[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Islamic world](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl) › [Arabic](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar) › [Travel and sea narratives](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla) › [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt) › 13.105 # تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.105 English (machine translation) 13.105 - **Language:** English ### [13.105.1](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.105.1) The land we were travelling through was a single thicket of trees and reeds, such that no one could pass through it. The sultan ordered that every person in the army, great and small, should carry an adze to cut it down. When the camp halted he would ride to the forest with the people, and they would cut down those trees from early morning until noon; then food would be brought and all the people would eat, one group after another, and then they would go back to cutting trees until evening. Any of the infidels they found in the thicket they took captive, and they made a stake sharpened at both ends and put it on his shoulders for him to carry, and his wife and children were with him, and they were brought to the camp! It is their custom to build around the camp a wooden wall with four gates, which they call the katkar (with a over both k's, the t without a vowel, and ending in r), and they build a second katkar around the sultan's quarters. Outside the larger katkar they build platforms about half a man's height, and at night they light fires on them, and the slaves and foot-soldiers spend the night beside them, each of them holding a bundle of thin reeds. If any of the infidels come to attack the camp by night, each of them lights the bundle in his hand, and the night becomes like day from the abundance of light, and the horsemen ride out in pursuit of the infidels. When morning came, the infidels captured the day before were divided into four groups, and one group was brought to each of the gates of the katkar. The stakes they had carried the day before were planted there, and then they were impaled on them until the stakes passed through them. Then their wives were slaughtered and tied by their hair to those stakes, and the little children were slaughtered in their laps, and they were left there. Then the camp moved on, and they set about cutting another thicket, and did the same with those they captured! That is a hideous thing that I have never known of any other king, and because of it God hastened his death! One day I saw him, with the qāḍī on his right and me on his left, eating with us, when an infidel was brought in with his wife and his son, seven years old. He signalled to the executioners with his hand to cut off his head, and then said to them, "wa-zan aw wa-bisar aw", which means: ### [13.105.2](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.105.2) "and his son and his wife." So their necks were cut, and I turned my eyes away from them, and when I rose I found their heads lying on the ground! Another day I was present with him when a man of the infidels was brought; he said something I did not understand, and suddenly a group of the executioners drew their knives. I hurried to get up, and he said to me, "Where are you going?" I said, "To pray the afternoon prayer." He understood me and laughed, and ordered his hands and feet cut off, and when I came back I found him sprawled in his own blood! ## Linked texts (1) - [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta.13.105.1) — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.105](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.105) · Pramāṇa