The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.49

c7.49

The best known of all the travellers who visited India during this period is Ibn Baṭṭūṭah who reached Sind in 734 A.H. (1333 A.C.) and lived in the sultanate for nine years. His Tuḥfat-u’n-nuẓẓār fī gharā’ib-i’l-amṣār gives a fascinating picture of the court, the social life and the government of the sultanate, though his history is based on hearsay and not very reliable. Besides, he kept no notes, and the work was composed years after in the traveller’s native land. As the narrative of an eye-witness, Ibn Baṭṭūṭah’s account bears the marks of authenticity. Then there are the accounts of various travellers and Indian Muslims living abroad which have been collected in Qalqa-shandī’s Ṣubḥ-u’l-a‘shā fī ṣinā‘at-i’l-inshā, as well as in Ibn Faḍl-u’llah al-‘Umarī’s Masālik-u’l-abṣār fī mumālik-i’l-amṣār. The accounts relate to Muḥammad bin Tughluq’s reign. The Turkish admiral Sīdī ‘Alī Ra’is came immediately after the close of the period; he was at Dehlī when Humāyūn died. Among travellers, who came to India but whose accounts do not deal directly with the sultanate, are Marco Polo (thirteenth century), Ma Huan, the Muslim secretary of a Chinese naval mission, Nicolo Conti, ‘Abd-u’r-Razzāq, the famous author of Maṭla‘-u’s-sa‘dain and Shāh Rukh’s envoy to Vijayanagar, Athanasius Nikitin, Santo Stefano (fifteenth century), Varthema and Barbosa (sixteenth century).