تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.108.7

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.