|
“From Alaya I went to Antaliya [Adalia], a most beautiful city. It covers an immense area, and though of vast bulk is one of the most attractive towns to be seen anywhere, besides being exceedingly populous and well laid out. Each section of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Christian merchants live in a quarter of the town known as the Mina [the Port], and are surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut upon them from without at night and during the Friday service. The Greeks, who were its former inhabitants, live by themselves in another quarter, the Jews in another, and the king and his court and mamluks in another, each of these quarters being walled off likewise. The rest of the Muslims live in the main city. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned there is another great wall.
 “The town contains orchards and produces fine fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot, called by them Qamar ad-Din, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt, where it is regarded as a great luxury. The cool springs in the heat of the summer are well-known by everybody. We stayed here at the madrasa of the town, the principal of which was Shaykh Shihab ad-Din al-Hamawi…
“The day after our arrival at Antaliya one of the akhi youths came to Shaykh Shihab ad-Din al-Hamawi and spoke to him in Turkish, which I did not understand at that time. He was wearing old clothes and had a felt bonnet on his head. The shaykh said to me “Do you know what he is saying?” “No,” said I, “I do not know.” He answered, “He is inviting you and your company to eat a meal with him.” I was astonished but I said “Very well,” and when the man had gone I said to the shaykh “He is a poor man, and is not able to entertain us, and we do not like to be a burden on him.” The shaykh burst out laughing and said “He is one of the shaykhs of the Young Brotherhood. He is a cobbler and a man of generous disposition. His companions, about two hundred men belonging to different trades, have made him their leader and have built a hospice to entertain their guests. All that they earn by day they spend at night…”
|
