This country has the province of Mosul and Meridin on the east, or Diarbekir; and on the north is Zorzania355, where there is a fountain that discharges a liquid resembling oil; which, though it cannot be used as a seasoning for meat, is yet useful for burning in lamps, and for many other purposes; and it is found in sufficient quantities to load camels, and to form a material object of commerce. In Zorzania is a prince named David Melic or King David; one part of the province being subject to him, while the other part pays tribute to a Tartar khan. The woods are mostly of box-trees. Zorzania extends between the Euxine and Caspian seas; which latter is likewise called the sea of Baccu, and is 2800 miles in circumference: but is like a lake, as it has no communication with any other sea. In it there are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which are inhabited by the people who fled from the Tartars out of Persia.
The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with others, and wear their hair short like the western clergy. There are many cities, and the country abounds in silk, of which they make many fine manufactures. Moxul or Mosul, is a province containing many sorts of people; some are called Arahi, who are Mahometans; others are Christians of various sects, as Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians; and they have a patriarch stiled Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots, whom he sends all over India, and to Cairo, and Bagdat, and wherever there are Christians, in the same manner as is done by the pope of Rome. All the stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are wrought in Moxul356. In the mountains of this country of Diarbekir, dwelt the people called Curds, some off whom are Nestorians or Jacobites, and other Mahometans. They are a lawless people, who rob the merchants that travel through their country. Near to them is another province called Mus, Meridin, or Mardin, higher up the Tigris than Mosul, wherein grows great quantities of cotton, of which they make buckrams357 and other manufactures. This province is likewise subject to the Tartars. Baldach, or Bagdat, is a great city in which the supreme caliph formerly resided, who was pope of all the Saracens. From this city it is counted seventeen days journey to the sea; but the river Tigris runs past, on which people sail to Balsora, where the best dates in the world grow, but in the passage between these; two cities there lies another named Chisi. In Bagdat are many manufactures of gold and silk, and damasks and velvets with figures of various creatures; in that city there is a university, where the law of Mahoment, physic, astronomy, and geomancy are taught; and from it come all the pearls in Christendom.
When the Tartars began to extend their conquests, there were four brothers who possessed the chief rule; of whom Mangu, the eldest, reigned in Sedia358. These brethren proposed to themselves to subdue the whole world, for which purpose one went to the east, another to the north, a third to the west, and Ulau or Houlagu went to the south in 1250, with an army of an hundred thousand horse, besides foot. Employing stratagem, he hid a great part of his force in ambush, and advancing with an inconsiderable number, enticed the caliph to follow him by a pretended flight; by this means he took the caliph prisoner, and made himself master of the city, in which he found such infinite store of treasure, that he was quite amazed. Sending for the caliph into his presence, he sharply reproved him, that, possessing such riches, he had not employed them in providing soldiers to defend his dominions; and commanded him to be shut up in the tower where his treasure was placed, without any sustenance.
This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ upon the caliph; for, in the year 1225, seeking to convert the Christians to the Mahometan superstition, and taking advantage of that passage in the gospel which says, "He that hath faith as a grain of mustard seed, shall be able to remove mountains," he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and Jacobites, and gave them their choice, "In ten days to remove a certain mountain, to turn Mahometans or to be slain;" alleging that there was not one among them who had the least grain of faith. The astonished and dismayed Christians continued ten days in prayer; when, by a revelation to a certain bishop, a certain shoemaker was chosen to perform this compulsatory miracle. This shoemaker was once tempted to lust in fitting a shoe to a young woman, and had literally and zealously performed the injunction of the gospel by putting out his right eye. On the day appointed by the caliph, he and all the Christians of the city followed the cross towards the mountain; then, lifting up his hands, he prayed to God to have mercy on his afflicted people, and, in a loud voice, commanded the mountain, in the name of the holy and ever blessed Trinity to remove: which it presently did, to the great astonishment and terror of the caliph and all his people, The anniversary of this day, and the evening before, is ever since kept holy by fasting and prayer359.
Tauris is a great city in the province of Hircania360, and is a very populous place. The inhabitants live by the exercise of manufacture and trade, fabricating, especially, stuffs of silk and gold. The foreign merchants who reside there make very great gains, but the inhabitants are generally poor. They are a mixed people, of Nestorians, Armenians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and Mahometans. These last are perfidious and treacherous people, who think all well got which they can filch or steal from those of other religions; and this wickedness of the Saracens has induced many of the Tartars to join their religion; and if a Saracen be killed by a Christian, even while engaged in the act of robbery, he is esteemed to have died a martyr. It is twelve days journey from Tauris to Persia361. In the confines stands the monastery of St Barasam, of which the monks resemble Carmelites: they make girdles, which they lay on the altars and give to their friends, who esteem them as holy. Persia is divided into eight kingdoms, viz. Casbin, Curdistan362, Laristan, Susistan or Chorassan, Spahan, Ispahan or Fars, Shiras363, Soncara364, and lastly Timochaim, which is near Arboreseco, towards the north365. Persia breeds excellent horses, which are sold to the Indies; also very good asses, which are sold for a higher price than the horses, because they eat little, carry much, and travel far. They have camels also, which, though not swift, are necessary in these countries, which, sometimes for a long way, yield no grass or water.
The people in these countries are very wicked and covetous, thieves and murderers, killing the merchants unless they travel in caravans, yet they profess to follow the law of Mahomet. In the cities there are excellent artificers in gold, silk, and embroidery; and the country abounds with silk-worms, wheat, barley, millet, and other kinds of grain, with plenty of fruits and wine; and though wine is forbidden by the Mahometan law, they have a gloss to correct or corrupt the text, saying, that when boiled, it changes its taste and name, and may be then drank.
Jasdi is a great city on the confines of Persia, which carries on a great trade, and has many manufactures of silk. Chiaman366 is a kingdom on the frontiers of Persia to the east, which is subject to the Tartars. In the veins of the mountains, the stones commonly called turquoises are found, and other valuable jewels. They here make all sorts of warlike weapons; and the women work admirably with the needle in silken embroidery, on which they pourtray the figures of various animals in a most beautiful manner. They have the best falcons in the world, which are red breasted, of very swift flight and more easily trained than those of other countries. Proceeding from Chiaman or Crerina, for eight days journey through a great plain, in which are many towns and castles, and many habitations, with abundance of game, you come to a great descent, in which there are abundance of fruit trees, but no habitations, except those of a few shepherds, though, in ancient times, it was well inhabited. From the city of Crerina to this descent, the cold, in winter, is quite insupportable. After descending for two days journey, you come to a wide plain, at the beginning of which is a city called Adgamad or Camandu, which, in ancient times, was large and populous, but is now destroyed by the Tartars. This plain is very warm, and the province is called Reobarle367, in which grow pomegranates, quinces, peaches, dates, apples of paradise, pistachios, and other fruits. The oxen are large, white, and thin haired, with thick short blunt horns, and having a hunch like a camel between the shoulders about two spans round. They are accustomed to bear great burthens, and when they are to be loaded, they are taught to bow their knees like camels, and rise again when loaded. The sheep of this country are as large as small asses, having such long and broad tails, that some of these weigh thirty pounds, and this part is most delicate and extremely rich food. In this plain there are many cities and towns, having high and thick ramparts of earth to defend them against the Caraons, who are a mixed race between Tartar fathers and Indian mothers, ten thousand of whom are commanded by one Nugodar, the nephew of Zagathai, who once ruled in Turkestan. This Nugodar having heard of the weakness of the Malabars subject to soldan Asiden, went, without his uncles knowledge, and took Dely and other cities, in which he erected a new sovereignty368; and his Tartar soldiers, by mixing with the women, of the country, produced this spurious breed called Caraons, who go up and down, committing depredations in Reobarle, and other neighbouring districts.
356
This manufacture from Mosul or Moxul, on the Tigris, must be carefully distinguished from the muslins of India, which need not be described.-E
357
These buckrams seem to have been some coarse species of cotton cloth, in ordinary wear among the eastern nations. The word occurs frequently, in these early travels in Tartary, but its proper meaning is unknown –E.
358
This word is inexplicable, unless by supposing it some corruption of
359
Marco Polo is no more answerable for the truth of this ridiculous legend of the 13th century, than the archbishop of Paris of the 19th is for many, equally absurd, that are narrated in the French national Catechism. Both were good catholics, and rehearsed what they had heard, and what neither of them pretended to have seen. –E.
365
Timochaim and Arboresecco are inexplicable, perhaps from corrupt transcription. But Timochaim appears to nave been Mekran on the coast of the Indian sea, and perhaps reached to the Indus, as observed in a former note; and it may have included Sigistan. –E.
366
Jasdi is almost certainly Yezd in Fars. Pinkerton considers Chiaman to be Crerina, which is impossible, as that place is afterwards named: Perhaps it may be the province named Timochaim, mentioned in the immediately preceding note. –E.
367
As the route may be considered as nearly in a straight line south from Yesd, Crerina may possibly be the city of Kerrnan, and the cold elevated plain, a table land between the top of the Ajuduk mountains and a nameless range to the south, towards Gambroon or Ormus. Adgamad being destroyed, cannot now be ascertained, but it must have stood on the fine plain above described, and at the bottom of these southern mountains. Reobarle is not to be found In our maps, but must have been a name for the province of Ormus. –E.
368
There is a series of corruptions or absurdities here: a