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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.28

English (machine translation) 13.28

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English

13.28.1

On Friday, the day after the Sultan's entry, we came to the gate of the council hall and sat in the porticoes of the third gate, for permission to enter had not yet been granted us. The chamberlain Shams al-Dīn al-Fūshanjī came out and ordered the secretaries to write down our names; he gave them permission for us and some of our companions to enter, and eight were designated to enter with me. So we went in and they went in with us. Then they brought purses and the qabbān, which is the scales. The chief qāḍī and the secretaries sat down and called the aʿizza (honoured ones) who were at the gate — that is, the foreigners — and assigned each person his share of those purses. I received five thousand dinars from them. The total sum was a hundred thousand dinars, which the Sultan's mother gave in alms when her son arrived. We withdrew that day.

13.28.2

After that the Sultan used to summon us to eat in his presence, asking how we were and addressing us with the finest words. One day he said to us: "You have honoured us by your coming, and we cannot repay you. The eldest of you is in the place of my father, the middle-aged in the place of my brother, and the young in the place of my son. There is nothing in my kingdom greater than this city of mine — I give it to you!" We thanked him and prayed for him. Then after that he ordered stipends for us: he assigned me twelve thousand dinars a year, and added two villages to the three he had previously ordered for me, one being the village of Jawza and the other the village of Malik Būr.

13.28.3

One day he sent Khudhāwandzāda Ghiyāth al-Dīn and Quṭb al-Mulk, lord of Sind, to us, and they said to us: "Khwand ʿĀlam says to you: whoever among you is fit for the vizierate, or secretaryship, or command, or the judgeship,

13.28.4

or teaching, or the office of shaykh, I shall give it to him!" Everyone was silent, because they wanted to acquire wealth and go back to their countries. Amīr Bakht son of al-Sayyid Tāj al-Dīn, mentioned above, spoke and said: "The vizierate is my inheritance and secretaryship is my occupation; anything else I do not know." Hibat Allāh b. al-Falakī spoke and said the same. Khudhāwandzāda said to me in Arabic: "What do you say, my lord (sayyidī)?" — the people of that country address an Arab only as "sayyid", and the Sultan addresses him so, out of respect for the Arabs. I said to him: "The vizierate and secretaryship are not my occupation; the judgeship and the office of shaykh are my occupation and that of my forefathers; and as for command, you know that the Persians embraced Islam only by the swords of the Arabs!" When this reached the Sultan, my words pleased him. The Sultan was in the Hazār Usṭūn eating a meal, and he sent for us, and we ate in his presence while he ate. Then we went out of the Hazār Usṭūn and my companions sat down, but I left because of a boil that prevented me from sitting. The Sultan summoned us a second time; my companions attended and made my excuses. I came after the afternoon prayer and prayed the sunset and night prayers in the council hall.

13.28.5

Then the chamberlain came out and summoned us. Khudhāwandzāda Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, the eldest of the brothers mentioned, went in, and the sultan made him amīr dād, who is one of the great amīrs: he sits in the seat of the qāḍī, and whoever has a claim against an amīr or a great man, [the amīr dād] brings him before him. He fixed his salary for this office at fifty thousand dinars a year, assigned him villages whose revenue amounted to that sum, ordered fifty thousand to be given him in cash, and bestowed on him a robe of honour of embroidered silk called ṣūrat al-shīr, meaning 'the figure of the lion', because on its front and back there is the figure of a lion; and inside the robe a label is sewn stating the amount of gold embroidered into it. He also ordered him a horse of the first breed — horses with them are of four breeds — and their saddles are like the saddles of the people of Egypt, and they cover the greater part of them with gilded silver.

13.28.6

Then Amīr Bakht went in, and he ordered him to sit with the vizier on his cushion and to examine the accounts of the government offices. He assigned him a salary of forty thousand dinars a year, and he was given villages whose revenue matched that amount, and he was given forty thousand in cash and a fully equipped horse, and a robe of honour like that of the one before him was bestowed on him, and he was given the title Sharaf al-Mulk.

13.28.7

Then Hibat Allāh ibn al-Falakī went in, and he made him rasūl dār, meaning chamberlain of the envoys, and assigned him a salary of twenty-four thousand dinars a year; he was given villages whose revenue would match that amount, and he was given

13.28.8

twenty-four thousand in cash, a fully equipped horse and a robe of honour, and his title was made Bahāʾ al-Mulk. Then I went in and found the sultan on the roof of the palace, leaning against the throne, with the vizier Khwāja Jahān before him and the great malik Qabūla standing before him. When I greeted him, the great malik said to me: 'Make obeisance, for Khwand ʿĀlam has made you qāḍī of the royal seat, Dihlī, has fixed your salary at twelve thousand dinars a year, has assigned you villages to that amount, has ordered you twelve thousand in cash, which you will take from the treasury tomorrow, God willing, has given you a horse with its saddle and bridle, and has ordered you a miḥrābī robe' — that is one on whose front and back there is the shape of a miḥrāb. So I made obeisance, and he took my hand and led me forward to the sultan, and the sultan said to me: 'Do not think the qāḍī-ship of Dihlī one of the least of offices; it is the greatest of offices with us.' I understood what he said but could not answer it well, and the sultan understood Arabic but could not answer well in it. So I said to him: 'O Mawlānā, I follow the school of Mālik, and these people are Ḥanafīs, and I do not know the language.' He said to me: 'I have appointed Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Multānī and Kamāl al-Dīn al-Bijnawrī to act as your deputies and consult you, and you will sign the contracts; and you are with us in the place of a son.' I said to him: 'Rather, your slave and your servant.' He said to me in the Arabic tongue: 'Rather, you are our master and the one we serve,' out of humility, graciousness and kindness on his part. Then he said to Sharaf al-Mulk Amīr Bakht: 'If what I have assigned him is not enough for him, since he spends a great deal, I will give him a hospice, if he is able to keep up the state of the poor.' And he said: 'Tell him this in Arabic.' He supposed that he knew Arabic well, but it was not so, and the sultan realised it and said to him: 'Barawīd yakjā bakhuspī wa ān ḥikāya bar ū bigūy wa tafhīm kunī tā fardā in shāʾ Allāh pīsh-i man biyāyī jawāb-i ū bigūy,' meaning: 'Go tonight and sleep in one place, and make him understand this matter; then tomorrow, God willing, come to me and inform me of what he says.'

13.28.9

So we withdrew, and that was a third of the way through the night, and the nawba had been sounded; the custom with them is that once it is sounded no one goes out. So we waited for the vizier until he came out, and we went out with him, and we found the gates of Dihlī shut, so we spent the night with al-Sayyid Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿAbbādī al-ʿIrāqī in a lane known as Sarābūr Khān. This shaykh traded with the sultan's money and bought arms and goods for him in ʿIrāq and Khurāsān.

13.28.10

The next day he sent for us, and we received the money, the horses and the robes of honour. Each of us took the purse of money and put it on his shoulder, and thus we went in to the sultan and made obeisance. The horses were brought to us, and we kissed their hooves after cloths had been placed on them, and we led them ourselves to the gate of the sultan's palace and mounted them; all this is a custom with them. Then we withdrew. The sultan ordered two thousand dinars and ten robes of honour for my companions, and he gave nothing

13.28.11

to the companions of anyone but me. My companions had a fine appearance and bearing, and they pleased the sultan; they made obeisance before him and he thanked them.

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