وفد مالي بالزرافة إلى فاس (762هـ)

وفد مالي بالزرافة إلى فاس (762هـ)

دسمبر 1360 عیسوی · صفر 762 ھ

فاس

In Safar 762 AH the embassy of Mali's king Mansa Sulayman reached Fez bearing their sultan's gift — a giraffe, that strange-formed, huge-bodied creature — in return for Sultan Abu al-Hasan's own embassy; it was a celebrated day, the sultan seated at the Tower of Gold in review while crowds climbed over one another to behold the giraffe and poets declaimed praise, the envoys greeting the sultan by tossing dust on their heads and confirming the interpreter's words by twanging their bowstrings, excusing the gift's delay by the struggle for Mali's throne after Mansa Sulayman's death.