!#&'.] INB BATUTA IN THE "MALDIVES AND CEYLON. ?A 



Ahmed Chenoiir&zah* Then I married one who had been 

 married to the Sultan Ghihdb eddi?i, and I had three houses built 

 in the garden which the Vizier gave to me. My fourth wife* 

 the step-daughter of ^ Ahd-Allah. lived at her own house. She 

 was the one of all my wives whom I cherished the most. Thus 

 allied by marriage to the persons named, the Vizier and the 

 people of the island feared me much, by reason of their own 

 weakness. False reports were spread between me and the Grand 

 Vizier, in great part by the care of the Vizier bd- Allah, so 

 that our estrangement became final. 



Of my departure from these people, and of 

 the motive thereof. 



It happened that one day the wife of a slave of the late 

 Sultan Djeldl eddin made a complaint of him to the Vizier, to 

 the effect that he had a liaison with one of the Sultan's con- 

 cubines. The Vizier sent witnesses, who entered the girl's house 

 and found the slave asleep with her upon the same carpet. Both 

 were taken into custody. In the morning, on being informed of 

 this, I went to the audience hall and took my seat in my cus- 

 tomary place. I made no reference to the affair. A courtier 

 then approached me and said, " The Vizier requests to know if 

 you have any business with him." I replied, "No." The 

 design of the minister was that I should speak of the affair of 

 the concubine and the slave ; for it was my invariable rule to de- 

 cide every case which he put before me. But as I was showing 

 him my dissatisfaction and dislike, I omitted to do so then. I 

 went straightway to my own house and took my seat where I 

 delivered my judgments. Soon after came a Vizier, saying on 

 behalf of the Grand Vizier, w Yesterday, so and so occurred in 



* This relationship fixes approximately the date of Chenotirazah and of 

 the Muhammedan conversion, which may have been as early as 1200 A. D., 

 but — allowing for early marriages— perhaps more probably about 1220, or 

 1230 A.D.— See Paper on the Maldives, J. R. A. S., Vol. X., n., s., 1878., p. 177. 



