(Delhi, 21 October 1341) (People / Governance / Events / Customs)
(al-Ma‘bar)
(427) The Sultan’s departure and command to me to remain in the capital. On the 9th of First Jumada the Sultan went out with the design of proceeding to al-Ma‘bar and engaging the rebel leader in that province. I had settled with my creditors and was all prepared to accompany the expedition, having paid nine months’ wages to the kahars, the farrashes, the kaiwans and the dawadis, of whom I have already spoken. At that moment a command was issued that I should remain behind with some others, and the chamberlain took written acknowledgements of the order from us as proof that he had communicated it. This is their custom as a precaution against the denial of receipt by the person so notified. The Sultan ordered that I should be given 6,000 dinars and that the son of the Qadi of Cairo should receive 10,000 and similar amounts should be paid to all of the ‘honourables’ who remained behind; as for the natives they were not given anything. The Sultan also commanded me to take charge of (428) the mausoleum of Sultan Qutb al-Din, whose history has been related above. The Sultan used to hold his tomb in great respect because he had been one of his servitors. I have seen him on coming to his grave take Qutb al-Din’s sandal, kiss it and place it on his head, for it is their custom to put the sandals of the dead man on a cushion beside his grave. Whenever he came to the grave he would do homage to it, as he used to do homage in Qutb al-Din’s lifetime, and he held Qutb al-Din’s wife in great respect and used to address her as his sister. He gave her a place amongst the women of his own household and married her later on to the son of the Qadi of Cairo and on her account he showed him special favour; he used also to go to visit her every Friday.
When the Sultan went out he sent for us to bid us farewell. The son of the Qadi of Cairo stood up and said ‘I shall not bid farewell to nor be separated from the Master of the World.’ This brought him good fortune and the Sultan said to him ‘Go and make ready for the journey.’ I came forward after to say farewell, (429) and I was pleased to be staying behind, although [759] the consequences were not happy. He said ‘What requests have you?’ so I took out a piece of paper with six petitions, but he said to me ‘Speak with your own tongue.’ I said to him ‘The Master of the World has commanded me to act as a qadi but I have not yet sat for that purpose; and I do not desire to have nothing but the honour of the qadiship,’ whereupon he commanded me to sit as a judge and that two substitutes should sit with me. Then he said to me ‘Well?’ and I said ‘The Mausoleum of Sultan Qutb al-Din, what shall I do about it, for I have already given appointments in connection with it to four hundred and sixty persons, and the income from its endowments does not cover their wages and their food?’ He said to the vizier Panjah Hazar, which means ‘50,000’, and then added ‘You must have an anticipatory crop.’ This means ‘Give him a hundred thousand maunds of the corn produce (that is to say wheat and rice) to be expended during (430) this year until the crops of the endowment for the tomb come in.’ The maund is twenty pounds Barbary weight.
He then said to me ‘And what more’? so I replied ‘My friends have been imprisoned on account of the villages which you gave me, for I have exchanged them for other revenues; but the officials of the diwan have demanded from me either to pay what I have received from them or to present the order of the Master of the World to be dispensed from that.’ He said ‘How much did you receive from them?’ I replied ‘Five thousand dinars’. He said ‘They are a gift to you.’ I then said to him ‘And my house which you have ordered for me as my residence is in need of repairs.’ He said to the vizier ‘Imarat kunid, that is to say ‘Have it repaired,’ and went on to say to me Digar namanad, which means ‘Have you anything more to say?’ and I said to him ‘No’. He then said to me Wasiyat digar hast, which means ‘There is another recommendation, and that is that you incur no debts and so avoid being pressed for payment, for you will not find anyone (431) to bring me news of them. Regulate your expenses according to what I have given you, as God has said [in the Koran] Keep not thy hand bound to thy neck, neither open it to fullest extent, and again Eat and drink, and be not prodigal, and again And those who, when they spend, neither incline to excess nor fall short through niggardliness, but between these [760] there is an upright mean. I desired to kiss his foot, but he prevented me and held back my head with his hand, so I kissed that and retired.
I returned to the capital and busied myself with repairing my house; on this I spent four thousand dinars, of which I received from the diwan six hundred and paid the rest myself. I also built a mosque opposite my house, and occupied myself with the dispositions for the mausoleum of the Sultan Qutb al-Din. The Sultan had ordered that a dome should be built over it to the height of 100 cubits, exceeding by (432) 20 cubits the height of the dome built over [the tomb of] Qazan, the king of al-‘Iraq. He had given orders also that thirty villages were to be purchased to constitute an endowment for it, and he placed them in my hands on the understanding that I should enjoy the tenth part of their revenue according to custom.