Selections from the Travels of Ibn Battuta INTRODUCTION § I, IDN DATTUTA AND HIS WORK To the world of today the men of medieval ChriAcn- dom already seem remote and unfamiliar. Their names and deeds are recorded in our hiftory-books, their monuments ^ill adorn our cities, but our kin- ship with them is a thing unreal, which coils an effort of the imagination. How much more muil this apply to the great Islamic civilization, that ilood over againil medieval Europe, menacing its exiilcncc and yet linked to it by a hundred tics that even war and fear could not sever. Its monuments too abide, for those who may have the fortune to visit them, but its men and manners are to mofi of us utterly unknown, or dimly conceived in the romantic image of the Arabian Nights, Even for the spcdalifl it is difficult to re- conflruft their lives and sec them as they %verc. Hiflorics and biographies there arc in quantity, but the hiflorians, for all their pi^resque details, seldom show the ability to sclcft the essential and to give their figures that touch of the intimate which makes them live again for the reader. It is in this faculty that Ibn Battdta excels. Of the multitudes that crowd upon the 51age in the pageant of medieval Islam there is no figure more inflinft with life than his. In his book he not only lays before us a faithful portrait of himself, with all his virtues and his failings, but evokes SELECTIONS FROM THE a whole age as it were from the dead. These travels have been ransacked by historians and geographers, but no estimate of his work is even faintly satisfactory which does not bear in mind that it is firSt and fore- moSt a human diary, in which the tale of faCts is sub- ordinated to the interests and preoccupations of the diarist and his audience. It is impossible not to feel a liking for the character it reveals to us, generous to excess, humane in an age when life was its . at cheapest, bold (did ever medieval traveller fear the sea less ?), fond of pleasure and uxorious to a degree, but controlled withal by a deep vein of piety and devotion, a man with all the makings of a sinner, and something of a saint. Of the external events of Ibn Battdta’s life we know little beyond what he himself tells us. The editor of the travels, Ibn Juzayy, notes that he was born at Tangier on 24th February, 1304, and from a brief reference in a later book of biographies we know that after his return to Morocco he was appointed qadi or judge in one of the Moroccan towns, and died there in 1368 or 1369. His own name was Muham- mad son of Abdallah, Ibn Battiita being the family name, Slill to be found in Morocco. His family had apparently been settled in Tangier for some genera- tions and belonged to the Berber tribe of the Luwata, which fir^t appears in hiCfory as a nomadic tribe in Cyrenaica and on the borders of Egypt. For the re^l he divulges incidentally in a passage relating to his appointment as qadi iri Delhi, that he came of a house which had produced a succession of qadis, and later on he mentions a cousin who was qadi of Rondah in Spain. He belonged, in consequence, to the re- ligious upper-class, if the term may be used, of the Muhammadan community, and mu^ have received the usual literary and scholastic education of the theologians. On one occasion he quotes a poem of TRAVELS OF IBK BATTOTA his own composition, but the other verses quoted here and there ouviously bear a more popular charafler than the elaborate produ£Bons of tnc bcR Arabic poetic schools. His professional intercA in men and matters rclipious may be seen on nearly c\'cr}* page of his work. It isc\‘idcnt fromthcllilof qSdls and other theologians whom he saw in cver^* town on his travels (sometimes to the exclusion of all other details), but above all from his eagerness to visit famous shaykhs and saints wherever he went, and the enthusiasm with which he relates inBanccs of their miraculous gifts. But to rate him, as some European scholars have done, for his “ripmarolcs about Muhammadan saints and spiritualises and for his “ Aupidit)* ” in paying more attention to theologians than to details of the places he visited, is singularly out of place. Such religious details were matters in which he and his audience were mod closely intcrciecd, and arc by no means dc>’oid of intcrcA and vi]uc c\’cn to us. Out of them, moreover, spring some of the mofl lively passages of his narrative, such as his escape at Koel (the modern Aligarh), and his account of the Sharif Abii Ghurra. But it is of far greater importance to remember that it was because he was a theologian and because of his intcrcA in theologians that he undertook his travels at all and survived to complete them. When as a young man of twenty-one he set out from his native town with a light heart, and not much heavier purse, it was with no other aim than that of making the pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy places of his faith. The duty' laid upon every Muslim of visiting Mecca at IcaA once in his lifetime, so long as it lies within his power to do so, has been in all ages a Aimulus to travel, far greater in degree than the Aimulus of ChriAian pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. At the same time, it created the organization necessary to enable Muslims of every class Trom every 3 SELECTIONS FROM THE country to carry out this obligation. The pilgrim on his journey travelled in a caravan whose numbers swelled at every ^age. He found all arrangements made for his marches and his haltSj and if the road lay through dangerous country, his caravan was pro,- tefted by an escort of soldiers. In all large centres as well as many intermediate Nations were re^l houses and hospices where he was hospitably welcomed and entertained out of endowments created by generations of benefaftors. When such was the lot of every pilgrim, the theologian received ^lill greater considera- tion. His brethren in every town received him as one of themselves, furnished his wants, and recom- mended him to those at the next Nation. Under these circumstances the brotherhood of Islam, which knows no difference of race or birth, showed at its be^t, and provided an incentive to travel unknown in any other age or community. Nor was the Pilgrimage the only inSlitution which smoothed the traveller’s path. Throughout the Middle Ages the trade routes of Africa and Asia and the sea-borne trade of the Indian Ocean were almo^ exclusively in the hands of the Muslim merchants. The travels of Ibn Battdta are but one of many sources which reveal how widespread were their aftivities. Though their caravans were exposed to greater dangers in times of lawlessness and disorganization than were the pilgrim caravans, they offered at lea^ a measure of security to the casual traveller. It is evident from our narratives that in the great majority of cases they were animated by the same spirit of kindliness and generosity that has always marked the mutual relations of Muslims, and readily shared their resources with their fellow-travellers in case of need. Later on Ibn Battuta had more than once occasion to appre- ciate their services, but at the outset he had no thought of what the future held for him. 4 TR-AVELS OF IBN BATTUTA On his arrival in Egypt, with his mind 5lill wholly set on Mecca, he received the fir^l premonitions of his future from two of the illuminati^ or saints who had attained a high rank in the hierarchy of the Muslim orders. From this point we see his vague desires gradually crystallize into a definite ambition, though he Still hesitates from time to time, especially when his contacts with persons of saintly life awaken all his inStinfts of devotion. Foiled in his firSt intention of taking the diredt route to Mecca through Upper Egypt (the usual route of the pilgrim caravans from the WeSt), he determined to join inStead the pilgrim caravan from Damascus, and on his way thither taSted for the firSl time the joys of travel for its own sake. As time was not pressing, he wandered at leisure through the whole of Syria as far as the borders of Asia Minor, before returning to Damascus to join the caravan as it set out for the Holy Cities. Hardly was this firA Pilgrimage over than he set out a^ain to visit ‘Irdq, but turned back sharply before reaching Baghddd, and made a long detour through Khuzi^tdn. By now, he tells us, he had taken the resolve never to cover the same ground twice, as far as possible. His mind was dlill set on the Pilgrimage, however, and he planned his journey to cover the interval before returning to Mecca at the end of the year. This time he renounced further travelling for a space of three years and gave himself up to ^udy and devotion at Mecca. For the theologian the Pil- grimage meant not only the performance of one of the principal obligations of the Faith, but an oppor- tunity of putting himself in touch with the adlivitier of the religious centre of Islam. Mecca was the ideal centre of religious dludy, in the company of many of the mo5l eminent doftors of the day. All this, no doubt, was in Ibn Battdta’s mind. But we may, I think, discern a further purpose. He had already 5 hoiaia Syieu-- vgVbVe ^ ^ On corc^V^^ S ° ;nS as ^,nd ° ^ tbe'^fe btotbetbood , TXbin ^ ^opportunity t ( £ fVte iVlo’^S®^ „ of an opt' rvenP^s °'.V^,\dvantnge ot ^ *e ftep? „„ r?n*nsif ' „:rtbe BU* ^ Horde, ^on- "totberboods, u ^ o£ *®„_ottunity “f -Hrid ^ -and beco^a^ & , Hnnfb® ivinS* so'-' 'ving'ieS^'^ ’'tin^”"' tb ^CVio- tbougb b^ U fiS"'"’ vt X)elbi, p, and . V. was t>ur -anY- r n„lfan’s boun^ , ^^.^1, be ^ opg innnj ^n TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA tions which he afterwards wove into one of the moft remarkable descriptions we possess of any medieval Muslim court. Little did Sultan or courtiers think that six centuries afterwards their reputations would depend on the notes and reminiscences of the obscure and spendthrift qSdi from the We^t. At laft the inevitable rupture occurred, whose consequences were usually swift and fatal to the viftim of the royal dis- pleasure. Ibn Battdta took refuge in his laft resort, the adoption of the ascetic life, resigning all his offices and giving away all his possessions. It was a genuine aft of world-rcnuncaition, such as always lay near to the heart of the medieval theologian, and seems to have convinced Sultan Muhammad of the traveller's real integrity and devotion. At all events, when he re- quired shortly afterwards a truftworthy person to send as his envoy to China, it was Ibn Battiita whom he summoned. Ibn Battiita, for his part, it would seem, was reluftant to doff his hermit’s garments and “ become entangled in the world again.” But the bribe was too great, and in 1342 he set off in semi- regal ftate at the head of the mission to the moft powerful ruler in the world of his time, the Mongol Emperor of China. Scarcely had he left the walls of Delhi when his adventures began. For eight days he was a hunted fugitive, and though he escaped to rejoin his embassy 3 J 7 its progress throvgh Ind/a, it was only to be left with nothing but the clothes he ftood up in and his prayer-mat on the shore at Calicut. To go on with his mission in the circumftances was impossible; to return to Dehli was to incur the wrath of Sultan Muhammad. He chose inftcad to indulge his love of adventure with the independent rulers of the Malabar coaft, and eventually found himself at the Maidive Islands, once again a qddf and a personage of im- portance. Here too after eighteen months of lotos- 7 SELECTIONS FROM THE eating his reforming zeal made of him an objeft of suspicion and dislike, and he found it expedient to leave the islands. The devotee in him again asserted itself, and his fir^l objeft was to make a pilgrimage to the “ Foot of Adam ” on the highe^ peak of Ceylon. This done he returned to the Coromandel and Malabar coafts, paid another brief visit to the Maidive Islands and prepared in earnest for his journey to China. Some months had ^lill to elapse before the sailing season, however, and he chose to spend them in a voyage to Bengal, for no other reason, apparently, than to visit a famous shaykh living in Assam. He then intercepted the “ Chinese ” vessels — really vessels owned by Muhammadan merchants, with Chinese and Malay crews — at Sumatra and went by a route that has taxed the ingenuity of his commentators to the “ Shanghai ” of China in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the port of Ts’wan-chow-fu, or Zaytdn, as it was known to the foreign merchants. For this journey Ibn Battdta reassumed his role of ambassador, though it may strike us as curious that no one seemed to entertain any suspicions of an ambassador who travelled without embassy or credentials. It was, however, his only device for making his way through China, though his theological reputation ^ood him in good ^ead amongst his fellow-Muslims in the trading ports. In every city on his progress to and from Peking he was received with full honours, but at Peking itself he was disappointed of seeing the Em- peror, owing to his absence from the capital. Returning to Zaytdn, he took ship again for Sumatra, and thence for Malabar, but decided not to expose himself a second time to the treacherous splendours of Delhi, and made we^wards in^ead. He was in Syria at the outbreak of the fir^ “ Black Death ” in 1348, and in a few terse sentences reveals its frightful ravages. At this time he seems to have had no defi- 8 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA nite plans for the future, and was aiming only at com- pleting yet another Pilgrimage, his seventh, to Mecca. What eventually led him to return to his native land is not clear. His own narrative places more weight on the rapid access of Arength and prosperity which Morocco enjoyed under Sultan Abal-Hasan and his son Abu ‘Indn, than on those ties of family and kindred which appear to us so much more natural a reason. Possibly allowances should be made for the part of exaggeration and flattery', but the brevity of his dlay in Tangier, and the unemotional, almoft brusque, manner in which he mentions it, scarcely witness to an overmadlering homesickness, which, in any case, was hardly to be expefted in a society so cosmopolitan as that of medieval Islam. The journey from Alexandria to the Barbary coa^l was not without its alarms. Twice Ibn Battista narrowly escaped capture by Chriftian corsairs, and in addition his party was threatened by a robber band almo^ within sight of Fez. Even yet his ambition was not appeased. There were dlill two Muslim countries which he had not visited — ^Andalusia and the Negrolands on the Niger. Once again he took up the dlaff of travel, not to lay it down again until some three years later he could claim with justice the title of “ The Traveller of Islam.” He was in fafl the only medieval traveller who is known to have visited the lands of every Muhammadan ruler of his time, quite apart from such infidel countries as Con^lantinople, Ceylon, and China, which were embraced in his journeys. The mere extent of his wanderings is estimated by Yule at not less than 75,000 miles, without allowing for deviations, a figure which is not likely to have been surpassed before the age of ^eam. Unfortunately no account of Ibn Battiita has come down to us (so far as is known) from anyone who saw him on his journeys. There appear to be only two 9 SELECTIONS FROM THE known references to him in the writings of contempo- raries, and both are concerned chiefly with the credi- bility of his Tories, which was hotly disputed. What they thought of him personally we are not told, but are able to infer occasionally from his own candid ^atements. Twice we find him, after receiving a cordial welcome, becoming an obje6l of dislike or suspicion, at Delhi and again in the Maidive Islands. In the fir^ case the cause was his extravagance, in the second it was fear of his growing influence and resent- ment at his haughty independence. There can be no que^ion that he expefted of princes and minivers a lavish exercise of the virtue of generosity, which was indeed in his eyes — as in those of his age and com- munity generally — their principal claim to respeff. It may be taken as a general rule that when Ibn Battdta says of this or the other prince that he is “ a good sultan ” or “ one of the be^l of rulers,” he means only that he is scrupulous in the performance of his religious duties and openhanded in his dealings, especially with theologians. We can well underhand that this attitude was apt to pall on his patrons and lead at length to unpleasant incidents, or at least mutual dislike. Apart from these rare cases, however, he appears to have been liked and respefted wherever he went. In attempting to e^imate the value of Ibn BattiJta’s work, some description mu^ be given of the book Itself. Ibn Batata may have taken notes of the places that he visited, but the evidence is rather again^ It. Only once^ does he refer to notes, when he says that at Bukhara he copied a number of epitaphs from t e tornbs of famous scholars, but afterwards lo^ them when the Indian pirates Gripped him of all that ^ ^ f epitaphs were of special interest to j theologians because they con- fine lifts of the writings of the deceased. Ibn lo TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA Battista was not himself a man of letters who was likely to regard his experiences as material for a book; on the contrar}', he seems to haw entertained no idea of writing them down. On his return to Fez he had related his adventures to the sultan and the court, where they were received with general incredulity, as we know from a passage in the works of his great contemporar)', the hi^lorian Ibn Khaldiin. . He found, however, a powerful sup- porter in the wazfr, at whose inRigation possibly the sultan gave inAruftions to one of the principal secretaries, Muhammad ibn Juzap', to commit them to writing. Ibn Juza)ty accordingly compiled the work which we possess at the diflation of Ibn Battuta. The result is a book of somewhat composite chamber. The writer was not always content to take down Ibn Battista's narratives as they were delivered. He shows commendable care in regiBcring the cxail pronuncia- tion of every foreign name (a matter of some importance in view of the nature of the Arabic script), but in some other respc£ls his editing is open to criticism. By his own ilatemcnt the work is an abridgment, which f iossibly accounts for the brevity of one or two of the atcr seflions. The bulk of the narrative has been left with but little touching-up in the simple, straight- forward ftylc of the narrator, out at points Ibn Juzayy has embellished it in the taSle of the age, with passages of rhetorical prose and cxfni^s from poems, whtch seldom add much of interest. His interpolation of incidents from his own experience may be excused, but another of his proceedings is more questionable. He had before him the narrative of the travels of Ibn Jubayr, an Andalusian scholar who visited Egypt, the Hij5z, and Syria in the twelfth centuty, and wrote an account of his experiences which enjoyed a great reputation in the Weft. Where Ibn Battiita covers the same ground, Ibn Juzayy has often subftituted XI SELECTIONS FROM THE rpossibly at Ibn Battiita’s desire or with his per- mission) an abridgment of Ibn Jubayr’s work, notably in the account of the ceremonies observed at Mecca during the Pilgrimage and at other seasons of the year. We have consequently to bear in mind that the book is not entirely Ibn Battuta’s work; there ^ are indeed indications (for example, in the transcriptions and translations of Persian phrases) that the reputed author did not himself read the book at all, or if he did, read it negligently. Taking the work, then, as a whole, we niuft regard it as primarily intended to present a descriptive account of Muhammadan society in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. Ibn Battiita’s intereft in places was, as we have seen, subordinate to his interest in persons. He is the supreme example of h geogra-phe malgre lui^ whose geographical knowledge was gained entirely from personal experience and the information of chance acquaintances. For his details he relied exclusively on his memory, a memory, it is true, which had been highly cultivated by the ordinary sy^em of theological education. Involving the memorizing of large numbers of works, but ^lill liable to slips and confusions, more or less great. In his itineraries he sometimes misplaces the order of towns, and twice at lea^ leaves himself in the air, as it were, with a gap of hundreds of miles. He gives wrong names at several points, especially when he is dealing with non-Muslim countries, where his knowledge of Arabic and Persian was of little service to him. In his hi^ori- cal narratives, which are generally tru^worthy, similar miftakes are jFound. It Is indeed remarkable that the errors are comparatively few, considering the enormous number of persons and places he mentions. The mo^ serious difficulty is offered by the chronology of the travels, which is utterly impossible as it ^ands. Many of the dates give the impression of having been Inserted 12 travels of IBN BATTUTA more or less at haphazard, possibly at the editor^ requeft, but the examination and correttion ot them offtrs a task so great that it has not been attempted in this seleftion. . There is finally the queSion of his veracity. Thfe can be no doubt that in his narratives of the Muslim countries, notwithftanding errors of exaggeration ^d misunderftanding, Ibn Batthta faithfully relates what he believes to be true. Some critics have, however, regarded his claim to have visited Conftantinople and China with considerable dubiety. The principal diffi- culties as regards the visit to Constantinople are the vagueness of his route and his claim to have met the ex-Emperor, when by his own chronology the ex- Emperor had been dead for over a year. The firft can be explained by the difficulties of an Arabic- speaking traveller in such unfamiliar surroundings, the second by an error in dating. The account of the city itself is so full and accurate that it cannot be other than the narrative of an eye-witness, who enjoyed exceptional facilities such as Ibn Battdta had, and his interview with the ex-Emperor in particular bears the unmillakable ftamp of truth. The difficulties contained in the narrative of the journeys to and in China are generally of the same order, and will be more fully considered in their place. It need only be said here that to deny them raises even greater difficulties, and that by exaftly the same kind of reasoning it can be “proved” that though Ibn Battuta undoubtedly was in India he never went there 1 Ibn Battdta is always unsatisfaaory when he relies on second-hand information, and it is moft unlikely that he could have put together so personal a narrative had the ftatements of others not been supplemented by his own observations. There are also some material arguments in favour of his claim to have visited China. He had, in his capacity as envoy >3 SELECTIONS FROM THE from the Sultan of Delhi, very good reason for going there, and facilities for travel in China which were denied to the ordinary merchant. In the second place one obscure passage in the narrative of his doings at Khansa (Hang-chow) is cleared up by an earlier passage relating to his visit to Shaykh Jaldl ad-Din in Assam, with which the journey to China is closely connefted. Thirdly, if his claim were false, he dlood a reasonable chance of being exposed. He relates with some emphasis that in his journey through Northern China he met a merchant from Ceuta, the brother of a man living in Sijilmasa, in Morocco, whom he subsequently met also. That this merchant should have had some communication with Morocco, even in those days, is not impossible, since I bn Battiita himself had once transmitted a sum of money from India to Mequinez. On the whole, therefore, the narrative dealing with China seems to me to be genuine, though it is certainly related with greater brevity than usual, either because Ibn Battiita could not recall the Chinese names, if he learned them, with the same ease as the more familiar Arabic and Persian names, or because it was more dra^ically abridged by the editor. I can in fa£t see no alternative, except to suppose that he was hypnotized into the belief that he had gone there by one of the miracle-working saints whom he met in India. Ibn Battiita was fir^ brought into prominence by the translation of an abridged text by Dr. Samuel Lee in 1829. The complete text of the Travels, which was found in Algeria a few years later, was published with a French translation and critical apparatus by Defrdmery and Sanguinetti in the middle of the century from a number of manuscripts, one of which, containing the second half of the work, is the autograph of the original editor, Ibn Juzayy. The French translation, though on the whole remarkably accurate, I4 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA suRcrs from the absence of cxplanator)* notes. Various se£lions of the book (chiefiy from the French text) have been annotated by scholars familiar with the countries themselves, but a large amount Aill remains to be worked over. In the present sclc^lions, w’hich have been translated afresh from the Arabic text, Ibn Battdla is treated as a traveller, and not as a writer of geography. SulTicicnt indications have, it is hoped, been added in the text and the notes to enable the course of his journeys to be followed in detail on any large-scale atlas, but many problems of geography have been passed over in silence. The easy collo- quialism of his ^yle has been retained in translation as far as possible, in preference to a ^lilted Elizabethan language. It has not been easy to make a selcftion from the wealth of narrative and anecdote contained in the work, and many intcreiling sc£lions have neces- sarily been omitted or abridged. But until the appear- ance of a complete version (such as the writer is now preparing for the Haklu)^ Socict)’) it is hoped that this extraft may be of service in introducing to a wider circle of English readers one of the moA remarkable travellers of his own or any age. § 2. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF IBN BATT&Ta’s TRAVELS , The Islamic world in the fourteenth century differed, in extent and outward splendour, but little from the magnificent empire ruled by the Caliphs of Damascus and Baghdad in the eighth. If in the WcA it had been shorn of its outpoAs in Spain and Sicily, it could juAly claim to have more than balanced the loss by its extension in India and Malaysia. It had recently wiped out the laA traces of the humiliation infliAed upon it by the crusading Franks, and was on the point of cxaAing a signal vengeance by the sword of *5 SELECTIONS FROM THE the Ottomans in Europe. Yet it was true, notwith- standing all these apparent signs of progress, that the political fabric of Islam was Stricken with mortal disease. The centuries had taken a heavy toll of vitality from that huge frame, and had left it Still formidable, it may be, but wounded at the heart. The laSt Crusader had indeed been driven from the shores of Syria, but at what a coSt! Two centuries of Struggle and intrigue had been necessary to repel attacks that the warriors of the early generations had regarded as the minor incidents of outpoSt warfare. The sceptre had passed from the hands of the supple Arab and the cultured Persian to those of the violent and illiberal Turk. For more than two centuries after the year looo the ambitions of Turkish generals and chieftains had torn and retorn the body of Islam, devastating its lands by their misgovernment and continual warfare more effectively than any foreign foe. Convulsion succeeded to convulsion, until at length the heathen Mongols from Central Asia made hares of the Turkish lions, and in 1258 formed the derelict eaStern lands of Islam into a province of their immense empire. This event, the shock of which seemed to the Muslim peoples like the LaSt Judgment of the Wrath of God, proved in the end a blessing in disguise. Once again the eaStern provinces enjoyed a period of firm and relatively undisturbed government, under which commerce and agriculture took heart and began to re-create a prosperity that seemed to have vanished for ever . Simultaneously Egypt and Syria, which had withstood the Mongol onset, enjoyed under a succession of capable rulers a rare period of peace and prosperity. The Turkish captains who had hitherto quarrelled over the mangled fragments of the central provinces, were relegated to the frontiers, where they indulged their taSte for warfare at the expense of the TRAVELS OF IRN BATTOTA infidel and the heathen, winning for themselves a goodly portion of the riches of this world, and the reputation of “ Warriors for the Faith ** to ensure their portion in the world to come. The Mongol conqucRs thus efTcflually contributed to the successes gained by the arms of Islam in India, and a few years later also in Thrace and the Balkan Peninsula, successes which were supplemented by the missionary labours of saints and darwish orders. \V}ien in 1325 Ibn Bathita set out on his journeys, the political conditions in the Islamic lands were, in consequence, relatively AabIc and unusually favourable for travel. From AswAn to the frontier of Cilicia the word of the Sultan of Eg)*pt was undisputed; the Crusaders were but a bitter memor)*, and relations with the Mongols, though not cordial, had not led to warfare since the laA great vlflory of the youthful Nisir at Damascus in 1303. *Ir.Aq and Persia ^lill acknowledged the rule of the Mongol IFkhAns, now good Muslims, but dcAincd soon to disappear. To 5 ie north and north-eaA the other Mongol khanates of the Golden Horde and of Jaghatdy were on friendly terms. Finally in India the ferocious but energetic Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad ibn Tughlaq, was imposing his ovcrlordship on the crcalcr part of the suo-con- tinent. On the fringes 0? the great kingdoms, and in such outlying parts as Anatolia, Afghanistan, and the shores of the Indian Ocean, there cxiiled a hoSl of petty sultans and amirs, who acknowledged no maSlcr and maintained a precarious throne on the proceeds of trade or freebooting, but these could hardly inflift serious damage, even had the)' been so minded, on the Islamic community in general. Commerce proceeded freely both within and without the frontiers of Islam, in spite of heavy dues and occasional vexations; and if the indigenous industries had declined, in some eases to the point of extinction, the revival of the 17 c s B L £ C T ^ O ^ ^ ted t? B..ope.n — t'” *e ‘^^SfcoBipettoo" ^„,^ircv dm^f'_ the weakness of -.i, the ^ ^ue T-he essen inoft _ tion its several ^“'^'i^ecay. the forces^ century lau ^ d Botth-'^f?. together vnth Niu j^i„oravrds ^ otV/eft,rwh'*’ Imiplres o^ * ^as P^^'^aiinids Mmohaas rn ^en tnr^ ^ the^^y^’^ .^d the the thirteenth at V^tended in the Vith their ^ of Ifr^^y?' . _ from T:he dangers -ealousios from _A3S ^g^nvent^ore dissipated ^Q^rces this disme ^^ouses, as Joggles th®, „ds frot” nf the reignmg ^^tual ^"^'S^tivated lands TKAVELS OK IBN BATTUTA Sicilians less than twenty* years later, and only recovered it in 1334 with Neapolitan and Genoese help. Their empire extended in faft only over the coa^al ^Irip, with some few fortified towns in the interior. The prosperit}* of Tunis was due solely to its advantageous position at the debouchment of the main trade routes from the interior, which made it the premier commer- cial city of the Maphrib and second only to Alexandria among the Muslim Mediterranean ports, while its culture, like that of the Maghrib generally, was mainly suftained by refugees from the reconquered provinces of Spain. Tnc Marinid dynafty of Morocco, makers of a richer territor)*, were in ilill worse ease. Their hiflor)' is a monotonous record of blood and ftrife; few rulers were able to withiland the revolts and intrigues of their ambitious relatives, and these few used what respite they gained in militar)' expeditions againfl their neighbours, or, more worthily, again^l the ChriAians in Spain. The dynaBy rc.ichcd its zenith under Abu*l-Hasan (1331-4^) bis son Abii ‘Inin (1348-58), whose names frequently recur in the latter part of Ibn Battdta’s narrative. Abu’l- Hasan succeeded in capturing SijilmAsa and Tlemscn, and, in spite of a sanguinaiy’ defeat by the Spaniards at Tarifa in 1340, was able to add Tunis to his domi- nions in 1347, only to lose it immediately and simul- taneously lose his throne to his rebel son Abii ‘Inin. The latter in turn, having recaptured Tlemscn and re-entered Tunis in 1357, was deserted by his army and ilrangicd on his return to Fez, leaving the king- dom a prey to indescribable anarchy. Nevertheless Morocco itself enjoyed during these two reigns a period of relative prosperity, and its great cities were beautified by many public buildings, which in their day can have been little inferior to the magnificent monuments of Egypt and India. There is, in consequence, some 19 SELECTIONS FROM THE ju^ification for the exuberant praise which _Ibn Battiita be^ows upon Abii Tnan’s beneficent adminis- tration, especially if it is remembered how chaotic were the conditions which, as will be seen, he had ju^l . left behind in the Ea^. It is a pity that Ibn Battfita did not put on record the fir^ impressions left on his mind when, as a young man fresh from the narrow provincial life of Tangier, he traversed the highly cultivated Delta of Egypt and set foot in its opulent and teeming capital, then the metropolis of Islam. Alone of all the Islamic lands outside Arabia, Egypt had preserved the heritage of Muslim culture, while the Mongols in the Ea^l and the nomadic Arabs and Berbers in the We^ carried deva^ation up to its very gates. Though the dyna^y founded by the great Saladin had given place to the military oligarchy known as the Mamldks, or White Slaves, a form of government than which in theory none could be worse, Egypt from 1260 to 1341 enjoyed, with short intervals of turmoil, not only widespread power and pre^ige, but also a high degree of prosperity. This was due mainly to three things. The Mamliik Sultans Baybars I (1260-77), Qala’iin (1279-90), and al-Malik an-Nasir (i 299-1 341), what- ever their personal faults (and they were many), were exceedingly capable and far-sighted rulers. In the second place the bureaucratic admini^ration which Egypt had inherited from its Byzantine and Fatimid governors was in all probability the mo^ efficient in^rument of government which exited in the Middle Ages. Thirdly Egypt enjoyed almo^ a monopoly of the Indian trade, the mo^t profitable of all medieval commerce, and drew from it the va^ revenues which were needed for the upkeep of its elaborate organiza- tion, as well as for the con^ruftion of the unsurpassed series^ of architedlural monuments which are the peculiar glory of Cairo. Under these circum^ances 20 TRAVELS OF iBN BATTOTA the MamlcIoth in case I should fall by reason of. my weakness. So great was my fear that I could not dismount until we arrived at Tunis. The population of the city came out to meet the members of our party, and on all sides greetings and que^ions were exchanged, but not a soul greeted me as no one there was known to me. I was so affefted by my loneliness that I could not rcilrain my tears and wept bitterly, until one of the pilgrims realized the cause of my distress and coming up to me greeted me kindly and continued to entertain me with friendly talk until I entered the ci^. The Sultan of Tunis at that time was Abii Yahyd, the son of Abii Zakariya II., and there were a number of notable scholars in the town.’ During my ^lay the festival of the Breaking of the Fail fell due, and I joined the company at the Praying-ground.® The inhabitants assembled in large numbers to celebrate the feilival, maki^ a brave show and wearing their richeil apparel. . The Sultan Abii Yahyd arrived on horseback, accompanied by all his relatives, courtiers, and officers of ilate walking on foot in a ilately pro- cession. After the recital of the prayer and the conclusion of the Allocution the people returned to their homes. Some time later the pilgrim caravan for the Hijdz was formed, and they nominated me as their qddl (judge). We left Tunis early in November, following the coail road through Si!ba, Sfax, and Qdbis,® where we flayed for ten days on account of incessant rains. Thence we set out for Tripoli, accompanied for several ^ages by a hundred or more horsemen as well as a detachment of archers, out of respefl for whom- the Arabs kept their distance. I had made a contrail of marriage at Sfax with the daughter of one of the syndics at Tunis, and at Tripoli she Was conducted to me, but after leaving Tripoli I became involved 45 SELECTIONS FROM THE in a dispute with her father, which necessitated my separation from her. I then married the daughter of a ftudent from Fez, and when she was conduced to me I detained the caravan for a day by entertaining them all at a wedding party. At length on April 5th (1326) we reached iUex- andria. It is a beautiful city, well-built and fortified with four gates^° and a magnificent port. Among all the ports in the world I have seen none to equal it except Kawlam [QuUon] and Calicfit in India, the port of the infidels [Genoese] at Sudaq in the land of the Turks, and the port of Zaytdn in China, all of which will be described later. I went to see the light- house on this occasion and found one of its faces in ruins. It is a very high square building, and its door is above the level of the earth. Opposite the door, and of the same height, is a building from which there is a plank bridge to the door; if this is removed there is no means of entrance. Inside the door is a place for the lighthouse-keeper, and within the lighthouse there are many chambers. The breadth of the passage inside is nine spans and that of the wall ten spans; each of the four sides of the lighthouse is 140 spans in breadth. It is situated on a high mound and lies three miles from the city on a long tongue of land which juts out into the sea from close by the city wall, so that the lighthouse cannot be reached by land except from the city. On my return to the We^ in the year 750^ [1349] I visited the lighthouse again, and found that it had fallen into so ruinous a condition that it was not possible to enter it or climb up to the door.^^ Al-Malik an-Nasir had Parted to build a similar lighthouse alongside it but was prevented by death from completing the work. Another of the- marvellous things in this city is the awe-inspiring marble column in its outskirts which they call the Pillar of Columns.” It is a single block, skilfully 46 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA carved, crefted on a plinth of square Clones like enor- mous platforms, and no one knows how it was crcflcd there nor for certain who creeled it.“ One of the learned men of Alexandria was the qddf, a mailer of eloquence, who used to wear a turban of extraordinary size. Never either in the cailcrn or the wcilcrn lands have I seen a more voluminous head- gear. Another of them was the pious ascetic Burhdn ad-Dfn, whom I met during my ilay and whose hospitality I enjoyed for three days. One day as I entered his room he said to me “ I see that you are fond of travelling through foreign lands.” I replied “ Yes, I am ” (though I had as yet no thought of going to such diilant lands as India or China). Then he said *' You muil certainly visit my brother” Farid ad-Dln in India, and my brother Rukn ad-Dfn in Sind, and my brother Burhdn ad-Din in China, and when you find them give them greeting from me.” I was amazed at his prediflion, and the idea of going to these countries having been cail into my mind, my journeys never ceased until 1 had met these three that he named and conveyed his greeting to them. During my ^ay at Alexandria 1 had heard of the { )ious Shaykh aI-Murshidl,who bellowed gifts miracu- ously created at his desire. He lived in solitary retreat in a cell in the country where he was visited by princes and ministers. Parties of men in all ranks of Jjfc used to come to him every day and he would supply them all with food. Each one of them would desire to cat some flesh or fruit or sweetmeat at his cell, and to each he would give what he had suggested, though it was frequently out of season. His fame was carried from mouth to mouth far and wide, and the Sultan too had visited him several times in his retreat. I set out from Alexandria to seek this shaykh and passing through DamanhiSr came to Fawwd [Fua], a beautiful township, dose by which, separated from 47 SELECTIONS FROM THE it by a canal, lies the shaykh’s cell. I reached this cell about mid-afternoon, and on saluting the shaykh I found that he had with him one of the sultan’s aides-de-camp, who had encamped with his troops ju^ outside. The shaykh rose and embraced me, and calling for food invited me to eat. When the hour of the afternoon prayer arrived he set me in front as prayer-leader, and did the same on every occasion when we were together at the times of prayer during my ^fay. When I wished to sleep he said to me “ Go up to the roof of the cell and sleep there ” (this was during the summer heats). I said to the officer “ In the name of God,”^^ but he replied [quoting from the Koran] “ There is none of us but has an appointed place.” So I mounted to the roof and found there a ^raw mattress and a leather mat, a water vessel for ritual ablutions, a jar of water and a drinking-cup, and I lay down there to sleep. That night, while I was sleeping on the roof of the cell, I dreamed that I was on the wing of a great bird which was flying with me towards Mecca, then to Yemen, then ea^wards, and thereafter going towards the south, then flying far eastwards, and finally landing in a, dark and green country, where it left me. I was aftonished at this dream and said to myself “ If the shaykh can interpret my dream for me, he is all that they say he is.” Next morning, after all the other visitors had gone, he called me and when I had related my dream interpreted it to me saying: “You will make the pilgrimage [to Mecca] and visit [the Tomb o^ the Prophet, and you will travel through' Yemen, ‘Iraq, the country of the Turks, and India. You will ^lay there for a long time and meet there my brother Dilshad the Indian, who will rescue you from a danger into which you will fall.” Then he gave me a travelling-provision of small cakes and money, and I bade him farewell and departed. Never TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA since parting from him have I met on my journeys aught but good fortune, and his blessings have ^lood me in good ^ead. We rode from here to Damietta through a number of towns, in each of which we visited the principal men of religion. Damietta lies on the bank of the Nile, and the people in the houses next to the river draw water from it in buckets. Many of the houses have ^leps leading down to the river. Their sheep and goats are allowed to pa^lure at liberty day and night; for this reason the saying goes of Damietta “ Its walls are sweetmeats and its dogs are sheep.” Anyone who enters the city may not afterwards leave it except by the governor’s seal. Persons of repute have a seal damped on a piece of paper so that they may show it to the gatekeepers; other persons have the seal stamped on their forearms. In this city there are many seabirds with extremely greasy flesh, and the milk of its buffaloes is unequalled for sweetness and pleasant taile. The fish called biiri“ is exported thence to Syria, Anatolia, and Cairo. The present town is of recent con^truftion; the old city was that de^lroycd by the Franks in the time of al-Malik as-Siiih.“ From Damietta I travelled to Fariskiir, which is a town on the bank of the Nile, and halted outside it. Here I was overtaken by a horseman who had been sent after me by the governor of Damietta. He handed me a number of coins, saying to me “The Governor asked for you, and on being informed about you, he sent you this gift ” — may God reward him ! Thence I travelled to AshmiSn, a large and ancient town on a canal derived from the Nile. It possesses a wooden bridge at which all vessels anchor, and in the afternoon the baulks are lifted and the vessels pass up and down. From here I went to Samanniid, whence I journeyed upstream to Cairo, between a 49 ^ SELECTIONS FROM THE continuous succession of towns and villages. The traveller on the Nile need take no provision with him, because whenever he desires to descend on the bank he may do so, for ablutions, prayers, provisioning, or any other purpose. There is an uninterrupted chain of bazaars from Alexandria to Cairo, and from Cairo to Assuan in Upper Egypt. I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mi^ress of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the halting-place of feeble and mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves of the sea, and can scarce be contained in her for all her size and capacity.^^ It is said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand water-carriers who transport water on camels, and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys, and that on the Nile there are thirty-six thousand boats belonging to the Sultan, and his sub- jefts, which sail up^lream to Upper Egypt and down- ^ream to Alexandria and Damietta, laden with goods and profitable merchandise of all kinds. On the bank of the Nile opposite Old Cairo is the place known as The Garden^^ which is a pleasure park and prome- nade, containing many beautiful gardens, for the people of Cairo are given to pleasure and amusements. I witnessed a fete once in Cairo for the sultan’s re- covery from a fra£lured hand; all the merchants decorated their bazaars and had rich ^uffs, ornaments and silken fabrics hanging in their shops for several days. The mosque of ‘Amr is highly venerated and widely celebrated. The Friday service is held in it, and the road runs through it from ea^ to we^. The madrasas [college mosques] of Cairo cannot be counted for multitude. As for the Mari^an [hospital], which cables ” near the mausoleum of Sultan ^ala*dn, no description is adequate to its 50 A GROUP or DARWISIILS D \NCINC TRAVELS OF !BN BATTOTA beauties. It contains an innumerable quantity of appliances and medicaments, and its daily revenue is put as high as a thousand dinars. There arc a large number of religious establishments [** convents ”], which they call khtUsqiths^ and the nobles vie with one another in building them. Each of these is set apart for a separate school of danv/shes, moilly Persians, who arc men of good education and adepts in the myAical doflrincs. Each has a superior and a doorkeeper and their affairs arc admirably or- ganized. They have many special cuAoms, one of which has to do with their food. The steward of the house comes in the morning to the danvfshcs, each of whom indicates what food he desires, and when they assemble for meals, each person is given his bread and soup in a separate dish, none sharing with another. They cat twice a day. They arc each given winter clothes and summer clothes, and a monthly allowance of from t^venty to thirty dirhams. Every Thursday night they receive sugar cakes, soap to wash their clothes, the price of a bath, and oil for their lamps. These men arc celibate; the married men have separate convents. At Cairo too is the great cemetery of al-Qardfa, which is a place of peculiar sanflity, and contains the graves of innumerable scholars and pious believers. In the Qardfa the people build beautiful pavilions surrounded by walls, so that they look like houses.^ They also build chambers and hire Koran-readers, who recite night and day in agreeable voices. Some of them build religious houses and madrasas beside the mausoleums and on Thursday nights they go out to spend the night there with their children and women- folk, and make a circuit of the famous tombs. They go out to spend the night there also on the “ Night of mid-Sha‘bdn,” and the market-people take out all kinds of eatables.^^ Among the many celebrated 51 SELECTIONS FROM THE sanftuaries [in the city] is the holy shrine where there reposes the head of al-Husayn.^“ Beside it is a va^t monaftery of ^riking con^ruftion, on the doors of which there are silver rings and plates of the same metal. The Egyptian Nile^^ surpasses all rivers of the earth in sweetness of ta^e, length of course, and utility. No other river in the world can show such a con- tinuous series of towns and villages along its banks, or a basin so intensely cultivated. Its course is from south to north, contrary to all the other [great] rivers. One extraordinary thing about it is that it begins to rise in the extreme hot weather, at the time when rivers generally diminish and dry up, and begins to subside ju^ when rivers begin to increase and over- flow. The river Indus resembles it in this feature. The Nile is one of the five, great rivers of the world, which are the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Syr Darya and Amu Darya; five other rivers resemble these, the Indus, which is called Pan] Ab [t.e. Five Rivers], the river of India which is called Gang [Ganges] — it is to it that the Hindus go on pilgrimage, and when they burn their dead they throw the ashes into it, and they say that it comes from Paradise — the river Jiin [Jumna, or perhaps Brahmaputra] in India, the river Itil [Tolga] in the Qipchaq steppes, on the banks of which is the city of Sara, and the river Sard [Hoang-Ho] in the land of Cathay. All these will be mentioned in their proper places, if God will. Some di^ance below Cairo the Nile divides into three ^reams,^^ none of which can be crossed except by boat, winter or summer. The inhabitants of every township have canals led off the Nile ; these are filled when the river is in flood and carry the water over the fields. From Cairo I travelled into Upper Egypt, with the intention of crossing to the Hijaz. On the fir^ night I stayed at the monastery of Dayr at-Ti'n, which was 52 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA built to house certain illustrious relics — a fragment of the Prophet’s wooden basin and the pencil with which he used to apply kohl, the awl he used for sewing his sandals, and the Koran belonging to the Caliph ‘All written in his own hand. These were bought, it is said, for a hundred thousand dirhams by the builder of the monastery, who also established funds to supply food to all comers and to maintain the guardians of the sacred relics. Thence my way lay through a number of towns and villages to Munyat Ibn Khaslb [Minia], a large town which is built on the bank of the Nile, and moSt emphatically excels all the other towns of Upper Egypt. I went on through Man- faldt, Asyiit, Ikhmim, where there is a with sculptures and inscriptions which no one can now read — another of these herbas there was pulled down and its Slones used to build a madrasa — QinS, Qils, where the governor of Upper Egypt resides, Luxor, ■a pretty litde town containing the tomb of the pious ascetic Abu’l-HajjSj,“ Esnd, and thence a day and a night’s journey through desert country to Edfd. Here we crossed the Nile and, hiring camels, journeyed with a party of Arabs through a desert, totally devoid of settlements but quite safe for travelling. One of our halts was at Humaythira, a place infefted with hyenas. All night long we kept driving them away, and indeed one got at my baggage, tore open one of the sacks, pulled out a bag of dates, and made off with it. We found the bag next morning, torn to pieces and with most of the contents eaten. After fifteen days’ travelling we reached the town of Aydhdb,^ a large town, well supplied with milk and fish; dates and grain are imported from Upper Egypt. Its inhabitants are Bejds. These people are black-skinned; they wrap themselves in yellow blankets and tie headbands about a fingerbreadth wide round their heads. They do not give their 53 SELECTIONS FROM THE daughters any share in their inheritance. They live on camels’ milk and they ride on Meharis [drome- daries]. One-third of the city belongs to the Sultan of Egypt and two-thirds to the King of the Bejas, who is called al-Hudrubi.^® On reaching Aydhab we found that al-Hudrubi was engaged in warfare with the Turks [i.e. the troops of the Sultan of Egypt], that he had sunk the ships and that the Turks had fled before him. It was impossible for us to attempt the sea-crossing, so we sold the provisions that we had made ready for it, and returned to Qds with the Arabs from whom we had hired the camels. We sailed thence down the Nile (it was at the flood time) and after an eight days’ journey reached Cairo, where I ^ayed only one night, and immediately set out for Syria. This was in the middle of July, 1326. My route lay through Bilbays and as-Salihiya, after which we entered the sands and halted at a number of stations. At each of these there was a hostelry, which they call a khdn^^ where travellers alight with their bea^s. Each khan has a water wheel supplying a fountain and a shop at which the traveller buys what he requires for himself and his bea^. At the Nation of Qatya®° cu^oms-dues are colledled from the mer- chants, and their goods and baggage are thoroughly examined and searched. There are offices here, with officers, clerks, and notaries, and the daily revenue is a thousand gold dinars. No one is allowed to pass into Syria without a passport from Egypt, nor into Egypt without a passport from Syria, for the pro- teftion of the property of the subjefts and as a measure of precaution again^ spies from ‘Iraq. The responsi- bility of guarding this road has been entru^ed to the Badawin. At nightfall they smooth down the sand so that no track is left on it, then in the morning the governor comes and looks at the sand. If he finds any track on it he commands the Arabs to bring the 54 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA person who made it, and they set out in pursuit and never fail to catch him. He is then brought to the governor, who pui^ishes him as he sees fit. The governor at the time of my passage treated me as a.gue^l and showed me great kindness, and allowed all those who were with me to pass. From here we went on to Gaza, which is the fir^l city of Syria on the side next the Egyptian frontier. From Gaza I travelled to the city of Abraham [Hebron], the mosque of which is of elegant, but sub^antial, conRru<^ion, imposing and lofty, and built of squared Aoncs. At one angle of it there is a ilone, one of whose -faces measures twenty-seven spans. It is said that Solomon commanded the jinn^^ to build it. Inside it is the sacred cave containing the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, opposite which arc three graves, which are those of their wives. I queRioned the imdm, a man of great pietv and learn- ing, on the authenticity of these graves, and he replied: “ All the scholars whom I have met hold these graves to be the very graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. No one queilions this except introducers of false doflrines; it is a tradition which has passed from father to son for generations and admits of no doubt.” This mosque contains also the grave of Joseph, and somewhat to the ea^l of it lies the tomb of Lot,®^ which is surmounted by an elegant building. In the neighbourhood is Lot’s lake [the Dead Sea], which is brackish and is said to cover the site of the settlements of Lot’s people. On the way from Hebron to Jerusalem, I visited Bethlehem, the birth- place of Jesus. The site is covered by a large build- ing; the Chri^lians regard it with intense veneration and hospitably entertain all who alight at it. We then reached Jerusalem (may God ennoble her 1), third in excellence after the two holy shrines of Mecca and Madina, and the place whence the SS SELECTIONS FROM THE Prophet was caught up into heaven.^® Its walls were deftroyed by the illu^rious King Saladin and his successors, for fear le^t the Chri^ians should seize it and fortify themselves in it. The sacred mosque is a mo^ beautiful building, and is said to be the larged mosque in the world. Its length from ea 4 l to welt is put at 752, “royal” cubits®^ and its breadth at 435. On three sides it has many entrances, but on the south side I know of one only, which is that by which the imam enters. The entire mosque is an open court and unroofed, except the mosque al-Aqsa, which has a roof of mo^t excellent workmanship, embellished with gold and brilliant colours. Some other parts of the mosque are roofed as well. The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape. It ^ands on an elevation in the centre of the mosque and is reached by a flight of marble ^eps. It has four doors. The space round it is also paved with marble, excellently done, and the interior likewise. Both outside and inside the decoration is so magnificent and the work- manship so surpassing as to defy description. The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its bril- liance, now glowing like a mass of light, now flashing like lightning. In the centre of the Dome is the blessed rock from which the Prophet ascended to heaven, a great rock projefting about a man’s height, and underneath it there is a cave the size of a small room, also of a man’s height, with ^eps leading down to it. Encircling the rock are two railings of excellent workmanship, the one nearer the rock being artistically con^ruded in iron,=® and the other of wood. Among the grace-be^oWing sanSfuaries of Jeru- salem is a building, situated on the farther side of the valley called the valley of Jahannam [Gehenna] to the ea^l of the town, on a high hill. This building is 56 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA said to mark the place whence Jesus ascended to hcaven.^^ In the bottom of the same valley is a church venerated by the Chriilians, who say that it contains the grave of Mary. In the same place there is another church which the Chriilians venerate and to which they come on pilgrimage. This is the church of which they are fusely persuaded to believe that it contains the grave of Jesus. All who come on pilgrimage to visit it pay a stipulated tax to the Muslims, and suffer very unwillingly various humilia- tions. Thereabouts also is the place of the cradle of Jesus, “ which is visited in order to obtain blessing. I journeyed thereafter from Jerusalem to the fortress of Askalon, which is a total ruin. Of the great mosque, known as the mosque of ‘Omar, nothing remains but its walls and some marble columns of matchless beautjr, partly landing and partly fallen. Amongst them is a wonderful red column, of which the people tell that the ChriAians carried it off to their country but afterwards loft it, when it was found in its place at Askalon. Thence I went on to the city of ar-Ram- lah, which is also called Filaftfn [Paleftine], in the qibla of those mosque they say three hundred of the prophets are buried. From ar-Ramlah I went to the town of Nibulus ([Shechemj, a city with an abundance of trees and perennial ftreams, and one of the richeft in Syria for olives, the oil of which is exported thence to Cairo and Damascus. It is at Nibulus that the carob-sweet is manufafturedand exported to Damascus and elsewhere. It is made in this way; the carobs are cooked and then pressed, the juice that runs out is gathered and the sweet is manufaftured from it. The juice itself too is exported to Cairo and Damascus. Nibulus has also a species of melon which is called by its name, a good and delicious fruit. Thence I went to Ajaliin®® making in the direftion of Lddhiqiya, and passing through the Ghawr, followed the coaft to 57 SELECTIONS FROM THE *Akka [Acre], which is in ruins. Acre was formerly the capital and port of the country of the Franks in Syria, and rivalled Con^antinople itself. I went on from here to Sur [Tyre], which is a ruin, though there is outside it an inhabited village, mo^f of whose population belong to the se6t called “ Refusers.” It is this city of Tyre which has become proverbial for impregnability, because the sea sur- rounds it on three sides and it has two gates, one on the landward side and one to the sea. That on the landward side is protected by four outer walls each with brea^works, while the sea gate Elands between two great towers. There is no more marvellous or more remarkable piece of masonry in the world than this, for the sea surrounds it on three sides and on the fourth there is a wall under which the ships pass and come to anchor. In former times an iron chain was stretched between the two towers to form a barrier, so that there was no way in or out until it was lowered. It was placed under the charge of guards and tru^- worthy agents, and none might enter or leave without their knowledge. Acre also had a harbour resembling it, but it admitted only small ships. From Tyre I went on to Sayda [Sidon], a pleasant town on the coaft, and rich in fruit; it exports figs, raisins, and olive oil to Cairo. Next I went on to the town of Tabariya [Tiberias].^® It was formerly a large and important city, of which nothing now remains but veftiges witnessing to its former greatness. It possesses wonderful baths with separate eftablishments for men and women, the water of which is very hot. At Tiberias is the famous lake [the Sea of Galilee], about eighteen miles long and more than nine in breadth. The town has a mosque > known as the “ Mosque of the Prophets,” containing the graves of Shu‘ayb [Jethro] and his daughter, the wife of Moses, as well as those of Solomon, Judah, 58 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA and Reuben. From Tiberias we went to visit the well into which Joseph was a large and deep well, in the courtyard of a small mosque, and drank some water from it. It was rain water, but the guardian told us that there is a spring in it as well. We went on from there to Baynit, a small town with fine markets and a beautiful mosque. Fruit and iron are exported from it to Egypt. We set out from here to visit the tomb of Abu Ya'qdb Yiisuf, who, they say, was a king in North- weA Africa. The tomb is at a place called Karak Nuh,'^’ and beside it is a religious house at which all travellers arc entertained. Some say that it was the Sultan Saladin who endowed it, others that it was the Sultan Ndr ad-Din. The Aory goes that Abu Ya‘qiib, after laying some time at Damascus with the Sultan, who had been warned in a dream that Abii Ya'qdb would bring him some advantage, left the town in solitary Bight during a season of great coldness, and came to a village in its neighbourhood. In this village there was a man of humble Elation who invited him to ilay in his house, and on his consenting, made him soup and killed a chicken and brought it to him with barley bread. After his meal Ab\i Ya'qiib prayed for a blessing on his ho51. Now this man had several children, one of them being a girl who was shortly to be conduced to her husband. It is a custom in that country that a girl's father gives her an outfit, the greater part of which consists in copper utensils. These are regarded by them with great pride and are made the subject of special stipulations in the marriage contraft. Abd Ya’qiib therefore said to the man, “ Have you any copper utensils ?” “Yes ” he replied, “ I have juft bought some for my daughter’s outfit.” Abii Ya‘qdb told him to bring them and when he had brought them said “Now borrow all that you can from your neighbours.” So he did so and laid them 59 SELECTIONS FROM THE all before him. He then lit fires round them, and taking out a purse which he had containing an elixir, threw some of it over the brass, and the whole array was changed into gold. Leaving these in a locked chamber, Abd Ya'qiib wrote to Nur ad-Din at Damascus, telling him about them, and exhorting him to build and endow a hospital for sick strangers and to con^ruft religious houses on the highways. He bade him also satisfy the owners of the copper vessels and provide for the maintenance of the owner of the house. The latter took the letter to the king, who came to the village and removed the gold, after satis- fying the owners of the vessels and the man himself. He searched for Abii Ya‘qtib, but failing to find any trace or news of him, returned to Damascus, where he built the hospital which is known by his name and is the fine^ in the world. I came next to the city of Atrabulus [Tripoli], one of the principal towns in Syria. It lies two miles inland, and has only recently been built. The old town was right on the shore; the Chri^ians held it for a time, and when it was recovered by Sultan Baybars^ it was pulled down and this new town built. There are some fine bath-houses in it, one of which is called after Sindamiir, who was a former governor of the city. Many stories are told of his severity to evil- doers. Here is one of them. A woman complained to him that one of the mamlfiks of his personal ^aff had seized some milk that she was selling and had drunk it. She had no evidence, but Sindamfir sent for the inan. He was cut in two, and the milk came out of his entrails. Similar Tories are told of al- Atris at the time when he was governor, of Aydhab under Sultan Qala’fin, and of Kebek, the Sultan of Turkestan From Tripoli I went by way of Hisn al-Akrad [^Krak des Chevaliers^ now Qal'at al-Hisnl and Hims 6o TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA to Hamdh, another of the metropolitan cities of Syria. It is surrounded by orchards and gardens, in the middt of which there are waterwheels like revolving globes. Thence to Ma'arra, which lies in a di^lrift inhabited by some sort of ShiMtes, abominable people who hate the Ten Companions and every person whose name is ‘Ornar.*^ We went on from there to Sarmfn, where brick soap is manufafhired and ex* ported to Cairo and Damascus. Besides this they manufafhire perfumed soap, for washing hands, and colour it red and yellow. These people too arc rc- vilers, who hate the Ten, and — an extraordinary thing — never mention the word ten. When their brokers are selling by auflion in the markets and come to ten, they say “ nine and one.” One day a Turk happened to be there, and hearing a broker call “ nine and one,” he laid his club about his head saying ” Say ‘ ten,’ ” whereupon quoth he “Ten with the club.” We journeyed thence to Halab [Aleppo],^ which is the seat of the Malik al^Umardy who is the principal commander under the sultan of Egypt. He is a jurist and has a reputation for fair-dealing, but he is ftingy. I went on from there to Antdkiya [Antioch], by way of Tizfn, a new town founded by the Turkmens.^ Antioch was protcflcd formerly by a wall of unrivalled solidity among the cities of Syria, but al-Malik az- Zdhir [Baybars] pulled it down when he captured the town.^’ It is very densely populated and possesses beautiful buildings, with abundant trees and water. Thence I visited the fortress of Baghrds,^ at the en- trance to the land of Sfs [Little Armenia], that is, the land of the Armenian infidels, and many other carries and fortresses, several of which belong to a se6t called Isma'ilites or Fiddwfs^ and may be entered by none but members of the sevcen Tabiik and al-‘Uld. The cuAom of the water-carriers is to camp beside the spring, and they have tanks made of buffalo hides, like great ci^erns, from which they water the camels and hll the waterskins. Each amir or person of rank has a special tank for the needs of his own camels and personnel; the other people make private agreements with the watercarriers to water their camels and HU their waterskins for a fixed sum of money. From Tabiik the caravan travels with great speed night and day, for fear of this desert. Halfway through is the valley of al-Ukhaydir, which might well be the valley of Hell (may God preserve us from it).“ One year the pilgrims suffered terribly here from the samoom-wind; the water-supplies dried up and the price of a single drink rose to a thousand dinars, but both seller and buyer perished. Their ^lory is written on a rock in the valley. Five days after leaving Tabdk they reach the well of al-Hijr, which has an abundance of water, but not a soul draws water there, however violent his thirst, following the example of the Prophet, who passed it on his expedition to Tabdk and drove on his camel, giving orders that none should drink of its waters. Here, in some hills of red rock, are the dwellings of Thamiid. They are cut in the rock and have carved thresholds. Anyone seeing them would take them to be of recent con^lruftion. Their decayed bones are to be seen 73 SELECTIONS FROM THE inside these houses.®^ Al-‘Ula, a large and pleasant village with palm-gardens and water-springs, lies half a day’s journey or less from al-Hijr.®® The pilgrims halt there four days to provision themselves and wash their clothes. They leave behind them here any surplus of provisions they may have, taking with them nothing but what is ^triftly necessary. The people of the village are very tru^worthy. The Chri^ian merchants of Syria may come as far as this and no further, and they trade in provisions and other goods with the pilgrims here. On the third day after leaving al-‘Ula the caravan halts in the outskirts of the holy city of Madina. That same evening we entered the holy sanftuary and reached the illu^rious mosque, halting in saluta- tion at the Gate of Peace; then we prayed in the illu^rious “ garden ” between the tomb of the Prophet and the noble pulpit, and reverently touched the fragment that remains of the palm-trunk again^ which the Prophet ilood when he preached. Having paid our meed of salutation to the lord of men from firil to la^, the intercessor for sinners, the Prophet of Mecca, Muhammad, as well as to his two companions who share his grave, Abd Bakr and ‘Omar, we returned to our camp, rejoicing at this great favour bestowed upon us, praising God for our having reached the former abodes and the magnificent sanftuaries of His holy Prophet, and praying Him to grant that this visit should not be our la^, and that we might be of those whose pilgrimage is accepted. On this journey our ^ay at Madina la^ed four days. We used to spend every night in the illuftrious mosque, where the people, after forming circles in the courtyard and lighting large numbers of candles, would pass the time either in reciting the Koran from volumes set on re^^s in front of them, or in intoning litanies, or in visiting the sandluaries of the holy tomb. 74 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA We then set out from Madfna towards Mecca, and halted near the mosque of Dhu’I-Hulayfa, five miles away. It was at this point that the Prophet assumed the pilgrim garb ana obligations, and here too I divefted myself of my tailored clothes, bathed, and putting on the pilgrim's garment I prayed and dedi- cated myself to the pilgrimage. Our fourth halt from here was at Badr, where God aided His Prophet and performed His promise.*® It is a village containing a series of palm-gardens and a bubbling spring with a ilream flowing from it. Our way lay thence through a frightful desert called the Vale of Bazwd for three days to the valley of Rdbigh, where the rainwater forms pools which lie ^agnant for a long time. From this point (which is juil before Juhfa) the pilgrims from Egypt and Northwe^ Africa put on the pilgrim garment. Three days after leaving Rdbigh we reached the pool of Khulays, which lies in a plain and has many palm-gardens. The Badawin of that neigh- bourhood hold a market there, to which they bring sheep, fruits, and condiments. Thence we travelled through ‘Usfdn to the Bottom of Marr,®^ a fertile valley with numerous palms and a spring supplying a ^ream from which the di^lrift is irrigated. From this valley fruit and vegetables are transported to Mecca. ^ We set out at night from this blessed valley, with hearts full of joy at reaching the goal of our hopes, and in the morning arrived at the City of Surety, Mecca (may God ennoble her 1), where we immediately entered the holy sandtuary and began the rites of pilgrimage.®* The inhabitants of Mecca are di^linguished by many excellent and noble aftivities and qualities, by their beneficence to the humble and weak, and by their kindness to strangers. When any of them makes a feaft, he begins by giving food to the religious devotees who are poor and without resources, inviting them 75 SELECTIONS FROM THE firft with kindness and delicacy. The majority ol these unfortunates are to be found by the public bake- houses, and when anyone has his bread baked and takes it away to his house, they follow him and he gives each one of them some share of it, sending away none disappointed. Even if he has but a single loaf, he gives away a third or a half of it, cheerfully and without any grudgingness. Another good habit of theirs is this. The orphan children sit in the bazaar, each with two baskets, one large and one small. When one of the townspeople comes to the bazaar and buys cereals, meat and vegetables, he hands them to one of these boys, who puts the cereals in one basket and the meat and vegetables in the other and takes them to the man’s house, so that his meal may be prepared. Meanwhile the man goes about his devotions and his business. There is no in^ance of any of the boys having ever abused their tru^ in this matter, and they are given a fixed fee of a few coppers. The Meccans are very elegant and clean in their dress, and mo^ of them wear white garments, which you always see fresh and snowy. They use a great deal of perfume and kohl and make free use of toothpicks of green arak-wood. The Meccan women are extraordinarily beautiful and very pious and modest. They too make great use of perfumes to such a degree that they will spend the night hungry in order to buy perfumes with the price of their food. They visit the mosque every Thursday night, wearing their fine^ apparel; and the whole sanftuary is saturated with the smell of their perfume. When one of these women goes away the odour of the perfume clings to the place after she has gone. Among the personages who were living in religious retirement at Mecca was a pious and ascetic doctor who had a long-handing friendship with my father, and used to hay with us when he came to our town of 76 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA Tangier. In the diydmc he taught at the Muzaf- fariya college, but at night he retired to his dwelling in the convent of RabC. This convent is one of the fineil in Mecca; it has in its precindls a well of sweet water which has no equal in Mecca, and its inhabitants are all men of great piety. It is highly venerated by the people of the Hijdz, who bring votive offerinfjs to it, and the people of Td’if supply it with fruit. 1 heir cudlom is that all those who possess a palm garden, or orchard of vines, peaches or figs, give the alms-tithe from its produce to this convent, and fetch it on their own camels. It is two days* journey from Td'if to Mecca. If any person fails to do this, his crop is diminished and dcarth-dlricken in the following year. One day the retainers of the governor of Mecca came to this convent, led in the governor’s horses, and watered them at the well mentioned above. After the horses had been taken back to their diables, they were seized with colic and threw themselves to the ground, beating it with their heads and legs. On he-aring of this the governor went in person to the gate of the convent and after apologizing to the poor recluses there, took one of them back with him. This man rubbed the beadls* bellies with his hand, when they expelled all the water that they had drunk, and were cured. After that the retainers never presented themselves at the convent except for good purposes. 77 CHAPTER II On the 17th of November I left Mecca with the commander of the ‘Iraq caravan, who hired for me at his own expense the half of a camel-litter as far as Baghdad, and took me under his protection. After the farewell ceremony of circumambulation [of the Ka‘ba] we moved out to the Bottom of Marr with an innumerable ho^ of pilgrims from ‘Iraq, Khurasan, Ears and other eastern lands, so many that the earth surged with them like the sea and their march resembled the movement of a high-piled cloud. Any person who left the caravan for a moment and had no mark to guide him to his place could not find it again because of the multitude of people. With this caravan there were many draught-camels for supplying the poorer pilgrims with water, and other camels to carry the provisions issued as alms and the medicines, potions, and sugar required for any who fell ill. When- ever the caravan halted food was cooked in great brass cauldrons, and from these the needs of the poorer pilgrims and those who had no provisions were supplied. A number of spare camels accompanied it to carry those who were unable to walk. All those measures were due to the benefaClions and generosity of the sultan [of ‘Iraq] Abfi Sa‘id. Besides this the caravan included busy bazaars and many commodities and all sorts of food and fruit. They used to march during the night and light torches in front of the files of camels and litters, so that you saw the country gleaming with light and the darkness turned into day. We returned through Khulays and Badr to Madina, and were privileged to visit once more the [tomb of 78 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA the] Prophet. We stayed in Madina for six days, and having provided ourselves there with water for a three-nights’ journey, set out and halted on the third night at Wddi’l-Anis, where we drew supplies of water from underground water-beds. They dig down into the ground for them and procure sweet running water. On leaving Wddi’l-Ards we entered the land of Najd, which is a level ilretch of country extending as far as eye can see, and we inhaled its fine scented air. After four marches we halted at a waterpoint called al- ‘Usayla, then resumed our march and halted at a waterpoint called an-Naqira, where there are the remains of watertanks like vadf reservoirs. Thence we journeyed to a waterpoint known as al-Qdrdra, which consi^s of tanks filled with rainwater. These are some of the tanks which were con^rufted by Zubayda, the daughter of Ja’far. Every tank, water- basin, and well on this road between Mecca and Baghdad is a noble monument to her memo^ — may God give her richeA reward ! This locality is in the centre of the di^lrift of Najd; it is spacious, with fine healthy air, excellent soil, and a temperate climate at all seasons of the year. We went on from aI-Q4nira and halted at al-Hdjir, where there are watertanks which often dry up, so that temporary wells muft be dug in order to procure water. We journeyed on and halted at Samira, which is a patch of low-lying country on a plain, where there is a kind of fortified enceinte which is inhabited. It has plenty of water in wells, but brackish. The Badawin of that diSlrift come there with sheep, melted butter, and milk, which they aell to the pilgrims for pieces of coarse cotton doth. That is the only thing they will take in exchange. We set out again and halted at the “Hill with the Hole.” This hill lies in a traft of desert land, and has at the top of it a hole through which the wind whiiUes. We went on from there to Wddi’l-Kunish, which has 79 SELECTIONS FROM THE no water, and after a night march came in the morning to the caftle of Fayd.^ Fayd is a large walled and fortified enceinte on a level plain, with a suburb inhabited by Arabs, who make a living by trading with the pilgrims. On their journey to Mecca the pilgrims leave a portion of their provisions here, and pick them up again on their return journey.^ Fayd lies halfway between Mecca and Bighddd and is twelve days’ journey from Kdfa, by an easy road furnished with supplies of water in tanks. The pilgrims are accustomed to enter this place armed and in warlike array, in order to frighten the Arabs who collect there and to cut short their greedy designs on the caravan. We met there the two amirs of the Arabs, Fayyadh and Hiyar, sons of the amir Muhannd b. ‘Isa, accompanied by an innumerable troop of Arab horsemen and foot-soldiers. They showed great zeal for the safety of the pilgrims and their encampments. The Arabs brought camels and sheep, and the pilgrims bought from them what they could. We resumed our journey through al-Ajfur, Zanid, and other halting-places to the defile known as “ Devil’s Pass.” We encamped below it [for the night] and traversed it the next day. This is the only rough and difficult dlretch on the whole road, and even it is neither difficult nor long. Our next halt was at a place called Wdqisa, where there is a large cadlle and watertanks. It is inhabited by Arabs, and is the la^t watering point on this road; from there on to Kdfa there is no other watering place of any note except breams deriving from the Euphrates. Many of the people of Kdfa come out to Wdqisa to meet the pilgrims, bringing flour, bread, dates and fruit, and everybody exchanges greetings with- everybody else. Our next halts were at a place called Lawza, where there is y large tank of water; then a place called al-Masajid [The Mosques], where there are three 8o TRAVELS OF IBN BATTCTA tanks; and after that at a place called Mandrat al- qurdn [The Minaret of the Horns], which is a tower landing in a desert locality, conspicuous for its height, and decorated at the top with horns of gazelles, but there arc no dwellings near it. We halted again in a fertile valley called al-‘Udhayb, and afterwards at al-Qddisiya, where the famous battle was fought againdl the Persians, in which God manifcdlcd the triumph of the Religion of Islam. There arc palm- gardens and a watercourse from the Euphrates there,® We went on from there and alighted in the town of Mash-had ‘All at Najaf. It is a fine town, situated in a wide rocky plain— one of the fincdl, mo^t populous, and mo£l substantially built cities in ‘Irdq. It has beautiful clean bazaars. We entered by the [outer] Bdb al-Hadra, and found ourselves HrSf in the market of the greengrocers, cooks, and butchers, then in the fruit market, then the tailors* bazaar and the Qayiariya^ then the perfumers* bazaar, after which wc came to the pnner] Bdb al-Hadra, where there is the tomb, which they s:^ is the tomb of ‘AH.^ One goes through the Bdb al-Hadra into a vaSt hospice, by which one gains access to the gateway of the shrine, where there are chamberlains, keepers of regi^ers and eunuchs. As a visitor to the tomb approaches, one or all of them rise to meet him according to his rank, and they halt with him at the threshold. They then ask permission for him to enter saying “ By your leave, O Commander of the Faithful, this feeble creature asks permission to enter the sublime reeling-place,” and command him to kiss the threshold, which is of silver, as also are the lintels. After this he enters the shrine, the floor of which is covered with carpets of silk and other materials. Inside it are candelabra of gold and silver, large and small. In the centre is a square platform about a man*s height, covered with wood completely hidden under arti^ically carved plaques of gold fa^ened with 8i o SELECTIONS FROM THE silver nails. On this are three tombs, which they declare are the graves of Adam, Noah, and ‘All. Between the tombs are dishes of silver and gold, con- taining rose-water, musk, and other perfumes; the visitor dips his hand in these and anoints his face with the perfume for a blessing. The shrine has another doorway, also with a silver threshold and hangings, of coloured silk, which opens into a mosque. The inhabitants of the town are all Shi'ites, and at this mausoleum many miracles are performed, which they regard as substantiating its claim to be the tomb of ‘All. One of these miracles is that on the eve of the 27th Rajab® cripples from the two ‘Iraqs, Khurasan, Persia and Anatolia, numbering about thirty or forty in all, are brought here and placed on the holy tomb. Those present await their arising and pass the time in prayer, or reciting litanies, or reading the Koran or contemplating the tomb. When the night is half or two-thirds over or so, they all rise completely cured, saying “There is no God but God; Muhammad is the Prophet of God and ‘All is the Friend of God.” This faft is widely known among them, and I heard of it from trustworthy authorities, but I was not adtually present on any such night. I saw however three cripples in the GueSts’ College and asked them about themselves, and they told me that they had' missed the night and were waiting for it in a future year. This town pays no taxes or dues and has no governor, but is under the sole control of the Naqib al-Ashraf [Keeper of the Register of the descendants of the Prophet]. Its people are traders of great enterprise, brave and generous and excellent company on a journey, but they are fanatical about ‘AH. If any of them suifers from illness in the head, hand, foot, or other part of the body, he makes a model of the member in gold or silver and brings it to the sanctuary. The treasury of the sanctuary is consider- TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA able and contains innumerable riches. The Naqlb al-Ashrdf holds a high position at the court. When he travels he has the same retinue and ^atus as the principal military officers, with banners and kettle- drums. Military music is played at his gate every evening and morning. Before the present holder of the office it was held jointly by a number of persons, who took turns of duty as governor. One of these personages was the Sharif Abii Ghurra. In his youth he was given over to devotions and ^udy, but after his appointment as Naqib al-Ashrdf he was overcome by the world, gave up his ascetic habits, and admini^ered his finances corruptly. The matter was brought before the sultan, and Abii Ghurra, on hearing of this, went to Khurdsdn and thence made for India. After crossing the Indus, he had his drums beaten and his trumpets blown, and thereby terrified the villagers, who, imagining that the Tatars had come to raid their country, fled to the city of Uja [Uch] and informed its governor of what they had heard. He rode out with his troops and prepared for battle, when the scouts whom he had sent out saw only about ten 'horsemen and a number of men on foot and merchants who had accompanied the Sharif, carrying banners and kettledrums. They asked them what they were doing and received the reply that the Sharif, the Naqib of *Iriq, had come on a mission to the king of India. The scouts returned with the news to the governor, who thought that the Sharif muft be a man of little sense to raise banners and beat drums outside his own country. The Sharif ftayed for some time at Uja, and every morning and evening he had the drums beaten at the door of his house, for that used to give him much gratification. It is said that when the drums were beaten before him in Trdq, as the drummer finished beating he would say to him “ One more roll, drummer,” until these words Stuck 83 SELECTIONS FROM THE to him as a nickname. The governor of Oja wrote to the king of India about the Sharif and his drum- beating, both on his journey and before his house morning and evening, as well as flying banners. Now the cuftom in India is that no person is entitled to use banners and drums except by special privilege from the king, and even then only while travelling. At re^ no drums are beaten except before the king’s house alone. In Egypt, Syria and ‘Iraq, on the other hand, drums are beaten before the houses of the mili- tary governors. The king was therefore displeased and annoyed at the Sharif’s aftion. Now it happened that as the Sharif approached the capital, with his drums beating as usual, suddenly he met the sultan, with his cortege on his way to meet the amir of Sind. The Sharif went forward to the sultan to greet him, and the sultan, after asking how he was and why he had come and hearing his answers, went on to meet the amir, and returned to the capital, without paying the slightest attention to the Sharif or giving orders for his lodging or anything else. He was then on the point of setting out for Dawlat Abad, and before going he sent the Sharif 500 dinars (which equal 125 of our Moroccan dinars) and said to the mes- senger : “ Tell him that if he wants to go back to his country, this is his travelling provision, and if he wants to come with us it is for his expenses on the journey, but if he prefers to ^ay in the capital it is for his expenses until we return.” The Sharif was vexed at this for he was desirous that the sultan should make as rich presents to him as he usually did to his equals. He chose to travel with the sultan and attached himself to the wazir, who came to regard him with affeftion, and so used his influence with the king that he formed a high opinion of him, and assigned him two villages in the di^ria of Dawlat Abad, with the order to reside in them. For eight years the Sharif SKETQl MAP OI PERSIA TO ILLUSERATI IHN lUTlOMS IKAM.LS TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA ilaycd there, colle^ing the revenue of these two villages, and amassed considerable wealth. There- upon he wanted to leave the country but could not, since those who are in the king’s service are not allowed to leave without his permission, and he is much attached to strangers and rarely gives any of them leave. The SharTf tried to escape by the coaft road, but was turned back; then he went to the capital and by the wazfr’s good offices received the sultan’s per- mission to leave India, together with a gift of 10,000 Indian dinars. The money was given him in a sack, and he used to sleep on it, out of his love of money, and fear leit some of it should get to any of his com- panions. As a result of sleeping on it he developed a pain in his side as he was juA about to ^art on his journey, and eventually he died twenty days after receiving the sack. He bequeathed the money to the Sharif Hasan al-Jaidnf, who diAributed the whole amount in alms to the Shl’ites living in Delhi. The Indians do not sequeArate inheritances for the treasury, and do not interfere with the property of Arangers nor even make enquiries about it, however much it may be. In the same way, the negroes never interfere with the property of a white man, but it is left in charge of the principal members of his company until the rightful heir comes to claim it. After our visit to the tomb of the Caliph *AH, the caravan went on to Baghddd, but I set out for Basra, in the company of a large troop of the Arab inhabitants of that count^. They are exceedingly brave and it is impossible to travel in those regions except in their company. Our way lay along the Euphrates by the place called al-‘Idhdr, which is a waterlogged jungle of reeds, inhabited by Arabs noted for their predatory habits. They are brigands and profess adhesion to the Shi‘ite seA. They attacked a party of darwlshes behind us and Aripped them of everything down to SELECTIONS FROM THE their shoes and wooden bowls. They have fortified positions in this jungle and defend themselves in these again^ all attacks. Three days’ march through this di^triiS: brought us to the town of 'Wasit. Its inhabitants are among the be^ people in ‘Iraq — indeed, the very be^ of them without qualification. All the ‘Iraqis who wish to learn how to recite the Koran come here, and our caravan contained a number of ^udents who had come for that purpose. As the caravan ^ayed here three days, I had an opportunity of visiting the grave of ar-Rifa‘i, which is at a village called Umm ‘Ubayda, one day’s journey from there. I reached the establishment at noon the next day and found it to be an enormous mona^ery, containing thousands of darwishes.® After the mid-afternoon prayer drums and kettledrums were beaten and the darwishes began to dance. After this they prayed the sunset prayer and brought in the meal, consi^ing of rice-bread, fish, milk and dates. After the night prayer they began to recite their litany. A number of loads of wood had been brought in and kindled into a flame, and they went into the fire dancing; some of them rolled in it and others ate it in their mouths until they had extinguished it entirely. This is the peculiar cu^om of the Ahmadf darwfshes. Some of them take large snakes and bite their heads with their teeth until they bite them clean through. After visiting ar-Rifa‘f’s tomb I returned to Wasit, and found that the caravan had already Parted, but overtook them on the way, and accompanied them to Basra. As we approached the city I had remarked at a di^ance of some two miles from it a lofty building resembling a fortress. I asked about it and was told that it was the mosque of ‘AH. Basra was in former times a city so va^ that this mosque ^ood in the centre of the town, whereas now it is two miles outside it. Two miles beyond it again is the old wall that 86 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA encirdcd'the town, so that It ^ands midway bct^vccn the old wall and the present city.^ Basra is one of the metropolitan cities of Triq, and no place on earth excels it m quantity of palm-groves. The current price of dates in its market is fourteen pounds to an 4r4ql dirham, which is one-third of a nuqra.* The qddi sent me a hamper of dates that a man could scarcely carry; I sold them and received nine dirhams, and three of those were taken by the porter for carrying the basket from the house to the market. The in- habitants of Basra possess many excellent qualities; they are affable to strangers and give them their due, so that no dlran^cr ever feels lonely amongdl them. They hold the hriday service in the mosque of *Alf mentioned above, but for the rcA of the week it is closed. I was present once at the Friday service in this mosque and when the preacher rose to deliver his discourse he committco many gross errors of grammar.^ In aAonishment at this I spoke of it to the qddf and this is what he said to me: In this town there is not a man left who knows anything of the science of grammar.” Here Is a lesson for those who will rcflcdl on it — Magnified be He who changes all things I This Basra, in whose people the mailcry of grammar reached its height, from whose soil sprang Its Crunk and its branches, among^ whose inhabitants is numbered the leader whose primacy is undisputed — the preacher in this town cannot deliver a discourse without breaking its rules 1 At Basra I embarked in a sumbuq-, that is a small boat, for Ubulla,'® which lies ten miles diflant. One travels between a constant succession of orchards and palm-groves both to right and left, with merchants sitting in the shade of the trees selling bread, fish, dates, milk and fruit. Ubulla was formerly a large town, frequented by merchants from India and Fdrs, but it fell into decay and is now a village. Here we 87 SELECTIONS FROM THE embarked after sunset on a small ship belonging to a man from Ubulla and in the morning rpched ‘Abbadan, a large village on a salt plain with no cultivation. I was told that there was at ‘Abbddan a devotee of great merit, who lived in complete soli- tude. He used to come down to the shore once a month and catch enough fish for his month’s pro- visions and then disappear again. I made it my business to seek him out, and found him praying in a ruined mosque. When he had finished praying he took my hand and said “ May God grant you your desire in this world and the next.” I have indeed — praise be to God — attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and I have attained therein what none other has attained to my knowledge. The world to come remains, but my hope is ^rong in the mercy and clemency of God. My companions afterwards went in search of this devotee, but they could get no news of him. That evening one of the darwishes belonging to the religious house at which we had put up met him, and he gave him a fresh fish saying Take this to the gue^ who came today.” So the darwish said to us as he came in “ Which of you saw the Shaykh today ?” I replied “ I saw him,” and he said “ He says to you ‘ This is your hospitality gift.’ ” I thanked God for that, then the darwish cooked the fish for us and we all ate of it. I have never ta^ed better fish. For a moment I entertained the idea of spending the re^l of my life in the service of this Shaykh, but my spirit, tenacious of its purpose, dissuaded me. We sailed thereafter for Majdl. I made it a habit on my journey never, so far as possible, to cover a second time any road that I had once travelled. I was aiming to reach Baghdad, and a man at Basra advised me to travel to the country of the Lfirs, thence to Iraq al- Ajam and thence to ‘Irdq al-‘Arab, and I 88 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA followed his counsel. Four days later we reached a small place on the Persian Gulf, and thence I hired a mount from some grain-merchants. After travelling for three nights across open country inhabited by nomadic Kurds we reached Rimiz [Rdm-hurmuzJ, a fine city with fruit trees and rivers, where I dlayed only one night before continuing our journey for three nights more across a plain inhabited by Kurds. At the end of each dtage there was a hospice, at which every traveller was supplied with bread, meat, and sweetmeats. Thereafter I came to the city of Tudtar [Shushtar] which is situated at the edge of the plain and the beginning of the mountains. I dlayed there sixteen days at the madrasa of the Shaykh Sharaf ad-Din Miisd, one of the handsome^ and modi upright of men. He preaches every Friday after the midday service, and when I heard him, all the preachers whom I had heard previously in the Hijiz, Syria and Egypt sank in my eslimation, nor have I ever met his equal. One day I was present with him at a gathering of notables, theologians and darwlshes in an orchard on the river-bank. After he had served them all with food, he delivered a discourse with solemnity and dignity. When he finished, bits of paper were thrown to him from all sides, for it is a cudlom of the Persians to jot down questions on scraps of paper and throw them to the preacher, who answers them. The shaykh collefted them all and began to answer them one after the other in the modi remarkable and elegant manner. From Tudlar we travelled three nights through lofty mountains, halting at a hospice at each dlation, and came to the town or Idhaj, also called Mdl al-Ami'r, the capital of the sultan Atibeg (which is a title common to all the rulers of that country}.^ I wished to see the sultan, but that was not easiW come by, as he goes out only on Fridays because or his addition 89 SELECTIONS FROM THE to wine. Some days later the sultan sent me an invitation to visit him. I went with the messenger to the gate called the Cypress Grate, and we mounted a long staircase, finally reaching a room, which was unfurnished because they were in mourning for the sultan’s son. The sultan was sitting on a cushion, with two covered goblets in front of him, one of gold and the other of silver. A green rug was spread for me near him and I sat down on this. No one else was in the room but his chamberlain and one of his boon-companions. The sultan asked me about niyself and my country, the sultan of Egypt, and the Hijaz, and I answered all his questions. At this juncture a noted do£lor of the law came in, and as the sultan ilarted praising him I began to see that he was intoxicated. Afterwards he said to me in Arabic, which he spoke well, “ Speak.” I said to him “ If you will li^en to me, I say to you ‘ You are a son of a sultan noted for piety and uprightness, and there is nothing to be brought again^ you as a ruler but this,’ ” and I pointed to the goblets. He was over- come with confusion at what I said, and sat silent. I wished to go, but he bade me sit down and said to me, “To meet with men like you is a mercy.” Then I saw him reeling and on the point of falling asleep, so I withdrew. I could not find my sandals, but the dodfor I have mentioned went up and found them in the room and brought them to me. His kindness ashamed me and I made my excuses, but thereupon he kissed my sandals and put them on his head saying “ God bless you. What you said to the sultan none could say but you. I hope this will make an impression on him.” A few days later I left Idhaj, and the sultan sent me a number of dinars [as a farewell gift] with a like sum for my companions. For ten days we continued to travel in the territories of this sultan amiddl high mountains, halting every night at a madrasa, where 90 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA each traveller was supplied with food for himself and forage for his beail. Some of the madrasas arc in desolate localities, but all their requirements are trans- ported to them. One-third of the revenues of the Aatc is devoted to the maintenance of these hospices and madrasas. We travelled on across a well-watered plain belonging to the province of the city of Isfahln, passing througn the towns of Ushturkin and Finiain. On reaching the latter place we found its inhabiunts outside the town escorting a funeral. They had torches lit behind and in front of the bier, and they followed it up with fifes and singers, singing all sorts of merry songs. We were amazed at their conduA. The next day our way lay through orchards and ftreams and fine villages, with very many pigeon towers, and in the afternoon we reached Isfahin or Ispahdn, in Trig al-‘Ajam. Isfahin is one of the largeil and faireit of cities, but the greater part of it is ndw in ruins, as a result of the feud between Sunnis and Shi'ites, which is ftill raging there. It is rich in fruits, among its produfU being apricots of un- equalled quality with sweet almonds in their kernels, quinces whose sweetness and size cannot be paralleled, splendid grapes, and wonderful melons. Its people are goodlooking, with clear while skins tingea with red, exceedingly brave, generous, and always trying to outdo one another in procuring luxurious viands. Many curious Tories are told of this laA trait in them. The members of each trade form corporations, as also do the leading men who arc not engaged in trade, and the young unmarried men; these corporations then engage in mutual rivalry, inviting one another to banquets, in the preparations for which they display all their resources. I was told that one corporation invited another and cooked its viands with lighted candles, then the guefls returned the invitation and cooked their viands with silk. 9« SELECTIONS FROM THE We then set out from Isfahan on purpose to visit the Shaykh Majd ad-Din at Shiraz, which is ten days’ journey from there. After six days’ travelling we reached Yazdikhwd^, outside of which there is a convent where travellers dlay. It has an iron gate and is extremely well fortified; inside it are shops at which the travellers can buy all that they need. Here they make the cheese called Yazdikhwadli, which is unequalled for goodness; each cheese weighs from two to four ounces. Thence we travelled across a dlretch of open country inhabited by Turks, and reached Shiraz, a densely populated town, well built and admirably planned. Each trade has its own bazaar. Its inhabitants are handsome and clean in their dress. In the whole Eadt there is no city that approaches Damascus in beauty of bazaars, orchards and rivers, and in the handsome figures of its inhabi- tants, but Shiraz. It is on a plain surrounded by orchards on all sides and intersefted by/ivers, one of which is the river known as Rukn Abad,^® whose water is sweet, very cold in summer and warm in winter. The people of Shiraz are pious and upright, especially the women, who have a Grange cu^om. Every Monday, Thursday, and Friday they meet in the principal mosque to li^en to the preacher, one or two thousand of them, carrying fans with which they fan themselves on account of the great heat. I have never seen in any land so great an assembly of women. On entering Shiraz I had but one desire, which was to seek out the illu^rious Shaykh Majd ad-Din Isma‘il, the marvel of the age. As I reached his dwelling he was going out to the afternoon prayer; I saluted him and he embraced me and took my hand until he came to his prayer mat, when he signed me to pray beside him. After this, the notables of the town came forward to salute him, as is their cu^om 92 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA morning and evening, then he asked me about my jotirney and the lands I had visited, and gave orders to lodge me in- his madrasa. The Shaykh Majd ad-Dln is held in the highest e^leem by the king of Trdq, for reasons which the following dlory wiU show. The pate] king of Trdq, Sultan Muhammad Khuddbanda,'* had as a companion, while he was yet an infidel, a Shi'ite theologian, and when the sultan embraced Isldm together with the Tatars, he showed the greatedl respeft for this man, who persuaded him to establish the Shi'ite faith throughout his dominions. At Baghddd, Shirdz, and Isfahdn the population pre- vented the execution of the order, whereupon the king ordered the qddls of these three towns to be brought. The firdl of them to be brought was the qddf Majd ad-Dfn of Shlrdz. The sultan was then at a place called Qardbdgh,“ which was his summer residence, and when the qddl arrived, he ordered him to be thrown to the do^s which he had there. These are enormous dogs with chains on their necks, trained to eat men. when anyone is brought to be delivered to the dogs, he is placed at liberty and without chains in a wide plain; the dogs are then loosed on him and he flees, but finds no refuge; they overtake him and tear him to pieces and eat his flesh. But when the dogs were loosed on the qadl Majd ad-Dln, they would not attack him but wagged their tails before him in the friendlie^l manner. The sultan, on hearing of this, showed the greater reverence and respeft to him, and _ renounced the doctrines of the Shi'ites. He made va^l presents to the qddl, including a hundred of the villages of Jamkdn, which is the be^l di^lrift m Shlrdz. I met the qddl again on my return from India in 1347. He was then too weak to walk, but he recognized me and rose to embrace me. I visited him one day and found the sultan of Shfrdz sitting in front of him, holding his own ear. This is the height 93 SELECTIONS FROM THE of good manners among^ them, and all the people do so when they sit in the presence of the king. The sultan of Shiraz at the time of my visit was Abii Ishdq,^® one of the be^ of sultans, handsome and well-condufted, of generous charadler, humble, but powerful and the 'ruler of a great kingdom. He has an army of more than fifty thousand men, Turks and Persians, but he does not tru^ the people of Shiraz. He will not take them into his service, and allows none of them to carry arms, because they are very brave and apt to rise againil their rulers. He made himself ma^er of Shiraz, as well as of Fdrs and Isfahan, after the death of Sultan Abii Sa‘id [in I335]> when every amir seized what he possessed. At one time Sultan Abii Ishaq desired to build a palace like the Aywan Kisra,^'^ and ordered the inhabitants of Shiraz to undertake the digging of its foundations. They set to work on this, each corporation of artisans rivalling the other, and carried their rivalry to such lengths that they made baskets of leather to carry the earth and covered them with embroidered silk. They did the same with the donkey panniers. Some of them made tools of silver, and lit numerous candles. When they went to dig they put on their be^l garments, with girdles of silk, and the sultan watched their work from a balcony. When the foundations were dug the inhabitants were freed from service, and paid artisans took their place. Several thousands of them were colledled for this work, and I heard from the governor of the town that the greater part of its taxes were spent on it. Abii Ishaq wished to be compared to the king of India for the magnificence of his gifts, but “ How distant are the Pleiads from the clod!” The largest gift of Abii Ishaq that I ever heard tell of was that he gave an ambassador from the king of Herat seventy thousand’ dinars, whereas the king of India never ceases to give many times 'more than that to an in- 94 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA numerable number of persons. One instance may be cited. The amir Bakht one day felt indisposed at the capital of the king of India, who went to visit him. As the king entered he wished to rise, but the king swore that he mu^ not come down from his bed. A divan was brought on which the sultan sat down. He then called for gold and a balance, and when these were brought he ordered the sick man to sit on one of the trays. The amir said, O mailer of the world, had I known that you would do this, I should have put on many clothes.” The sultan replied, “Put on now all the clothes that you have.” So he put on the clothes that he wore in the cold weather, which were padded with cotton-wool, and sat on one of the trays of the balance. The other was filled with gold until it tipped down, when the king said “ Take this, and give it in alms for your recovery,” and left him. Shlrdz contains many sanftuaries which are visited and venerated by its inhabitants. Among them is the tomb of the imdm ‘AbdalUh ibn Khafif, who is known there simply as “ The Shaykh.” He occupies a high place among the saints, and the following ilory is told of him. One day he went to the mountain of Sarandlb [Adam’s Peak] in the island of Ceylon accompanied by about thirty darwlshes. They were overcome by hunger on the way, in an uninhabited locality, and loft their bearings. They asked the shaykh to allow them to seize one of the small elephants, of which there arc a very large number in that place, and which are transported thence to the king of India. The shaykh forbade them, but their hunger got the better or them and they disobeyed him and, seizing a small elephant, killed and ate it. The shaykh however refused to eat it. That night, as they slept, the elephants gathered from all quarters and came 95 SELECTIONS FROM THE upon them, smelling each one of them and killing him until they had made an end of them all. They smelled the sh^kh too but offered no violence to him; one of them lifted him with its trunk, put him on its back, and brought him to the inhabited di^rift. When the people of that part saw him, they marvelled at him and came to out meet him and hear his ^oiy. As it came near them, the elephant lifted him with its trunk and placed him on the ground in full view of them. I visited this island of Ceylon. Its people ^ill live in idolatry [Buddhism], yet they show respefl for Muslim darwfshes, lodge them in their houses, and give them to eat, and they live in their houses amid^ their wives and children. This is contrary to the usage of the other Indian idolaters [Brahmans and Hindus], who never make friends with Muslims, and never give them to eat or to drink out of their vessels, although at the same time they neither aft nor speak offensively to them. We were compelled to have some flesh cooked for us by some of them, and they would bring it in their pots and sit at a diftance from us. They would also serve us with rice, which is their principal food, on banana leaves, and then go away, and what we left over was eaten by dogs and birds. If any small child, who had not reached the age of reason, ate any of it, they would beat him and make him eat cow dung, this being, as they say, the purifica- tion for that aft. Among the sanftuaries outside Shfraz is the grave of the pious shaykh known as as-Sa‘df,^® who was the greateft poet of his time in the Persian language, and sonietimes introduced Arabic verses into his com- positions. There is a fine hospice which he built in this place having a beautiful garden within it, close by the source of the great river known as Rukn Abad. The Shaykh [Sa‘df] had conftrufted some small cifterns 96 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA in marble (here to wash clothes In. The citizens of Shiriz go out to visit his tomb, and they cat from his table cat food prepared at the convent] and wash their dothes in the river. I did the same thing there •~may God have mercy upon him! I left Shirdz to visit the tomb of the pious shaykh Ab\^ Ishiq al>Kizardn( at Kizan^n, which lies two days* journey [wc^] from Shiriz. This shaykh is held in high honour by the inhabitants of India and China. Travellers on the Sea of China, when the wind turns againR them and they fear pirates, usually make vows to Abd Ishiq, each one setting down in writii^ what he has vowed. When they reach safety the omeers of the convent go on board the ship, receive the Ii£l, and take from each person the amount of his vow. There is not a ship coming from India or China but has thousands of dinars in it [vowed to the saint]. Any mendicant who comes to beg alms of the shaykn is given an order, sealed with the snaykh*s seal flampcd fn red wax, to this cfTe^l: ** Let any person who nas made a vow to the Shaykh Abd Ishici give thereof to so>and>so so much,’* specifying a inousand or a hundred, or more or less. When the mendicant finds anyone who has made a vow, he takes from him the sum named and writes a receipt for the amount on the back of the order. From Kdzan^n we went by way of Zayddn to Huwayza, and thence by a five days* march through waterless desert to Kdfa.'® Though it was once the abode of the Companions of the Prophet and of scholars and theologians, and the capital of 'All, the Commander of the Faithful, Kdfa has now fallen into ruins, as a result of the attacks which it has suifered from the nomad Arab brigands in the neighbourhood. The town is unwalled. Its principal mosque is a magni* ficent building with seven naves supported by great pillars of immense height, made or carved Aones 97 » SELECTIONS FROM THE placed one on top of the other, the inter^ices being filled with molten lead. We resumed our journey and halted for the night at Bi’r Mallaha [“ Salt Well ”], which is a pretty town lying among^ palm gardens. I encamped outside it, and would not enter the place, because the inhabitants are fanatical Shi'ites. Next morning we went on and alighted at the city of Hilla, which is a large town lying along the we^ern bank of the Euphrates, with fine markets where both natural produfts and manufadfured goods may be had. At this place there is a great bridge fa^ened upon a continuous row of boats from bank to bank, the boats being held in place both fore and aft by iron chains attached on either bank to a huge wooden beam made fa^l ashore. The inhabitants of Hilla are all Shi‘ites of the “ Twelvers ” seft, but they are divided into two factions, known as the “ Kurds ” and the “ Party of the Two Mosques,” between whom there is con^ant factional ^rife and fighting. Near the principal market in this town there is a mosque, the door of which is covered with a silk curtain. They call this the Sanctuary of the Ma^er of the Age.^ Every evening before sunset, a hundred of the towns- men, following their cu^om, go with arms and drawn swords to the governor of the city and receive from him a saddled and bridled horse or mule. With this they go in procession, with drums beating and trumpets and bugles blowing, fifty of them in front of it and fifty behind, while others walk to right and left, to the Sandluary of the Ma^er of the Age. They halt at the door and call out “ In the Name of God, O Master of the Age, in the Name of God, come forth! Corruption is abroad- and inju^ice is rife! This is the hour for thy advent, that by thee God may discover the true from the false.” They continue to call out thus, sounding their drums and bugles and trumpets, until the hour of sunset prayer, for they hold that 98 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA Muhammad, the son of aI«Hasan al- Askar/, entered this mosque and disappeared from sight in it, and that he will emerge from it, for he, in their view, is the “ Expefted Imim.” We travelled thence to the town of Karbald, the shrine of al-Husayn, the son of *AH.** The sur- roundings of the tomb and the ceremonies of visitation resemble those of the tomb of *AH at Najaf. In this town too the inhabitants form two fa^ions between whom there is conilant hghtlng, although they are all Shi'ites and descended from the same family, and as a result of their feuds the town is in ruins. Thence we travelled to Baghdid, the Abode of Peace and Capital of Islim.^ Here there are two bridges like that at Hllla, on which the people promenade night and day, both men and women, ^e town has eleven cathedral mosques, eight on the right bank and three on the left, together with very many other mosaucs and madrasas, only the latter are all in ruins. The baths at Baghdid are numerous and excellently conflru£lcd, moR of them being painted with pitch, which has the appearance of black marble. This pitch is brought from a spring between Kdfa and Basra, from which it flows continually. It gathers at the sides of the spring like clay and is shovelled up and brought to Baghdid. Each eilab- lishment has a large number of private bathrooms, every one of which has also a wash'^oasin in the corner, with two taps supplying hot and cold water. Every bather is given three towels, one to wear round his waiR when he goes in, another to wear round his walR when he comes out, and the third to dry himself with. In no town other than Baghdid have I seen all this elaborate arrangement, though some other towns approach it in this respeft." The weAern part of Baghdid was the earlicR to be built, but it is now for the moA part in ruins. In spite of that there remain in 99 SELECTIONS FROM THE it ^ill thirteen quarters, each like a city in itself and possessing two or three baths. The hospital (mari^tan) is a va^ ruined edifice, of which only ve^iges remain. The eaftern part has an abundance of bazaars, the larged of which is called the Tuesday bazaar. On this side there are no fruit trees, but all the fruit is brought from the weftern side, where there are orchards and gardens. My arrival at Baghddd coincided with a visit of the sultan of the two ‘Iraqs and of Khurasan, the illus- trious Abii Sa‘ld Bahadur Khdn,^"^ son of Sultan Muhammad Khudabanda whose conversion we re- lated above. He was an excellent and generous king. He was ^ill a boy when he succeeded his father, and the power was seized by the principal amir, Jiiban, who left him nothing of sovereignty but the name. This went on until one day his father's wives complained to him of the insolence of Jfibdn’s son Dimashq Khwaja, and the sultan had him arreted and put to death. Jiibdn was then in Khurdsdn with the army of the Tatars. They agreed to fight the sultan, and marched againdl him, but when the two forces met, the Tatars deserted to their sultan and Jiibdn was left without support. He fled to the desert of Siji^dn [Sidlan], and afterwards took refuge with the king of Herdt, who betrayed him a few days later, killed him and his youngedl son and sent their heads to the sultan. When Abid Sa‘fd had become sole master, he desired to marry Jfibdn's daughter, who was called Baghddd Khdtiin, and was one of the mo^ beautiful of women. She was married to Shaykh Hasan, the same who became mailer of the kingdom after the death of Abii Sa‘fd, and who was his cousin by his father’s si^er. Shaykh Hasan divorced her on Abu Sa id’s order, and she becanie his favourite wife. Among the Turks and the Tatars their wives hold a high position; when they issue an order they TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA say in it “ By order of the Sultan and the Khdtdns.” Each khdtun possesses several towns and didtrifts and vadl revenues, and when they travel with the sultan they have a separate camp. After this had gone on for some time the king married a woman called Dilshdd, of whom he was very fond.“ He neglected Baghddd Khdtdn, who became Jealous and poisoned him with a kerchief. On his death his line became extinff, and the amirs seized the provinces for them- selves. When they learned that it was Baghddd Khdtdn who had poisoned him, they decided to put her to death. A Greek slave, called Khwdja Lu’lu’, who was one of the principal amirs, came to her while she was in her bath and beat her to death with his club. Her body lay there for some days, covered only with a piece of sacking. I left Baghddd with the mahalla^ of Sultan Ab\i Sa*fd, on purpose to see the way in which the king’s marches are condu^led, and travelled with it for ten days, thereafter accompanying one of the amirs to the town of Tabriz.” Wc reached the town after ten days’ travelling, and encamped outside it in a place called ash-Shdm. Here there is a fine hospice, where travellers are supplied with food, consisting of bread, meat, rice cooked in butter, and sweetmeats. The next morning 1 entered the town and wc came to a great bazaar, called the Ghdzdn bazaar, one of the finedt bazaars I have seen the world over. Every trade is grouped separately in it. I passed through the jewellers’ bazaar, and my eyes were dazzled by the varieties of precious dlones that I beheld. They were displayed by beautiful slaves wearing rich gar- ments with a wai^l-sash of silk, who 5lood in front of the merchants, exhibiting the jewels to the wives of the Turks, while the women were buying them in large quantities and trying to outdo one another. As a result of all this I witnessed a riot — may God preserve SELECTIONS FROM THE us from such ! We went on into the ambergris and musk market, and witnessed another riot like it or worse. We spent only one night at Tabriz. Next day the amir received an order from the sultan to rejoin him, so I returned along with hiin, without having seen any of the learned men there. On reaching the camp the amir told the sultan about me and introduced me into his presence. The sultan asked me about my country, and gave me a robe and a horse. The amir told him that I was intending to go to the Hijdz, whereupon he gave orders for me to be supplied with provisions and to travel with the cortege of the com- mander of the pilgrim caravan, and wrote in^ruftions to that eifefl: to the governor of Baghdad. I returned therefore to Baghddd and received in full what the sultan had ordered. As more than two months remained before the period when the pilgrim caravan was to ser out, I thought it a good plan to make a journey to Mosul and Diyar Bakr to see those di^rifts, and then return to Baghdad when the Hijdz caravan was due to ^tart. Leaving Baghddd we reached a Elation on the Dujayl canal, which is derived from the Tigris and waters a large traft of villages, and two days later stopped at a large village called Harba. From there we travelled to a place on the Tigris near a fort called al-Ma‘shdq, opposite which on the eastern bank, is the town of Surra-man-ra’a or Sdmarrd. This town is a total ruin and only a very small part of it remains. It has an equable climate and is exceedingly beautiful in spite of its disasters and the ruins of its noble buildings.^^® One day further on we reached Takn't, a large ^ city with fine markets and many mosques, whose inhabitants are di^inguished by their good qualities. Two marches from there brought us to a village called al-‘Aqr, from which there is a con- TRAVELS OF I UN UATTOTA (muous ilrip of vtlUgci and cuUlvai:on {o Moiul. Wc came next to ^tne black land in whicli there are uclU of pitch, like the one already mentioned between Kiifa and Uaara, and two iU^c% on Uom these wcJIj wc reached al-Mawiil [Mosul]. Mosul ii an ancient and prosperou* city, whose fortress, known a» al-l fadbV [** 'I*hc I lumpback **], i» famous for its strength. Next to it are the au!tan*3 palaces. These arc Separated from the town by a long and broad Arcct, running from the top to the Ijottom of the town. Round the town run two strong walla, with cIose*set towers. So thick is the w*ali that there arc ebambera inside it one next the other all the way round. I have neser seen city walla like it except at Delhi. OuLtidc (he town ia a large suburb, con- taining mo‘.r|[uca, baths, hoilclriea and markets. It hai a cathedral mosque on the bank of the 'Ilgfia, round which (here arc lattice windowa of iron, and adjoining it are platforms overlooking the river, exceedingly bcautiuil and well conRru^cd. In front of the mosque there ia a hospital, and (here are two other cathedral mosques inside the (own. The Qav'sariya of Mosul ia a fine building with iron gates.** From Mosul wc journeved to Jaalrat ibn *Omar, a large (own surrounded by the river, which ia the rciicn why it is called Jazfrah psland]. 'Hie greater part of it is in ruins, lu inhabitants are men of excellent charaflcr and very kind to Arangcra. The day that wc Aayed (here wc saw Mount /fidf, which is mentioned in (he Uook of God [the Koran] as that on which Noah's vessel came to rcA. Two Aages from Jazirat ibn *Omar wc reached the town of Nasfbfn, an ancient town of moderate size, for the moA part in ruins, lying In a wide and fcrtiic plain. In this town rose-water is manufaAurcd which is un- equalled for perfume and sweetness. Round it there runs like a bracelet a river which Hows from sources 103 SELECTIONS FROM THE in a mountain close by- One branch enters the town, flows amid^ its Greets and dwellings, cuts through the court of the principal mosque, and empties into two basins. The town has a hospital and two madrasas. Thereafter we travelled to the town of Sinjdr,^® which is built at the foot of a mountain. Its in- habitants are Kurds, and are brave and generous. We went on next to the town of Dara, a large, ancient and gli^ening town, with an imposing fortress,®^ but now in ruins and totally uninhabited. Outside it there is an inhabited village in which we topped. We journeyed on from there and reached the town of Maridin, a great city at the foot of a hill, one of the mo^ beautiful, striking and sub^antially built cities in the lands of Islam. Here they manufadlure the woollen fabrics known by its name. At Maridin there is a fortress of exceptional height, situated on the hilltop. The sultan of Maridin at the time of my ^ay was al-Malik as-Sdlih.®^ There is no one in ‘Iraq, Syria or Egypt who is more openhanded than he, and poets and darwishes come to visit him and receive munificent gifts. I then Parted to make my way back to Baghdad. On reaching Mosul I found its pilgrim caravan out- side the city setting out for Baghdad and joined them. When we arrived at Baghdad I found the pilgrims preparing for the journey, so I went to visit the governor and asked him for the things which the sultan had ordered for me. He assigned me the half of a camel- litter and provisions and water for four persons, writing out an order to that effedl, then sent for the leader of the caravan and commended me to him. I had already made the acquaintance of the latter, but our friendship was ^rengthened and I remained under his protedfion and favoured by his bounty, for he gave me even more than had been ordered for me. As we left Kiifa .1 fell ill of a diarrhoea and had to be dis- 104 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA mounted from the camel many times a day. The commander of the caravan used to make enquiries for my condition and give inAruftions that I should be looked after. My illness continued until 1 reached Mecca, the Sanfluary of God (may He exalt her honour and greatness 1 ). I made the circuit of the Sacred Edifice [the Ka*aba] on arrival, but I was so weak that I had to carry out the prescribed cere- monies seated, and I made the circuit and the ritual visitation of Safi and Marwa riding on the amir’s horse." When we camped at Mind I began to feel relief and to recover from my malady. At the end of the Pilgrimage I remained at Mecca all that year, giving myself up entirely to pious exercises and leading a moll agreeable eridlence. After the next Pilgrimage [of 132^ I spent another year there, and yet another after that. CHAPTER III After the Pilgrimage at the close of the year 1330 I set out from Mecca, making for Yemen. I arrived at Judda [Jedda], an ancient town on the sea-coa^, which is said to have been built by the Persians. A Grange thing happened to- me here. A blind man, whom I did not know and who did not know me, called me by name, and taking my hand said “ Where is the ring ?” Now, as I left Mecca, a religious mendicant had met me and asked me for alms, and as I had nothing with me at the time, I had given him my ring. I told the blind man this, and he said “ Go back and look for it, for there are names written on it which contain a great secret.” I was greatly astonished at him and at his knowledge of this — God knows who he was. At the Friday service at Judda, the muezzin comes and counts the number of the inhabitants of the town present. If they amount to forty the preacher holds the Friday service, but if they are fewer he prays the midday prayer four times, taking no account of the Strangers present, however many they may be. We embarked here on a boat which they called a jalba. The Sharif Mansdr embarked on another and desired me to accompany him, but I refused. He had a number of camels in his jalba and that frightened me, as I had never travelled on sea before. For two days we sailed with a favouring wind, then it changed and drove us out of our course. The waves came overboard into our midSt and the passengers fell grievously sick. These terrors continued until we 106 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA emerged at a roadstead called Ra s DawA ir^ between Aydhdb and SawAkin. Wc landed here and found on the shore a reed hut shaped like a mosque, inside which were oAlrich egg-shells filled with water. We drank from these and cooked food, A party of Bejds came to us, so we hired camels from them and travelled with them through a country in which there are many gazelles. The Bejds do not cat them so they are tame and do not run away from men. After two days’ travelling we reached the island of SawAkin fSuakinj. It is a large island lying about six miles off the coail, and has neither water nor cereal crops nor trees. Water is brought to it in boats, and it has large reser- voirs for colle&ng rainwater. The flesh of oAlriches, gazelles and wild asses is to be had in it, and it has many goats together with milk and butter, which is exported to Mecca. Their cereal is jurjur^ a kind of coarse grained millet, which is also exported to Mecca. The sultan of Sawikin when I was there was the Sharif Zayd, the son of the amir of Mecca. We took ship at SawAkin for Yemen. No sailing is done on this sea at night because of the number of rocks in it. At nightfall they land and embark again at sunrise. The captain of the ship Alands conAlantly at the prow to warn the Aleersman of rocks. Six days after leaving SawAkin we reached the town of Hali,^ a large and populous town inhabited by two Arab tribes. The sultan is a man of excellent charaAIer, a man of letters and a poet. I had accompanied him from Mecca to Judda, and when I reached his city he treated me generously and made me his guest for several days. I embarked in a ship of his and reached the township of Sarja, which is inhabited by Yemenite merchants.® They are generous and open-handed, supply food to travellers and assiAl pilgrims, trans- porting them in their ships and providing for them from their own funds. We Alayed at Sarja only one 107 SELECTIONS FROM THE night as their gue^s, then sailed on to the road^ead of al-Ahwab and thence went up to Zabid.^ Zabid is a hundred and twenty miles from San‘a, and is after San ‘a the larged and wealthier town in Yemen. It lies amid^ luxuriant gardens with many breams and fruits, such as bananas and the like. It is in the interior, not on the coa^, and is one of the capital cities of the country. The town is large and populous, with palm-groves, orchards, and running streams — in faft, the pleasanter and mor beautiful town in Yemen. Its inhabitants are charming in their manners, upright, and handsome, and the women especially are exceedingly beautiful. The people of this town hold the famous [junketings called] suhut an-nakhl in this wise. They go out to the palm- groves every Saturday during the season of the colour- ing and ripening of the dates.® Not a soul remains in the town, whether of the townsfolk or of the visitors. The musicians go out [to entertain them], and the shopkeepers go out selling fruits and sweetmeats. The women go in litters on camels. For all we have said of their exceeding beauty they are virtuous and possessed of excellent qualities. They show a pre- dileftion for foreigners, and do not refuse to marry them, as the women in our country do. When a woman’s husband wishes to travel she goes out with him and bids him farewell, and if they have a child, it is she who takes care of it and supplies its wants until the father returns. While he is absent she demands nothing from him for maintenance or clothes or anything else, and while he ^ays with her she is content with very little for upkeep and clothing. But the women never leave their own towns, and none of them would consent to do so, however much she were offered. We went on from there to the town of Ta‘izz, the capital of the king of Yemen, and one of the fine^ io8 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA and largcft towns in that country.” Its people arc overbearing* insolent* and rude* as is generally the ease in towns where kings reside. Ta'izz is made up of three quarters; the firil is the residence of the king and his court* the second* called ‘Udayna* is the military flation* and the third* called al-lvlahdlib*^ is inhabited by the commonalty, and contains the prin- cipal market. The sultan of Yemen is Niir ad-Dln ‘AH of the house of Rasdl. He uses an elaborate ceremonial in his audiences and progresses. The fourth day after our arrival was a Thursday* on whieh day the king holds a public audience. The qddl presented me to him and I saluted him. The way in which one salutes is to touch the ground with the index-finger* then lift it to the head and say “ May God prolong thy Majefly.” I did as the qddl had don^ and the king* having ordered me to sit in front of him* queAioned me about my country and the other lands and princes 1 had seen. The wazir was present* and the king ordered him to treat me honourably and arrange for my lodging.’ After flaying there for some days as his gueft* I set out for the town of San'd, which was the former capital* a populous town built of brick and plaSler* with a temperate climate and ^od water. A flrange thing about the rain in India* Yemen* and Abyssinia is that it falls only in the hot weather* and moflly every afternoon during that season* so travellers always make hafle about noon to avoid being caught by the rain* and the townsfolk retire indoors* for their rains are heavy downpours. The whole town of San'd is paved* so that when the rain falls it washes and cleans all the flreets. I travelled thence to ‘Aden* the port of Yemen* on the coafl of the ocean. It is surrounded by moun- tains and can be approached from one side only; it has no crops* trees* or water* but has reservoirs in which rainwater is collefted. The Arabs often cut off the 109 SELECTIONS FROM THE inhabitants from their supply of drinking-water until they buy them off with money and pieces of cloth. It is an exceedingly hot place. It is the port of the Indians, and to it come large vessels from Kinbdyat [Cambay], Kawlam [Quilon], Cdlicdt, and many other Malabar ports. There are Indian merchants living there, as well as Egyptian merchants. Its inhabitants are all either merchants, porters, or fishermen. Some of the merchants are immensely rich, so rich that sometimes a single merchant is sole owner of a large ship with all it contains, and this is a subjedf of o^enta- tion and rivalry among^ them. In spite of that they are pious, humble, upright, and generous in charadfer, treat strangers well, give liberally to devotees, and pay in full the tithes due to God. I took ship at ‘Aden, and after four days at sea reached Zayla‘ [Zeila], the town of the Berberah, who are a negro people. Their land is a desert extending for two months’ journey from Zayla‘ to Maqdashaw. Zayla‘ is a large city with a great bazaar, but it is the dirtiest, moil abominable, and moil ilinking town in the world. The reason for the ilench is the quantity of its fish and the blood of the camels that they slaughter in the ilreets. When we got there, we chose to spend the night at sea, in spite of its extreme roughness, rather than in the town, because of its filth. On leaving Zayla‘ we sailed for fifteen days and came to Maqdashaw [Mogdishu], which is an enormous town. Its inhabitants are merchants and have many camels, of which they slaughter hundreds eVery day [for food]. When a vessel reaches the port, it is met by sumbuqSy which are small boats, in each of which are a number of young men, each carrying a covered dish containing food. He presents this to ono of the merchants on the ship saying “ This is my gue^,” and all the others do the same. Each merchant on dis- embarking goes only to the house of the young man no TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA who is his hoft, except those who have made frequent journeys to the town and know its people well; these live where, they please. The hoft then sells his goods for him and buys for him, and if anyone buys anything from him at too low a price or sells to him in the absence of his ho^, the sale is regarded by them as invalid. This praftice is of great advantage to them. When these young men came on board our vessel, one of them approached me. My companions said “This man is not a merchant, but a theologian, “ whereupon the young man called out to his friends “ This IS the qddi's guest.” Amon^ them was one of the qddi’s men, who went to tdl him of this, so he came down to the beach with a number of dludents, and sent one of them to me. When I disembarked with my party, I saluted him and his party, and he said “ In the name of God, let us go and salute the Shaykh." Thereupon I said “ And who is this Shaykh ?” He answered “ The sultan,” for they call the sultan * the Shaykh.’ 1 said to him “ When I have settled down I shall go to him,” and he replied “ It is the cudlom that whenever a theologian, or sharlf, or man of religion comes here, he mudl see the sultan before taking his lodging.” So I went to him as they asked. The sultan, whose name is Abd Bakr, is of Berberah origin, and he talks in the Maqdishi language, though he knows Arabic. When we reached the palace and news of my arrival was sent in, a eunuch came out with a plate containing betel leaves and areca nuts. He gave me ten leaves and a few nuts, the same to the qddl, and the re^l to my companions and the qidl’s students, and then said “ Our mailer commands that he be lodged in the students’ house.” Later on the same eunuch brought food from the * Shaykh’s * palace. With him came one of the wazlrs, whose duty it was to look after the gueils, and who said “ Our mailer greets you and bids III SELECTIONS FROM THE you welcome.” We ^ayed there three days, food being brought to us three times a day, and on the fourth, a Friday, the qadi and one of the wazirs brought me a set of garments. We then went to the mosque and prayed behind the [sultan’s] screen.® When the ‘ Shaykh ’ came out I greeted him and he bade me welcome. He put on his sandals, ordering the qadi and myself to do the same, and set out for his palace on foot. All the other people walked barefooted. Over his head were carried four canopies of coloured silk, each surmounted by a golden bird. After the palace ceremonies were over, all those present saluted and retired. I embarked at Maqdashaw for the Sawahil country, with the objeft of visiting the town of Kulwa [Kilwa, Quiloa] in the land of the Zanj.® We came to Mam- basa [Mombasa], a large island two days’ journey by sea from the Sawahil country.^® It possesses no territory on the mainland. They have fruit trees on the island, but no cereals, which have to be brought to them from the Sawahil. Their food consifts chiefly of bananas and fish. The inhabitants are pious, honourable, and upright, and they have well-built wooden mosques. We ^ayed one night in this island, and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coa^. The majority of its inhabi- tants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo- marks on their faces. I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies a fortnight’s journey [south] from Kulwa, and that gold duft is brought to Sufala from Ydfi in the country of the Limis, which is a month’s journey diftant from it.^^ Kulwd is a very fine and sub^antially built town, and all its buildings are of wood. Its inhabitants are con^antly engaged in military expeditions, for their country is contiguous to the heathen Zanj. The sultan at the time of my visit was Abu’l-Muzaffar Hasan, who was noted for II2 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA his gifts and generosity. He used to devote the fifth part of the booty made on his expeditions to pious and charitable purposes, as is prescrioed in the Koran, “ and I have seen him give the clothes of? his back to a mendicant who asked him for them. When this liberal and virtuous sultan died, he was succeeded by his brother Diwdd, who was at the opposite pole from him in this respe^b. Whenever a petitioner came to him, he would say ** He who gave is dead, and left nothing behind him to be given.” Visitors would ^ay at his court for months on end, and finally he would make them some small gift, so that at laA pe(^le gave up going to his gate. From Kulwd we sailed to Dhafdri phofar], at the extremity of Yemen. Thoroughbred horses arc ex- ported from here to India, the passage taking a month with a favouring wind. Dhafdri is a monthl’s journey from 'Aden across the desert, and is situated in a desolate locality without villages or dependencies. Its market is one of the dirtied in the world and the moil pcAered by flies because of the quantity of fruit and fish sold there. Mofl of the fish arc of the kind called sardines, which arc extremely fat in that country, A curious fa^ is that these sardines arc the sole food of their beails and flocks, a thing which I have seen nowhere else. MoR of the sellers [in the market] are female slaves, who wear black garments. The inhabitants cultivate millet and irrigate it from very deep wells, the water from which is raised in a large bucket drawn up by a number of ropes attached to the wai^ls of slaves. Their principal food is rice, imported from India. Its population consiils of merchants who live entirely on trade. When a vessel arrives they take the ma^cr, captain and writer in procession to the sultan’s palace and entertain the entire ship’s company for three days in order to gain the goodwill of the shipma^ers. Another curious 1x3 I SELECTIONS FROM THE thing is that its people closely resemble the people of Northwe^ Africa in their cuiloms. In the neighbour- hood of the town there are orchards with many banana- trees. The bananas are of immense size; one which was weighed in my presence scaled twelve ounces and was pleasant to the ta^e and very sweet. They grow also betel-trees and coco-palms, which are found only in India and the town of Dhafari.^® Since we have mentioned these trees, we shall describe them and their properties here. Betel-trees are grown like vines on cane trellises or else trained up coco-palms. They have no fruit and are grown only for their leaves. The Indians have a high opinion of betel, and if a man visits a friend and the latter gives him five leaves of it, you would think he had given him the world, especially if he is a prince or notable. A gift of betel is a far greater honour than a gift of gold and silver. It is used in this way. Fir^ one takes areca-nuts, which are like nutmegs, crushes them into small bits and chews them. Then the betel leaves are taken, a little chalk is put on them, and they are chewed with the areca-nuts. They sweeten the breath and aid dige^ion, prevent the disagreeable effedls of drinking water on an empty ^omach, and ilimulate the faculties. The coco-palm is one of the ^range^ of trees, and looks exadlly like a date-palm. The nut resembles a man’s head, for it has marks like eyes and a mouth, and the contents, when it is green, are like the brain. It has fibre like hair, out of which they make ropes, which they use in^ead of nails to bind their ships together and also as cables. Among^ its properties are that it ^rengthens the body, fattens, and adds redness to the face. If it is cut open when it is green it gives a liquid deliciously sweet and fresh. After drinking this one takes a piece of the rind as a spoon and scoops out the pulp inside the nut. This taftes I14 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA like an egg that has been broiled but not quite cooked* and is nourishing. I lived on it for a year and a half when I was in the Maldivc islands. One of its pccu* liarities is that oil, milk and honey arc extra^cd from it. The honey is made in this fashion. They cut a Ralk on which the fruit grows, leaving two fingers* length, and on this they tic a small bowl, into which the sap drips. If this has been done in the morning, a servant climbs un again in the evening with two bowls, one filled witn water. He pours into the other the sap that has cohered, then washes the Aalk, cuts off a small piece, and tics on another bowl. The same thing is repeated next morning until a good deal of the sap has been collcAed, when it is cooked until it thicKcns. It then makes an excellent honey, and the merchants of India, Yemen, and China buy it and take it to their own countries, where they manufaflure sweetmeats from it. 'fhe milk is made by Aceping the contents of the nut in water, which takes on the colour and toAe of milk and is used along with food. To make the oil, the ripe nuts arc peeled and the contents dried in the sun, then cooked in cauldrons and the oil cxtraAcd. They use it for lighting and dip bread in it, and the women put it on their hair. We left Dhafiri for ‘Omin in a small ship belonging to a man from Masfra. On the second day of our journey we disembarked at the roadAcad of Hdsik,*^ which is inhabited by Arab fishermen. Here they have a great quantity of frankincense trees. They have thin leaves out of which drips, when they arc slashed, sap like milk. This turns into a gum, which is the frankincense. The people living in this port arc dependent on fishing for their food, and the fish they catch is the lukhaittf which is like a dogfish. They slice these fish up, dry them in the sun and use them for food, and build their houses with the fish bones, using camel skins for roofs. ”5 SELECTIONS FROM THE Six days later we reached the Island of Birds, which is uninhabited. We ca^ anchor and went on shore, and found it full of birds like blackbirds, only bigger. The sailors brought some of their eggs, cooked and ate them, then caught a number of the birds which they cooked without previously slitting their throats.^® My food during the voyage consi^ed of dried dates and fish, for they used to fish every morning and even- ing. The fish they caught were cut up into pieces and broiled, and every person on board received a portion, no preference being shown to anyone, not even to the ma^er. We celebrated the Pilgrimage Festival at sea, being ^ormtossed all that day from sunrise until sunrise the next day, and in danger of foundering. A ship in front of us was sunk, and only one man escaped by swimming after great efforts. We called next at the island of Masfra, a large island whose inhabitants live entirely on fish,^® but we did not land as the road^ead is at some di^ance from the shore. Besides I had taken a dislike to these people after seeing them eat birds without slitting their throats. We sailed for a day and a night from Masfra and, reached the road^ead of a large village called Sfir, from which we could see the town of Qalhat, situated on the slope of a hill apparently close at hand.’^'’^ As we had anchored ju^ after midday, I desired to walk to Qalhat and spend the night there, for I had taken a dislike to the company on the ship. On enquiry, I was told that I should get there in the mid-afternoon, so I hired one of the sailors as a guide. An Indian named Khidr, who had been one of my fellow-pas- sengers, came with me, and the re^ of my party were left on board with my goods to rejoin me the next day. I took with me some of my clothes, giving them to the guide to carry to spare myself fatigue and myself carried a lance. Now the guide wished TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA to ^teal the clothes, so he led us to an inlet of the sea and set about crossing it with the clothes. I said to him “ You cross over alone and leave the clothes; if we can cross we shall, and if not we shall look for a ford higher up.” He drew back then, and after- wards we saw some men swimming across, so we were convinced that he had wanted to drown us and get away with the clothes. Though I made a show of vivacity I was on my guard and kept brandishing the lance, so that the guide became frightened of me. We then came on a waterless plain and suffered greatly from thirst, but God sent us a horseman with a com- pany of men who gave us to drink, and wc went on, thinking that the town was close at hand, while aftually we were separated from it by nullahs in which we walked for miles. In the evening the guide wished to lead us towards the shore, where there is no road, for the coaA is rocky, hoping that we should get iiuck among the rocks and he would make away with the clothes, but 1 said that we should take no road but the one that we were on. When night fell, as I was afraid of being molested on the road and did not know exadlly how far we ^lill were from the town, I decided that we should go aside from the road and sleep. Although I was tired out I pretended to be full of vigour, and put the clothes under my garments and grasped my lance in my hand. My companion was worn out, and both he and the guide slept, but I flayed awake and every time the guide moved I spoke to him to show him that I was awake. In the morning I sent the guide to fetch us some water and my companion took the clothes. We had ^lill some ravines and nullahs to cross, but the guide brought us water and eventually wc reached Qdhdt in a ^ate of extreme fatigue. My feet were so swollen inside my shoes that the blood was almost Parting from under the nails. Then, as a final touch to our mis- 117 SELECTIONS FROM THE fortunes, the gatekeeper insisted on taking me to be interrogated by the governor of the town. The governor, however, was an excellent man and very kind, and he put me up. I stayed with him for six days, during which I was unable to walk because of the soreness of my feet. The town of Qalhat lies on the shore; it has fine bazaars and an exceedingly beautiful mosque, the wails of which are decorated with Qashani tilework, and which occupies a lofty situation overlooking the town and the harbour. I ate fish there of a sort which I have found in no other country. I preferred it to any kind of flesh and used to eat nothing else. They broil it on the leaves of trees and serve it with rice, which is brought to them by sea from India. The inhabitants are traders and live [entirely] on what comes to them from the Indian Ocean. Whenever a vessel arrives at their town, they show the greater joy. We then set out for the country of ‘Oman and arrived there after six days’ travelling.^® It is a fertile land, with breams, trees, orchards, palm gardens, and fruit trees of various kinds. Its capital, the town of Nazwa, lies at the foot of a mountain and has fine bazaars and splendid clean mosques. Its inhabitants make a habit of eating meals in the courts of the mosques, every person bringing what he has, and all sitting down to the meal together, and travellers join in with them. They are very warlike and brave, always fighting between themselves. The sultan of ‘Oman is an Arab of the tribe of Azd, and is called Abd Muham- mad, which is the title given to every sultan who governs ‘Oman.^® The towns on the coa^t are for the mo^ part under the government of Hormuz. I travelled next to the country of Hormuz. Hormuz is a town on the coa^, called also Mdghi^an, and in the sea facing it and nine miles from shore is New Hormuz, which is an island.^® The town on it is ii8 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA called Jarawn. It is a large and fine city, with busy markets, as it is the port nrom which the wares from India and Sind arc despatched to the 'Irdqs, Fdrs and Khurdsdn. The island is saline, and the inhabitants live on fish and dates exported to them from Basra. They say in their tongue KhurmJ wamdhl luti pddi~ ikdhi^ which means ** Dates and fish are a roval dish.” Water is a valuable commodity in this island. They have wells and artificial reservoirs to coIIefV rainwater at some diRance from the town. The inhabitants go there with waterskins, which they fill and carry on their backs to the shore, load them on boats and bring them to the town. A flrange thing I saw there was a fish's head at the gate of the cathedral mosque as large as a hillock and with eyes like doors, and you would see people entering byonc eye and coming out ^ the other. The sultan of Hormuz is Qutb ad-Dln Tahamtan, a moSi generous and humble ruler, who makes a habit of visiting every theologian or pious man or sharlf who comes to his town and of paying to each his due. We found him engaged in a war with his nephews, who were in revolt. We ^ayed there sixteen days, and when we wished to leave 1 said to one of my companions ” How can we go away without seeing this sultan ?” So we went to the house of the wazir, who took me by the hand and went with me to the palace. I saw there an old man wearing skimpy and dirty garments with a turban on his head and a kerchief as a girdle. The wazfr saluted him and I did the same, not knowing that he was the king, and then I began to converse with a person I knew who was ^landing beside him. When the wazfr enlightened me I was covered with confusion and made mv excuses. The king rose and went into the palace, followed by the generals and minivers and when 1 entered with the wazfr we found him sitting on his throne with the same shabby clothes on. He asked II9 SELECTIONS FROM THE me about myself and my journey and the kings I had seen, then, after food had been served, he rose and I said farewell to him and went away. We set out from Hormuz to visit a saintly man in the town of Khunjubal, and after crossing the ^rait, hired mounts from the Turkmens who live in that country. No travelling can be done there except in their company, because of their bravery and knowledge of the roads. In these parts there is a desert four days’ journey in extent, which is the haunt of Arab brigands, and in which the deadly samdm blows in June and July. All who are overtaken by it perish, and I was told that when a man has fallen a vidlim to this wind and his friends attempt to wash his body [for burial], all his limbs fall apart.^^ All along the road there are graves of persons who have succumbed there to this wind. We used to travel by night, and halt from sunrise until late afternoon in the shade of the trees. This desert was the scene of the exploits, of the famous brigand Jamal al-Ldk, who had under him a band of Arab and Persian horsemen. He used to build hospices and entertain travellers with the money that he gained by robbery, and it is said that he used to claim that he never employed violence except againdt those who did not pay the tithes on their property. No king could do anything against him, but afterwards he repented and gave, himself up to ascetic pra<51:ices, and his grave is now a place of pilgrimage. After traversing these deserts we reached Kawra^tan, a small town with running streams and orchards and extremely hot.^ From there we marched through another desert like the former for three days and reached the town of Lar,^® a large town with perennial breams and orchards and fine bazaars. We lodged in a convent inhabited by a group of darwishes who have the following cu^om. They assemble in the convent every afternoon and then go round the 120 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA houses in the town; at each house they arc given one or two loaves and from these they supply the needs of travellers. The householders arc used to this prafticc and make provision for the extra loaves, in order to assiA the darwfshcs in their di^ributlon of food. There is a Turkmen sultan in the town of Ldr, who sent us a hospitality gift,®^ but we did not visit or see him. We went on to the town of Khunjub41,“ the resi- dence of the Shaykh Abii Bulaf, whom we had come to visit. We lodged in his hermitage and he treated me. kindly and sent me food and fruit by one of his sons. From there we journeyed to the town of Qays, which is also called Slrdf." The people of Slrdf arc Persians of noble dlock, and amongdl them there is a tribe of Arabs, who dive for pearls. The pearl .fisheries are situated between Sfrdf and Bahrayn in a calm bay like a wide river. During the months of April and May a large number of boats come to this place with divers and merchants from Firs, Bahrayn and Qathlf. Before diving the diver puts on his face a sort of tortoiseshell mask and a tortoiseshell clip on his nose, then he- ties a rope round his waiit and dives. They differ in their endurance under water, some of them being able to Aay under for an hour or two hours or less.” When he reaches the bottom of the sea he finds the shells there ^uck in the sand between small Aones, and pulls then out by hand or cuts them loose with a knife which he has for the purpose, and puts them in a leather bag slung tound his neck. When his breath becomes rc^rifted he pulls the rope, and the man holding the rope on the shore feels the movement and pulls him up into the boat. The bag is taken from him and the shells arc opened. Inside them are found pieces of flesh which are cut out with a knife, and when they come into contact with the air solidify and turn into pearls. These are then collefted, X2X TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA large and small together; the sultan takes his fifth and the remainder are bought by the merchants who are there in the boats. Mo^ of them are the creditors of the divers, and they take the pearls in quittance of their debt or so much of it as is their due. From Siraf we travelled to the town of Bahrayn, a fine large town with orchards, trees and breams. Water is easy to get at there; all one has to do is to scoop the ground with one’s hands It is very hot and sandy, and the sand often encroaches on some of its settlements. From Bahrayn we went to the town of al-Quthayf [Qathif], a fine large town inhabited by Arab tribes who are out-and-out Shi'ites and openly proclaim it, fearing nobody. Next we journeyed to the town of Hajar, which is now called al-Hasa.^® It has become the subjeft of a proverb “ Carrying dates to Hajar,” because there are more palms there than in any other di^ri6f, and they even feed their bea^s with the dates. We travelled thence to the town of Yamama,®° in company with the governor of which I went on to Mecca to perform the pilgrimage. This was in the year 1332, the same year that al-Malik an-Nasir, the sultan of Egypt, made his la^t pilgrimage. He made munificent gifts to the inhabitants of the twin shrines [Mecca and Madina] and to the devotees living there, and on the same journey he put to death by poisoning the amir Ahmad, who, it is said, was his own son, and his principal amir Bektimur the cup- bearer, on being warned that they were' plotting to assassinate him and seize the throne. 122 CHAPTER IV After the pilgrimage I went to Judda, intending to take ship to Yemen and India, but that plan fell throuch and I could get no one to join me. I flayed at Judda about forty days. There was a ship there going to Qusayr [Kosair], and I went on board to see what £Iate it was in, but 1 was not satisfied. This was an aft of providence, for the ship sailed and foun- dered in the open sea, and very few escaped. After- wards I took ship for Aydhdb, but we were driven to a roadftcad called Ra^s Dawd’ir [p. 107J, from which we made our way with some Bcjds through the desert to Aydhdb. Thence we travelled to Ediu and down the Nile to Cairo, where 1 ftayed for a few days, then set out for Svria and passed for the second time through Gaza, Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramlah, Acre, Tripoli, and Jabala to Lddhiofya. At lidhiqfya we embarked on a large galley belong- ing to the Genoese, the maftcr of which was called Martalmfn, and set out for the country of the Turks known as Bildd ar-Rum [Anatolia], because it was in ancient times their land.' Later on it was conquered by the Muslims, but there are ftill large numbers of ChriAians there under the government of the Turkmen Muslims. We were ten nights at sea, and the Chris- tian treated us kindly and took no passage money from us. On the tenth day we reached ‘Aldyd, where the province begins. .This country is one of the beft in the world; in it God has united the good features dispersed throughout other lands. Its people are the moA comely of men, the clcaneA in their dress, the 123 SELECTIONS FROM THE mo^ exquisite in their food, and the kindlie^l folk in creation. Wherever we flopped in this land, whether at a hospice or a private house, our neighbours both men and women (these do not veil themselves) came to ask after us. When we left them they bade us farewell as though they were our relatives and our own folk, and you would see the women weeping. They bake bread only once a week, and the men used to bring us gifts of warm bread on the day it was baked, along with delicious viands, saying “ The women have sent this to you and beg your prayers.” All the inhabitants are orthodox Sunnis; there are no seftarians or heretics among^ them, but they eat hashish [Indian hemp], and think no harm of it. The city of ‘Alaya is a large town on the seacoa^.^ It is inhabited by Turkmens, and is visited by the merchants of Cairo, Alexandria, and Syria. The diftrift is well-wooded, and wood is exported from there to Alexandria and Damietta, whence it is carried to the other cities of Egypt. There is a magnificent and formidable citadel, built by Sultan ‘Ala ad-Dm, at the upper end of the town. The qadi of the town rode out with me to meet the king of ‘Alaya, who is Yfisuf Bek, son of Qaraman, bek meaning king in their language. He lives at a diftance of ten miles from the city. We found him sitting by himself on the top of a hillock by the shore, with the amirs and wazirs below him, and the troops on his right and left. He hp his hair dyed black. I saluted him and answered his que^ions regarding my visit to his town, and after my withdrawal he sent me a present of money. From ‘Alaya I went to Antaliya [Adalia], a mo^ beautiful city.® It covers an immense area, and though of valt bulk is one of the mo^ attractive towns to be seen anywhere, besides being exceedingly popu- lous and well laid out. Each seCtion of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Chri^ian merchants 124 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA live in a quarter of the town known as the Mfni [the Port], and are surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut upon them from without at night and during the Friday service/ The Greeks, who were its former inhabitants, live by themselves in another quarter, the Jews in another, and the king and his court and mamluks in another, each of these quarters being walled off likewise. The re^t of the Muslims live in the main city. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned there is another great wall. The town contains many orchards and produces fine fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot, called by them Qamar ad-D/n, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt, where it is regarded as a great luxury. We Aayed here at the college mosque of the town, the principal of which was Shaykh Shihdb ad-Dln al-Hamawl. Now in all the lands inhabited by the Turkmens in Anatolia, in every diftrift, town, and village, there are to be found members of the organi- zation known as the Akhlya or Young Brotherhood. Nowhere in the world will you find men so eager to welcome strangers, so prompt to serve food and to satisfy the wants of others, and so ready to suppress injuflice and to kill [tyrannical] agents of police and the miscreants who join with them. A Young Brother, or akhi in their language, is one who is chosen by all the members of his trade [guild], or by other young unmarried men, or those who live in ascetic retreat, to be their leader. This organization is known also as the Futuvoa^ or Order of Youth. The leader builds a'hospice and furnishes it with rugs, lamps, and other necessary appliances. The members of his community work during the day to gain their livelihood, and bring him what they have earned in the late afternoon. With this they buy fruit, food, and the other things which the hospice requires for IZ5 SELECTIONS FROM THE their use. If a traveller comes to the town that day they lodge him in their hospice; these provisions serve for his entertainment as their gue^l, and he ^ays with them until he goes away. If there are no travellers they themselves, assemble to partake of the food, and having eaten it they sing and dance. On the morrow they return to their occupations and bring their earn- ings to their leader in the late afternoon. The members are called jitydn (youths), and their leader, as we have said, is the akhi^ The day after our arrival at Antaliya one of these youths came to Shaykh Shihab ad-Din al-Hamawi and spoke to him in Turkish, which I did not under- hand at that time. He was wearing old clothes and had a felt bonnet on his head. The shaykh said to me “ Do you know what he is saying “ No ” said I “ I do not know.” He answered “ He is in- viting you and your company to eat a meal with him.” I was ahonished but I said “Very well,” and when the man had gone I said to the shaykh “ He is a poor man, and is not able to entertain us, and we do not like to be a burden pn him.” The shaykh burh out laughing and said “ He is one of the shaykhs of the Young Brotherhood. He is a cobbler, and a man of generous disposition. His companions, about two hundred men belonging to diiferent trades, have made him their leader and have built a hospice to entertain their gue^s. All that they earn by day 'they spend at night.” After I had prayed the sunset prayer the same man came back for us and took us to the hospice. We found [ourselves in] a fine building, carpeted with beautiful Turkish rugs and lit by a large number of chandeliers of ‘Iraqi glass. A number of young men ^ood in rows in the hall, wearing long mantles and boots, and each had a knife about two cubits long attached to a girdle around his waift. On their heads 126 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA were white woollen bonnets, and attached to the peak of these bonnets was a piece of Sluff a cubit long and two fingers in breadth. When they took their scats, every man removed his bonnet and set it down in front of him, and kept on his head another ornamental bonnet of silk or other material. In the centre of their hall was a sort of platform placed there for visitors. When we took our places, they served up a great banquet followed by fruits and sweetmeats, after which they began to sing and to dance. We were filled with admiration and were greatly ailonished at their openhandedness and generosity. We took leave of them at the close of the night and left them in their hospice. The sultan of Antdliya, Khidr Bek, son of Ydnus Bek, was ill when we reached the town, but we visited him on his sick*bcd. He spoke to us very kindly, and when we took leave of him, sent us a gift of money. We travelled on to the town of Burdiir [Buldur], a small place with many orchards and Yearns, and a Strong fortress on a hilltop. We put up as the gucAs of the preacher there. The brotherhood held a meeting and wished us to ilay with them, but he would not hear of it, so they prepared a banquet for us in a garden belonging to one of them and conducted us to the place. It was marvellous to see the joy and gladness with which they received us, though they were ignorant of our language and we of theirs, and there was no one to interpret between us. We flayed with them one day and then took our leave. From Burddr we went on to Sabarta [Isparta], and then to Akrfdfir [Egirdir], a great and populous town with fine bazaars. There is a lake with sweet water here on which boats go in two days to Aqshahr and Baqshshr and other towns and villages.® The sultan of Akrfdfir is one of the principal rulers in this country. 127 SELECTIONS FROM THE He is a man of upright conduft and attends the after- noon prayer at the cathedral mosque every day. While we were there his son died and after his burial the sultan and the indents went out to his grave for three days. I went out with them the second day and the sultan, seeing me walking, sent me a horse with his apologies. On reaching the madrasa I sent back the horse, but he returned it saying “ I gave it as a gift, not as a loan.” He sent me also a robe and some money. We left there for the town of Qul Hisar [“ Lake Fortress ”], a small town completely surrounded by reed-grown water.”^ The only way to it is by a sort of bridge between the rushes and the water, admitting'’ only one horseman at a time. The town, which is on a hill in the mid^fc of the lake, is impregnable. The sultan, who is the brother of the sultan of Akn'ddr, was absent when we arrived, but after we had ^ayed there some days he came back and treated us kindly, supplying us with horses and provisions. He sent some horsemen to escort us to the town of Ladhiq [Denizli], as the country was infe^ed by a troop of brigands called Jarmiyan [Kermian] who possess a town called Kdtahiya. Ladhiq is a mo^t important town, with seven cathedral mosques. In it are manufaflured matchless cotton fabrics with gold embroidered edges, which have a very long life on account of the excellence of the cotton and of the spinning. Mo^ of the workers are Greek women, for there are many Greeks here, who are subjedl: to the Muslims and pay a poll tax to the sultan. The di^inftive mark of the Greeks is their tall peaked hats, red or white; their women wear capacious turbans. As we entered the town we passed through a bazaar. Some men got down from their booths and took our horses’ bridles, then some others objected to their aftion and the altercation went on so long 128 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA that some of them drew knives. We of course did not know what they were saying and were afraid of them, thinking they were those brigands and that this was their town. At length God sent us a man who knew Arabic, and he explained that they were members of two branches of the “ Young Brother- hood,” each of whom wanted us to lodge with them. We were amazed at their generosity. It was decided finally that they should caA lots, and that we should lodge firit with the winner. This being done the prior of the hr^ hospice, Brother Sindn, conducted us to the bath and himself looked after me; afterwards they served up a great banouct with sweetmeats and many fruits. Some verses of the Koran were then read and after that they began to chant their litany and to dance. The next day wc had an audience of the sultan, who is one of the principal rulers in Anatolia, and on our return were met by Brother Tdmdn, the prior of the other hospice, who entertained us even better than their friends had done, and sprinkled us with rose water when wc came out of the bath. Wc flayed at Lddhiq for some time, in view of the dangers of the road; then, as a caravan was ready to set out, we travelled with them for a day and part of the next night and reached the caiUe of Tawas [Davas]. We spent the night outside it and next morning, on coming to the gate, we were interrogated from the top of the wall. The commander then came out with his troops, and after they had explored the neighbourhood for fear of the robbers, their animals were driven out. This is their constant praftice. From there we went on to Mughla and thence to Mflds, one of the finest and moft important towns in the country. We lodged in a convent of one of the Young Brotherhood, who outdid by far all that our previous hoils had done in the way of generosity, hospitality, taking us to the bath, and other praise- 129 ' K SELECTIONS FROM THE worthy a6Is. The sultan of IMilas is an excellent ruler, and keeps company with theologians. He gave us gifts and supplied us with horses and provisions. ^ After receiving the sultan’s gift we left for the city of Qiiniya [Konia]. It is a large town with fine buildings, and has many breams and fruit-gardens. The Greets are exceedingly broad, and the bazaars admirably planned, with each craft in a bazaar of its own. It is said that this city was built by Alexander. It is now in the territories of Sultan Badr ad-Din ibn Qaraman, whom we shall mention presently, but it has sometimes been captured by the king of ‘Iraq, as it lies close to his territories in this country. We ^ayed there at the hospice of the qadi, who is called Ibn Qalam Shah, and is a member of the Futuwa. His hospice is very large indeed, and he has a great many disciples. They trace their affiliation to the Futuwa back to the Caliph ‘All, and the di^in6tive garment of the order in their case is the trousers,® ju^ as the Sdfis wear the patched robe. This qadi showed us even greater consideration and hospitdity than our former benefaftors, and sent his son with us in his place to the bath. In this town is the mausoleum of the pious shaykh Jalal ad-Din [ar-Rdmi], known as Mawldnd [“ Our Ma^er ”]. He was held in high e^eem, and there is a brotherhood in Anatolia who claim spiritual affiliation with him and are called after him the Jaldliya? The ^ory goes that Jaldl ad-Din was in early life a theologian and a professor. One day a sweetmeat seller came into the college-mosque with a tray of sweetmeats on his head, and, having given him a piece went out again. The shaykh left his lesson to follow him and disappeared for some years. Then^ he came back, but with a disordered mind, speaking nothing but Persian verses which no one could underhand. His disciples followed him and 130 TRAVELS OF' IBN BATTUTA wrote down his produftions, which they coUefted into a book called The Mathnawi. This book is greatly revered by the people of this country; they meditate on it, teach it, and read it in their religious houses on Thursday nights. From Qiiniya we travelled to Ldranda [Karaman], the capital of the sultan of Qaramin. I met this sultan outside the town as he was coming back from hunting, and on my dismounting to him, he dismounted also. It is the custom of the kings of this country to dismount if a visitor dismounts to them. This action on his part pleases them and they show him greater honour; if on the other hand he greets them while on horseback they are displeased and the visitor forfeits their goodwill in consequence. This happened to me once with one of these kings. After I had greeted the sultan we rode back to the town together, and he showed me the greateft hospitality. We then entered the territories of the king of Trig, visiting Aqsara [AkseraiJ, where they make shcep^s wool carpets which are cavorted as far as India, China, and the lands of the Turks, and journeyed thence through Nakda [Nigda] to Qaysirlya, which is one of the largest towns in the country. In this town resides one of the Viceroy’s khdtdns, who is related to the king of Trdq, and like all the sultan’s relatives has the title of ^ghd^ which means Great. We visited her and she treated us courteously, ordering a meal to be served for us, and when we withdrew sent us a horse with saddle and bridle and a sum of money. At all these towns we lodged in a convent belonging to the Young Brotherhood. It is the cu^Iom in this country that in towns that are not the residence of a sultan one of the Young Brothers afts as governor, exercising the same authority and appearing m public with the same retinue as a king. We travelled on to Slwas, the largest town in the country and residence 131 SELECTIONS FROM THE of the king of ‘Irdq’s viceroy, ‘Ala ad-Din Artana. We were met near the town by a party belonging to the “ Young Brother ” Ahmad, and a litde later by a party of the “ Young Brother ” Chelebi, who invited us to ^ay with them, but we were already pledged to the former. Our ho^s showed the utmo^ joy on our arrival at their convent, and treated us with the mo^ perfeft hospitality. We visited the amir ‘Aid ad-Din Artana who, speaking in excellent Arabic, asked me about the countries I had visited and their sovereigns, and afterwards sent us gifts. When we left Siwas he wrote to his lieutenants in the towns to give us hospitality and to supply us with provisions. We journeyed thence to Amdsiya, a large and beautiful town with broad Greets, Kumish [Giimush Khanah], a populous town which is visited by merchants from ‘Irdq and Syria and has silver mines, Arzanjdn, where Armenians form the greater part of the population, and Arz ar-Riim. This is a va^l town but is mo^y in ruins as the result of a civil war between two Turk- men tribes. We lodged there at the convent of the “ Young Brother ” Tdmdn, who was said to be more than a hundred and thirty years old. I saw him going about on foot supported by a ^taff, with his facvdties unimpaired and assiduous in praying at the ^ated times. All these towns belong to the king of ‘Irdq. We went on to the town of Birgi^° where we had been told there was a di^inguished professor called Muhyi ad-Din. On reaching the madrasa we found him ju^ arriving, mounted on a lively mule and wearing ample garments with gold embroidery, with his slaves and servants on either side of him and preceded by the indents. He gave us a kindly welcome and invited me to visit him after the sunset prayer. I found him in a reception hall in his garden, which had a ^ream of water flowing through a white marble 132 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA basin with a rim of enamelled tiles. He was occupying a raised seat covered with embroidered cloths, having a number of his students and slaves ^landing on either side- of him, and when I saw him I took him for a king. He rose to greet me and made me sit next him on the dais, after which we were served with food and returned to the madrasa. The sultan of Birgi was then at his summer quarters on a mountain close by and on receiving news of me from the professor sent for me. When I arrived with the professor he sent his two sons to ask how we were, and sent me a tent of the kind they call Khargdh^ It consifts of wooden laths put together like a dome and covered with pieces of felt; the upper part is opened to admit the light and air and can be closed when required. Next day the sultan sent for us and asked me about the countries I had visited, then after food had been served we retired. This went on for several days, the sultan inviting us daily to join him at his meal, and one afternoon visiting us himself, on account of the respeff which the Turks show for theologians. At length we both became weary of laying on this mountain, so the professor sent a message to the sultan that I wished to continue my Journey, and received a reply that we should accompany the sultan to his palace in the city on the following day. Next day he sent an excellent horse and descended with us to the city. On reaching the palace we climbed a Jong flight of ^airs with him and came to a fine audience hall with a basin of water in the centre and a bronxe lion at each corner of it spouting water from its mouth. Round the hall were daises covered with carpets, on one of which was the sultan’s cushion. When we reached this place, the sultan removed his cushion and sat down beside us on the carpets. The Koran- readers, who always attend the sultan’s audiences, sat below the dais. After syrup and biscuits had been 133 SELECTIONS FROM THE served I spoke thanking the sultan warmly and praising the professor, which pleased the sultan a great deal. As we were sitting there, he said to me “ Have you ever seen a ^lone that has fallen from the sky I replied “ No, nor ever heard of one.” “ Well,” he said, “a ^tone fell from the sky outside this town,” and thereupon called for it to be brought. A great black ^one was brought, very hard and with a glitter in it, I reckon its weight was about a hundredweight. The sultan sent for ^one breakers, and four of them came and ^ruck it all together four times over with iron hammers, but made no impression on it. I was amazed, and he ordered it to be taken back to its place. We ^ayed altogether fourteen days with this sultan. Every night he sent us food, fruit, sweetmeats and candles, and gave me in addition a hundred pieces of gold, a thousand dirhems, a complete set of garments and a Greek slave called Michael, as well as sending a robe and a gift of money to each of my companions. All this we owed to the professor Muhyi ad-Di'n — may God reward him with good ! We went on through the town of Tira, which is in the territories of this sultan, to Aya Suliiq [Ephesus], a large and ancient town venerated by the Greeks. It possesses a large church built of finely hewn ftones each measuring ten or more cubits in length. The cathedral mosque, which was formerly a church greatly venerated by the Greeks, is one of the moft beautiful in the world. I bought a Greek slave girl here for forty dinars. Thence we went to Yazmir [Smyrna], a large town on the coa^, moflly in ruins. The governor ‘Omar, a son of the sultan of Aydin, came to the convent to visit me and sent me a large hospi- tality-gift. Afterwards he gave me a young Greek slave named Nicolas. He was a generous and pious prince^ and con^antly engaged in war with the Christians. He had galleys, with which he used to 134 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA make raids on the environs of Conilontinople the Great, taking prisoners and booty and after spending it ali in largesse he would make another raid. Eventu- ally the Greeks, under the pressure of his attacks, appealed to the Pope, who ordered the ChriAians of Genoa and France to make an attack on him. They did so, and the Pope sent an army from Rome, which captured the port and the city in a night atuck. The amir ‘Omar went down from the citadel and fought them, but he died a martyrs death together with a number of his troops. The ChriAians established themselves in the city, but could not capture the citadel on account of its Arcncth.’^ We travelled thence to Maghnisip [Magnesia, now Manisa] where we prayed the FcAival Prayer [of the Pilgrimage] in the company of Sultan Sardkhin. Here my slave, on taking my horses to water along with a slave belonging to one of my companions, attempted to escape. The sultan sent in pursuit of them, but as ever)*onc was occupied with the fcAival, they were not found. They made for a town on the coaA named Fdja belonging to the infidels, who send a gift to the sultan every year, in return for which he is content to leave them alone because of the Arength of their city. Next day at noon some Turks brought them back with the horses. The fugitives had passed them the evening before, and becoming suspicious, they had oucAioned them until they con- fessed their design or escaping. We went on next to Barghama which is in rums but has a Arong fortress on the summit of a hill. Here we hired a guide and travelled among high and rugged moun- tains to the town of Balfkasrl. The sultan, whose name is Dumdr Khdn, is a worthless person. It was his father who built this town, and during the son’s reign it attraAcd a vaA population of knaves, for Like king, like people.” I visited him and he >35 SELECTIONS FROM THE sent me a silk robe. In this town I bought a Greek slave girl called Marguerite. We journeyed next to Bursd [Brusa], a great city with fine bazaars and broad Greets, surrounded by orchards and running springs. Outside it are two thermal establishments, one for men and the other for women, to which patients come from the moSl distant parts. They lodge there for three days at a hospice which was built by one of the Turkmen kings. In this town I met the pious Shaykh ‘Abdullah the Egyptian, a traveller, who went all round the world, except that he never visited China, Ceylon, the WeSt, or Spain or the Negrolands, so that in visit- ing those countries I have surpassed him. The sultan of Bursa is Orkhan Bek, son of ‘Othman Chfik. He is the greatest of the Turkmen kings and the richeSl in wealth, lands, and military forces, and possesses nearly a hundred fortresses which he is continually visiting for inspeftion and putting to rights. He fights with the infidels and besieges them. It was his father who captured Bursa from the Greeks, and it is said that he besieged Yazni'k [Nicaea] for about twenty years, but died before it was taken. His son Orkhan besieged it twelve years before capturing it, and it was there that I saw him.^® Yaznik lies in a lake and can be reached only by one road like a bridge admitting only a single horseman at a time. It is in ruins and uninhabited except for a few men in the Sultan’s service. It is defended by four walls with a moat between each pair, and is entered over wooden drawbridges. Inside there are orchards and houses and fields, and drinking water is obtained from wells. I ^ayed in this town forty days owing to the illness of one of my horses, but growing impatient at the delay I left it and went on with three of my companions and a slave girl and two slave boys. W^e had no one with us who could speak Turkish well 136 TRAVELS OF IHN B ATT OTA enough to interpret for us, for the interpreter we had left us at YazniL After leaving this town we crossed a {»rcat river called Saoarf [Sangarius] by a ferp^. This consiAcd of four Learns bound together with ropes, on which the passengers arc placed, together with their saddles and baggage; it is pulled across bv men on the further bank, and the horses swim behind. The same night we reached Kdwiya [Gheiva] and lodged with one of the Brotherhood. As he neither unoerrtood Arabic nor we Turkish, he sent for a theologian, who spoke to us in Persian, and not understanding us when we spoke Arabic, excused himself to the brother saying hhdn *arabl kuhnd *arahl fluto mlddnamy which means “ These men speak ancient Arabic and I know only modern Arabic." He said this only to shield himself from disgrace, for they thought he knew Arabic, when in realiw he did not know it. But this turned out to be ot service to us, for the brother, thinking that things were really as he had said, showed us the greatedl consideration saying ** These men muil be honourably treated, since they speak the ancient Arabic tongue, which was the tongue of the Prophet and his Companions." I did not understand ju£t then what the theologian had said, but the sound of his words ftuck in my memory and when I learned the Persian language, I found out their meaning. We spent that night at the hospice, and the Brother sent a guide with us to Yanija [Tarakli], which is a fine large town. We Parted to look for the akhi's hospice, and found one of those crazy darwfshes, so I said to him “ Is this the akhfs hospice ?” He replied na'am [" Yes and I felt so pleased at having found someone who knew Arabic. But when I tciled him further the cat was out of the bag, for na^am was the only word of Arabic he knew. We put up at the hospice, and one of the Audents brought *37 SELECTIONS FROM THE food to us. The akhi himself was away, but we became very friendly with this ^udent. Though he knew no Arabic, he was very kind to us, and spoke to the governor of the town, who gave me one of his mounted men to take us to Kaynuk [Kevnik]. Kaynuk is a small town in the territiries of Sultan Orkhan Bek, inhabited by infidel [Christian] Greeks under Muslim protedllon. There is only one household of Muslims in the place, and that belongs to the governors of the Greeks, so we put up at the house of an old infidel woman. This was in the season of snow and rain. She treated us well,^"^ and we spent that night in her house. Now this town has no trees or vineyards; the only thing cultivated there is saffron, and the old woman brought us a great quantity of it, thinking that we were merchants and would buy it from her. When we mounted our horses in the morning, the horseman whom the member of the Brotherhood had sent with us from Kayndk came to us and provided us with another horseman to guide us to the town of Muturni. The road was obliterated by a heavy fall of snow the previous night, so our guide went on ahead of us and we followed his tracks. About mid- day we came to a village of Turkmens, who brought us food, of which we ate. The horsenjan spoke to them and one of them went on with us. He led us over difficult and mountainous country, and a river channel which we crossed more than thirty times. When we got clear of this the guide asked us for some money, but we said “ When we reach the town we shall give you plenty.” He was not satisfied or else did not understand, for he took a bow belonging to one of our party and went off a little way, then returned and gave the bow back. I then gave him a little money and he took it and decamped, leaving us with no idea which way to go and with no road visible to us. About sunset we came to a hill on 138 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA which we could make out the track by a quantity of Clones on it. I was afraid that both I and my com- panions might perish, as I expelled more snow to fall and the place was uninhabited; if we dismounted we were doomed and if we went on we did not know the road. I had a good horse however, so I said to myself “ If I reach safety perhaps I may contrive to save my companions,” and commending them to God, I set off. At length in the late evening I came to some houses and said “ O God, grant they may be inhabited.” I found that they were inhabited, and God of his goodness led me to a religious house belonging to some darwi'shes. When they heard me speaking at the door, one of them came out; he was a man whon; I knew, and I advised him to go out with the darwfshes to deliver my companions. They did so and set out with me, and so we all reached the convent In safety, praise be to God Moft High for our safety 1 Each darwfsh brought us what food he could and our digress was removed. We set out next morning and reached Muturnf [Mudurlu], where we fell in with a pilgrim who knew Arabic. We besought him to travel with us to Qa^lamiiniya, which is ten days’ journey from there; I gave him an Egyptian robe of mine and some money for current expenses, which he left with his family, and assigned him a mount, promising him a good reward. He turned out to be a wealthy man, but of base charafter. We used to give him money for our expenses, and he would take the bread that was left over and buy spices, herbs and salt with it, and appro- priate the money for these. I was told too that he used to ileal part of the money that we gave him for our expenses. We put up with him because of our difficulties in not knowing Turkish, but things went so far that we used to say to him in the evenings “ Well, Hajjf, how much have you ilolen today ?” 139 SELECTIONS FROM THE He would reply “ So much ” and we would laugh and make the be^ of it. We came next to the town of Biali, where we ^ayed at a convent of the Young Brotherhood. What an excellent body of men these are, how nobleminded, how unselfish and full of compassion for the Granger, how kindly and affec- tionate they are to him, how warm their welcome to him ! A Granger coming to them is made to feel as though he were meeting the deare^ of his own folk. Next morning we travelled on to Garadi Biilf, a large and fine town situated on a plain, with spacious Greets and bazaars, but one of the colde^ towns in the world. It is composed of several different quarters, each inhabited by different communities, none of which mixes with any of the others. . The sultan, who is one of the less important rulers in this country, is a fine-looking and upright man, but not liberal. He came to visit us at the religious house and ^ayed for an hour, asking me about my travels, and after- wards sent me a saddled horse and a robe. We went on through a small town named Burlii^ to Qa^amdniya, a very large and fine town, in which goods are plentiful, and prices cheaper than I have- ever seen elsewhere. We ^ayed in the convent of a very deaf shaykh and I saw an a^onishing thing in connexion with him. One of his students used to write with his finger in the air or on the ground and he would underhand and reply. Sometimes long Tories were told him in this way. We remained here about forty days. The sultan of Qa^Iamfiniya is the illu^rious Sulayman Padshah, a man over seventy years of age with a fine face and long beard, a lately and venerable figure. I visited him in his reception hall and he made me sit beside him and asked me about my travels. He then commanded me to be lodged near him, and. gave me on the same day a fine white horse and a robe, besides assigning me money 140 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTOTA for my expenses and forage. Later on he gave me an assignation of wheat and barley from a village half a day’s journey from the town, but I could not find anyone to buy it because of the cheapness of provisions, so I gave it to the pilgrim who was in our company. It is a cuflom of this sultan’s to take his seat in the audience chamber every afternoon; food is served and the doors arc opened and no one, whether townsman or nomad, stranger or traveller, is prevented from partaking. From QaAamdniya we travelled to Sanub [Sinope], a populous town combining ^rength with beauty. It is surrounded by sea except on the ea5V, where there is only one gate which no one is allowed to enter without permission from the governor, Ibrahim Bek, who is a son of Sulaymdn Pddshdh. Outside the town there are eleven villages inhabited by Greek in6dcls. The cathedral mosque at Sandb is a mo^ beautiful building, conflruded by Sultan Parwdnah. He was succeeded by his son Ghdzl Chelebi, at whose death the town was seized by Sultan Sulaymdn. Ghdzi Chelebf was a brave and audacious man, with a peculiar capacity for swimming under water. He used to sail out with his war vessels to fight the Greeks, and when the fleets met and everyone was occupied with the fighting he would dive under the water carrying an iron tool with which he pierced the enemy’s ships, and they knew nothing about it until all at once they sank. We flayed at Sandb about forty days waiting for the weather to became favourable for sailing to the town of Qiram.^® Then we hired a vessel belonging to the Greeks and waited another eleven days for a favourable wind. At length we set sail, but after travelling for three nights, we were beset in mid-sea by a terrible tempedl. The dlorm raged with un- paralleled fury, then the wind changed and drove us 141 SELECTIONS FROM THE back nearly to Sanub. The weather cleared and we set out again, and after another temped like the former, we at length saw the hills on the land. We made for a harbour called Karsh [Kerch], intending to enter it, but some people on the hill made signs to us not to enter, and fearing that there were enemy vessels in the port, we turned back along the coa^. As we approached the land I said to the ma^er of the ship “ I want to descend here,” so he put me ashore. The place was in the Qipchaq desert which is green and verdant, but flat and treeless. There is no fire- wood so they make fires of dung, and you will see even the higher* of them picking it up and putting it in the skirts of their garments. The only method of travelling in this desert is in waggons; it extends for six months’ journey, of which three are in the territories of Sultan Muhammad Uzbeg.^^ The day after our arrival one of the merchants in our company hired some waggons from the Qipchaqs who inhabit this desert, and who are Chriftians, and we came to Kafa, a large town extending along the sea-coaft, inhabited by Chriftians, moftly Genoese, whose governor is called Damdir [Demetrio].^® We ftayed at Kafa in the mosque of the Muslims. An hour after our arrival we heard bells ringing on all sides. As I had never heard bells before,^® I was alarmed and bade my companions ascend the minaret and read the Koran and issue the call to prayer. They did so, when suddenly a man entered wearing armour and weapons and greeted us. He told us that he was the qadi of the Muslims there, and said “ When I heard the reading and the call to prayer, I feared for your safety and came as you see.” Then he went away, but no evil befel us. The next day the governor came to us and entertained us to a meal, then we went round the city and found it provided with fine bazaars. All the inhabitants are infidels. W^e went down to 142 TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA the port and saw a magniHcent harbour with about two hundred vessels in it, ships of war and trading vessels, small and large, for it is one of the mo^ notable harbours in the world. We hired a waggon and travelled to the town of Qiram, which forms part of the territories of Sultan Uzbeg Khdn and has a governor called Tuluk- tumiir. On hearing of our arrival the governor sent the imdm to me with a horse; he himself was ill, but we visited him and he treated us honourably and gave us gifts. He was on the point of setting out for the town of Sard, the capital of the Khdn, so I prepared to travel along with him and hired waggons for that purpose. These waggons have four large wheels and are drawn by two or more horses, or by oxen or camels, according to their weight. The driver rides on one of the horses and carries a whip or wooden goad. On the waggon is put a light tent made of wooden laths bound with dlrips of hide and covered with felt or bIanket