Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.23

English (machine translation) 13.23

Language
English

13.23.1

A month and a half after our arrival, a daughter of mine less than a year old died. News of her death reached the vizier, and he ordered that she be buried in a hospice he had built outside the Pālam gate, near a cemetery there belonging to our shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Qūnawī, and we buried her there. He wrote news of it to the Sultan, and the reply came to him on the evening of the second day, though between the Sultan's hunting ground and the capital was a journey of ten days.

13.23.2

It is their custom to go out to the grave of the dead person on the morning of the third day after burial, spread the sides of the grave with carpets and silk cloths, and place flowers on the grave; there they never cease in any season

13.23.3

of the year, such as jasmine and gul shabbu, which is a yellow flower, and raybūl, which is white, and the eglantine, which is of two kinds, white and yellow. They place branches of orange and lemon with their fruit, and if they have no fruit they hang some on them with threads. They pour dried fruit and coconuts over the grave. The people gather, copies of the Qurʾān are brought, and they recite the Qurʾān; when they have completed it they bring julep water and give the people to drink. Then rose-water is poured liberally over them, they are given betel, and they depart.

13.23.4

On the morning of the third day after the girl's burial I went out at dawn according to the custom, having prepared what I could of all those things, and found that the vizier had ordered all this to be arranged and had ordered an enclosure-screen (sarācha) to be pitched over the grave. The chamberlain Shams al-Dīn al-Fūshanjī, who had met us in Sind, came, together with the qāḍī Niẓām al-Dīn al-Karwānī and a number of the leading people of the city. When I arrived, the people mentioned had already taken their seats, with the chamberlain before them, and they were reciting the Qurʾān. I sat with my companions near the grave. When they had finished the recitation, the Qurʾān-readers recited in beautiful voices; then the qāḍī stood and read an elegy on the deceased girl and a eulogy of the Sultan, and at the mention of his name all the people rose to their feet and made obeisance, then sat down, and the qāḍī offered a fine prayer.

13.23.5

Then the chamberlain and his companions took casks of rosewater and poured it over the people, then went round among them with cups of sugar-syrup, then distributed betel to them. Then eleven robes of honour were brought for me and my companions. Then the chamberlain rode, and we rode with him to the Sultan's palace, where we made obeisance to the throne according to custom, and I went back to my house. I had hardly arrived when food came from the palace of al-Makhdūma Jahān, enough to fill my house and the houses of my companions; they all ate, the poor ate, and there were loaves, sweetmeats and sugar-candy left over, whose remains lasted for days. All of this was done by order of the Sultan.

13.23.6

Some days later the eunuchs came from the palace of al-Makhdūma Jahān with the dawla, which is the litter in which women are carried, and which men also ride in. It resembles a couch; its surface is of plaited silk or cotton, and over it is a pole like the one over the būjāt among us, curved, of solid Indian cane. It is carried by eight men in two shifts: four rest while four carry. These litters are in Hind like donkeys in Egypt: most people get about in them. Whoever has slaves is carried by them, and whoever has no slaves hires men to carry him. There is a small number of these in the city who stand in the markets, at the Sultan's gate and at people's doors for hire. The women's litters are covered with a silk covering, and such was this litter which the eunuchs brought from the palace of the Sultan's mother. They carried in it my slave-girl, the mother of the deceased girl, and I sent with her a Turkish slave-girl as a gift. The slave-girl, the girl's mother, stayed with them one night and came back the next day, they having

13.23.7

given her a thousand dinars in dirhams, gold bracelets set with jewels, a gold tahlīl [amulet case] also set with jewels, a linen shift embroidered with gold, a gilded silk robe of honour, and a chest of garments. When she came with all that, I gave it to my companions and to the merchants to whom I owed debts, to protect myself and guard my reputation, because the informants write to the Sultan about all my affairs.

Translations (1)

Linked texts (1)