[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) › 13.69 # تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.69 English (machine translation) 13.69 - **Language:** English ### [13.69.2](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.2) He is one of the greatest sultans of that country, and his name is Rām Daw — with a on the r and the m and the undotted d, and w without vowel. In it there are about four thousand Muslims living in a suburb beside the city. Sometimes war breaks out between them and the people of the city, and the sultan makes peace between them because of his need for the merchants. In it there is a qāḍī, one of the virtuous and generous, of the Shāfiʿī school, called Badr al-Dīn al-Maʿbarī, who teaches the sciences. He came up to us on board the ship and urged us to come ashore to his town. We said, "Not until the sultan sends his son to stay on the ship." He said, "The sultan of Fākanūr only did that because the Muslims have no strength in his town; as for us, the sultan fears us." But we refused him unless the sultan sent his son, and he sent his son as the other had done. We went ashore to them, they honoured us greatly, and we stayed with them three days. ### [13.69.3](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.3) Then we sailed to the city of Hīlī, which we reached after two days — its name is spelled with i on the h, a long ī, and i on the l. It is large and well built, on a great estuary which large ships enter. The ships of China come as far as this city, and they enter only its harbour and the harbours of Kawlam and Qāliqūṭ. ### [13.69.4](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.4) The city of Hīlī is venerated by Muslims and infidels alike because of its congregational mosque, for it is of great blessing and shining with light. Seafarers make many vows to it, and it has a great treasury of wealth under the supervision of the preacher Ḥusayn and of Ḥasan al-Wazzān, the head of the Muslims. In this mosque there is a body of students studying the sciences who receive stipends from the mosque's funds. It has a kitchen in which food is prepared for travellers coming and going and for feeding the poor Muslims there. ### [13.69.5](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.5) In this mosque I met a pious jurist from the people of Maqdashaw named Saʿīd, pleasant in manner and character, who fasted continuously. He told me that he had lived as a devotee in Mecca for fourteen years and the same in Medina, that he had known the amīr of Mecca, Abū Numayy, and the amīr of Medina, Manṣūr b. Jammāz, and that he had travelled in the lands of Hind and China. ### [13.69.6](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.6) Then we sailed from Hīlī to the city of Jurfattan — its name is spelled with u on the j, r without vowel, a on the f, a on the doubled two-dotted t, and ending in n. Between it and Hīlī is three parasangs. There I met a jurist from the people of Baghdad, of high standing, known as al-Ṣarṣarī after a town ten miles from Baghdad on the road to Kufa, whose name is the same as that of Ṣarṣar which we have in the Maghrib. He had a brother in this city, a man of great wealth, with young children, whom he had entrusted to him in his will, and I left him preparing to take them to Baghdad. ### [13.69.7](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69.7) The custom of the people of Hind is like that of the Sūdān: they do not touch the property of the dead, even if he leaves thousands; his property simply remains in the hands of the head of the Muslims until the one lawfully entitled to it takes it. ## Linked texts (1) - [تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta.13.69.2) — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.rihla.ibn-battuta~en-mt.13.69) · Pramāṇa