A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59.4

v2.c59.4

The city of Delhi was surrounded by a high wall, which had twenty-eight gates. The gates were guarded by police officers, who were supervised by the city Kotwal. In the centre of the city was the cathedral mosque which accommodated large number of people. Two main roads running at right-angles intersected in the middle of the city and were connected with the main gates of the outer wall. On both sides of these roads were the four wings of the city bazar with rows of shops facing each other. These wings of the bazar were occupied by special classes of tradesmen and guilds of craftsmen. Outside Delhi was a large reservoir, called Shamsi Talab, from which the inhabitants drew their drinking water. It was two miles (3.2 km) in length and one mile (1.6 km) broad. Ibn Battuta states that when the water dried up at the sides of the reservoir, farmers planted sugarcane, gherkins, cucumbers, green melons and musk-melons. The musk-melons were very sweet but of small size.