تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.108
English (machine translation) 13.108
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13.108.1
When we reached the small island between Hinawr and Fākanūr, the infidels came out against us in twelve warships and fought us fiercely. They overpowered us and took everything I had that I had been saving for hard times; they took the gems and rubies the king of Saylān had given me, and they took my clothes and the provisions I had that the pious and the saints had given me, and left me no covering except my trousers! They took what belonged to everyone and put us ashore on the coast. I returned to Qāliqūṭ and went into one of the mosques. One of the jurists sent me a garment, the qāḍī sent a turban, and a merchant sent another garment.
13.108.2
There I learned that the vizier ʿAbd Allāh had married the Sultana Khadīja after the death of the vizier Jamāl al-Dīn, and that my wife, whom I had left pregnant, had given birth to a boy. The idea came to me of travelling to the Islands, but I remembered the enmity between me and the vizier ʿAbd Allāh, so I opened the Qurʾān and this came out for me: "The angels descend upon them, [saying]: Do not fear and do not grieve" (291). So I sought God's guidance and set out, and after ten days I reached the islands of Dhībat al-Mahal and landed at Kanalūs. Its governor, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Maqdashāwī, treated me with honour, entertained me as a guest
13.108.3
Drawing of the pirates by L. Benett
13.108.4
and fitted out a kundura for me. After that I reached Hallī, the island to which the Sultana and her sisters go out for recreation and swimming, which they call al-tabaḥḥur; they amuse themselves in boats, and the viziers and amīrs send her gifts and rarities whenever she is there. I found there the Sultana's sister and her husband, the preacher Muḥammad son of the vizier Jamāl al-Dīn, and her mother, who had been my wife. The preacher came to me and they brought food.
13.108.5
Some of the islanders went to the vizier ʿAbd Allāh and informed him of my arrival. He asked about my circumstances and about who had come with me, and was told that I had come to take my son, who was about two years old. The boy's mother came to him complaining of this, and he said to her: "I will not prevent him from taking his son." He gave me permission to enter the island and lodged me in a house facing the tower of his palace so that he could keep watch on me. He sent me a complete suit of clothes, betel and rosewater, according to their custom. I had brought two silk garments to throw down on greeting, and they took them; the vizier did not come out to me that day. My son was brought to me, and it seemed to me best to hasten my departure, so I asked permission for that. The vizier summoned me and I went in to him; they brought me the two garments they had taken from me and I threw them down on greeting, as is the custom. He seated me beside him and asked about my circumstances; I ate food with him and washed my hands with him in the basin, something he does with no one. They brought betel and I took my leave. He sent me garments and bustūs of cowries, and acted generously and handsomely towards me.
13.108.6
I set out, and we spent forty-three nights at sea, and then reached the country of Banjāla — spelled with a after the single-dotted b, n without vowel, hard j, alif, and l with a. It is an extensive country, abundant in rice, and I have seen no country in the world with lower prices, but it is gloomy. The people of Khurāsān call it dūzakh-ast pur niʿmat, meaning "a hell full of good things." I saw rice sold in its markets at twenty-five Dihlī raṭls for a silver dinar; the silver dinar is eight dirhams, and their dirham is exactly equal to the dirham nuqra. The Dihlī raṭl is twenty Maghribī raṭls. I heard them say that this was a high price for them.
13.108.7
Muḥammad al-Maṣmūdī the Maghribī, who was one of the pious, had lived in this country long ago, and died with me in Dihlī, told me that he had a wife and a servant, and that he used to buy the food of the three of them for a year for eight dirhams; he bought rice in the husk at the rate of eighty Dihlī raṭls for eight dirhams, and when he pounded it, it yielded fifty raṭls of clean rice, which is ten qinṭārs. I saw a milch cow sold there for three silver dinars — their cattle are buffaloes. I saw fat fowls sold at the rate of eight for one dirham, and young pigeons at fifteen for a dirham. I saw a fat ram sold for two dirhams, a raṭl of sugar for four dirhams — that is a Dihlī raṭl — a raṭl of julāb for eight dirhams, a raṭl of ghee for four dirhams, and a raṭl of sesame oil for two dirhams. I saw a piece of fine, good cotton cloth thirty cubits in length sold for two dinars, and I saw a pretty slave girl for concubinage sold for one gold dinar, which is two and a half Maghribī gold dinars. At about this price I bought a slave girl called ʿĀshūra, who was of surpassing beauty, and one of my companions bought a handsome young boy named Luʾluʾ for two gold dinars.
13.108.8
The first city of the country of Banjāla that we entered was the city of Sudkāwān — its name spelled with u after the undotted s, undotted d without vowel, a after the k and the w, and ending in n. It is a great city on the shore of the great sea; at it the river Gang, to which the Hindus make pilgrimage, and the river Jūn meet and flow into the sea. They have many boats on the river with which they fight the people of the country of al-Lakhnawtī.
13.108.9
Bengal: a hell full of good things!
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic