<!-- Pramāṇa, a library of Indian primary sources · https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56 -->

[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Islamic world](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl) › [Arabic](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar) › [Travel and sea narratives](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla) › [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt) › 13.56

# تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.56

English (machine translation) 13.56

- **Language:** English

### [13.56.1](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56.1)

When the vizier's nephew was sent back to him, he ordered that he be killed as his companions had been. He had a slave girl whom he loved; he summoned her, fed her betel and she fed him, and he embraced her in farewell. Then he was thrown to the elephants, and his skin was flayed and stuffed with straw. When night came, the slave girl left the house and threw herself into a well there near the place where he had been killed. She was found dead the next day and taken out, and his flesh was buried with her in a single grave, which was called Qubūr ʿĀshiqān, which in their language means 'the grave of the lovers'.

### [13.56.2](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56.2)

Then we travelled from the city of Ẓahār to the city of Ujayn — its name is spelled with u after the hamza, a after the j, then y and n — a fine, well-populated city. Malik Nāṣir al-Dīn son of ʿAyn al-Mulk, one of the virtuous, generous and learned, used to live there; he died a martyr on the island of Sandābūr when it was conquered, and I visited his tomb there; we shall mention him later. In this city also lived the jurist and physician Jamāl al-Dīn al-Maghribī, of Granadan origin.

### [13.56.3](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56.3)

Then we travelled from the city of Ujayn to the city of Dawlat Ābād, the huge city of great importance that rivals the capital Dihlī in the height of its standing and the extent of its area. It is divided into three parts:

### [13.56.4](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56.4)

One of them is Dawlat Ābād, reserved for the residence of the Sultan and his troops; the second part is called al-Katka — with a after both k's and the dotted t between them; and the third part is its citadel, which has no equal or match in impregnability, called al-Duwayqīr — with u after the undotted d, a after the w, y without a vowel, a hard q with i, a long ī and r. In this city lives the Great Khān Quṭlū Khān, the Sultan's tutor; he is its amīr and the Sultan's deputy there and over the land of Ṣāghar, the land of Tilink and their dependencies. Its province extends three months' journey, all of it populated and under his rule and that of his deputies.

### [13.56.5](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56.5)

The citadel of al-Duwayqīr which we mentioned is a single block of rock on a plain; it has been hewn, and a fortress built on its top, which is ascended by a ladder made of leather that is raised at night. In it live the mufradūn, who are the zimāmīs, with their children. In it, in pits, are imprisoned those guilty of great crimes, and there are huge rats there, bigger than cats; the cats flee from them and cannot fight them, for they overpower them! They can only be caught by tricks devised against them. I saw them there and marvelled at them.

## Linked texts (1)

- [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta.13.56.1) — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic

---
Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.56) · Pramāṇa
