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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.45

English (machine translation) 13.45

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English

13.45.1

The king of al-Ṣīn had sent the Sultan one hundred mamlūks and slave-girls, five hundred robes of kamkhā silk, of which one hundred were of the kind made in the city of al-Zaytūn and one hundred of the kind made in the city of al-Khansā, five manns of musk, five robes studded with jewels, five embroidered quivers and five swords, and he asked the Sultan to permit him to build the idol-temple near the mountain of Qarājīl mentioned earlier. The place where it stands is known as Samhal, with a on the unpointed s, the m unvowelled and a on the h; the people of al-Ṣīn make pilgrimage to it. The army of Islam in Hind had taken it, destroyed it and plundered it.

13.45.2

When this gift reached the Sultan, he wrote to him that granting this request was not permissible in the religion of Islam, and that building a temple in the land of the Muslims is allowed only to one who pays the jizya: "If you agree to pay it, we will permit you to build it; and peace be upon whoever follows the guidance." He repaid his gift with a better one: one hundred thoroughbred horses, saddled and bridled; one hundred mamlūks and one hundred slave-girls from the infidels of Hind, singers and dancers; one hundred bayramī robes, which are of cotton and unequalled in beauty, each worth one hundred dinars; one hundred pieces of the silk cloth known as juzz, with u on the j and a z, in which the silk of each piece is dyed in five or four colours; one hundred robes of the cloth known as ṣalāḥiyya; one hundred robes

13.45.3

Celebration for a Mongol amīr at court – wall painting. Painting depicting the celebration of an ambassador – wall painting in the Hall of Forty Columns.

13.45.4

of shīrīnbāf, one hundred robes of shānbāf, five hundred robes of murʿiz wool, one hundred of them black, one hundred white, one hundred red, one hundred green and one hundred blue; one hundred pieces of Rūmī linen; one hundred lengths of broadcloth; a large tent and six pavilions; four candlesticks of gold and six candlesticks of enamelled silver; four golden basins with matching ewers, and six silver basins; ten embroidered robes of honour from the Sultan's own garments; ten caps of his own wear, one of them studded with jewels; ten embroidered quivers, one of them studded with jewels; ten swords, one with its scabbard studded with jewels; a dastbān, which is a glove studded with jewels; and fifteen eunuchs.

13.45.5

The Sultan appointed to travel with me with this gift the amīr Ẓahīr al-Dīn al-Zanjānī, one of the most eminent men of learning, and the eunuch Kāfūr the sharbdār, to whom the gift was entrusted. He sent with us the amīr Muḥammad al-Harawī with a thousand horsemen to escort us to the place where we would take ship. The envoys of the king of al-Ṣīn travelled in our company, fifteen men whose chief was called Tursī, with about a hundred servants. We set out in a large company and a great camp, and the Sultan ordered that we be given hospitality for the duration of our journey through his lands.

13.45.6

Our departure was on the seventeenth of the month of Ṣafar in the year [seven hundred and] forty-three, the day they had chosen for travel, for they choose for travel the second, seventh, twelfth, seventeenth, twenty-second or twenty-seventh of the month. Our first halt was at the station of Tilbat, two and a third farsakhs from the capital Dihlī. From there we travelled to the station of Aw, and from there

13.45.7

to the station of Hīlū, and from there to the city of Bayāna — its name is spelt with a on the one-dotted b, a on the y (the last letter), without doubling, and a on the n — a large, well-built city with fine markets.

13.45.8

Its congregational mosque is one of the most splendid mosques, its walls and roof of stone. The amīr there is Muẓaffar Ibn al-Dāya, whose mother was the Sultan's wet-nurse. Before him it was held by Malik Mujīr ibn Abī al-Rajāʾ, one of the great maliks, mentioned earlier, who claims descent from Quraysh. He was overbearing and very oppressive; he killed a number of the people of this city and mutilated many of them. I saw one of its people, a man of fine appearance, sitting in the portico of his house with both hands and feet cut off.

13.45.9

The Sultan once came to this city, and the people complained of this Malik Mujīr. The Sultan ordered him arrested, and an iron collar was put on his neck. He used to sit in the dīwān before the vizier while the people of the town wrote out their grievances against him. The Sultan ordered him to satisfy them, and he satisfied them with money; afterwards he had him killed.

13.45.10

Among the great men of this city is the imām and scholar ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Zubayrī, of the descendants of al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, may God be pleased with him, one of the great and pious jurists. I met him at Kālyūr with Malik ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Bantānī, known as Aʿẓam Malik.

13.45.11

Then we travelled from Bayāna and reached the city of Kūl — its name is spelt with u on the k — a fine city with orchards, most of whose trees are mango. We camped outside it on a wide plain. There we met the pious, devout shaykh Shams al-Dīn, known as Ibn Tāj al-ʿĀrifīn, who was blind and very aged. Afterwards the Sultan imprisoned him and he died in prison; we have already told his story.

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