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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.49

English (machine translation) 13.49

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English

13.49.1

It is related that he was once dismissed from the office of qāḍī. He had enemies, and one of them brought a claim before the qāḍī who was appointed after him that he owed him ten thousand dinars. He had no proof, and his aim was to make him take an oath. The qāḍī sent for him, and he said to his messenger: "For how much has he claimed against me?" He replied: "Ten thousand dinars." So he sent ten thousand to the qāḍī's court, and it was handed over to the claimant.

13.49.2

News of this reached Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, and the falsity of the claim was established to his satisfaction, so he restored him to the office of qāḍī and gave him ten thousand.

13.49.3

We stayed in this city three days, and while there we received the Sultan's reply concerning me: that if no trace of So-and-so appeared, then Wajīh al-Mulk, the qāḍī of Dawlat Ābād, should go in his place! Then we left this city and halted at the stage of Hanawl, then at the stage of Wazīr Būr, then at the stage of al-Bajāliṣa, and then reached the city of Mawrī — its name is pronounced with a after the m, then w and r. It is small and has fine markets. There I met the pious, long-lived shaykh Quṭb al-Dīn, called Ḥaydar al-Farghānī. He was ill; he prayed for me and gave me a barley loaf as provision, and told me that his age exceeded a hundred and fifty. His companions told me that he fasts continually, often fasts without breaking for days on end, and frequently goes into retreat; sometimes he stays in his cell forty days, living in them on forty dates, one each day.

13.49.4

In Dihlī I saw the shaykh called Rajab al-Burquʿī, who entered his cell with forty dates, stayed there forty [days], then came out with thirteen of the dates left over! Then we set out and reached the city of Marh

13.49.5

— its name is pronounced with a after the m, a quiescent r, and h. It is a large city, most of whose inhabitants are infidels under protection (dhimma). It is fortified and has excellent wheat, unequalled anywhere else, which is carried from there to Dihlī; its grains are long, deep yellow and large, and I have seen no wheat like it except in the land of China! This city is attributed to the Mālawa — with a after the l — a tribe of the Hindus who are large of body, of great stature and handsome of face. Their women have surpassing beauty and are famed for being delightful in intimacy and for their abundant share of pleasure; so too are the women of the Marhata and the women of the island of Dhībat al-Mahal!

13.49.6

Then we travelled to the city of ʿAlābūr — its name is pronounced with a after the ʿ, l, alif, b with u, w and r — a small city most of whose inhabitants are infidels under protection. A day's journey from it is an infidel sultan named Qatam — with a after the q and the t — who is the sultan of Janbīl — with a after the j, a quiescent n, i after the b, a long ī, and l — the one who besieged the city of Kiyālīr and was later killed.

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