But for the poor it is the house of suffering without end:
I wander idly through its streets, as lost us if I were
A Koran in an atheist's house, which hath no welcome there.'
'A sigh, a sigh for Bagdad, a sigh for Irak's land!
For all its lovely peacocks, and the splendors they expand:
They walk beside the Tigris, and the looks they turn on me
Shine o'er the jeweled necklace, like moons above the sea!'
Our traveler, also, was the forerunner of Layard. In visiting Mosul, he writes: 'Near this place one sees the hill of Jonah, upon whom be blessing! and a mile distant from it the fountain which bears his name. It is said that he commanded the people to purify themselves there; that afterwards they ascended the aforesaid hill; that he prayed, and they also, in such manner that God turned the chastisement from their heads. In the neighborhood is a great ruin, and the people pretend that it is the remains of the city known under the name of Nineveh, the city of Jonah. One perceives the vestiges of the wall which surrounded it, as well as the situation of its gates. On the hill stands a large edifice, and a monastery, which contains numerous cells, apartments, places of purification, and fountains, all closed by a single gate. In the middle of the monastery one sees a cell with a silken curtain, and a door encrusted with gold and precious stones. This, they say, is the spot where Jonah dwelt; and they add that the choir of the mosque attached to the monastery covers the cell in which he prayed to God.'
Returning to Bagdad, Ibn Batuta crossed the Arabian Desert a second time, and took up his residence in Mecca for the space of three years. His account of the voyage along the eastern coast of Africa, as far south as Quiloa, is brief and uninteresting; but on his return he visited Oman, of which province he gives us the first authentic account. From the Pearl Islands in the Persian Gulf, he bent his way once more across Arabia to Mecca, whence he crossed the Red Sea to the Nubian coast, and descended the Nile to Cairo. I shall omit his subsequent journeys through Syria and Asia Minor, although they contain many amusing and picturesque incidents, and turn, instead, to his adventures in Kipchak (Southern Russia), which was then governed by a sultan descended in a direct line from Genghis Khan. Embarking at Sinope, he crossed the Black Sea to Caffa, in the Crimea, which was at that time a Genoese city. Here a singular circumstance occurred:—
'We lodged in the mosque of the Mussulmans. After we had been resting there about an hour, we suddenly heard the sound of bells resounding on all sides. I had then never heard such a sound; I was extremely terrified, and ordered my companions to ascend the minaret, read the Koran, praise God, and recite the call to prayer,—which they did. We now perceived a man who had approached us: he was armed, and wore a cuirass. He saluted us, and we begged him to inform us who he was. He gave us to understand that he was the Kadi of the Mussulmans of the place, and added: "When I heard the reading of the Koran and the call to prayers, I trembled for your safety, and therefore came to seek you." Then he departed; but, nevertheless, we received nothing but good treatment.'