Travels of Ibn Battuah (1 Jan 1325 Jahr – 1 Jan 1354 Jahr)
Beschreibung:
Anthology of Islamic Literature: by J. Kritzeck. New York: Meridian, 1964.
BN BATTITUTAH: THE MALOWE ISLANOS
from Al-Riklah, Travels
It is appropriate that Ibn Battutah should introduce this section, for although he was very much a creature of Islam's "Old World' and, in a sense, an apologist for it, his experiences as recorded in his memoirs give one a unique picture of the dawn of Islam's "New World.' It is a picture all the more valuable because it was drawn by a man who had seen more of the world than anyone else in his time, and few enough people in any time.
Like innumerable Moslems before and since, Ibn Battutah set out from his native Tangiers at the age of twenty-one, in 1325, on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Unlike them, however, he continued traveling more or less constantly for the remainder of his long life. One authority has estimated that Ibn Battutah traveled some seventy-five thousand miles, from the depths of West Africa to the seaports of China. He was able to do so because the Islamic world at that time was wide and tranquil and sufficiently homogeneous so that his profession, religious law, commanded dignity and emolument anywhere within it, and recommended him for diplomatic missions outside it.
ibn Battutah dictated his memoirs after returning to Morocco in 1354. Some doubt has been expressed as to the reliability of many portions of the text, and it is certain that passages from other travelers were inserted to supplement the information. In the main, however, the book is an accurate record. It is written in a lively and orderly style, with many conversational digressions but almost no repetition. It carried the Arabic form of the travelogue to its highest development.
The people of the Maldive Islands are upright and pious, sound in belief and sincere in thought; their bodies are weak, they are unused to fighting, and their armour is prayer. Once when I ordered a thief's hand to be cut off, a number of those in the room fainted. The Indian pirates do not raid or molest them, as they have learned from experience that anyone who seizes anything from them speedily meets misfortune. In each island of theirs there are beautiful mosques, and most of their buildings are made of wood. They are very cleanly and avoid filth; most of them bathe twice a day to cleanse themselves, because of the extreme heat there and their profuse perspiration. They make plentiful use of perfumed oils, such as oil of sandal-wood. Their garments are simply aprons; one they tie round their waists in place of trousers, and on their backs they place other cloths resembling the pilgrim garments. Some wear a turban, others a small kerchief instead. When any of them meets the qáds, or preacher, he removes his cloth from his shoulders, uncovering his back, and accompanies him thus to his house. All, high or low, are bare-footed; their lanes are kept swept and clean and are shaded by trees, so that to walk in them is like walking in an orchard. In spite of that every person entering a house must wash his feet with water from a jar kept in a chamber in the vestibule, and wipe them with a rough towel of palm matting which he finds there. The same practice is followed on entering a mosque.
From these islands there are exported the fish we have mentioned, coconuts, cloths, and cotton turbans, as well as brass utensils, of which they have a great many, cowrie shells, and ganbar. This is the hairy integument of the coconut, which they tan in pits on the shore, and afterwards beat out with bars; the women then spin it and it is made into cords for sewing the planks of ships together. These cords are exported to India, China, and Yemen, and are better than hemp. The Indian and Yemenite ships are sewn together with them, for the Indian Ocean is full of reefs, and if a ship is nailed with iron nails it breaks up on striking the rocks, whereas if it is sewn together with cords, it is given a certain resilience and does not fall to pieces. The inhabitants of these islands use cowrie shells as money. This is an animal which they gather in the sea and place in pits, where its flesh disappears, leaving its white shell. They are used for buying and selling at the rate of four hundred thousand shells for a gold dinar, but they often fall in value to twelve hundred thousand for a dinar. They sell them in exchange for rice to the people of Bengal, who also use them as money, as well as to the Yemenites, who use them instead of sand as ballast in their ships. These shells are used also by the negroes in their lands; I saw them being sold at Málf and Gawgaw at the rate of 1,150 for a gold dinar.
Their womenfolk do not cover their hands, not even their queen does so, and they comb their hair and gather it at one side. Most of them wear only an apron from their waists to the ground, the rest of their bodies being uncovered. When I held the qadiship there, I tried to put an end to this practice and ordered then to wear clothes, but I met with no success. No woman was admitted to my presence in a lawsuit unless her body was covered, but apart from that I was unable to effect anything. I had some slave girls who wore garments like those worn at Delhi and who covered their heads, but it was more of a disfigurement than an ornament in their case, since they were not accustomed to it. A singular custom amongst them is to hire themselves out as servants in houses at a fixed wage of five dinars or less, their employer being responsible for their upkeep; they do not look upon this as dishonorable, and most of their girls do so. You will find ten or twenty of then in a rich man's house. Every utensil that a girl breaks is charged up against her. When she wishes to transfer from one house to another, her new employers give her the sum which she owes to her former employers; she pays this to the latter and remains so much in debt to her new employers. The chief occupation of these hired women is spinning ganbar. It is easy to get married in these islands on account of the smallness of the dowries and the pleasure of their women's society. When ships arrive, the crew marry wives, and when they are about to sail they divorce them. It is really a sort of temporary marriage. The women never leave their country.
It is a strange thing about these islands that their ruler is a woman, Khadija. The sovereignty belonged to her grandfather, then to her father, and after his death to her brother Shihab ad-Din, who was a minor. When he was deposed and put to death some years later, none of the royal house remained but Khadija and her two younger sisters, so they raised Khadija to the throne. She was married to their preacher, Jamál ad-Din, who became Wazir and the real holder of authority, but orders are issued in her name only. They write the orders on pain leaves with a curved iron instrument resembling a knife; they write nothing on paper but copies of the Koran and works on theology. When a stranger comes to the islands and visits the audience-hall custom demands that he take two pieces of cloth with him. He makes obeisance towards the Sultana and throws down one of these cloths, then to her Wazir, who is her husband Jamál ad-Din, and throws down the other. Her army comprises about a thousand men, recruited from abroad, though some are natives. They come to the palace every day, make obeisance, and retire, and they are paid in rice monthly. At the end of each month they come to the palace, make obeisance, and say to the Wazir "Transmit our homage and make it known that we have come for our pay,' whereupon orders are given for it to be
issued to them. The qadi and the officials, whom they call wazirs, also present their homage daily at the palace and after the eunuchs have transmitted it they withdraw. The qidi is held in greater respect among the people than all the other functionaries; his orders are obeyed as implicitly as those of the ruler or even more so. He sits on a carpet in the palace, and enjoys the entire revenue of three islands, according to ancient custom. There is no prison in these islands; criminals are confined in wooden chambers intended for merchandise. Each of them is secured by a piece of wood, as is done amongst us in Morocco) with Christian prisoners.
When I arrived at these islands I disembarked on one of them called Kannalis, a fine island containing many mosques, and I put up at the house of one of the pious persons there. On this island Imetaman called Muhammad, belonging to Dhafir, who told me that if I entered the island of Mahal the Wazir would detain me there, because they had no qädi. Now my design was to sail from there to Masbar Coromandel), Ceylon, and Bengal, and thence on to China. When I had spent a fortnight at Kannalis, I set sail again with my companions, and having visited on our way several other islands, at which we were received with honor and hospitably entertained, arrived on the tenth day at the island of Mahal, the seat of the Sultana and her husband, and anchored in its harbor. The custom of the country is that no one may go ashore without permission. When permission was given to us I wished to repair to one of the mosques, but the attendants on shore prevented me, saying that it was imperative that I should visit the Wazir. I had previously enjoined the captain of the ship to say, if he were asked about me, "I do not know him," fearing that I should be detained by them, and ignorant of the fact that some busybody had written to then telling them about me and that I had been qádfat Delhi. On reaching the palace we halted in some porticoes by the third gateway. The qádilsá of Yemen came up and greeted me and I greeted the Wazir. The captain brought ten pieces of cloth and made obeisance towards the Sultana, throwing down one piece, then to the Wazir, throwing down another in the same way. When he had thrown them all down he was asked about me and answered "I do not know him." Afterwards they brought out betel and rose-water to us, this being their mark of honor, and lodged us in a house, where they sent us food, consisting of a large platter of rice surrounded by plates containing salted meat, chickens, ghee, and fish. Two days later the Wazir sent me a robe, with a hospitality-gift of food and a hundred thousand cowries for my expenses.
When ten days had passed a ship arrived from Ceylon bringing some darwishes, Arabs and Persians, who recognized me and told the Wazir's attendants who I was. This made him still more delighted to have me, and at the beginning of Ramadán he sent for me to join in a banquet attended by the amirs and ministers. Later on I asked his permission to give a banquet to the darwishes who had come from visiting the Foot of Adam, in Ceylon). He gave permission, and sent me five sheep, which are rarities among them because they are imported from Masbar, Mulaybár, and Maqdashaw, together with rice, chickens, ghee, and spices. I sent all this to the house of the wazir Sulaymán, who had it excellently cooked for me, and added to it besides sending carpets and brass utensils. I asked the Wazir's permission for some of the ministers to attend my banquet, and he said to me 'And I shall come too.' So I thanked him and on returning home to my house found him already there with the ministers and high officials. The Wazir sat in an elevated wooden pavilion, and all the annfrs and ministers who came greeted him and threw down an unsewn cloth, so that there were collected about a hundred cloths, which were taken by the darwishes. The food was then served, and when the guests had eaten, the Koran-readers chanted in beautiful voices. The darwsshes then began their ritual chants and dances. I had made ready a fire and they went into it, treading it with their feet, and some of them ate it as one eats sweetmeats, until it was extinguished. When the night came to an end, the Wazir withdrew and I went with him. As we passed by an orchard belonging to the treasury he said to me "This orchard is yours, and I shall build a house in it for you to live in.' I thanked him and prayed for his happiness. Afterwards he sent me two slave girls, some pieces of silk, and a casket of jewels.
TIRANSLATED 13' H. A. R. Gill:333
Zugefügt zum Band der Zeit:
Arabic Heritage 102 Timeline
Grouped by Regions (Bottom half) and Concepts (Top half). Cl...
Datum:
Abbildungen:
![]()
Geo-Kennzeichen:
