IN THE NAME OF GOD THE MERCIFUL ONE

THE COMPASSIONATE THESE are the words of the learned doctor of law, the trustworthy, the guest of illustrious, God and visitor godly and to His most sanctuary, pious shaikh, the honour of the Faith, who in his travels stayed himself upon the Lord of the Universe, Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lawati al-Tanji, known as Ibn Battuta, may God have mercy on him and be pleased with him through His grace and bounty. Amen.

Praise be to God, Who hath subdued the earth to His servants that they may tread spacious ways therein, and hath ordained therefrom and thereunto their three stages of growth, return, and extraction; Who hath spread it out by His power so that it became as a smooth bed for His servants, and hath held it firm by immovable ranges and mountains, and raised above it the canopy of the sky without pillars; Who hath made the stars to rise for guidance in the darknesses of land and sea, and hath set the moon as a light and the sun as a lamp; Who hath made also water to descend from the heavens and hath revived the earth therewith after its death and hath made fruits of every sort to grow thereon; Who hath created its regions with diversities of plants and made channels for the two seas, fresh sweet water and bitter salt water; Who hath made perfect his bounty towards His creatures by subduing the beasts of the field for their carriage and the vessels upraised like mountains to their control that they may bestride the ridge of the wilderness and ride upon the deeps of the ocean.

May God visit with His Blessing our lord and master Muhammad, His Apostle, who made plain for His creatures an Highway and brought the light of His guidance to shine forth in splendour; whom God Most High sent as a token of mercy to the worlds and chose to be seal to the Prophets; whose falchions He empowered over the necks of the polytheists so that the peoples entered into the Faith of God in multitudes; whom He aided by surpassing miracles, giving speech to inanimate things that they might testify to the truth of his mission, restoring life at his prayer to rotten bones, and causing water to gush forth from between his fingers.

May God Most High be pleased with those who are ennobled by claim to association with him, as companions, descendants, and wives; who made straight the lance of the Faithso that we should not fear crookedness after them; for these are they who seconded him in striving against the enemies of the Faith, and aided him to the triumph of the unspotted religion; who carried out its noble obligations of emigration, succour, and asylum, and who threw themselves in his defence into a burning fire of war and plunged into a boisterous sea of death.

We pray God Most High for our master, the Caliph-Imam, the Commander of the Faithful, who places his trust in God the Lord of the Universe, who strives [against the infidels] in the Path of God, who is strengthened by the help of God, Abu ‘Inan Paris, the descendant of our masters the rightly guided Imams and orthodox Caliphs, that He will bestow upon him such succour as will fill the world and its peoples with joy, and such prosperity as will prove a remedy for the crippling disease of the age, as He hath bestowed upon him might which hath spared no oppressor and generosity which hath neglected no needy one, and hath made by his sword and his beneficence a means of issue from every distress.

To proceed, it has been pronounced by all intellects and determined by arguments which appeal to reason and to traditional lore that this sublime and Faith-championing Caliphate of Paris al-Mutawakkil is indeed the Shadow of God which is extended over mankind, and His rope whereon to lay hold, and in the ranks of obedience to whom it is incumbent to range oneself.

For this Caliphate it is which has brought healing to the Faith in its hour of sickening, and has forced back into its scabbard the sword of hostility in its hour of unsheathing, which has restored soundness to the days after they had fallen into disorder, and brought back prosperity to the bazaar of learning after it had grown sluggish, which has made plain the ways of piety when they were obliterated, and restored tranquillity to the regions of the earth when they were in commotion, which has brought to life the ancient usages of generosity after their death, and has put to death the practices of tyranny after their flourishing life, which has extinguished the fire of discord at its moment of flaming, and overthrown the judgments of iniquity in their hour of undisputed rule, which has raised the edifices of e rectitude upon the pillars of God-fearing, and has laid firm hold of the strongest stay by placing its trust in God.

Wherefore it is conjoined with majesty whose crown is bound upon the temples of the Twins, and with glory that sweeps with its skirts the Galaxy of heaven; with fortune that has restored to time the freshness of its youth, and with justice that has extended its protection to the household of the Faith; with generosity the distillation of whose clouds is fine silver and pure gold, and with might the outpouring of whose mists is a ram of streaming blood; with divine aid the scatterings of whose squadrons are doom, and with heavenly support but a part of whose spoils are empires; with vigour whose sword anticipates reproach, and with patience in whose presence hope grows not weary; with resolution which forbids to its enemies the well-watered pasturages, and with firmness of purpose which scatters their hosts ere the shock of its squadrons; with forbearance which gathers a harvest of righteousness from the fruit-trees of misdeeds, and with compassion which moves the thoughts of all hearts to unite in affection towards it; with knowledge whose light dispels the glooms of enigmas, and with an equity which is bounded by singleness of mind, since ‘actions are to be judged by their intentions’.

When his Sublime Residence became the cynosure of hopes and the pasturage of men’s aspirations, the depository of the merchandise of the virtues and concourse of the security of the affrighted and of the desire of the suppliant, the age sought to do homage to it by offering the choicest of its gifts and the rarest of its treasures, so that men of learning streamed to it as its copious rains [of generosity] stream down upon noble qualities, and men of letters contended in hastening to it as its resolves contend with one another [in bounty] towards the fulfilling of promises.

The enlightened made pilgrimage to its illustrious sanctuary, and travellers set themselves to seek access to its high-storied abode; the fearful sought a citadel of refuge in the might of its majesty, and kings sought for protection by homage to its gates.

It is the pole upon which revolves the axis of the world, and in conviction of its pre-eminence the intuitive judgment s of ignorant and learned is unanimous; its surpassing glories are related in unimpeachable narratives for which every Muslim stands guarantor, and the perfection of its transparent virtues is eloquently attested by every informer.