It Is
Related By Authentic Writers That In The Reign Of Atabek Abu Bakr Of
(Fars), 10,000 Horses Were Annually Exported From These Places To Ma'bar,
Kambayat, And Other Ports In Their Neighbourhood, And The Sum Total Of
Their Value Amounted To 2,200,000 Dinars....
They bind them for 40 days in
a stable with ropes and pegs, in order that they may get fat; and
afterwards, without taking measures for training, and without stirrups and
other appurtenances of riding, the Indian soldiers ride upon them like
demons....
In a short time, the most strong, swift, fresh, and active
horses become weak, slow, useless, and stupid. In short, they all become
wretched and good for nothing.... There is, therefore, a constant
necessity of getting new horses annually." Amir Khusru mentions among
Malik Kafur's plunder in Ma'bar, 5000 Arab and Syrian horses. (Elliot,
III. 34, 93.)
The price mentioned by Polo appears to be intended for 500 dinars, which
in the then existing relations of the precious metals in Asia would be
worth just about 100 marks of silver. Wassaf's price, 220 dinars of red
gold, seems very inconsistent with this, but is not so materially, for it
would appear that the dinar of red gold (so called) was worth two
dinars.[5]
I noted an early use of the term Arab chargers in the famous Bodleian
copy of the Alexander Romance (1338):
"Alexand' descent du destrier Arrabis."
NOTE 8. - I have not found other mention of a condemned criminal being
allowed thus to sacrifice himself; but such suicides in performance of
religious vows have occurred in almost all parts of India in all ages.
Friar Jordanus, after giving a similar account to that in the text of the
parade of the victim, represents him as cutting off his own head before
the idol, with a peculiar two-handled knife "like those used in currying
leather." And strange as this sounds it is undoubtedly true. Ibn Batuta
witnessed the suicidal feat at the Court of the Pagan King of Mul-Java
(somewhere on the const of the Gulf of Siam), and Mr. Ward, without any
knowledge of these authorities, had heard that an instrument for this
purpose was formerly preserved at Kshira, a village of Bengal near Nadiya.
The thing was called Karavat; it was a crescent-shaped knife, with
chains attached to it forming stirrups, so adjusted that when the fanatic
placed the edge to the back of his neck and his feet in the stirrups, by
giving the latter a violent jerk his head was cut off. Padre Tieffentaller
mentions a like instrument at Prag (or Allahabad). Durgavati, a famous
Queen on the Nerbada, who fell in battle with the troops of Akbar, is
asserted in a family inscription to have "severed her own head with a
scimitar she held in her hand." According to a wild legend told at Ujjain,
the great king Vikramajit was in the habit of cutting off his own head
daily, as an offering to Devi.
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