[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) › 13.11 # تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.11 English (machine translation) 13.11 - **Language:** English ### [13.11.1](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.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. ## Linked texts (1) - [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta.13.11.1) — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.11](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.11) · Pramāṇa