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
496 TRAVELS of IBN BATUTA IN BENGAL, CHINA,
nese traders and soldiers. There were but four houses of Musulmans there, and the owners were all disciples of the jurist above mentioned. We took up our quarters with one of them, and stayed three days. I then bade adieu to the doctor, and proceeded on my journey.
As usual, I travelled on the river, dining at one village, supping at another, till after a voyage of seventeen days we arrived at the city of KHANSk.1 (The name of this city is nearly the same as that of Khansâ, the poetess,2 but I don't know whether the name be actually Arabic, or has only an accidental resemblance to it.) This city is the greatest I have ever seen on the surface of the earth. It is three days' journey in length, so that a traveller passing through the city has to make his marches and his halts ! According to what we have said before of the arrangement followed in the cities of China, every one in Khans is provided with his house and garden.3 The city is divided into six towns, as I shall explain presently.
When we arrived, there came out to meet us the Kazi of Khansâ, by name Afkharuddin, the Shaikh of Islam, and the descendants of 'Othmân Bin Affan the Egyptian, who are the most prominent Mahomedans at Khansâ. They carried a white flag, with drums, trumpets, and horns. The commandant of the city also came out to meet me with his escort. And so we entered the city.
city (Martini in Thevenot, p. 109). The position would be very appropriate.
1 Cansay of Odoric, &c., Kingsze or Hangcheufu ; see pp. 113, 259, 354, etc., supra.
2 All I can tell of this lady is from the following extract : Al-Chansa,
the most celebrated Arabic poetess, shines exclusively in elegiac poetry. Her laments over her two murdered brothers, Muawiya and Sachr, are the most pathetic, tender, and passionate, yet no translation could convey the fulness of their beauty. To be appreciated they must be read in the majestic, soft, sonorous words of the original." (Saturday Review, June 17, 1865, p. 740).
3 This agrees but ill with Odoric's " non est spansa terrce quce non habitatur bene." There are several very questionable statements in Ibn Batuta's account of the great city.
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