History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c9.43

c9.43

makes no mention of China. The India Office text of Barani uses both forms Farājal (فراجل) and Qarājal (قراجل) the Bankipore and Calcutta texts have Farājal (فراجل) while Ibn Batūṭah writes Qarāchil (قراچل). All later writers use the forms Qarājal and Qarāchil excepting Nizam-al-Din Ahmad, Amin Ahmad Razi and Firishta who both write Himachal.17 The Qarājal or Qarāchil mountain is obviously the Himalaya, as is clear from the descriptions of it given by Barani and Ibn Batūṭah. Barani says, it is between the countries of Hind and China. Ibn Batūṭah, who is writing about something that he knows, says, it is three months' journey in length, and is situated at a distance of 10 stages from Dihli.18 Later in his narrative, in describing the fief of Amroha, he makes mention of a river which has its source in the Qarāchil mountain. The river in question is the Ramganga which Ibn Batūṭah by mistake calls Sarju. Here, again, the traveller writes that Qarāchil is three months' journey in length, and on the other side of it is the country of Tibet where musk deer is found.19 This description of Qarāchil tallies with that given by him previously, and read along with Barani it leaves no room for doubt that the mountain meant is the Himalaya. It is difficult to point out with exactitude the place at which the royal army entered the mountain, but it appears from Ibn Batūṭah's account that the state against which the expedition was aimed was