IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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412 IBN BATLTTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL AND CHINA.
of stuff called salatuyah, 100 pieces of shirinbaf, 100 of shanbaf, 500 of woollen stuff (probably shawls), of which 100 were black, 100 white, 100 red, 100 green, 100 blue ; 100 pieces of Greek linen, 100 cloth dresses, a great state tent and six pavilions, four golden candlesticks and six of silver, ornamented with blue enamel ; six silver basins, ten dresses of honour in brocade,' ten caps, of which one was broidered with pearls ; ten quivers of brocade, one with pearls ; ten swords, one with a scabbard wrought in pearls ; gloves broidererl with pearls ; and fifteen eunuchs.
His colleagues in this embassy were the Amir Zahiruddin the Zinjani, a man of eminent learning, and the Eunuch Kafur (Camphor) the Cup-bearer, who had charge of the presents. The Amir Mahomed of Herat was to escort them to the place of embarcation with 1,000 horse, and the Chinese ambassadors, fifteen in number, the chief of whom was called Tursi,2 joined the party with about 100 servants.
The king had apparently returned to Dehli before the despatch of the party, for the latter set out from that city on the 22nd July, 1342. Their route lay at first down the Doab as far as Kanauj, but misfortunes began before they had got far beyond the evening shadow of the Kutb llinar. For whilst they were at K0L (Koel or Aligarh, eighty miles from Dehli), having complied with an invitation. to take part in relieving the neighbouring town of JALALI from the attack of a body of Hindus,3 they lost in the fight
Byrampaut (i, 268). The Shanbaf is no doubt the Sinabaffi of Varthema, but more I cannot say.
1 Mahomed Tughlak maintained an enormous royal establishment (analogous to the Gobelins) of weavers in silk and gold brocade, to provide stuffs for his presents, and for the ladies of the palace (Not. et Extraits, xiii, 183).
2 A statesman called Turshi was chief minister in China with great power, a few years after this, in 1347-48 (De Mailla, ix, 584). It is, however, perhaps not probable that this was the same person, as the Indo-Chinese nations do not usually employ statesmen of a high rank on foreign embassies.
3 That work of this kind should be going on so near the capital shows perhaps that when Firishta says Mahomed's conquest of the distant provinces of Dwara-Samudra, Maabar, and Bengal, etc., had incorporated them with the empire " as completely as the villages in the vicinity of Dehli," this may not have amounted to very much after all (Briggs, i, 413).
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