May 13 32 the Caucasus eben Battuta and
his wagon train have pitched their tents
on a hill waiting to see sight of the
Royal Caravan they wish to join his
train full of servants enslaved people
and concubines has been waiting a long
time then dust on the horizon we saw a
vast city on the move he wrote with its
inhabitants with mosques and bazaars in
it
the smokes of the kitchens rising in the
air for they cook while they March and
horse-drawn wagons transporting the
people he descends to meet all spanked
on ruler of the Golden Horde when even
Battuta crossed the Black Sea and landed
in Crimea he'd soon realized he'd
crossed into another world
though the khanates state religion was
Islam the more European provinces of the
Empire were thoroughly Christian filled
with Russians and Ukrainians and that
meant red-haired people with blue eyes
who ate pork and made evil noises by
ringing their church bells a sound that
terrified him in Battuta but he soon
passed out of the infidel Lance and
entered the steppe travelling for the
first time by wagon rather than horse or
camel back joining a Mongol Caravan in
order to find the Khan and link up with
the Silk Road to India and he found much
to like about the hearty and competent
Mongols but also much that shocked him
even the observant Muslims drank alcohol
for instance arguing that the Quran
forbade wine and wheat beer but not
millet beer or fermented mares milk ah
sweet delicious loopholes these
differences came into stark relief when
he met a spec on entering his huge gold
tiled tent and finding the ruler sitting
on a silver throne flanked by four
unveiled wives in fact he was soon to
learn that the Khan consulted his wives
on matters of state in public and then
upon entering a tent it was the calm
that stood until his wives were seated
Mongol society often treated women as
near equals and powerful women held a
position higher than less powerful men
this was very different from his native
Morocco where a leaders wives might
privately wield influence but were never
seen in public even Battuta spent
Ramadan with the Khan visiting and
conversing with his wives and becoming
particularly close with the youngest
princess payal on whom he shared much in
common for she too was far from home and
adrift in a strange culture
the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor
given away in a political marriage given
Battuta sympathized but for different
reasons while he liked the khan who was
a generous and able ruler he disliked
how the man drank even showing up for
afternoon prayer one day stumbling drunk
and nearly incomprehensible but as a
point of etiquette after all of the
gifts in hospitality the khan had
bestowed upon him he really couldn't
just drop the mic and bail on his latest
patron so instead he asked the khan if
he could take you guessed it a side trip
because princess palin was pregnant and
got permission to have their baby at
home in constantinople so given Battuta
requested to accompany her as it was the
perfect opportunity to take said side
trip
not just in safety but in style the
request granted
even Battuta set out with the princess's
Caravan doubling back to the city of the
Byzantines
seeing the higher Sofia and meeting the
Emperor marveling at the city's relative
religious tolerance and touring the
Golden Horn but there was a bit of a
problem see on the way back home
princess Balin had started throwing off
the facade of Islamic conversion and now
it was clear that she wasn't coming home
this had been an escape plan
so even Battuta had to turn around with
the Royal Caravan retrace his steps and
inform the Khan except now it was winter
on the steppe and even Battuta a
Moroccan was not used to snow it was so
cold that they traveled along frozen
rivers as if they were roads so cold
that when he washed his face with hot
water it froze in his beard so cold that
he wore three fur coats and so many
layers of clothing underneath that that
he had to be helped into the saddle but
they made it to the capital of the
Connacht and after presumably telling
the Khan about his wife because he never
actually mentions the reaction even
Battuta joined the trade caravans toward
India and this was some of the hardest
travelling of his career through
mountains and dry country and his
recollections of it are confused and
nonspecific in eight months of
relentless travel he met the Khan of
Chagas I had a daughter and finally
crossed through the Khyber Pass into
India they had to spread blankets in
front of the camels so their feet would
not sink in the deep snow the Indian
border authorities met him as he crossed
into India questioning him about his
intentions and qualifications and
telling him that should he wish to work
for the Sultan he must
agree never to leave India except
unofficial business he agreed and signed
a contract then he took out a loan to
buy the Sultan an appropriate gift of
horses gold and enslaved people knowing
the custom was to be granted an even
larger gift in return yeah he hadn't
gone gold digging across three
continents without learning how this
stuff worked when the party arrived even
Battuta was overwrought the Sultan's
wooden Palace known as the Hall of a
thousand pillars was one of the largest
structures he'd ever seen
could it be that the rumours of the
Sultan's splendor and generosity were
not an exaggeration well unfortunately
it would be a while before even Battuta
found out because mohammed to luck the
sultan of delhi was out crushing a
rebellion but in his absence
the Sultan's Vizier accepted the gift
and gave even Battuta silk ropes a house
the tax revenue of two villages which is
five thousand silver dinars a year for
those of you keeping score at home plus
another two thousand dinars has a
starting bonus Gibbon Battuta was
floored
he was already part of Delhi's landed
aristocracy and he hadn't even been
given a job yet then things got even
Wilder because the Sultan returned to
Delhi in triumph riding to the palace on
a war elephant the first in a great
procession of armored beasts and on the
back of each elephant was a huge basket
of treasure and a catapult entranced
Gibbon Matsuda watched his men shoveled
gold and silver coins into the machines
and fired the treasure out into the
celebrating crowd and that's when it hit
even Battuta this was a dream job coming
here was a great idea and this was only
reinforced when he met the Sultan and
Muhammad to look liked the Moroccan so
much that he made even Battuta the kadhi
of Delhi and at this point even if it
Matsuda was like uh thank you but you
know maybe that's too much
I mean except for being a kadhi on a
caravan I never had a real job or tried
a case you know in fact your religious
law here is a bit different than the
type I studied not to mention your court
language is Persian which I don't really
speak well so maybe we just let me work
my way up huh the Sultan told him not to
worry assigned two deputies to do the
real work and doubled his salary unusual
undoubtedly but even
tudi was about to find out that the
Sultan of Delhi was a bit of an
eccentric you know and unorthodox to
visionary some referred to him as mad
early in his reign he'd experimented
with issuing copper coins backed by gold
but that scheme fell apart when Chinese
traders wouldn't accept them then he
decided to found a new capital and move
his court to central India and when the
elites resisted he used troops to force
them that too collapsed and now fearing
the entrenched power blocks of the
elites that hated him the Sultan was
hiring any foreigners that showed up so
that they would be personally loyal to
him which was good at least for eben
Battuta he became close with the Sultan
observing as the monarch a religious
scholar in his own right invited Hindu
and Jain holy men into the palace for
religious debates he even accompanied
the monarch on military campaigns at one
point the Sultan brought even Battuta to
see the Hindu Yogi's perform tricks like
climbing a levitated rope a performance
that terrified the devout young scholar
but being a favorite was a financial
problem keeping up with the Sultan's
lifestyle be extravagant hunting trips
the constant gift-giving and hosting
officials at his house actually put even
Battuta into debt so that was problem
number one problem number two was that
the Sultan was a psychopath even even
Battuta who often flattered his patrons
wrote the Sultan was far too free in
shedding blood he used to punish small
faults and great without respect of
persons whether they men of learning or
piety or noble descent every day there
are brought to the audience Hall
hundreds of people chained pinioned
invented and they are executed tortured
or beaten Muhammad to Gluck killed
advisors for disagreeing with him he
tortured holy men who refused to come to
the palace particularly he liked
dropping red hot squares of metal on
victims chests and ripping them off and
if he really hated someone he'd throw
them to his trained execution elephants
who would use the swords affixed to
their tusks to play catch with the
unfortunate victim and perhaps that's
when it hit em in mattoon ax coming here
was a terrible idea
he began plotting his escape
legendary thanks to ahmed sea otter
casey Moose Jaw Dominic Valenciana
gunner Clovis Isle Murgatroyd and
Orioles one
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