ABSTRACT
We set sail without an experienced pilot on board, the distance between the islands and Ma'bar being a three days' journey, and travelled for nine days, emerging on the ninth day at the island of Ceylon. We saw the mountain of Sarandīb there, rising into the heavens like a column of smoke. 1 When we came to the island, the sailors said: This port is not in the territory of the Sultan whose country can safely be visited by merchants. It is a port in the territory of the Sultan Ayrī Shakarwatī who is an evildoing tyrant and keeps pirate vessels.' 2 We were afraid to put into this harbour, but as a gale arose thereafter and we dreaded drowning, I said to the captain: 'Put me ashore |166 and I shall get you a safe-conduct from this Sultan.' He did as I asked and put me ashore, whereupon the infidels came to us and said: 'What are you?' I told them that I was the brother-in-law and friend of the Sultan of Ma'bar, that I had come to visit him, and that the contents of the ship were a present for him. They went to their Sultan and informed him of this. Thereupon he summoned me, and I visited him in the town of Baṭṭāla [Puttalam], which is his capital. It is a small and pretty town, surrounded by a wooden wall with wooden towers. The whole of its coasts are covered with branches of cinnamon trees brought down by torrents and heaped up like mounds on the shore. They are taken without payment by the people of Ma'bar and Mulaibār, but in return for this they give presents 848of woven cloth and similar articles to the Sultan. It is a day and a night's journey from this island to the land of Ma'bar. It has also much brazil-wood and Indian aloes, |167 which is called kalakhī, but it differs from the qamārī and the qāqulī also, and we shall describe it later. 3
