoned him and sent him with Amīr Niẓām al-Dīn, Amīr Najla, to the land of Jandīrī, and his condition sank so low that he rode oxen, having no horse to ride! He remained so for some time; then that amīr came to the Sultan, with him in his company, and the Sultan made him shāshankīr, that is, the one who carves the meat before the Sultan and walks with the food. After that he distinguished him and raised his rank, until, when he fell ill, the Sultan visited him and ordered him to be weighed in gold and gave him that; we have already told this story in the first volume. After that he married him to his sister and gave him the land of Jandīrī, where he used to ride oxen in the service of Amīr Niẓām al-Dīn. Glory be to Him who turns hearts and transforms conditions.

13.14.1

Shāh Afghān had rebelled against the Sultan in the land of Multān in the country of Sind and killed the amīr there, who was called Bihzād, and claimed the sultanate for himself. The Sultan prepared to fight him, and he, knowing that he could not withstand him, fled and joined his people, the Afghans, who live in impregnable mountains that cannot be overcome. The Sultan was enraged at what he had done and wrote to his governors to seize whatever Afghans they found in his lands, and this was the cause of the rebellion of the qāḍī Jalāl.

13.15.1

The qāḍī Jalāl and a group of Afghans were settled near the city of Kanbāya and the city of Balūdhara. When the Sultan wrote to his governors to seize the Afghans, he wrote to Malik Muqbil, the vizier's deputy in the lands of al-Juzarāt and Nahrawāla, to contrive to seize the qāḍī Jalāl and those with him. The land of Balūdhara was the fief of Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ, and Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ was married to the Sultan's stepmother, the wife of his father Tughluq; she had a daughter by Tughluq, the one whom Amīr Ghadā married. Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ was at that time in Muqbil's company, because his lands were under his supervision. When they reached the lands of al-Juzarāt, Muqbil ordered Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ to bring the qāḍī Jalāl and his companions. When Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ reached his lands he warned them secretly, for they were people of his own lands, and said: "Muqbil has summoned you in order to seize you, so do not go in to him except armed." So they rode out, some three hundred men in armour, and came to him, and said: "We will not enter except all together." It became clear to him that they could not be seized while they were together, and he feared them, so he ordered them to go back and made a show of guaranteeing their safety. But they rebelled against him, entered the city of Kanbāya and plundered the Sultan's treasury there and the people's property, and plundered the wealth of Ibn al-Kawlamī the merchant, who built the fine madrasa in Alexandria; we shall mention him after this.

13.15.2

Malik Muqbil came to fight them, and they routed him shamefully. Malik ʿAzīz al-Khammār and Malik Jahān Banbal(?) came to fight them with seven thousand horsemen, and they routed them too. The people

13.15.3

of mischief and crime heard of them and flocked to them, and the qāḍī Jalāl claimed the sultanate and his companions swore allegiance to him. The Sultan sent troops against him, and he routed them. There was a group of Afghans in Dawlat Ābād, and they too rebelled.

13.16.1

The son of Malik Mall was living in Dawlat Ābād with a group of Afghans. The Sultan wrote to his deputy there, Niẓām al-Dīn, brother of his teacher Quṭlūkhān, to seize them, and sent him many loads of fetters and chains, and sent the winter robes.

13.16.2

It is the custom of the king of Hind to send to every amīr over a city and to the chief men of his army two robes a year:

13.16.3

the winter robe and the summer robe. When the robes arrive, the amīr and the troops go out to meet them, and when they reach the one bringing them they dismount from their mounts, and each one takes his robe, carries it on his shoulder and makes obeisance towards the Sultan. The Sultan wrote to Niẓām al-Dīn: "When the Afghans come out and dismount from their mounts to take the robes, seize them at that moment."

13.16.4

But one of the horsemen who had delivered the robes went to the Afghans and told them what was intended for them, so Niẓām al-Dīn was one whose ruse turned back on himself. He rode out and the Afghans rode with him, until, when they met the robes and Niẓām al-Dīn dismounted from his horse, they charged him and his companions, seized him and killed many of his companions. They entered the city, took the treasuries and set over themselves Nāṣir al-Dīn, son of Malik Mall; the evildoers flocked to them and their power grew strong.

13.17.1

When the Sultan learned what the Afghans had done in Kanbāya and Dawlat Ābād, he set out in person, resolving to begin with Kanbāya and then return to Dawlat Ābād. He sent his brother-in-law Aʿẓam Malik al-Bāyazīdī ahead with four thousand as a vanguard; the troops of the qāḍī Jalāl met him, routed him, besieged him in Balūdhara and fought him there. In

13.17.2

the army of the qāḍī Jalāl there was a shaykh called Jallūl, one of the brave men, who kept wreaking havoc among the troops, killing and calling for single combat, and no one dared to fight him. It happened one day that he spurred his horse and it stumbled with him into a pit; he fell from it and was killed. They found two coats of mail on him. They sent his head to the Sultan, crucified his body on the wall of Balūdhara and sent his hands and feet to the provinces.

13.17.3

Then the Sultan arrived with his troops, and the qāḍī Jalāl could not stand firm; he fled with his companions, and they left their property and their children, all of which was plundered. The city was entered, and the Sultan stayed in it some days, then departed from it, leaving there his brother-in-law Sharaf al-Mulk Amīr Bakht, whom we mentioned before, together with the affair of his flight, his capture in Sind, his imprisonment, and the humiliation and then the honour that befell him. He ordered him to search out those who had been in obedience to Jalāl al-Dīn, and left the jurists with him so that he might judge according to their opinions; this led to the killing of Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ḥaydarī, as we have related.

13.17.4

When Qāḍī Jalāl fled, he joined Nāṣir al-Dīn, son of Malik Mall, at Dawlat Ābād and entered his following. The Sultan came against them in person. They had gathered some forty thousand Afghans, Turks, Hindus and slaves, and had sworn to one another not to flee but to fight the Sultan. The Sultan came to fight them without raising the parasol, which is his emblem; when the fighting grew fierce he raised the parasol, and when they saw it they were dismayed and were routed in the most shameful defeat. The son of Malik Mall and Qāḍī Jalāl took refuge with about four hundred of their close followers in the fortress of al-Duwayqīr, which we shall describe and which is one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world. The Sultan settled in the city of Dawlat Ābād, al-Duwayqīr being its fortress, and sent word to them to surrender to his judgement. They refused to surrender except under a guarantee of safety, and the Sultan refused to grant it. He sent them food out of contempt for them and stayed there, and that was how matters stood when I last had news of them.

13.18.1

This took place before the revolt and rebellion of Qāḍī Jalāl. Tāj al-Dīn ibn al-Kawlamī was one of the great merchants. He came to the Sultan from the land of the Turks with splendid gifts, among them mamlūks, camels, goods, weapons and garments. The Sultan was pleased with what he had done and gave him twelve lakhs, though it is said that the value of his gift was only one lakh. He appointed him over the city of Kanbāya, which had been under the authority of Malik Muqbil, the vizier's deputy. He went there and sent ships to the land of Mulaybār, the island of Saylān and elsewhere; rare goods and gifts came to him in the ships and his fortune grew great. When [Muqbil] resolved to send the revenues of those parts to the capital, Malik Muqbil sent word to Ibn al-Kawlamī to send the gifts and money he had with the gifts of those parts, as was customary. Ibn al-Kawlamī refused, saying: "I will carry them myself or send them with my servants; neither the vizier's deputy nor the vizier has any authority over me." He was made overconfident by the honour and bounty the Sultan had bestowed on him. Muqbil wrote of this to the vizier, and the vizier wrote on the back of his letter: "If you are unable to manage our lands, leave them and return to us." When the reply reached him, he made ready with his troops and mamlūks, and the two met outside Kanbāya. Ibn al-Kawlamī was defeated, a number of men on both sides were killed, and Ibn al-Kawlamī hid in the house of the nākhudha Ilyās, one of the leading merchants.

13.18.2

Muqbil entered the city and beheaded the commanders of Ibn al-Kawlamī's troops, and sent him a guarantee of safety on condition that he take the property that was his own and leave the Sultan's money, his gift and the revenue of the town. Muqbil sent all of that with his servants to the Sultan and wrote complaining of Ibn al-Kawlamī, and Ibn al-Kawlamī wrote complaining of him. The Sultan sent Malik al-Ḥukamāʾ to judge fairly between them. Right after that came the revolt of Qāḍī Jalāl al-Dīn, who plundered Ibn al-Kawlamī's property, and Ibn al-Kawlamī fled with some of his mamlūks and joined the Sultan.

13.19.1

During the Sultan's absence from his capital, when he set out for the land of Maʿbar, famine struck and things grew severe: the mann reached sixty dirhams and then rose higher. Conditions became hard and the calamity great. Once I went out to meet the vizier and saw three women cutting pieces from the hide of a horse that had died months before and eating them. Hides were cooked and sold in the markets, and when cattle were slaughtered people would take their blood and eat it!

13.19.2

Some students from Khurāsān told me that they entered a town called Akrūha, between Ḥānsī and Sarsatī, and found it deserted. They went to a house to spend the night and found in one of its rooms a man who had lit a fire and held a human leg in his hand, roasting it in the fire and eating from it, God preserve us! When the situation became severe, the Sultan ordered that all the people of Dihlī be given provisions for six months. The qāḍīs, secretaries and amīrs went round the lanes and quarters, registering the people and giving each person six months' provisions at the rate of one and a half Maghribī raṭls a day per person. During that time I was feeding people from the food I prepared at the mausoleum of Sultan Quṭb al-Dīn, as will be related, and the people were revived by it. May God Most High reward the intention in it.

13.19.3

Now that we have related sufficient of the Sultan's history and the events of his reign, let us return to what concerns ourselves, and relate how we first came to his capital, and the course of events until we left his service, then our departure from the Sultan on the embassy to China, and our return from there to our own country, God Most High willing.

13.20.1

When we entered the capital Dihlī, we went to the Sultan's gate. We entered the first gate, then the second, then the third, and found at it the naqībs, who have been mentioned before. When we reached them, their chief naqīb led us to a great, spacious audience hall, where we found the vizier Khwāja Jahān waiting for us. Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Khudhāwandzāda went in first, followed by his brother Qawām al-Dīn, then their brother ʿImād al-Dīn; then I followed them, and after me came their brother Burhān al-Dīn, then

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The Travels of Ibn Batūta — Samuel Lee 1829, English
Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354 — H. A. R. Gibb 1929, English

Linked texts (1)

تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic

تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13

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