ABSTRACT
W hen the Pilgrimage ended, I went to Judda, 1 with the intention of sailing to al-Yaman and India. But that was not decreed for me; | I was unable to find a companion 2 and I stayed in Judda about forty days. There was a ship there belonging to a man called ‘Abdallāh al-Tūnisī, who was intending to go to al-Quṣair, 3 in the government of Qūṣ, so I boarded it to see what state it was in, but it did not please me and I disliked the idea of travelling by it. This was an act of providence of God Most High, for the ship sailed and when it was in the open sea it foundered at a place called Ra’s Abū Muḥammad. 4 Its master and some merchants escaped in a ship’s boat 5 after severe distress and were on the point of death; [even] some of these perished, and all the rest were drowned, including about seventy of the pilgrims who were on it.
