The Plague of 1348
One of the celebrated sanctuaries at Damascus
is the Mosque of the Footprints (al-Aqdam), which lies two miles
south of the city, alongside the main highway
which leads to the Hijaz, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It is a large mosque,
very blessed, richly endowed, and very highly
venerated by the Damascenes. The footprints from which it derives
its name are certain footprints impressed
upon a rock there, which are said to be the mark of Moses' foot. In this
mosque there is a small chamber containing
a stone with the following inscription "A certain pious man saw in his
sleep the Chosen One [Muhammad], who said
to him 'Here is the grave of my brother Moses.'"
I saw a remarkable instance of the veneration
in which the Damascenes hold this mosque during the great
pestilence on my return journey through Damascus,
in the latter part of July 1348. The viceroy Arghun Shah
ordered a crier to proclaim through Damascus
that all the people should fast for three days and that no one should
cook anything eatable in the market during
the daytime. For most of the people there eat no food but what has
been prepared in the market. So the people
fasted for three successive days, the last of which was a Thursday,
then they assembled in the Great Mosque, amirs,
sharifs, qadis, theologians, and all the other classes of the people,
until the place was filled to overflowing,
and there they spent the Thursday night in prayers and litanies. After
the
dawn prayer next morning they all went out
together on foot, holding Korans in their hands, and the amirs
barefooted. The procession was joined by the
entire population of the town, men and women, small and large; the
Jews came with their Book of the Law and the
Christians with their Gospel, all of them with their women and
children. The whole concourse, weeping and
supplicating and seeking the favour of God through His Books and
His Prophets, made their way to the Mosque
of the Footprints, and there they remained in supplication and
invocation until near midday. They then returned
to the city and held the Friday service, and God lightened their
affliction; for the number of deaths in a
single day at Damascus did not attain two thousand, while in Cairo and
Old
Cairo it reached the figure of twenty-four
thousand a day.
The good and pious works of the Damascenes
The variety and expenditure of the religious
endowments at Damascus are beyond computation. There are
endowments in aid of persons who cannot undertake
the pilgrimage to Mecca, out of which are paid the expenses
of those who go in their stead. There are
other endowments for supplying wedding outfits to girls whose families
are unable to provide them, andothers for
the freeing of prisoners. There are endowments for travellers, out of the
revenues of which they are given food, clothing,
and the expenses of conveyance to their countries. Then there are
endowments for the improvement and paving
of the streets, because all the lanes in Damascus have pavements on
either side, on which the foot passengers
walk, while those who ride use the roadway in the centre.
[...]
Ibn Battuta arrives in Konia pp. 130-134
It is a large town with fine buildings, and
has many streams and fruit-gardens. The streets are exceedingly broad,
and the bazaars admirably planned, with each
craft in a bazaar of its is own. It is said that this city was built by
Alexander. It is now in the territories of
Sultan Badr ad-Din ibn Quraman, whom we shall mention presently, but it
has sometimes been captured by the king of
Iraq, as it lies close to his territories in this country. We stayed there
at the hospice of the qadi, who is called
Ibn Qa1am Shah, and is a member of the Futuwa. His hospice is very
large indeed, and he has a great many disciples.
They trace their affiliation to the Futuwa back to the Caliph 'Ali,
and the distinctive garment of the order in
their case is the trousers, just as the Sufis wear the patched robe. This
qadi showed us even greater consideration
and hospitality than our former benefactors and sent his son with us in
his place to the bath.
Leaving Konia, Ibn Battuta visits with the sultan of Birgi, a Turk
We went on to the town of Birgi where we had
been told there was a distinguished professor called Muhyi
ad-Din. On reaching the madrasa we found him
just arriving, mounted on a lively mule and wearing ample
garments with gold embroidery, with his slaves
and servants on either side of him and preceded by the students.
He gave us a kindly welcome and invited me
to visit him after the sunset prayer. I found him in a reception hall in
his garden, which had a stream of water flowing
through a white marble basin with a rim of enamelled tiles. He was
occupying a raised seat covered with embroidered
cloths, having a number of his students and slaves standing on
either side of him, and when I saw him I took
him for a king. He rose to greet me and made me sit next him on the
dais, after which we were served with food
and returned to the madrasa.
The sultan of Birgi was then at his summer
quarters on a mountain close by and on receiving news of me from the
professor sent for me. When I arrived with
the professor he sent his two sons to ask how we were, and sent me a
tent of the kind they call Khargah [kurgan].
It consists of wooden laths put together like a dome and covered with
pieces of felt; the upper part is opened to
admit the light and air and can be closed when required. Next day the
sultan sent for us and asked me about the
countries I had visited, then after food had been served we retired. This
went on for several days, the sultan inviting
us daily to join him at his meal, and one afternoon visiting us himself,
on
account of the respect which the Turks show
for theologians. At length we both became weary of staying on this
mountain, so the professor sent a message
to the sultan that I wished to continue my journey, and received a reply
that we should accompany the sultan to his
palace in the city on the following day.
Next day he sent an excellent horse and descended
with us to the city. On reaching the palace we climbed a long
flight of stairs with him and came to a fine
audience hall with a basin of water in the centre and a bronze lion at
each corner of it spouting water from its
mouth. Round the hall were daises covered with carpets, on one of which
was the sultan's cushion. When we reached
this place, the sultan removed his cushion and sat down beside us on
the carpets. The Koran readers, who always
attend the sultan's audiences, sat below the dais. After syrup and
biscuits had been served I spoke thanking
the sultan warmly and praising the professor, which pleased the sultan
a
great deal.
The sultan of Birgi shows Ibn Battuta an asteroid
As we were sitting there, he said to me "Have
you ever seen a stone that has fallen from the sky?" I replied " No,
nor ever heard of one." "Well," he said, "a
stone fell from the sky outside this town," and thereupon called for it
to
be brought A great black stone was brought,
very hard and with a glitter in it, I reckon its weight was about a
hundredweight. The sultan sent for stone breakers,
and four of them came and struck it all together four times over
with iron hammers, but made no impression
on it. I was amazed, and he ordered it to be taken back to its place.
We stayed altogether fourteen days with this
sultan. Every night he sent us food, fruit, sweetmeats and candles,
and gave me in addition a hundred pieces of
gold, a thousand dirhems, a complete set of garments and a Greek
slave called Michael, as well as sending a
robe and a gift of money to each of my companions. All this we owed to
the professor Muhyi ad-Din--may God reward
him with good !
[...]
Turkish women
A remarkable thing which I saw in this country
was the respect shown to women by the Turks, for they hold a
more dignified position than the men. The
first time that I saw a princess was when, on leaving Qiram, I saw the
wife of the amir in her waggon. The entire
waggon was covered with rich blue woollen cloth, and the windows and
doors of the tent were open. With the princess
were four maidens, exquisitely beautiful and richly dressed, and
behind her were a number of waggons with maidens
belonging to her suite. When she came near the amir's camp
she alighted with about thirty of the maidens
who carried her train. On her garments there were loops, of which
each maiden took one, and lifted her train
clear of the ground on all sides, and she walked in this stately manner.
When she reached the amir he rose before her
and greeted her and sat her beside him, with the maidens standing
round her. Skins of qumizz were brought and
she, pouring some into a cup, knelt before him and gave it to him,
afterwards pouring out a cup for his brother.
Then the amir poured out a cup for her and food was brought in and
she ate with him. He then gave her a robe
and she withdrew.
I saw also the wives of the merchants and commonalty.
One of them will sit in a waggon which is being drawn by
horses, attended by three or four maidens
to carry her train, and on her head she wears a conical headdress
incrusted with pearls and surmounted by peacock
feathers. The windows of the tent are open and her face is
visible, for the Turkish women do not veil
themselves. Sometimes a woman will be accompanied by her husband
and anyone seeing him would take him for one
of her servants; he has no garment other than a sheep's wool cloak
and a high cap to match.
[...]
Ibn Battuta meets Uzbeg's wives, the khatuns
On the morrow of my interview with the sultan
I visited the principal khatun Taytughli, who is the queen and the
mother of the sultan's two sons. She was sitting
in the midst of ten aged women, who appeared to be servants of
hers, and had in front of her about fifty
young maidens with gold and silver salvers filled with cherries which they
were cleaning. The khatun also had a golden
tray filled with cherries in front of her and was cleaning them. She
ordered qumizz to be brought and with her
own hand poured out a cupful and gave it to me, which is the highest of
honours in their estimation. I had never drunk
qumizz before, but there was nothing for me but to accept it. I tasted
it, but found it disagreeable and passed it
on to one of my companions.
The following day we visited the second khatun
Kebek and found her sitting on a divan reading the holy Koran.
She also served me with qumizz.
The third khatun Bayalun is the daughter [almost
certainly an illegitimate daughter] of the Emperor of
Constantinople the Great. On visiting her
we found her sitting on a throne set with jewels, with about a hundred
maidens, Greek, Turkish and Nubian, standing
or sitting in front of her. Behind her were eunuchs and in front of
her Greek chamberlains. She asked how we were
and about our journey and the distance of our native lands, and
wept, in pity and compassion, wiping her face
with a handkerchief that lay before her. She ordered food to be
served and we ate in her presence, and when
we desired to leave she said "Do not sever relations with us, but
come often to us and inform us of your needs."
She showed great kindness to us and after we had gone sent us
food, a great quantity of bread, butter, sheep,
money, a magnificent robe and thirteen horses, three good ones and
ten of the ordinary sort. It was with this
khatun that I made my journey to Constantinople the Great, as we shall
relate hereafter.
The fourth khatun is one of the best, most
amiable and sympathetic of princesses. We visited her and she showed
us a kindness and generosity that cannot be
surpassed. By the sultan's daughter however we were treated with a
generosity and kindness that no other khatun
showed us; she loaded us with surpassing favours, may God reward
her!
[...]
Ibn Battuta meets the king of Mali
The sultan of Malli is Mansa Sulayman, "mansa"
meaning [in Mandingo] sultan, and Sulayman being his proper
name. He is a miserly king, not a man from
whom one might hope for a rich present. It happened that I spent these
two months without seeing him, on account
of my illness. Later on he held a banquet in commemoration of our
master [the late sultan of Morocco] Abu'l-Hasan,
to which the commanders, doctors, qadi and preacher were
invited, and I went along with them. Reading-desks
were brought in, and the Koran was read through, then they
prayed for our master Abu'l-Hasan and also
for Mansa Sulayman.
When the ceremony was over I went forward and
saluted Mansa Sulayman. The qadi, the preacher, and Ibn
al-Faqih told him who I was, and he answered
them in their tongue. They said to me, "The sultan says to you 'Give
thanks to God,'" so I said, "Praise be to
God and thanks under all circumstances." When I withdrew the [sultan's]
hospitality gift was sent to me. It was taken
first to the qadi's house, and the qadi sent it on with his men to Ibn
al-Faqih's house. Ibn al-Faqih came hurrying
out of his house barefooted, and entered my room saying, "Stand up;
here comes the sultan's stuff and gift to
you." So I stood up thinking--since he had called it "stuff"--that it consisted
of robes of honour and money, and lo!, it
was three cakes of bread, and a piece of beef fried in native oil, and
a
calabash of sour curds. When I saw this I
burst out laughing, and thought it a most amazing thing that they could
be
so foolish and make so much of such a paltry
matter.
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© Paul Halsall, February
21, 2001
halsall@fordham.edu