Abu Dulaf al-Yanbui

Abu Dulaf al-Yanbu'i, a traveller whom Ibn al-Nadim quoted on the lands of India and China. ¹

Ibn al-Nadim relates his description of the idol-houses of India: one house built of gold inlaid with jewels, which no rain or flood reaches, and another whose walls are of gold and whose roofs are of Indian aloes-wood. He says that the people of the sect have an ancient house containing idols that speak to the worshippers and answer them. ²

He is quoted as saying that the city of the great king is called Hamdan, that the city of the merchants is Khanqu and is forty leagues long, and that China has three hundred inhabited cities. He describes the king's religion and that of the great men as Dualist and Samaniyya, and says that a traveller writes down his lineage, description, age and what he has with him, and that the king does not appoint an agent until he is forty. ³

• These are accounts related by a traveller and attributed to Ibn al-Nadim. They need an additional source.