Friday audiences of the Sultan of Mogadishu

The author witnesses Friday audiences of the Sultan of Mogadishu (called here the Shaykh). After the congregational prayer at the mosque, the Sultan carries out a ritual towards the audience hall among performing musicians. While they play no person moves or stirs from his place, and anyone who is walking stands still, moving neither backwards nor forwards.

وأتينا الجامع فصلينا خلف المقصورة [...] ثم جاء الوزراء والأمراء ووجوه الأجناد فسَلّمُوا، وعادتهم في السلام كعادة أهل اليمن؛ يضع سبابته في الأرض ثم يجعلها على رأسه ويقول: أدام لله عزك، ثم خرج الشيخ من باب المسجد فلبس نعليه وأَمَرَ القاضي أن ينتعل وأمرني أن أنتعل، وتوجّهَ إلى منزله ماشيًا وهو بالقرب من المسجد ومشى الناس كلهم حفاة، ورُفِعَتْ فوق رأسه أربع قباب من الحرير الملون وعلى أعلى كل قبة صورة طائر من ذهب وكان لباسه في ذلك اليوم فرجية قدسي أخضر وتحتها من ثياب مصر وطروحاتها الحسان، وهو متقلد بفوطة حرير وهو معتم بعمامة كبيرة، وضُرِبَتْ بين يديه الطبول والأبواق والأنفار وأمراء الأجناد أمامه وخلفه، والقاضي والفقهاء والشرفاء معه، ودَخَلَ إلى مشوره على تلك الهيئة وقَعَدَ الوزراء والأمراء ووجوه الأجناد في سقيفة هنالك، وفُرِشَ للقاضي بساط لا يجلس معه غيره عليه والفقهاء والشرفاء معه، ولم يزالوا كذلك إلى صلاة العصر، فلما صلوا العصر مع الشيخ أتى جميع الأجناد ووقفوا صفوفًا على قَدْر مراتبهم. ثم ضُرِبَتْ الأطبال والأنفار والأبواق والصرنايات، وعند ضَرْبها لا يتحرك أحد ولا يتزحزح عن مقامه، ومن كان ماشيًا وَقَفَ فلم يتحرك إلى خلْفٍ ولا إلى أمام، فإذا فُرِغَ منضرب الطبلخانة سلموا بأصابعهم كما ذكرناه وانصرفوا، وتلك عادةٌ لهم في كل يوم جمعة [ص. ١٨١]

We went to the congregational mosque and made our prayers behind the maqṣūra. [...] After this the viziers, amirs, and officers of the troops came up and saluted him. Their manner of salutation is the same as the custom of the people of al-Yaman; one puts his forefinger to the ground, then raises it to his head and says 'May God prolong thy majesty. The Shaikh then went out of the gate of the mosque, put on his sandals, ordered the qadi to put on his sandals and me to do likewise, and set out on foot for his residence, which is close to the mosque. All the [rest of the] people walked barefoot. Over his head were carried tour canopies of coloured silk, with the figure of a bird in gold on top of each canopy. His garments on that day were a large green mantle of Jerusalem stuff, with fine robes of Egyptian stuffs with their appendages (?) underneath it, and he was girt with a waist-wrapper of silk and turbaned with a large turban. In front of him were sounded drums [ṭubūl] and coiled trumpets [abwāq] and straight trumpets [anfār], and before and behind him were the commanders of the troops, while the qāḍį, the doctors of the law and the sharifs walked alongside him. He entered his audience-hall in this disposition, and the viziers, amīrs and officers of the troops sat down in a gallery there. For the qāḍī there was spread a rug, on which no one may sit but he, and beside him were the jurists and sharifs. They remained there until the hour of the afternoon prayer, and after they had prayed it, the whole body of troops came and stood in rows in order of their ranks. Thereafter the drums [aṭbāl], straight trumpets [anfār], coiled trumpets [abwāq] and zurnas [ṣurnāyāt] are sounded; while they play no person moves or stirs from his place, and anyone who is walking stands still, moving neither backwards nor forwards. When the playing of the drum-band [ṭablḫāna] comes to an end, they salute with their fingers as we have described and withdraw. This is a custom of theirs on every Friday.

376-377

1331 circa