CHAPTER XXXIII.
[(1.)] “Thaures.”—Tabreez, founded by Zobeide the wife of Haroun-al-Rashid, was long distinguished for the extent of its commercial relations, in which the Genoese and Venetians took part. Although frequently pillaged at the hands of enemies, notably by Janibek in 1357, and by Toktamish in 1387, Tabreez soon recovered from its misfortunes. This capital even became the principal depôt for merchandise from India and China, after the destruction of the cities of Ourjenj and Astrahan by Timour, who established a commodious route between Tabreez and Samarkand by way of Kashin and Soultanyà. Schiltberger’s statement as to the custom’s revenue at Tabreez, will not seem exaggerated in presence of the fact, that in 1460 it amounted to 60,000 ducats. Ramusio observes that Tabreez, the great depôt, rivalled Paris in its magnificence, and in the number of its inhabitants.—Bruun.
(1A.) Writing in 1868, Abbott (Persian Azerbaijan, MS.) says that Tabreez was the principal seat of commerce in all Persia, and the mart from which nearly all the northern and midland countries were supplied with the produce and manufactures of Europe, conveyed to it chiefly by land transport from the Black Sea; the yearly value was estimated at £1,750,000, the value of goods imported from England being probably three-fourths of that sum. The city contained about 3100 shops of all descriptions; thirty karavansaraïs, occupied by merchants and traders; and about forty others devoted to the accommodation of muleteers and their cattle. Abbott adds, that the commerce of Tabreez had made great advances since 1830, having increased eight-fold in 1860.—Ed.
[(2.)] “Rei.”—After passing Teheran, upon the occasion of his journey from Soultanyà to Samarkand, Clavijo perceived, at a distance of two leagues, a great city in ruins ... “but there appeared towers and mosques, and the name of the place was Xahariprey”—Shehri-Rei, the city of Rei, “at one time the largest city in all the land”, says Khanikoff, “though it is now uninhabited”. But Rey did not remain long thus unpeopled, because the Russian merchant Nikitin (who visited India thirty years before Vasco de Gama), though leaving Teheran unnoticed, as does Schiltberger, speaks of his stay at Rey, where he witnessed the celebration of the famous Persian festival, instituted in commemoration of the death of Hussein, the son of Ali and grandson of the prophet. (Poln. Sobr., etc., vi, 332.)—Bruun.
(2A.) To the above might be added the evidence of Ibn Haukal, that there was not in the eastern regions any city more flourishing. Rey was celebrated for its gates, for its many remarkable quarters and streets, its numerous bazaars, karavansaraïs, and market-places. The fine linen, camelot, and cotton manufactured at Rey, was sent to all parts of the world. Late travellers have found its site marked by hollows and mounds; mouldering towers, tombs, and wells, constructed of burnt and sun-dried materials (Ker Porter, Travels in Georgia, Persia, etc., 1822; Mounsey, Journey through the Caucasus, etc., 1872). In the 3rd century of Mahomedanism, Rey was specially noted for its wealth, and was styled, The First of Cities—The Spouse of the World—The Market of the Universe. (Chardin, Langlès edition, ii, 411.)—Ed.
[(3.)] “Raphak.”—If Schiltberger’s companions, when on his journey to Rey or Rhe, were Sunnites, they probably looked upon the people of that city as apostates from the faith; for “Raphak”, therefore, we should read Raphadzhy—abjurer—a term applied to renegades. These disciples admit themselves to be Shey—partisans—whence the term Shyites, and in the present instance they were evidently called by the opprobrious name of Raphadzy, as being apostates, by those of a different sect. Ibn Batouta met at Kotaïf (Katiff of Benjamin of Tudela), on the Persian Gulf, some Arabs of the Rafiza sect, who were most enthusiastic, publishing their sentiments everywhere, and fearing no one.
There are Shyite Tatars in Transcaucasia, chiefly in the valley of the Araxes, also in the richly cultivated province of Ouroumyeh, the seat of the Christian Nestorians, where they people eight villages. These Shyites call themselves Ali Allahy—Worshippers of Ali—and are not averse to drinking wine.—Ed.
[(4.)] “Nachson.”—Clavijo (Hakluyt Soc. Publ., 80) sojourned for a time in a city which he calls Calmarin, and attributes its foundation to a son of Noah. This place was probably Sourmalou on the Araxes, taken by Timour in 1385. Tutan, the Turkoman who resided here, might have been the “Tetani, Emperor of Tartary”, who, according to Clavijo, had conquered the place, though only a viceroy. There was a Titanus, Vicarius Canlucorum, of the Genoese, in 1449; the Tautaun, Taudoun, of the Avares and Khozars. Two days before reaching Calmarin, Clavijo passed the night in a town called Naujua, where there were many Armenians, which must have been the “Nachson” of Schiltberger, now known as Nahitchevan.—Bruun.
[(5.)] “Maragara.”—There are numerous remains of ancient fortifications on the heights around Meragha. In a westerly direction, at a distance of thirteen miles to the south-west of Tabreez, are the foundations of a round tower, believed to have been the celebrated observatory of Khodja Nazr uddin—defensor fidei—the friend of Houlakon, who transferred his residence to Meragha after the capture of Baghdad in 1258. To this day is shown his tomb,[1] and that of his wife Dogous or Dokouz Khatoun, the protectress of Christians, but especially of Nestorians, in whose doctrines she had great faith (Hammer, Gesch. der Ilchane, etc., i, 82). Shortly after her death, the patriarch, Iabellasa, agreed to recognise the supremacy of the Pope, the act having been presented to Benedict II. by a Dominican friar named Jacob. Mosheim (Hist. Tartarorum Eccles., 92) pronounces against the authenticity of this document, an opinion shared by Heyd (Die Colon. der Römisch. Kirche, etc., 322), on the grounds that it was signed at Meragha. It may, however, be contended that the patriarch might have resided for a time at Meragha, after the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols, considering that his successors had no fixed residence to 1559, in which year the patriarch Elias definitively established the seat at Mosoul; and that a tradition is preserved amongst the Nestorians or Chaldæans of Kourdistan, to the effect that their ancestors, who had resisted Timour, were domiciled between the lakes Van and Ouroumyeh.
In the early part of the 14th century, another brother preacher, Jordanus Catalani, recorded in his Mirabilia (Hakluyt Soc. Publ., 9), that those schismatics had adopted the Catholic faith in several cities of Persia, to wit, at Tabreez, Soultanyà, and at “Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant about two days from Tabriz”. Heyd says that this Ur cannot be Orfa, a town in central Mesopotamia, which has been identified with the Ur-Khasdim of the Arabians (Ritter, Die Erdkunde etc., x, 333); but is more probably the ancient city of Maranda, not far from the lake Ouroumyeh and fifty miles only from Tabreez. But Meragha was, in like manner, at no great distance from the said lake, and only twenty-four miles, or, according to Hadjy Khalpha, seven farsangs from Tabreez; we are, therefore, justified in concluding, that it was this place the friar designated as Ur of the Chaldees, especially as it was a large city and a bishop’s see in 1320 (Galanus, Concil. Eccl. Arm. cum Rom., i, 508; quoted by Heyd, 324). The same cannot be said of Maranda.
Bartholomew of Bologna has given evidence of his zeal, in the fact that many of the Armenian clergy went over to the Church of Rome, and with the view of cementing this union, a new Order, “Fratres prædicatores Uniti”, was founded and affiliated to the Dominicans, whose head-centre was at Meragha. But the theory propounded by Bishop Aïvazoffsky is worthy of consideration, viz., that Ur is no other than Urmi or Ormi, a town of some size, hitherto largely inhabited by Nestorian Chaldæans, and that has given its name to the lake Ourmiah, Ormi, or Ouroumyeh. It is believed to be the birth-place of Zoroaster, who might have been mistaken for Abraham as easily as he has been for Moses.—Bruun.
[1]Abbott says (Persian Azerbaijan, MS.) that the tomb of Houlakou, or its reputed site, is pointed out near the town of Meragha.—Ed.
[(6.)] “Gelat.”—Khelat was taken in 1229 by the sultan, Jalaluddin, after a three days’ siege. Aboulfeda quotes Abou Said, who says that it rivalled Damascus. Bakui (Not. et Extr., ii, 513) extols Khelat for its good water, fruit, and the fish taken from the lake, especially the tamrin, possibly the dorakine found in the Kour, as related by Ystachry (Mordtmann edition, 1845). The numerous ruins in the neighbourhood are of the time when Akhlat was the residence of the Shahy Armen—kings of Armenia; they include those of a superb palace, of gorgeous tombs, artificial grottoes, and of a fortress on the shore of Lake Van. Khelat is now a miserable hamlet occupied by Kurds.—Bruun.
(6A.) Khelat, Ghelath, Ashlath, was long the residence of a suffragan bishop of the Armenian Church.—Ed.
[(7.)] “Kirna.”—On the Gharny-tchaï, a tributary of the Zenga, east of Erivan, is Gharny or Bash Gharny, now an insignificant village, but at one time a place of considerable importance. According to the old Armenian chroniclers, Kharny was founded 2000 B.C. by a prince Keghamè, who named it after himself; but the name was afterwards changed by Kharnig, the grandson of Keghamè, to Kharny. It was here that Tiridates, 286–314, constructed for his favourite sister a superb residence, to which Moses Chorensis (Whiston edition, 1736), the Armenian chronicler of the 5th century, thus refers: “Per id tempus Tiridates castelli Garnii ædificationem absolvit, quod quadratis et cæsis lapidibus, ferro et plumbo coagmentatis construxit, atque ibi umbraculum statuit et monumentum mirifica arte cælatum, pro sorore sua Chosroiduchta, in eoque memoriam sui græcis literis inscripsit.” This remarkable edifice is alluded to by Kiracos of Gantzac, also an Armenian chronicler, of the 13th century, as “the marvellous throne of Tiridates”, in front of the cemetery of Kharny (Hist. d’Arménie trans. by M. Brosset, St. Petersburg, 1870). It is now a heap of ruins, known to the natives as Takht Dertad—Throne of Tiridates.
At a short distance above Gharny, also on the Gharny-tchaï in the Goktcha valley, is the venerable monastery of Aïrits vank, Ghergarr or Keghart, noted for its memorial inscriptions of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries (The Crimea and Transc., i, 211, 221).—Ed.
[(8.)] “the priests are of the Order of Preachers, and sing in the Armenian tongue.”—What Schiltberger says with regard to “Meya”—Magou—is confirmed by Clavijo (Hakluyt Soc. Publ., 83). “On Sunday, the first of June, at the hour of vespers, they came to a castle called Maca, belonging to a Catholic Christian called Noradin, and the people who lived in it were Catholic Christians, though they were by birth and language Armenians, and they also knew the Tartar and Persian tongues. In this place there was a monastery of Dominican friars. The castle was in a valley, at the foot of a very high rock, and there was a village on a hill above, and on the top of the hill there was a wall of stone and mortar, with towers, and against the wall there were houses. There was also another wall with towers, and the entrance to it was by a great tower, built to guard it, along steps cut in the rocks. Near the second wall there were houses cut in the rock, and in the centre were some towers and houses, where the lord lived, and here all the people in the village kept their provisions. The rock was very high, and rose above the walls and houses; and from the rocks an overhanging part stretched out, which covers the castle, walls, and houses, like the heaven that is above them.”—Bruun.
(8A.) Tradition asserts that Makou, Makouyeh, in the Armenian province of Artazo-Tasht, to the east of Ararat and south of the Araxes, is built over the place where St. Thaddeus suffered martyrdom. The fortress is situated in a gorge above the village (J. Saint Martin, Mém. sur l’Arménie, i, 135).—Ed.
[(9.)] “Ress.”—Resht, the chief town of Ghilan, a place of great commercial importance in Schiltberger’s time, is distant six miles from the Caspian Sea. The Genoese and Venetians secured the rich produce of this province, especially the silken stuffs made there or imported from Yezd and Kashan. Marco Polo (Yule, i, 54) speaks of silk called Ghellè, after the name of the country on the Sea of Ghel or Ghelan—the Caspian.—Bruun.
[(10.)] “Strawba.”—Schiltberger changes Astrabad to “Strawba”, just as his Italian contemporaries have called the place Strava, Strevi, and Istarba. Its commerce was not considerable, but Astrabad was of some importance as being the depôt for merchandise in transit across the Caspian, from India and Bokhara.—Bruun.
[(11.)] “Antioch.”—Several cities of Asia were in ancient times called Antiochia. Stephen of Byzantium knew of eight, two of which, Edessa and Nisibis, were in Migdonia; and as each, in its turn, had become the foremost bulwark of Christianity, their possession was frequently disputed by the Infidels. Allusion is made in the text to Nisibis, with its ramparts of brick, rather than to Edessa, which was encircled by whitewashed walls.—Bruun.
[(12.)] “Aluitza.”—If the author here alludes to the same fortress (Alindsha ?) as is mentioned in chapter 16, of which there can scarcely be a doubt, that is to say, the fortress in which Ahmed ben Oweis kept his treasure; then the story of its siege by Timour for the space of sixteen years, was a gross exaggeration on the part of his informants, because we know from contemporary authors that the siege of Alindsha lasted eight years only.—Bruun.
[(13.)] “There is a city called Scheckhy; it is in a fertile country near the White Sea.”—It will be generally admitted that this White Sea is no other than the Caspian. Hammer (note, p. 45) says it was so called to distinguish it from the Black Sea; but Wahl (Allg. Beschr. d. persischen Reichs, ii, 679) attributes the distinctive name to the petrified shells, white and gray sand, with which the bed of the sea is overspread. It is pretty certain that White Sea is not a name invented by the author, but that he supplies us with the literal translation of the Georgian words—Tetrysea and Sywa, which have a similar signification, and are even now employed to designate the Caspian Sea. Hammer is mistaken in saying that Schiltberger called the eastern shore of the Caspian by the name of Scherky, as the word appears in Penzel, and which is simply a corruption of “Scheckhy”, now known as Sheky, on the left bank of the river Kour, between Georgia, the districts of Gandja, Shirwan and Daghestan. It is said that this part of the country was occupied as early as the 10th century by the Shekis or Shekines, a Christian people given to commerce and industrial pursuits (D’Ohsson, Des Peup. du Cauc. 18, and note xiv).—Bruun.
[(14.)] “the kingdom Horoson, and its capital is called Hore.”—As stated by Neumann, these places are intended for Khorasan and Herat. According to Masoudi (Ritter, Die Erdkunde etc., x. 65), there existed at the time of the conquest of Hira near the Euphrates, circa A.D. 637, the negotiator Abd-el-Mesy, a man greatly revered by the Arabs in consequence of his wisdom and great age. He had attained his 350th year, and enjoyed the distinction of being considered, if not a saint, at least a servant of God, that is to say, an Ibadite or Jacobite Christian.
Ibn Haukal states that the city of Hira, which was still in existence in the time of Edrisi (Recueil des Voy. et des Mém., iii, 366), was distant one farsang from Koufa, which with Basra was called Basraten—dualis of Basra—or the two Basras, the metropolis of the Nestorians at Basra being known as Euphrates Pherat Mesene or Perat Meissan, a name it had borne since A.D. 310. We are informed by Eastern writers, that at Konfa was the tomb of the saint, Adam (Ritter, Die Erdkunde etc., x, 179–184), a name that reminds us of “Phiradamschyech”, whose age coincided with that of Abd-el-Mesy.
Schiltberger may perhaps have applied to Herat, which he visited, the legend of Hira, a Shyite place of pilgrimage.—Bruun.
[(15.)] “Phiradamschyech.”—This is one of the few names in Schiltberger’s narrative that appears somewhat difficult to determine. Pir, in Persian, signifies an old, a venerable man; also, a chief. Sheykh has a similar meaning in Arabic. Adam is the Persian, Turkish, and Arabic for man; so that “Phiradamschyech” consists of three substantives, and being interpreted, reads thus: A chief—a man—a chief.
A very similar story is related by Ibn Batouta, Schiltberger’s predecessor by about fifty years. After passing the Hindu Kush, he got to a mountain called Bashai where he saw in a cell an old man named Ata Evlia—Father of the Saints—said to be 350 years old, but who appeared to be about fifty. Every hundred years he had a new growth of teeth and hair. There is no doubt whatever of Ibn Batouta’s own incredulity as to the reputed history of this man, to whom he put several questions, which, being unsatisfactorily answered, caused him to apprehend that there was no truth in the wonderful statements made about him.—Ed.
[(16.)] “Schiras.”—“Kerman.”—Sheeraz, the birth place of Saadi and Hafiz, two of the most celebrated and popular poets of Persia, was so called, says a rare Persian manuscript, after a word in the old Persick language signifying—Lion’s paunch—because all the wealth of every town in the same region was transported thither not to return elsewhere (Ouseley, Travels, etc., ii, 23). Edrisi’s definition (Jaubert edition, 392) is somewhat clearer, for he says that the name was given because the place consumed without producing anything. This city is said to have been founded in the earliest years of Islam; the walls, which measured 12,500 paces in circumference, being constructed in the 10th century. Kazvini (quoted by Ouseley) observed nine gates, and in 1811 Ouseley saw six only. Ibn Haukal (Ouseley edition, 101) wrote of Sheeraz as being a modern city.
In 1627, Sir Thomas Herbert (Travels into Divers Parts, etc., 127) found some of the old walls of “the pleasantest of Asiatick cities” still standing, but in Chardin’s time (Langlès edition, viii, 414) they had disappeared. The present fortifications, erected by Kerim Khan in the middle of the 18th century, were ruined by Aga Mohammed Shah after the struggle between the Zund and Kujjar families. They are of the extent of about three and a half miles, and were originally of such massive construction, that it was said three horsemen might have ridden abreast on them. The population in 1850 was estimated at 35,000 to 40,000; but the general want of employment begat amongst the people that disposition for mischief, brawls and insurrections, for which the place was remarkable beyond any other town in Persia (Abbott, Southern Cities of Persia, MS.).
Kirman, also visited by Abbott, is encircled by walls of two and a half miles to three miles in circumference, and had a population (1850) not exceeding 25,000. The appearance of this town and the scenery around, are extremely unpromising and dreary, from the scarcity of trees, the little cultivation, and the few villages about. A vastly different condition to the “good country” noted by Schiltberger, and the statement of Marco Polo (Yule, i, 92), that on quitting the city of Kerman “you ride on for seven days, always finding towns, villages, and handsome dwelling-houses, so that it is very pleasant travelling”.
Abbott says further, that Kirman was not of much commercial importance, being so far removed from the direct lines of communication between other chief places, and being adjacent to vast and unproductive regions.
It is by no means clear that Schiltberger was ever at Kirman; but if his account of that town and of the islands in the Persian Gulf is given from personal observation, which is very doubtful, it is possible that he followed the same route as traced by Colonel Yule in Marco Polo’s Itineraries, No. ii.—Ed.
[(17.)] “Keschon”, “Hognus”, “Kaff”.—Kishm, Hormuz, and Kais, are three islands in the Persian Gulf, which, however, Schiltberger does not particularise as such. Kishm, the largest of the three, is called by the Persians, Draz Jazyra—Long Island—the more familiar name being Harkh. An excellent harbour is formed on the south side by the island of Angar. Kishm was occupied in 1622 by an English force, which destroyed a fort the Portuguese had erected the previous year, one of the few Englishmen killed upon the occasion being William Baffin who in 1616 sailed round Baffin’s Bay.
Colonel Yule (Marco Polo, i, 113) has clearly established the site of ancient Hormuz on the main land, a city that was abandoned for the island of Zarun, afterwards Hormuz, in 1315 (Ouseley, Travels, etc., i, 157), as a protection, says Aboulfeda, from the repeated incursions of the Tatars. Already, in the days of Ibn Batouta, who mentions both Old and New Hormuz (Lee edition, 63), was Harauna, the new city and residence of the king, a large and beautiful place; and Friar Oderic, his contemporary, remarks on the efficient fortifications of Ormes, and its great store of merchandise and treasure; so that its reputation as a great commercial depôt was well established in Schiltberger’s time. Of the many travellers who have described the island, Varthema, 1503–1508 (Hakluyt Soc. Publ., 94), reported, that as many as three hundred vessels belonging to different countries were sometimes assembled at the noble city of Ormus, which was extremely beautiful; and some years later, 1563, Cesare Federici (Hakluyt Voyages, ii, 342) noticed a great trade there in all sorts of spice, drugs, silk, cloth of silk, brocardo, and other merchandise. Hormuz, like Kishm, was also recovered from the Portuguese by the English for Shah Abbas in 1623, until which period it was a stately and rich place, of which the inhabitants made the boast that “if the world were a ring, Ormus must be considered as the diamond”.
The city has now completely disappeared, and over the space of about one square mile of its site may be seen, here and there, the foundations of houses, those near the sea being the most visible. In the neighbourhood are several hundred reservoirs, and many Mussulman tombs, some of which are enclosed within domed buildings that had some pretensions to architecture (Persian Gulf Pilot, 1870, 148).
Kais is mentioned by many authors as being a place of considerable importance. It was the ancient Καταία (Nearchi Paraplus ex Arriano, 31; Hudson edition, i), is called Keis by the Arabs, is named Ken by Kinnear (Memoirs of the Persian Empire, 17), and appears in the Admiralty chart as Kais or Gais, inhabited by pearl fishers. Yagout (Barbier de Meynard, Dict. Géog., etc., 499) in the 13th century says of Kisch, that it was the residence of the sovereigns of Oman, whose authority extended over all the sea, on which they were very powerful; it was the place of call for vessels trading between Fars and India, and a celebrated pearl fishery. Kazvini (Kosmographie, 235) speaks of Kis as the resort of merchants who went there to trade; and Benjamin of Tudela, a century earlier, describes it as being a port of transit.
The ancient town of Harira is now represented by tottering masses of masonry; a portion of a minaret of well cut stone, and many fallen pillars of the mosque to which the minaret belonged, being the only architectural remains. Great quantities of broken pottery, some of fine quality, lie scattered among the débris. At a distance of a quarter of a mile are large reservoirs for water, all faced with masonry, but in a sad state of decay; some measure 120 ft. in length, by 24 ft., and are 24 ft. in depth.
Admitting the authority of a Persian manuscript, says Ouseley (l. c., i, 170), the name of the island may be assigned to the 10th century, when one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Siraf, embarked for India with his sole property, a cat. There he arrived at a fortunate time, for the king’s palace was infested with mice. Keis produced his cat, the noxious animals disappeared, and the adventurer of Siraf was magnificently rewarded. He returned to his home, but afterwards settled with his mother and brothers on the island, which was named Keis, or, according to the Persians, Keish. Modern attempts to rationalise Whittington may surely be given up, observes Colonel Yule with reference to this story related by Wassaf.—Ed.
[(18.)] “Walaschoen.”—This name, employed also by Orientals, is now Badakshan, called Badashan by Marco Polo, who says that rubies were found in the province. Ibn Haukal was also aware that Badakshan yielded rubies and lapis-lazuli, and Ibn Batouta asserts that the rubies (balas rubies) from the mountains of Badakshan were commonly called Ak Balaksh. A river flowed from these mountains, the water of which was as white as that of the sea. He adds that Jengiz, king of the Tatars, ruined the country, so that it never flourished afterwards. Judging, however, from Schiltberger’s account, it is probable that its condition had improved.
The unicorns may have been horses of a good breed, as alluded to by Marco Polo (Yule, i, 166), who states that, “not long ago they possessed in that province a breed of horses from the strain of Alexander’s horse, Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a particular mark on the forehead”. If we consider that in the time of Timour, the nationality of the inhabitants, the military administration, and the breed of horses in this country, were the same as in the days of Kublai, the ruler had, no doubt, ever been a “None”, Nono, which Marco Polo (idem, i, 183) gives as the equivalent for Count. Whatever the origin and primitive significations of this term, I may, perhaps, not be far out in asserting, that in the present instance it designated a noyon or myriarch, such as was Jebe, the vanquisher of the Russians at the battle of the Kalka in 1223 (Berezin, Nashestvye Mongolov, 226), and Noë, Duke of Sousdal, who, at about the same period, gave to Julian the missionary, letters of recommendation to Bela IV., King of Hungary (Kunik, Outch. Zap., etc., iii, 739), and Tolak Timour the cruel governor of Soudak (Zap. Odess. Obstschest., v, 507).—Bruun.
(18A.) When Captain Wood was in Badakshan, he was told that the valley of Meshid was extremely populous in former times, and a legend was current to the effect that it used to be greatly infested with scorpions (Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, 1872). Colonel Yule thinks, that if the existence of unicorns was not a mere fable, the animal referred to was probably the rhinoceros, at that time common in the country near Peshawur—not very far from Badakshan.—Ed.