تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.91
English (machine translation) 13.91
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13.91.1
When the month of Ramaḍān was over, the vizier sent me a suit of clothes and we went out to the muṣallā. The road along which the vizier would pass from his house to the muṣallā had been decorated: cloths were spread on it and heaps of cowries placed to right and left, and every amīr and notable who had a house on his route had planted beside it small coconut palms, areca trees and banana plants, with cords stretched from one tree to another and green nuts hung from them. The owner of the house stands at its door, and when the vizier passes he throws a cloth of silk or cotton at his feet, which his slaves pick up together with the cowries that are also placed on his route. The vizier walked on foot, wearing a Egyptian farajiyya of goat's-hair wool and a large turban, girt with a silk sash, with four parasols over his head and sandals on his feet, while everyone else was barefoot. Trumpets, bugles and drums went before him, and soldiers in front of him and behind him, all of them crying 'God is most great' until they reached the muṣallā. After the prayer his son preached; then a litter was brought, the vizier got into it, and the amīrs and viziers made obeisance to him and threw cloths as is the custom. He had never ridden in a litter before that, for only kings do so.
13.91.2
Then the men lifted him up, I mounted my horse, and we entered the palace. He sat in a raised place with the viziers and amīrs beside him, and the slaves stood with shields, swords and staves. Then food was brought, then areca nut and betel, and then a small dish containing Maqāṣirī sandalwood; when a group of people have eaten, they smear themselves with the sandalwood.
13.91.3
Among their food that day I saw a salted, uncooked sardine fish, which had been sent to them as a gift from Kawlam, where it is plentiful in the Mulaybār country. The vizier took a sardine and began to eat it, and said to me, 'Eat some of it, for it is not found in our country!' I said, 'How can I eat it when it is not cooked?' He said, 'It is cooked.' I said, 'I know it well, for it is plentiful in my country!'
Linked texts (1)
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic