تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.30.10

13.30.10

"Explain its meaning to Khwand ʿĀlam!" He would explain it, and the Sultan would be pleased, for they love Arabic poetry. When I reached my words "So hasten, for one who has come," the verse, he said: "Marḥamat," meaning "I have taken pity on you." Then the chamberlains took me by the hand to lead me to their standing place, so that I might make obeisance according to custom, but the Sultan said: "Leave him until he finishes it." So I finished it and made obeisance, and people congratulated me on it. I waited some time and wrote a petition, which they call ʿarḍ dāsht, and handed it to Quṭb al-Mulk, the lord of Sind, who handed it to the Sultan. He said to him: "Go to Khwāja Jahān and tell him to pay his debt." He went to him and informed him, and he said: "Yes," but it was delayed for some days, during which the Sultan ordered him to travel to Dawlat Ābād. Meanwhile the Sultan went out hunting and the vizier departed, so I received nothing of it until after some time. The reason its payment was held up I shall relate in full. It was this: when those to whom I owed the debt resolved to travel, I said to them: "When I come to the Sultan's palace, make a claim of 'darōhī' against me, according to the custom of that country," since I knew that the Sultan, once he learned of it, would pay them. Their custom is that when someone has a debt owed him by a man enjoying favour and cannot obtain its payment, he stands in his way at the gate of the Sultan's palace, and when the man wishes to enter he says to him: