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تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.88

English (machine translation) 13.88

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English

13.88.1

When I reached them I landed at the island of Kannalūs, a fine island with many mosques, and I stayed at the house of one of its pious men. The jurist ʿAlī, a man of merit whose sons were students of learning, gave me hospitality there. I also met there a man named Muḥammad, from Ẓafār al-Ḥumūḍ, who gave me hospitality and said to me: "If you enter the island of al-Mahal, the vizier will detain you there, for they have no qāḍī." My intention was to travel from there to al-Maʿbar, Sarandīb and Banjāla, and then to China. I had come to them in the ship of the nākhudha ʿUmar al-Hinawrī, one of the virtuous pilgrims. When we reached Kannalūs he stayed there ten days, then hired a kundura in which to sail to al-Mahal with a gift for the sultana and her husband. I wished to travel with him, but he said: "The kundura will not hold you and your companions; if you want to travel apart from them, it is yours." I refused that! He set sail, the wind played with him, and he came back to us after four days having met with hardships! He apologised to me and pressed me to travel with him with my companions. We would set out in the early morning and stop at midday at one of the islands, then set out again and spend the night at another. After four days we reached the district of al-Taym, where the kardawī was called

13.88.2

Hilāl. He greeted me and gave me hospitality, and came to me with four men; two of them had put a pole on their shoulders and hung four chickens from it, and the other two had put a similar pole and hung about ten coconuts from it. I wondered at their making so much of this paltry thing, and was told that they had done it by way of honour and respect! We left them and on the sixth day stopped at the island of ʿUthmān, a man of merit and one of the best of people, who honoured us and gave us hospitality. On the eighth day we stopped at the island of a vizier called al-Talamdī, and on the tenth day we arrived at the island of al-Mahal, where the sultana and her husband are, and anchored in its harbour. Their custom is that no one goes ashore from the harbour without their permission; they gave us permission to land. I wanted to go to one of the mosques, but the servants on the shore stopped me and said: "You must go in to the vizier." I had instructed the nākhudha to say, if asked about me, "I do not know him," fearing that they would detain me. I did not know that some meddlesome person had written to them informing them about me and that I had been a qāḍī in Dihlī.

13.88.3

When we reached the Dār, which is the council hall, we stopped in porticoes at its third gate. The qāḍī ʿĪsā al-Yamanī came and greeted me, and I greeted the vizier. The nākhudha Ibrāhīm came with ten lengths of cloth; he made obeisance towards the sultana and threw down one of them, then made obeisance to the vizier and threw down another likewise, until he had thrown down all of them. He was asked about me and said: "I do not know him." Then they brought out to us betel and rosewater, which is the mark of honour among them. He lodged us in the Dār and sent us food: a large bowl with rice, surrounded by dishes containing preserved meat (khalīʿ), chicken, ghee and fish.

13.88.4

The next day I went with the nākhudha and the qāḍī ʿĪsā al-Yamanī to visit a hospice at the edge of the island built by the pious shaykh Najīb, and we returned at night. On the morning after that night the vizier sent me clothing and a hospitality gift of rice, ghee, preserved meat, coconuts and the honey made from them, which they call al-qurbānī, with u over the q, r without vowel, a over the one-dotted b, alif, n and y, meaning 'sugar water'; and they brought a hundred thousand cowries for expenses.

13.88.5

After ten days a ship arrived from Saylān carrying faqīrs, Arabs and Persians, who knew me, and they informed the vizier's servants about me. He became all the more pleased with me, and sent for me at the new moon of Ramaḍān. I found the amīrs and viziers there, and food was brought on tables, a group gathering at each table. The vizier seated me beside him, and with him were the qāḍī ʿĪsā, the vizier al-Fāmaldārī and the vizier ʿUmar Dahrad, which means commander of the army. Their food was rice, chicken, ghee, fish, preserved meat and cooked bananas, and afterwards they drink coconut honey mixed with spices, which aids digestion.

13.88.6

On the ninth of Ramaḍān the vizier's son-in-law, his daughter's husband, died. Before him she had been with Sultan Shihāb al-Dīn, and neither of them had consummated the marriage with her because she was so young. Her father brought her back to his house and gave me her house, which is one of the finest houses. I asked his permission to give a feast for the faqīrs returning from visiting the Foot, and he gave me leave for it and sent me five sheep, which are precious among them because they are imported from al-Maʿbar, al-Mulaybār and Maqdishū; and he sent rice, chickens, ghee and spices. I sent all of it to the house of the vizier Sulaymān Mānāyak, and it was cooked for me there; he cooked it well and added to it, and he sent carpets and copper vessels. We broke the fast as usual at the sultana's palace with the vizier, and I asked his permission for some of the viziers to attend that feast. He said to me, 'I will come too.' I thanked him and went back to my house, and there he came, and with him the viziers and the officers of state. He sat in a raised wooden pavilion, and each of the amīrs and viziers who came greeted the vizier and threw down an unsewn cloth, until a hundred cloths or so had been collected, and the faqīrs took them.

13.88.7

The food was served and they ate; then the Qurʾān-readers recited with beautiful voices; then they began the samāʿ and the dancing. I had a fire prepared, and the faqīrs went into it and trod on it with their feet, and some of them ate it as sweets are eaten, until it died out!

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