تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.90.3

13.90.3

I said to his messenger, 'Yes, I will stay with him.' He went back to him, and he was glad of it and summoned me. When I came in to him he rose to me, embraced me and said, 'We want you near, and you want to be far from us!' I made my excuses to him and he accepted them, and I said to him, 'If you want me to stay, I make certain conditions with you.' He said, 'We accept them; state them.' I said to him, 'I cannot walk on foot.' It is their custom that no one there rides except the vizier; and when they had given me the horse and I rode it, people, men and boys, used to follow me marvelling at me, until I complained to him, and the dunqura was struck and it was proclaimed among the people that no one should follow me. The dunqura — with u after the unpointed d, n without vowel, u after the q and a after the r — is like a copper basin; it is struck with a piece of iron and its sound is heard from afar, and when they strike it, whatever is wanted is then proclaimed among the people. The vizier said to me, 'If you wish to ride in a palanquin (dawla) [you may]; otherwise we have a stallion and a mare, so choose whichever you like.' I chose the mare, and they brought it to me at that very hour, and they brought me a set of clothes. I said to him, 'And what shall I do with the cowries I bought?' He said, 'Send one of your companions to sell them for you in Banjāla.' I said to him, 'On condition that you send someone to help him with it.' He said, 'Yes.' So I then sent my companion Abū Muḥammad b. Farḥān, and they sent with him a man called al-Ḥājj ʿAlī. It happened that the sea became terrifying, and they threw overboard everything they had, even the provisions, the water, the mast and the yard! They spent sixteen nights with no sail, no rudder or anything else, and then came out at the island of Sīlān after hunger, thirst and hardships. My companion Abū Muḥammad came back to me after a year; he had visited the Foot, and he visited it a second time with me.