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
420 IBN I3ATUTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL ANI) CHINA.
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did save her, at the imminent risk of his life, and then refused the reward. " I did it for the love of God," said this good man. The junk with the presents also was wrecked on the reefs outside, and all on board perished. Many bodies were cast up by the waves; among others those of the Envoy Zahir-udclin, with the skull fractured, and of Malik Sunbul the eunuch, with a nail through his temples. Among the rest of the people who flocked to the shore to see what was going on, there came down the Zamorin himself, with nothing on but a scrap of a turban and a white cotton dhoti, attended by a boy with an umbrella. And, to crown all, when the kakam's people saw what had befallen their consort, they made all sail to seaward, carrying off with them our traveller's slaves, his girls and gear, and leaving him there on the beach of Calicut gazing after them, with nought remaining to him but his prayer-carpet, ten pieces of gold, and an emancipated slave, which last absconded forthwith !
He was told that the kakam must touch at Kaulam, so he determined to go thither. It was a ten days' journey, whether by land or water, so he set off by the lagoons with a Mussulman whom he had hired to attend on him, but who got continually drunk, and only added to the depression of the traveller's spirits. On the tenth day he reached Kaulam, the Columbum of our friars, which he describes as one of the finest cities of Malabar, with splendid bazaars, and wealthy merchants, there termed Suli,I some of whom were Mahomedans. There was also a Mahomedan Kazi and Shabandar (Master Attendant), &c. Kaulam was the first port at which the China ships touched on reaching India, and most of the Chinese merchants frequented it. The king was an Infidel, called Tirawari,2 a man of awful justice, of which a
1 Chulia is a name applied to the Mahomedans in Malabar. The origin of it seems to be unknown to Wilson (Glossary, in v.). The name is also applied to a particular class of the " Moors" or Mahomedans in Ceylon
(J. R. A. S., iii, 338). It seems probable that this was the word intended by the author.
2 This title Tirawari may perhaps be Tirubadi, which Fra Paolino mentions among the sounding titles assumed by the princes of Malabar "which were often mistaken for the proper names of families or indivi:duals." He translates it sua Maestà, but literally it is probably Tiru
:(Tamul) " Holy'," and Pati (Sansc.) " Lord." (See V: alle Indie Orientali, Roma, 1796, p. 103.)
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