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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.54

English (machine translation) 13.54

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English

13.54.1

One day the Sultan sent for me while I was with him in the capital. I went in to him; he was in private, with some of his intimates and two of these Jūgīs, who wrap themselves in sheets and cover their heads, because they pluck out [their hair] with ash as people pluck their armpits. He ordered me to sit and I sat, and he said to them, “This honoured guest is from distant lands; show him what he has not seen!” They said, “Yes.” One of them sat cross-legged, then rose from the ground until he was in the air above us, sitting cross-legged. I was astonished at him, fear seized me, and I fell to the ground! The Sultan ordered that I be given a medicine he had, and I came to and sat up, while he remained as he was, cross-legged. His companion took a sandal from a bag he had with him and struck the ground with it as if angry; it rose until it was above the neck of the cross-legged man and began striking him on the neck, and he came down little by little until he sat with us. The Sultan said to me, “The cross-legged one is the pupil of the owner of the sandal.” Then he said, “Were I not afraid for your reason, I would order them to bring about greater things than what you have seen!” I left him and was seized with palpitations and fell ill, until he ordered a draught for me that took it away from me.

13.54.2

Let us return to what we were about, and say: we travelled from the city of Barūn to the halting-place of Amwārī, then to the halting-place of Kajarā, where there is a great tank about a mile long, with temples on its banks containing idols, which the Muslims have mutilated. In its middle are three domes of red stone in three storeys, and at its four corners are four domes. A group of the jūgīs live there; they have matted their hair, and it has grown so long that it reaches their full height, and their complexions have become very yellow from their austerities. Many Muslims follow them to learn from them, and they say that anyone afflicted with leprosy or elephantiasis who stays with them for a long time is cured, by the permission of God Most High.

13.54.3

The first time I saw this sect was in the camp of Sultan Ṭarmashīrīn, king of Turkistān. There were about fifty of them; a cave had been dug for them under the ground, and they stayed in it, coming out only to relieve themselves.

13.54.4

They have something like a horn which they blow at the beginning and end of the day and after nightfall, and their whole way of life is a wonder. Among them was the man who made for Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Dāmghānī, sultan of the land of al-Maʿbar, pills which he ate to strengthen himself for intercourse; among their ingredients were iron filings. He was pleased with their effect and ate more of them than the proper amount, and died. His nephew Nāṣir al-Dīn succeeded him, and he honoured this jūgī and raised his rank! Then we travelled to the city of Jandīrī — its name is spelled with a hard j with a, n without a vowel, undotted d with i, a long ī and r — a great city with crowded markets, where the amīr of the amīrs of those lands, ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Bantānī, lives — with the one-dotted b, then n, then the two-dotted t, all with a, then alif and n — who is called Aʿẓam Malik. He was a good and virtuous man who kept company with men of learning; among those who kept him company were the jurist ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Zubayrī, the learned jurist Wajīh al-Dīn al-Bayānī, named after the city of Bayāna mentioned earlier, the jurist and qāḍī known as Qāḍī Khāṣṣa, and their imām Shams al-Dīn. His deputy over the affairs of the treasury was named Qamar al-Dīn, and his deputy over the affairs of the army was Saʿāda al-Tilinkī, one of the great warriors, before whom the troops are mustered. Aʿẓam Malik does not appear in public except on Friday, or rarely on other days.

13.54.5

Then we went from Jandīrī to the city of Ẓahār — its name is spelled with i after the dotted ẓ — which is the city of al-Mālwa, the largest province of those lands. Its crops are plentiful, especially wheat, and from this city betel leaves are carried to Dihlī, a distance of twenty-four days.

13.54.6

On the road between them are pillars inscribed with the number of miles between each two pillars, so that when the traveller wishes to know how far he has gone in his day and how much remains to the halting-place or to the city he is making for, he reads the inscription on the pillars and knows it! The city of Ẓahār is the fief of Shaykh Ibrāhīm, who is from the people of Dhībat al-Mahal.

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