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I soon learnt 
more about the Sultan. It is very 
important to arrive in Delhi with expensive 
gifts for him. He then gives you back better gifts 
and lots of money. And in the end, you’re richer 
than before! So, I got thirty beautiful horses and 
three camels for the Sultan. Remember that, Ahmed: 
when you meet a new ruler, always arrive with gifts!
When we first came to Delhi, the Sultan was away. But 
when he heard about me, he made me one of his judges. 
I was now a rich and important man! I was, of course, 
excited to meet him when he arrived home. His house was 
very big, and I needed to walk through door after door to 
find his room. He sat there on a gold chair with soldiers 
all about him. He took my hand, and spoke warmly to me 
for some time. 
The next day, I went by horse with the Sultan and his 
soldiers through the streets of Delhi. Lots of men on 
elephants came after us. They left gold money on the 
road behind them when they went past, and people ran 
here and there to find it!
gift something 
that you give to 
someone
gold expensive 
yellow metal
soldier a person 
in an army
elephant a very 
big animal with a 
long nose
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16
trouble
problems
enemy (plural 
enemies) 
someone who is 
not your friend
fight (past 
fought) to hit 
someone again 
and again
tusk these are 
long and white; an 
elephant has two 
of them next to
its mouth
The Sultan could write beautifully, and he could speak 
four different languages. But he was often angry, too. 
Every day he asked his soldiers to kill people, sometimes for 
very little things. I needed to be very careful.
For two years, my work went well. But then the Sultan 
began to have trouble with his enemies. One ruler near 
Delhi fought with him. And what did the Sultan do with 
his enemy when he found the man?
Well, Sultan Muhammad had lots of elephants, and he 
took some of them and put big knives on their tusks. He 
then put his enemy in front of the elephants. The animals 
played with the man. They moved their knives up and 
down and cut his body open. He died, of course, and it was 
a very bad thing for us all to watch.
I took a wife, a wonderful woman, to live with me in my 
house in Delhi. But then my wife’s father began to fight 
with the Sultan. This wasn’t good because people began 
to speak badly about me. Perhaps I was an enemy of the 
Sultan too, they said.
Then something worse happened. A famous holy man 
– Shaikh Shihab Al-Din – lived on a hill near Delhi. I was 
very interested in him, and I sometimes visited his home.
But Sultan Muhammad was very angry with Shaikh 
Shihab Al-Din. He asked the holy man to do many different 
things, but Shaikh Shihab always said ‘No’ to him. So in 
the end, the Sultan’s men went and killed the holy man! 
And when the Sultan asked about the holy man’s friends, 
people gave my name to him! ‘Is Sultan Muhammad going 
to be angry with me?’ I thought. ‘What can I do? I can’t 
run away from him because then his soldiers are going to 
come and kill me too.’
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