تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.52
English (machine translation) 13.52
- Language
- English
13.52.1
Wonders are displayed by this group. Among them: one of them will remain for months without eating or drinking. For many of them pits are dug under the ground and built over, leaving only an opening through which air enters, and he stays there for months; I heard that some of them stay thus for a year! In the city of Manjarūr I saw a Muslim, one of those who learn from them, for whom a platform had been raised; he stayed on top of it without eating or drinking for a period of twenty-five days, and I left him like that, so I do not know how long he stayed after me.
13.52.2
People say that they compound pills, of which they eat one for a set number of days or months, so that during that period one needs neither food nor drink. They tell of hidden things, and the Sultan honours them and sits with them. Some of them restrict their food to vegetables, and some do not eat meat, and these are the majority. Their state evidently is that they have accustomed themselves to ascetic discipline and have no need of this world and its adornments. Some of them look at a person and he falls dead from their gaze. The common people say that when someone is killed by the gaze and the dead man's chest is cut open, he is found without a heart! They say, “His heart has been eaten.” This happens mostly among women, and a woman who does this is called a kaftār!
Translations (1)
- Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354 — H. A. R. Gibb 1929, English
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic