تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.95.5

13.95.5

on it, rising into the sky like a column of smoke. When we reached it the sailors said: 'This harbour is not in the country of the sultan into whose country merchants enter in safety; this is a harbour in the country of Sultan Ayrī Shakarwatī, who is one of the tyrannous evildoers, and he has ships that commit piracy at sea.' So we were afraid to land at his harbour. Then the wind grew strong and we feared drowning, and I said to the nākhudha: 'Put me ashore, and I will obtain a safe-conduct for you from this sultan!' He did so and put me ashore, and the infidels came to us and said: 'What are you?' I told them that I was the brother-in-law and friend of the sultan of al-Maʿbar, that I had come to visit him, and that what was in the ship was a gift for him. They went to their sultan and informed him of it, and he summoned me, and I went to him at the town of Baṭṭāla — its name is pronounced with a over the single-dotted b, and the undotted ṭ with a and doubled. It is his capital, a small, fine town with a wooden wall and wooden towers. All its shores are full of cinnamon sticks, which the torrents bring down, and they pile up on the shore like hillocks; the people of al-Maʿbar and al-Mulaybār carry them away without payment, except that in return they present the sultan with a garment or the like. Between the country of al-Maʿbar and this island is a journey of a day and a night. There is also on it