This date is fixed by a statement of the writer of the Itinerary:—"Item
ambulavimus Dalmatio et Dalmaticei Zenophilo cons. iii. Kal. Jun. a
Kalcidonia, et reversi sumus ad Constantinopolim vii. Kalend. Jan. consule
suprascripto." We know from the historians that Flavius Valerius Dalmatius
(brother of the emperor Constantine) and Marcus Aurelius Xenophilus
were consuls together in 333.
St. Jerome, in one of his Epistles, has given us the history of the adventures
of St. Paula. The lives of the other saints mentioned here will be
found in the large collection of the Bollandists. The abstract given here is
taken from the Essay on Early Pilgrimages, by the Baron Walckenaer, inserted
in Michaud's History of the Crusades.
An interesting volume of these narratives, translated into French, and
accompanied with valuable notes, has recently been published under the
title, "Itineraires de la Terre Sainte des xiii, xive, xve, xvie, and xviie siècles,
traduits de l'Hébreu, par E. Carmoly," Brussels, 1847.
"Et sachiez que je eusse mis ce livre en Latin pour plus briefment
deviser; mais pour ce que plusieurs entendent mieux Français que Latin,
l'ai-je mis en Rommant à celle fin que chascun l'entende, et les seigneurs et
chevaliers et aultres qui n'entendent pas le Latin." See on this subject,
and on Maundeville's narrative, M. D'Avezac's preface to his edition of "Plan
de Carpin," pp. 29-33.
Jerusalem was first captured by the Saracens, under the khalif Omar,
in 637, about sixty years before it was visited by Arculf. The patriarch
Sophronius, when requested by Omar to point out a place for the erection
of a mosque, is said to have taken him to the ruins on the site of Solomon's
Temple, which had been deserted by the Christians, and where the
building known as the Mosque of Omar was subsequently built. Until
Arculf's time, the Mohammedans appear, however, to have had but a rough
and temporary erection, unless the worthy bishop's pious zeal would not allow
him to speak of the mosque otherwise than disrespectfully.
It was a very old article of popular belief, founded on a literal interpretation
of the words of Ps. lxxiv. 12, that Jerusalem was the centre, or, as it
was often expressed, the navel, of the world; and it is so exhibited in nearly
all the medieval maps.
Dr. Clarke is the only modern traveller who has given any notice of
these subterranean chambers or pits, which he supposes to have been ancient
places of idolatrous worship.
Damascus was taken by the Arabs in 634. By the capitulation, the
Christians were to have seven churches; but one of the Arabian leaders
having broken into the city before the capitulation was completed, it was
only very partially observed.
Alexandria fell into the power of the Arabs in 640. The account given
of the city by Arculf would lead us to believe that its prosperity and importance
were not so suddenly reduced by that event as is generally believed.
Urbs Elephantorum. The town of Elephantina, famous for its interesting
monuments, situate on the Nile, just below the cataracts. It is to be presumed
that Arculf had visited this place; and perhaps he had here seen
the crocodiles subsequently described, as those animals are said not to be
found in Lower Egypt. It must, however, be observed, that St. Antoninus,
who visited Egypt in the seventh century, appears to have seen crocodiles in
Lower Egypt. See his Life, in the Act. Sanct. of the Bollandists.
The subsequent history of the supposed real cross, or rather the supposed
fragments of it, which were scattered as relics over Christian Europe, would
fill a volume. It was pretended that it was brought to France by Charlemagne.
This evidently corresponds to the Πυγελα (or Pygela) of Strabo, which
he calls πολίχνιον, a little town. Stephanus and Pomponius Mela also write
Pygela, but Pliny has it Phygala. The site is now, according to Hamilton,
(Trav. vol. ii. p. 22,) covered with fragments of Roman tiles and pottery;
and near the road is the foundation of a large marble building, apparently a
temple.
Mr. Ainsworth, with whom I have consulted on this name, observes,
"I can only suppose that we must read Trogilium for Strobolem, or that the
latter was the native corruption of Trogilium, the name, according to Ptolemy,
of the promontory which lies between Ephesus and the Meander, and which
is opposite the island of Samos." In the Acts of the Apostles, xx. 15, it is
written, "And we sailed thence, (Mitylena,) and came the next day over
against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at
Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus."
The passage in the original is rather obscure. The later anonymous life
of St. Willibald says that they came to the mount of the Galani, which
having been ravaged by war, they were distressed for want of provisions.
"Navim demum ingressi, ad montem Galanorum transfretarunt; quo bellorum
tempestate tunc temporis depilato sævam passi sunt inediam."
The Arca of Ptolemy, placed in the Antonine Itinerary, 18 M.P. from
Tripolis, and 32 M.P. from Antaradon. Josephus (De Bel. Jud., lib. vii. c. 13)
says the Gentiles called this Phœnician town Arcæa or Arcena. It is now
called Tele Arka.
i. e. Emir, or commander of the faithful. Willibald, not understanding
the language, translated the title of the khalif into the name of a king, whom
the biographer calls Mirmumni. In a similar manner the old Spanish and
English historians frequently turned the same title into the name Miramomelin.
The khalif here alluded to was Yézid II.
Lions were ever of very rare occurrence in Syria: perhaps it was some
other wild animal peculiar to the country that Willibald saw. It may, however,
be pointed out as a curious illustration of the words of Jeremiah (xlix.
19, and l. 44), "He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan."
Infernus Theodorici. In the legends of this age, the craters of volcanoes
were believed to be entrances to hell. A hermit, who resided on the
Isle of Lipari, told a friend of pope Gregory the Great that he had seen the
soul of the Gothic king, Theodoric, thrown into the crater of the Isle of
Vulcano (Gregor. Magn. Dialog., lib. iv. c. 30). Hence the name given to
it in Willibald's narrative.
The Saracens had established themselves at Bari in the early part of the
century, and it was now the head seat of their power on the coast of Italy.
Their predatory excursions into the territory of Beneventum caused the
emperor Louis II. to prepare an expedition against them, and he took Bari
after a siege of four years, and returned to Beneventum in 871, while his
troops laid siege to Tarentum, which, however, was not taken from the
Saracens till a somewhat later period. The Christian captives mentioned by
Bernard, as carried in such numbers into slavery in Africa and Egypt, had
been carried off in the incursions into the territory of Beneventum. To judge
from the numbers embarked in one ship, they must have been packed up almost
as close as negroes in a slave-ship.
This is the Egyptian Babylon, now Fostat, or, as it is often called, Old
Cairo. Bagdad (Bagada) was, for many ages, the capital of the Saracen
empire, and residence of the khalifs. It is doubtful what place is meant
by Axinarri, which, in Mabillon's text, is called Axiam.
This was the patriarch Michael I., who ruled over the Melchite portion
of the Coptic Christians from 859 to 871. There was at this time a schism
among the Christians of Egypt.
Of the places here visited by Bernard, Sitinulh is perhaps Menuph; Malla
is Mahalleh; and Tamnis is Tennis, or Tennesus, the field of Thanis, answering
to "the field of Zoan," Psal. lxxviii. 12. Faramea (in the next page), is Farama
or Pelusium. The caravanserais are perhaps al-bir (the well) and al-bákara (the
pulley), both common names given to wells; but it is uncertain now what were
the particular spots alluded to by Bernard. Alariza would seem to be Al-arish.
Charlemagne. We have no other account of Charlemagne's foundations
at Jerusalem; but the khalif Haroun-er-Raschid is said to have shown great
favour to the Christian pilgrims from respect for the Frankish emperor,
and even to have sent him the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and of Jerusalem.
A legend prevalent in the twelfth century made the emperor visit Jerusalem
in person; and an Anglo-Norman poem on Charlemagne's pretended voyage
to the Holy Land, composed in that century, was printed by M. Fr. Michel
in 1836.
See "Bede's Ecclesiastical History," book v. chaps. 16 and 17. Bede
professedly takes his account from Adamnan's narrative of the travels of
bishop Arculf, and the description referred to will be found at p. 2 of the
present volume.
This was a very celebrated miracle in the middle ages, and will be
remembered as the cause of the persecution of the Christians in the Holy
City, and of the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, by the
khalif Hakem, in A.D. 1008 or 1010. An eastern Christian writer,
Abulfaragius, tells us that "the author of this persecution was some enemy
of the Christians, who told Hakem that, when the Christians assembled in
their temple at Jerusalem, to celebrate Easter, the chaplains of the church,
making use of a pious fraud, greased the chain of iron that held the lamp
over the tomb with oil of balsam; and that, when the Arab officer had sealed
up the door which led to the tomb, they applied a match, through the roof,
to the other extremity of the chain, and the fire descended immediately to
the wick of the lamp and lighted it. Then the worshippers burst into tears,
and cried out kyrie eleison, supposing it was fire which fell from heaven upon
the tomb; and they were thus strengthened in their faith." This miracle
was probably instituted after the time when so much encouragement was
given to the pilgrims under the reign of Charlemagne. It is not mentioned
in the works that preceded Bernard, but it is often alluded to in subsequent
writers, and continues still to be practised by the Greeks.
The event alluded to occurred in the Temple, and not on the Mount of
Olives. The notion mentioned in the text must have arisen from a wrong
reading of the first verses of John, viii. It is stated in the Gospel, John,
viii. 6, "But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground,
as though he heard them not." This writing on the ground was worked up
into a popular legend in the middle ages, according to which Christ is represented
as writing on the ground the secret sins of all the persons assembled
to condemn the woman; and this, we are told, was the cause that they all
slunk away ashamed.
Mount St. Michel, on the coast of Brittany, which was commonly called
St. Michel ad tumbam or ad tumbas, and was a place of great celebrity in
the romantic, as well as in the religious, legends of the middle ages. It is
more than probable that, before the foundation of the monastery, the top of
the mount was occupied by a cromlech, like so many of the islands on this
coast.
Sichard was a cruel and oppressive tyrant, and was deservedly hated by
his subjects. At length, having attempted to violate the wife of one of his
nobles, the latter excited the people of Beneventum to revolt; and they
burst into his palace; and slaughtered him, towards the end of the year 839.
This act of popular vengeance was succeeded by a period of domestic troubles,
which favoured the designs of the Saracens, and ultimately brought Beneventum
under the power or protection of the emperor Louis II., or the Germanic,
(the brother of Lothaire and Charles the Bald, and grandson of
Charlemagne,) who was emperor and king of Germany from 840 to 876.
Salomon III. was count of Brittany at this time; but history hardly
bears out Bernard's boasts of the peace and good government of the country
under his rule.
Die Ægyptiaca, hora Ægyptiaca. The superstitious belief in unlucky,
or, as they were commonly termed, Egyptian days, was universally prevalent
in the middle ages; and the days of the month believed to have this character,
and on which it was unpropitious to begin or undertake any thing, are often
marked in the early calendars and other manuscripts.
M. D'Avezac is probably right in his conjecture that the Lido of Sæwulf
represents the ruins of Cnidus, near Cape Crio; and that Asus, which immediately
follows, is the little island of Syme (Συμὴ), which lies off Cnidus.
It is likely enough that the local pronunciation of Cnido may have
been taken by the monkish traveller for something like Lido. No detailed
legend of St. Titus is preserved. What is known of him will be found in
the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, vol. i. p. 163.
This is a remarkable blunder, arising from a strange confusion of words
and ideas. The Colossians were the inhabitants of Colossus, in Phrygia.
The Persians of Sæwulf were the Saracens, who captured Rhodes in A.D.
651. It had been taken by the Persians in 616.
Mogronissi, or Macronisi, is supposed by M. D'Avezac to be the island
of Kakava, on the western point of which are still traced the ruins of a town
and church. The Alexandria here alluded to is of course Alexandretta, or
Iskenderoon.
These were the names of ships in the middle ages, of large dimensions,
but for which it would be difficult to assign any thing like equivalents from
our modern naval nomenclature. The title of palmer (palmarius) was given,
from an early period, to the pilgrims to the Holy Land; it is said, on account
of the palm branches or leaves which they usually brought back with them
as signs that they had performed the pilgrimage.
It may be necessary to remind the reader that the building of which
Sæwulf is here talking was the Mosque of Omar, which, during the long
period that Jerusalem had remained in the hands of the Saracens, had been
entirely closed from the examination of Christians. Now that the Holy City
had fallen under the power of the Crusaders, it was thrown open to public
inspection, and the monks appear to have laboured industriously to identify
every part of the Saracenic edifice with the events of Scripture. Probably
some portions of the ancient building were worked up into the Mohammedan
mosque; but Sæwulf's description will show us how cautious we ought to be
in receiving these traditionary identifications of the localities of Scripture
history.
Matth. xxvi. 32. It is hardly necessary to state that the giving the
name of Galilee to this church was a mere legendary blunder, originating in
the desire to crowd several holy places in one spot.
The medieval theologians made a proper name of Architriclinius, or, as
they called him popularly, St. Architriclin, whom they looked upon as the
lord of the feast on the occasion alluded to, and the person in whose especial
favour Christ performed the miracle. It is hardly necessary to say that
architriclinus is the Latin word which, in the Vulgate, translates what the
English text terms "the ruler of the feast."
The names of these cities, in the modern nomenclature, are Arsouph,
Kaisariyah, Kaiffa, Akre, Sour, Sayd, Gjobayl, Beyrout, Tortus, Gebely,
Tripoli, and Laodicea, the latter of which was the place named by Sæwulf
Lice. Jacobus de Vitriaco (Hist. Hierosol., cap. 44) says, "Laodicia Syriæ
nuncupata, vulgariter autem Liche nominatur." Our traveller, however,
perhaps by a confusion of his memory, having no map before him, has given
these places out of their right order. Perhaps, as M. D'Avezac suggests, the
fear of the Saracen cruisers drove him sometimes out of his right course.
Baldwin had been made king of Jerusalem on Christmas-day, in the year
1100. Tortosa was captured by Raymond, duke of Toulouse, on the 12th
of March, 1102.
Stamirra is the same place which Sæwulf has before called Myra.
M. D'Avezac points out documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
in which it is named Astamirle, Stamire, and Stamir.
M. D'Avezac suggests that perhaps St. Euphemius and Samthe represent
the ancient Eleonta on one coast, and the ancient Æantium, near the mouth of
the Xanthus, on the other.
Sæwulf's relation seems to break off abruptly here, probably by the
fault of the scribe; but, unfortunately, we know of no other manuscript that
might furnish us with an account of his adventures at Constantinople on his
return home.
Jacob's land. Galicia is called Jacob's land by the scald, from St. James
of Compostella: the apostle James, whose relics are held in veneration at
Compostella in Spain. Portugal appears to have been reckoned part of Spain,
and Galicia a distinct country.
There is some difficulty in finding a town corresponding to this Alkassi.
It cannot be Alkassir in Fez, in Africa, as some have supposed, as the context
does not agree with it; nor with Algesiras, which is within the Straits of
Gibraltar (Nörfasund), and it would have been so described. Alcasser de Sal
lies too far inland to have been the place. Lady Grosvenor, in her Yacht
Voyage, 1841, speaks of a Moorish palace near Seville, called Alcasir, which
would correspond best with the Saga account.
It appears to have been the feudal idea of the times, that a title or dignity
must be conferred by a superior in title or dignity; and thus a wandering
king from the north could raise Roger of Sicily to the kingly title. [The
Norseman's account is a fable: the dignity of king of Sicily was given to
count Roger, in 1129, by the pope.]
Engilsness, supposed to be the ness at the river Ægos, called Ægisnes
in the Orkneyinga Saga, within the Dardanelles; not Cape Saint Angelo in
the Morea.
It is not likely that the feats of the Asers, Volsungers, and Giukungers,
were represented in the games of the Hippodrome at Constantinople; but
very likely that the Væringers, and other northmen there, would apply the
names of their own mythology to the representations taken from the Greek
mythology.
The expression "of blessed memory" is generally added by Jews when
mentioning the "honoured dead," (see Proverbs x. 7,) and recurs frequently
in the following narrative.
This city was one of great antiquity; and at this time the remains of its
ancient walls appear to have been very remarkable. Destroyed at an earlier
period by the Saracens, Tarragona was rebuilt in the twelfth century.
The church of St. Egidius, or Giles, in this town, was a celebrated place
of pilgrimage in the middle ages. It was the birthplace and first appanage
of the celebrated Raymond, count of St. Gilles and Toulouse, duke of Narbonne,
and marquis of Provence, whose family were so active in the crusades. The
count Raymond here mentioned, in whose household R. Abba Mari held office,
was Raymond V., son of Alphonso, who had the title of count of St. Gilles
during his father's life.
These singular legends relating to the ancient buildings in Rome are
chiefly taken from the writings of Josephus Ben Gorion. Some of them may
be compared with similar tales which are found in Christian writers, and of
which several examples are inserted in William of Malmesbury's History.
The time of the destruction of both temples at Jerusalem. The day is
still one of fast and mourning to all Jews, and is celebrated as such by all
synagogues.
These were ten ancient teachers of the Mishna, who suffered violent
death in the period between Vespasian and Hadrian. A late legend not
only connected these persecutions as one event, but assigned to the victims a
common sepulchre at Rome. The legend contains a conversation of the ten
martyrs with the emperor. Several of the ten were certainly not buried in
Rome; the sepulchres of three, Akiba, Ishmael, and Juda Ben Thema, were
shown in Palestine in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Antipatris is
said by others to be the place of the sepulchre of R. Akiba. A more recent
catalogue notices, as known in Palestine, the sepulchres of R. Juda, son
of Baba, and Simon, son of Gamaliel, two others of the "ten martyrs."
This account of Puzzuolo is also chiefly taken from Josephus Gorionides.
Modern researches prove that some Roman villas on the sea-coast are now
covered by the sea; and this led to the story of the submerged city.
See Isaiah, lxvi. 19. This, it need hardly be observed, is one of the
erroneous identifications of Scriptural names which have so frequently arisen
from a false importance given to their similarity of sound.
Bari, which was taken and almost destroyed by the Greeks during the reign
of William of Sicily, was called St. Nicholas, in honour of the celebrated church
and priory of that saint, which are its most remarkable ornaments. They
were built in 1098, and richly endowed by Roger, duke of Apulia; and they
escaped the great and general destruction with which the city was visited.
This island, though for some time subject to Roger and William, kings
of Sicily, was reconquered by the emperor Manuel in 1149; and the words
of our author are probably intended to express that this was the first spot at
which he touched after leaving the kingdom of Sicily.
Thebes contained, at this time, the greatest number of Jews of any city
in Greece, some of whom are stated to have been eminent manufacturers, principally
of silk and purple cloths. Gibbon states that artists employed upon
these trades enjoyed exemption from personal taxes. "These arts, which
were exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation
to a numerous people: the men, women, and children were distributed
according to their age and strength; and if many of these were domestic
slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the profits, were of
a free and honourable condition." At present the whole population of Thebes
does not amount to above 3500 individuals.
No place of this name is now known. Mr. Asher conjectures, from the
Sclavonic sound of the word, that it was a town of the Wallachians, and that
it has been destroyed in the perpetual wars of which this part of Greece was
the scene.
Rabenica is mentioned by several medieval writers, though its exact
situation is not now known. Henri de Valencienne, Chronique, edited by
Buchon, p. 259, says "Ensi comme jou devant vous dys, fut li parlemens ou val
de Ravenique."
Gardiki, or Cardiki, a small town on the coast of the gulf of Volo, and
the seat of a bishop. The time at which it was ruined, or the occasion upon
which its destruction took place, cannot be ascertained.
Armyro, also on the coast of the gulf of Volo. By the writers of the
middle ages it was called Amire, Amiro, and Almyro. Poucqueville (iii. 72)
mentions it as the principal town of a district which bears its name.
This place is not now known, but it is mentioned by medieval writers
under the name of Vissena, Vessena, and Bezena. As our author embarked
at or near this station, it cannot have been Velestino, which we meet with by
following his route on a map of Greece, because, although in the vicinity of
Armyro, and on the road to Saloniki, it is an inland town.
The ancient Thessalonica; the modern Saloniki, contained, at our author's
time, more Jewish inhabitants than any town in Greece, Thebes alone excepted.
It is stated by good authorities to contain at present 20,000
Israelites, a large proportion of the whole population, amounting altogether to
but 70,000 souls. Some popular tradition probably induced our author to
ascribe the origin of the city to Seleucus. The favourable situation of
Saloniki, which has made it one of the most commercial towns of the
Turkish empire, was probably the cause of its considerable Jewish population.
This place, which has vanished from the modern maps of Greece, was called
correctly Dimitritzi, and was situated near Amphipolis, on the Cercinian Sea.
Villehardouin mentions this place as belonging to the king of Thessalonica,
and calls it "Dramine el val de Phelippe." Another MS. reads
Draimes, which is more in conformity with the appellation given to it by
Nicephorus Gregoras, who, like our author, frequently calls it Drama. It
stands in a valley, near the site of the ancient city of Philippi, the ruins of
which are still to be seen.
The original word is קנישתולי; but there can hardly be any doubt that
our author wrote it so only because he did not like to mention the name
of Christ. We observe this in several other instances in the course of this
work. Christopoli was on the direct road from Thessalonica to Constantinople.
It was situated on the frontiers of Macedonia and Thracia, on the European
shore of the Propontis, opposite the island of Thaso; and here travellers from
Macedonia to Constantinople generally embarked.
The best account of the imperial officers of state will be found in Gibbon,
"Decline and Fall," chap. liii. The Præpositus magnus was one of the principal
officers, governor of the city and of the forces stationed in it; the Megas
Domesticus was the commander in chief of the army; the Dominus, court
marshal, lord steward of the household; Megas Ducas, the commander of the
naval forces, or lord high admiral of the empire; Œconomos magnus, a
clerical officer of high rank.
The Hippodrome is now known by the Turkish paraphrased name of
the At-Meidan, i. e. the horse-market. It was the site chosen for the display
of the games by which the emperor Manuel entertained the sultan Azeddin
Kilidscharslan, on his visit to Constantinople in 1159; and Mr. Asher observes
that Benjamin was probably an eyewitness of the public rejoicings
and games which took place in honour of the celebration of the marriage
of the emperor Manuel with Maria, daughter of the prince of Antiochia, on
"the birth-day of Jesus," A.D. 1161, which he seems to describe here. Compare
the account of the games at Constantinople exhibited to the Northmen,
pp. 60, 61.
This is the Cœla of Ptolemy, and the Celus of Pliny and Mela, a sea-port-town
on the eastern coast of the peninsula of Gallipoli, still bearing the
Turkish name of Kilia.
The island of Chio is still celebrated for its mastic; and the population
of twenty villages are employed exclusively in cultivating the tree and
gathering its produce. These villages are situated in the mountainous parts;
and the Christian cultivators of the mastic not only paid no tithe nor tribute,
but enjoyed certain privileges.
This prince first resided with the emperor Johannes Porphyrogenitus,
with whom he was a great favourite; but on his death, and the succession
of Manuel Comnenus to the throne, Thoros left Constantinople, disguised as
a merchant, and proceeded by water to Antioch, from whence he went to
Cilicia, and with the assistance of the priests and nobles found himself at the
head of a formidable army, and soon established himself on the throne of his
ancestors. When these news reached Constantinople, Manuel became highly
incensed; and, raising a numerous force, he sent Andronicus Cæsar into Cilicia
with the command to extirpate all Armenians; but the imperial general was
defeated, and Thoros was subsequently reconciled with the emperor. He
died in 1167.
Malmistras is the ancient Mopsuestia, on the Pyramus, at present
Messis on the Jeihan. Under the former name it appears in William of Tyre
and his contemporaries.
Kharmath was a famous impostor, founder of a sect called Carmathians,
very similar to that of the Assassins. One of the tenets of this sect was,
that the soul of the founder transmigrates into the body of his successor, and
that the person who held the office of chief among them was the personification
of the original founder of the sect.
This passage was entirely misunderstood by the earlier translators.
The family of the Embriaci was one of the most ancient of the patricians
of Genoa; and one of its members, Guillelmus Embriacus, was named commander
of the fleet which was sent to aid the Christian princes of Syria, and
which, in 1109, took Byblus, of which he became the feudal lord. The
jealousy of the other patrician families was subsequently roused, but the
family of the Embriaci succeeded in retaining their feudal tenure. The supreme
government of the city, however, at this time, appears to have been vested in
a committee of seven persons, six of whom were delegated by the republic,
the place of president being always filled by one of the Embriaci. William
of Tyre (xi. 9) relates the conquest of Byblus by the Genoese, and informs
us that the Christian name of the Embriacus who governed when he wrote
(about 1180) was Hugo, "a grandson of the Hugo who conquered it;" but
all other historians call the conqueror Guillelmus, and Mr. Asher thinks that
we ought to read, in Benjamin's text, גוליימו, which stands for William,
instead of Julianus.
To which place, according to the tenets of the Talmudic Jews, the
offerings are confined, and since the destruction of which they have been
discontinued.
After the slaughter of the Jews of Jerusalem by the crusaders, the few
that were saved from destruction were dispersed in all directions. Those
persons who mourned over these unhappy circumstances were called
"mourners of Jerusalem," and are mentioned under that title more than once
by Benjamin. We find these mourners even among the Caraites about 1147.
We read in several ancient Jewish writers of the danger incurred by the
Jews who visited Jerusalem while it remained in the power of the Christians.
Pethachia found only one Jew at Jerusalem, whereas Benjamin speaks of
200. A numerous congregation was again to be met with there about 1190;
but about 1216 great discord prevailed among them in consequence of the
pretensions of the different congregations.
It may be observed that most of the richer stuffs, the siclatons, &c.,
used in the west of Europe during the middle ages, came from the east,
which accounts for the number of dyers mentioned by the traveller.
The rocks of Jonathan, mentioned (1 Sam. xiv. 5) as being between
Gibeah and Michmash, and which formed a narrow path between the two
places, were also seen by Robinson and Smith. "Directly between Jeba
and Mukhmâs are two conical hills, not very high, which are probably the
scene of Jonathan's romantic adventure against the Philistines, recorded in
1 Sam. xiv."
During the middle ages Jews were not unfrequently employed as astrologers
by the Arabian princes. R. Isaac, the son of Baruch (A.D. 1080),
appears, among others, to have rendered services of this kind to Almohammad.
King Alphonso of Castile also entertained Jews who were proficients in
astrology. The surname חוזה, astrologer, was borne by Abraham in Tiberias.
Eliezer, author of an astrological book of chances, lived in 1559. We also
find mention of Joseph, astrologer of Seifeddin, sultan of Mosul; R. Isaac,
an astronomer of the twelfth century in France; and Salomon, an astronomer
in Nineveh.
Jochanan, son of Zakhai, was a celebrated teacher of the Mishna in the
time of Vespasian; later catalogues mention his sepulchre in Tiberias. The
Jews have a legend relating to him full of extraordinary fables. Some persons
have supposed him to be the "John" mentioned in Acts iv. 6.
This identification is evidently an error, as Thimnatha was in Judea,
far to the south of Tiberias, and could not be Tebnin. Benjamin falls into
another error in placing here the sepulchre of Samuel, who was buried in
Ramah. Mr. Asher proposes to read Simeon.
Meirûn is still a place of pilgrimage to the Jews of the vicinity, who
resort thither on certain days to say prayers on the sepulchres of some rabbis;
and this corroborates our text, according to which Hillel and Shamai, the two
most celebrated teachers of the Talmud, who flourished before the birth of
our Saviour, are interred in a cave near Merûn. This legend must have been
very prevalent at our author's time, as it is also reported by Pethachia, who
adds that a large stone vase, situated in the cave of the sepulchre, filled itself
spontaneously with water whenever a worthy man entered it for the purpose
of devotion, but remained empty if the visitor was a man of doubtful
character. The two other persons whose sepulchres are mentioned here
were celebrated teachers of the law, who flourished in the third and second
centuries; but Jewish writers appear to differ as to the places of their burial.
The second of them is said to have traced his descent from one of the skeletons
restored to life by the prophet Ezekiel.
All the persons mentioned here were celebrated rabbis of the first century
before, and the three centuries after Christ, except Barak, who is well
known by the fourth chapter of the book of Judges.
This identification is not quite correct, the ancient Dan having been
situated on another small rivulet, still called Dan, and distant about four
Roman miles west of Paneas on the way to Tyre. William of Tyre also
identifies Dan with Cæsarea. The apparent source of the Jordan flows from
under a cave at the foot of a precipice, in the sides of which are several
niches with Greek inscriptions, which Benjamin has mistaken for the altar
of Micha.
It is hardly necessary to state that this was the celebrated sultan of
Damascus, Aleppo, and Egypt, so well known in the history of the crusades.
He reigned from 1145 to 1173.
The earthquake alluded to visited this part of Syria in 1157, at which
period Hamah, Antiochia, Emessa, Apamea, Laodicea, and many other cities,
were laid in ruins. R. Benjamin calls the river Orontes Jabbok; the
Arabians call it Oroad, or Asi. Rieha, or Reiha, is a name still borne by a
place and mountain in this part of the road from Damascus to Aleppo.
Burckhardt mentions ruins of numerous towns still visible on the mountain,
among which we must look for Lamdin, mentioned in our text, but by no
other traveller or geographer. The road between Damascus and Aleppo, pursued
even by all modern travellers, goes by Homs and Tadmor. Burckhardt
was the first to deviate from this route.
The Dauses, or Davana, of the Greeks. In the history of the crusades,
Kalat (or fort) Jiaber is often mentioned; and the circumstances alluded to by our author are told at length by Desguignes. In Abulfeda's time this place was a deserted ruin; but the castle, built on a mound of marl and
gypsum, still stands, thirty-five miles below Bir, on the left bank of the
Euphrates.
The Carrhæ of the ancients. The site of the house of Abraham is still
pointed out as an object of veneration. Mr. Asher observes that, from Aleppo
to Racca, our author, like most modern and ancient travellers, followed the
course of the Euphrates; but being probably attracted, like Marco Polo, by
the considerable trade then carried on at Mosul, he proceeded thither from
Racca, by way of Haran, Nisibis, and Jezireh, a route pointed out as probably
used by Alexander on Rennel's map of the retreat of the Ten Thousand.
It appears that the name of a city is omitted here. Our author probably
wrote "from thence to Ras-el-Ain," at which place the Khabur becomes a
formidable river.
The khalif alluded to by Benjamin was either Moktafi, who died in
1160, or Mostanjeh-abul-Modhaffer, who reigned from his death to 1170.
It is probable that Benjamin was at Bagdad in 1164.
The sites of Ain Japhata, and the other places mentioned here, have not
yet been traced by modern travellers. Colonel Shiel ('Journal of the Geog.
Soc.,' vol. viii. p. 93) found a tomb near Elkoth, east of the Tigris, at the foot
of the mountains which border Kurdistan, which the natives described as
that of Nahum.
The name of a city is omitted here; no doubt Kornah, on the Samarra,
or ancient Delos. The sepulchre of Ezra is described by various modern
travellers; it is still an object of pilgrimage to the Jews of the east.
The exact site of Shushan (Susa) is a subject of some doubt among
modern geographers. The old Arabian writers give a variety of legends
relating to Daniel's tomb.
Benjamin's account of the Assassins, and their residence at Mulehet,
coincides very closely with that given by Marco Polo. It has been supposed
that the sect of the Assassins originated in this district of Persia.
That is, probably, in A.D. 1155; for 1165 appears to be about the year
in which Benjamin of Tudela visited Persia. The history of David El-Roy,
and the scene of his imposture, have been illustrated by Major Rawlinson in a
memoir communicated to the Geographical Society of London, and printed in
its Transactions.
Shem Hamphorash, literally, the explained name, the letters of the word
Jehovah in their full explanation, a mystery known but to very few, and by
which it is believed wonders may be executed. The wonders performed by
Jesus are ascribed in the Talmud to his knowledge of this mystery.
Hamadan, which is now in a state of ruin, is said to stand on or near
the site of the ancient Ecbatana. The sepulchre of Mordecai and Esther is
still shown there.
2 Kings, xvii. 6, and xviii. 11. And the king of Assyria did carry
away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor, by the
river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Of the tribe of Levi, the descendants of which are divided into Leviim
and Khohanim, and are the only Jews who to this day claim the descent from
a certain tribe, all others having mixed and become extinct in the course of
time.
These were the Ghuzes, a Turkish tribe who emigrated in the twelfth
century from the country to the north of the Oxus. The events mentioned
in the text seem to have occurred in 1153, when the Ghuzes revolted against
the Persians, defeated the sultan, and plundered Mero and Nishabour. The
sultan was made a prisoner, and only escaped and returned to his own country
in 1156.
Mr. Asher observes, upon this passage, "Our author states the ancient
inhabitants of Chulam to be fire worshippers. Edrisi, however, (i. 176,)
says of the king, 'he adores the idol of Boudha,' and Ibn-Batuta reports him
to be 'an infidel.' Although the latter appellation was applied by the Mohammedans
to the fire worshippers, we have no sufficient proof to show that
Edrisi's information is wrong, or that the majority of the population adored
the sun as a deity. There is no doubt, however, that Malabar became the
asylum of this ancient sect after it had been vanquished by the Mohammedans,
and had been forced by persecution, not only to seek refuge in the mountainous
and less accessible parts of Persia (Kerman and Herat), but to toil
on to distant regions. They found a resting place beyond the Indus, which
they crossed in fear of their unrelenting pursuers; and here we still find
their descendants, the Parsees, who form 'a numerous and highly respectable
class of the population.' Very able papers on the history, religion, and worship
of the Guebres, will be found in vols. i. and iii. of Ouseley's 'Travels,'
and in Ritter's 'Erdkunde,' v. 615."
The modern Ceylon. Benjamin appears to call the inhabitants Druzes
because he had been told that, like the Druzes of Syria, they believed in the
metempsychosis. We learn from the Arabian geographer, Edrisi, that there
was a large population of Jews in Ceylon at this time.
Chalua or Aloua, the Ghalua of Edrisi (i. 33), is mentioned by the
Arabian writers as the starting point for the caravans which traversed the
desert of Saharah, and carried on the trade with northern Africa. Zavila,
Zuila, Zuela of our maps, Zavila of Edrisi (i. 258-9), was remarkable for
the splendour of its bazaars and buildings, as well as for its beautiful streets
and thoroughfares. From Zuila the caravans proceeded almost due south to
Ganah, in the interior of Africa.
The Pentateuch is divided into fifty-four Parashioth, of seven portions
each; and the custom of the Babylonians, as described in the text, is practised
at present almost universally.
Benjamin of Tudela does not mention the name of the Fatimite khalif
of Egypt who reigned at the time of his visit; but as that dynasty was
overthrown in 1171, and as the authority of the last khalif of that family
had previously been annihilated by the conquests of the armies of Noureddin,
to which Benjamin makes no allusion, it is probable that his visit to Egypt
may be placed as early as 1168 or 1169.
"Carob-Siliqua in Latin; Caroube, or Carouge, French. This translation
is traditional among Jews, and it has been employed, although Abdol-latif
does not mention this fruit as one indigenous in Egypt."—Asher.
It may be observed that Benjamin's object appears to have been only to
mention those towns in Egypt which contained Jews, and he follows no
direct course.
This story is one version of a popular tradition which is mentioned by
the Arabian writers; and a story similar to it, though not applied to the
Pharos of Alexandria, is found among the collections current in the west of
Europe during the middle ages, but no doubt brought from the east. See
the old English poem of the Seven Sages.
Mr. Asher has first given a clear and intelligible translation of the
names of the different countries who traded to Alexandria; and he observes
that, in drawing it up, Benjamin probably follows some list of the fontecchi,
or hostelries of the merchants of different nations, made for the use of captains
arriving there.
William II. king of Sicily, who reigned from 1166 to 1189. On his
accession he was only twelve years of age; and during his minority Stephen,
archbishop of Palermo, governed Sicily as chancellor under the queen
dowager. It is to him that Benjamin alludes under the title of viceroy; in
1169 the viceroy was driven from Sicily by a revolt of the inhabitants of
Palermo, and it was therefore probably early in that year that Benjamin was
in the island.
Coral (Arabic, bessed; Persian, merjan). The Sicilian coral is mentioned
by several old writers. The produce of the fishery at Messina is stated by
Spallanzani ("Travels in the Two Sicilies," vol. iv. p. 308, &c.) to amount to
twelve quintals of 250 lbs. each. Edrisi mentions the fishery of this production
to have been carried on by the Sicilians, and states that it was inferior
to the species found on the African coast.
Dismas and Jestes, or Jesmas, were, according to the vulgar legend, the
names of the two thieves who were crucified at the same time with the
Saviour, Dismas being the one who reproved his companion for his unbelief.
Maundeville has introduced more of the popular superstitious and religious
legends of the middle ages than the previous travellers.
See, on this popular legend, the editor's note on the "Chester Plays" (or
Mysteries), vol. i. p. 239. It was derived from one of the apocryphal books
of the eastern church.
Maundy-Thursday is the day of Christ's commandment on instituting
the Lord's Supper, the Thursday before Easter. It was also called Shere-Thursday.
The ceremony observed on the day was called holding or making
the Maundy.
The period during which Maundeville was in the east was that when
the question of reuniting the Greek and Latin churches was in agitation,
which is probably the cause he enters so largely into their differences of
belief.
Long before our author's time, the text, in John xxi. 22, 23, in the
vulgar Latin, happened to be changed in favour of this notion; for Jesus'
answer to Peter's question about John, "Lord, and what shall this man do?"
is there, "Sic eum volo manere donec veniam," the conjunction si being
dropped, by means of sic following.
Lango is but another name of the isle of Cos, where Hippocrates, (commonly
called by the medieval writers Ypocras,) the famous physician, was
born. See before, p. 33.
The two orders, the Templars and Hospitalers, having been expelled
from Palestine by the Mohammedans, on the capture of Acre in 1291, the first
retired to Cyprus; but in 1310 the Hospitalers made themselves masters of
the isle of Rhodes, which became the chief place of the order until it was
taken by the Turks, on the 1st of January, 1523, when they removed to
Malta.
This story, or one very similar to it, is found in the chronicle of John of
Brompton. The bay of Satalia was notoriously dangerous to navigators, who
attempted to account for it by legends like these. We have already seen an
earlier traveller, Sæwulf, narrowly escape shipwreck in passing it (p. 49).
John of Brompton gives two legends to account for the stormy character of
the bay, according to one of which the head of the monster alluded to in the
text lay at the bottom; and when it was turned with the face upwards, this
position caused a perilous tempest.
These were a kind of large wild dogs. Jacobus de Vitriaco ("Hist.
Orient.," lib. iii.), speaking of the animals of Judea, says, "Sunt ibi cameli et
bubali abundanter, et papiones quos appellant, canes silvestres, acriores quam
lupi."
Our author has picked up a strange version of the classic story of Perseus
and Andromeda, and has even mistaken Andromeda for the monster that was
to have devoured her. The mark of the chain is mentioned by Solinus.
A similar description is found in Geoffrey de Vinsauf (Itin. Reg. Ric. I.
lib. i. c. 32), who, however, states that it is a mere story taken from Solinus,
and he does not assert that there was such a foss in his time. It
may be further observed that Maundeville has fallen into another blunder
in confounding the foss alluded to with the pretended sepulchre of
Memnon.
Sirkouk, or Siracon, was the vizir of Noureddin, sultan of Aleppo, and
was uncle, not father, of Saladin. He dethroned the last Fatimite khalif of
Egypt, and brought that country under the power of the sultans, which was
soon after usurped by Saladin, who reigned from 1173 to 1193. The other
sultans mentioned by Maundeville may easily be identified by a reference to
the ordinary histories.
This was the sultan Koutchouc-Ascraf, who was chosen successor to his
brother in 1341, and, after reigning about six months, was deposed on the
11th of January, 1342. This fixes Maundeville's departure from Egypt to
the latter months of the year 1341.
The legend of Theophilus, who sold himself to the evil one, and then
repented, and was saved from the devil by the Virgin Mary, was a popular
one in the Middle Ages. See Jubinal's Rutebeuf, vol. ii. pages 79 and 260.
He is commonly said to have lived at Adana, in Cilicia.
A spurious book, purporting to be the exposition of dreams compiled by
the prophet Daniel, was very popular in the middle ages, and is the work
here alluded to.
This account of the Phœnix is taken from Pliny's Natural History,
x. 2, and xi. 37. The legend of the Phœnix was a very favourite one
throughout the middle ages.
The story is taken from one of the apocryphal books of the Eastern
sectarians, which had a considerable influence on the legendary literature
of the medieval church.
The wonderful adventures of Alexander the Great in his Indian expedition,
and the marvels he met with, are the subject of a multitude of extraordinary
legends in the middle ages, and exerted no little influence on
geography and natural science down to a comparatively recent period. The
hero was made to give an account of them in a supposititious letter to his
preceptor Aristotle, which was published in almost every language in Western
Europe, and is of frequent recurrence in medieval manuscripts.
This pretended imprint of Moses' body, and some of the other remarkable
things described by Maundeville, were still shown to visitors in the
earlier part of the last century.
Perhaps Maundeville reckons from the capture of Acre, in 1291, when
the Christians lost their last footing in the Holy Land. Jerusalem was finally
taken from the Christians by the Turks in October, 1244.
This is a very ingenious attempt at derivation, like some others found
in the book of Sir John Maundeville, who speaks again of the Georgian
Christians at the end of Chapter X.
This word probably means bitumen. The Latin text has Dalem et
dalketram; the French, De alym et d'alketran. This would almost lead
us to consider the French as the original text, from which the others were
translated.
Mount Royal, which stood in the immediate neighbourhood of the
ancient Petra, was a place of some celebrity in the history of the crusades.
It was said to have been impregnable from the strength of its position; and
it was only taken by Saladin, in 1187, by starving the garrison.
Luke, x. 13, 15. This is a curious example of the manner in which
legends were raised on the misapplication of Scripture by the medieval
theologians, who, in this respect, closely resembled the Talmudists among
the Jews.
The foregoing passages of Scripture, repeated as directed in Latin, composed,
in fact, the common charm against thieves and robbers; and our forefathers
seem to have had the simplicity to believe that, by a proper use of it,
they were actually under those circumstances rendered invisible. The quotations
are from Luke iv. 30; Exod. xv. 16. The latter is wrongly quoted
from the Psalter. The misinterpretation of the first passage (it was believed
that Jesus became invisible) appears to have arisen at a very early period.
There was an immense mass of legendary matter of this kind current in
the middle ages, with which it is necessary, in a certain degree, to be acquainted,
in order to understand the literature and manners of our forefathers.
It is to such legends that the old writers frequently allude when we suppose
that they are merely misquoting Scripture.
The khalif Motawakkel had, in A.D. 856, ordered the Christians and
Jews to wear a broad girdle of leather; and they have continued to wear it
in the east till modern times. From that epoch the Christians of Syria, who
were mostly Jacobites or Nestorians, were called Christians of the girdle.
Ramah Gibeon, now El Jib. Douke is Ain Duk, the Greek Δωκ (see
Robinson, ii. 308, 309). It requires considerable study and research to
identify all the names mentioned by Maundeville in the sequel.
We must take this as a little satire of Sir John Maundeville's against the
vices of the day among his own countrymen; and it seems not to have been
without its effect. There is an English metrical version of it in the "Reliquiæ
Antiquæ," ii. 113.
The foregoing account of Mohammed and his doctrines is of course full of
error and prejudice; but it is curious, as showing the popular notions on the
subject in England and France in the fourteenth century, and may be compared
with several other popular tracts of that age. The Koran had been
translated into Latin as early as the twelfth century. An account very similar
to the above is given by Roger of Wendover (Bohn's Antiq. Lib.).
An account of the remarkable ruins, both ecclesiastical and palatial,
that are met with at Anni, which was the capital of the Pakradian branch
of Armenian kings, will be found in the Travels of Sir R. K. Porter, and
those of W. J. Hamilton, vol. i. p. 197.
The "Liber Lapidarius" was a popular medieval treatise on the virtues
and properties of precious stones, which was of great importance when
people implicitly believed in the wonderful efficacy of such things.
i. e. The loadstone. The appellation of the "shipman's stone" is curious,
as showing that the properties of the mariners' compass were well known
before the middle of the fourteenth century. We have other evidence to
show that the mariner's compass was known at a much earlier period.
This tradition of a mountain of magnetic ore is very general among the
Chinese and throughout Asia. The Chinese assign its position to a specific
place, which they call Tchang-haï, in the southern sea, between Tonquin and
Cochin-China, which is precisely the same geographical region indicated in
the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor.
The Well of Youth was a sort of El Dorado of the middle ages, which
most people believed in, and many went in search of; but, in spite of Maundeville's
assertion that he had drunk of the water, it appears never to have been
found.
An astronomical instrument used in the middle ages for taking altitudes,
&c. Maundeville's notions about the form of the earth, and the possibility
of passing round it, are extremely curious, from the circumstance of their
having been written and published so long before the time of Columbus.
This may possibly be meant for Ceylon; but it would be vain to attempt
to identify the islands mentioned in this and the following chapter. Some of
the descriptions may, however, have had their foundation in what was originally
correct information, but exaggerated or misunderstood.
This is the city called by Marco Polo (from whom Maundeville appears
to have abridged his description) Kin-sai. It was the capital of Southern
China, under the dynasty of the Song.
This was the famous Ghengis-khan, who ruled the Moguls from 1176 to
1227, and was the founder of the Tartar empire. It is needless to say that
the history Maundeville gives of his accession is a mere fable.
Veneration for peculiar numbers was a very general superstition, and
the number three, and its multiple, nine, were, in particular, in universal
repute.
This story of the king and the twelve arrows is told in very nearly
the same manner in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and the substance
of a well-known fable will be easily recognised in it.
Mango-khan, after another regency, succeeded in 1251; and after conquering
Persia and other countries, died in 1259. This monarch was made
known to Europeans by the embassy of William de Rubruquis and others,
and excited interest in the west by the report of his conversion to Christianity.
Mango's successor was the celebrated Houlagou (1259 to 1265), who
was followed in succession by eight khans between then and the time when
Maundeville wrote. These were followed, in 1360, by the famous Timur-beg,
or Tamerlane.
Leech was the old English name for one class of medical practitioners.
It is employed here in contradistinction to physicians, and I have not ventured
to assign a modern equivalent. The preference given to Christian
physicians is somewhat curious when we compare it with a similar feeling
existing in the East at the present day.
A kind of garment made of skins with the fur on. In the Latin the
passage stands, "Habent et pelliceas, quibus utuntur ex transversis;" in the
French, "Et vestent des pellices, le peil dehors."
The editor of the edition of our author, printed in 1727, observes,
that one four feet long, in the Cotton Library, had a silver hoop about the
end, on which is engraved, Griphi unguis, divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer.
Another, about an ell long, is mentioned by Dr. Grew, in his History of the
Rarities of the Royal Society, page 26; though the doctor there supposes it
rather the horn of a rock-buck, or of the ibex mas.
Un-khan, or, as he was popularly called, Prester John, and the marvels
of his dominions, were for several centuries a subject of great interest to the
people of Western Europe, and were an object of anxious inquiry to all
travellers in the East. A pretended letter from this monarch to the pope,
describing his dominions, was published in Latin, French, and other languages.
Much information relating to Prester John is found in Matthew
Paris, who wrote before the middle of the thirteenth century. Marco Polo
in his travels (book i. ch. xliii.) mentions the former subjection of the
Tartars to him. Roger Bacon did not believe the extraordinary tales which
were current relative to Prester John—de quo tanta fama solebat esse, et
multa falsa dicta sunt et scripta. (Opus Majus, edit. Jebb, p. 232.) A
most profound and learned dissertation on the personage and history of
Prester John, by M. D'Avezac, will be found in the Introduction to his
edition of the History of the Tartars, by John du Plan-de-Carpin, (published
in the transactions of the Geographical Society of Paris,) 4to, 1838,
p. 165-168.
Burgundy was divided into two parts, the duchy and county. The
last, since known under the name of Franche Comté, began, at this period,
to take that appellation; and this is the reason why our author styles Philip
duke and count of Burgundy.
In 1414, Sigismund, elected emperor, had received the silver crown at
Aix-la-Chapelle. In the month of November, 1431, a little before the passage
of our traveller, he had received the iron crown at Milan; but it was
not until 1443 he received at Rome, from the hands of the pope, that of gold.
We shall see hereafter, that la Brocquière left Rome on the 25th
March, and Eugenius had been elected on the first days of the month. There
is some doubt whether his election took place on the 3rd, 4th, or 6th of
March; he occupied the papal see till Feb. 23, 1447.
Martin V., predecessor to Eugenius, was a Colonna; and there was a
declared enmity between his family and that of the Orsini. Eugenius, when
established in the holy chair, took part in this quarrel, and sided with the
Orsini against the Colonnas, who were nephews to Martin. The last took
up arms, and made war on him.
The sultans of Egypt are here meant. Palestine and Syria were at
that time under their power. The sultan will be often mentioned in the
course of the work.
The family name of this person is left blank in the original. These
names, of which the first five are those of great lords in the states of the
duke of Burgundy, show that several persons of the duke's court had formed
a company for this pilgrimage to Palestine, and are, probably, those who embarked
with our author at Venice, although he has not before named them.
Toulongeon was created this same year, 1432, a knight of the golden fleece,
but was not invested with the order; for he was then a pilgrim, and died on
the road.
From this vague description, it should seem that the animal spoken of
was the great lizard, called monitor, because it is pretended that it gives
information of the approach of a crocodile. The monitor is common in the
Euphrates, where it is sometimes seen four or five feet in length. The
terror of the Arabs was groundless.
Sur is the ancient Tyre—Seyde, Sidon—Baruth, Berytus. What la
Brocquière here says is interesting for geography: it proves that all these
sea-ports of Syria, formerly so commercial and famous, but at this day so
degraded and completely useless, were, in his time, for the greater part, fit
for commerce.
This explanation may possibly admit of a doubt; bir, in Arabic, signifies
a well; kut is also an Arabic word frequently found in names of places,
as Kut-el-Amara, &c.
Jacques Cœur was an extraordinary character, and a striking instance
of the ingratitude of monarchs. Although of low origin, he raised himself
by his abilities to high honours, and acquired by his activity immense riches.
He was one of the most celebrated merchants that ever existed; and had it
not been for his superior management of the finances, the generals, able as
they were, of Charles VII. would never have expelled the English from
France.
M. de la Brocquière is here probably mistaken. The cotton tree resembles
in its leaves the vine: but the cotton is formed in capsules, and not
on the leaves. There are many trees whose leaves are covered externally
with a white down, but none that in this manner produce cotton.
Our traveller is mistaken. The tomb of Mohammed is at Medina, and
not at Mecca: and the house of Abraham is at Mecca, and not Medina,
where pilgrims gain pardons, and where that great commerce is carried on.
Many authors of the thirteenth century mention this Virgin of Serdenay,
which was famous during the crusades; and they speak of this oily sweat,
that had the reputation of performing miracles. (See before, p. 190.) These
fabulous accounts of miraculous sweatings were common in Asia. Among
others, that which exuded from the tomb of the bishop Nicholas, one of
those saints whose existence is more than doubtful, was much vaunted. This
pretended liquor of Nicholas was even an object of adoration; and we read
that, in 1651, a clergyman at Paris, having received a phial of it, demanded
and obtained permission from the archbishop to expose it to the veneration
of the faithful.—Le Bœuf, "Hist. de Paris," t. i. part 2, p. 557.
It is not very easy to identify this animal by La Brocquière's description;
if he had not described it as "large," we might have supposed it to be
a gazelle.
The Christians of Asia believed implicitly that the infidels had a disagreeable
smell which was peculiar to them, and which baptism took away.
This superstition will be again noticed. The baptism was, according to the
Greek ritual, by immersion.
The Lusignans, when kings of Cyprus, towards the end of the twelfth
Century, had introduced the French language into that island. It was at
Cyprus, when St. Louis put in there on his crusade to Egypt, that the code
called "the Assizes of Jerusalem" was drawn up and published, and which
became the code of laws for the Cypriots. The French language continued
long to be that of the court and of well educated persons.
Louis, son to Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy. He married, in 1432,
Anne de Lusignan, daughter to John II., king of Cyprus, deceased in the
month of June, and sister to John III., then on the throne.
"The copyist has written it further on Quohongue and Quhongue. I
shall write it henceforward Couhongue." (The translator.) It is Koniyeh,
the low Greek Koniopolis, the ancient Iconium.
In 1438, John Paleologus II. came to Italy to form a union between
the Greek and Latin churches, which took place the ensuing year at the
council of Florence. But this step, as La Brocquière remarks, was, on the
part of the emperor, but a political operation, dictated by interest, and without
consequence. His dominions were then in so miserable a state, and
himself so harassed by the Turks, that he was anxious to procure the aid of
the Latins; and it was with this hope that he had come to inveigle the pope.
This epoch, of 1438, is of consequence to our travels; for it proves, since
La Brocquière quotes it, that he published it posterior to that year.
An error. The general council that took place a little before he came
to Constantinople was that of Basil in 1431, when, far from anathematising
and cursing the Greeks, it was occupied about their reunion. This pretended
malediction was undoubtedly a report, which those who were against
this reunion spread abroad in Constantinople; and the traveller seems to
have thought so by the expression "it was told me."
The manner in which our traveller here announces the relation of the
Neapolitan shows how little he believed it; and in this his usual good sense
does not forsake him. This recital is, in fact, but a tissue of absurd fables
and revolting marvels, undeserving to be quoted, although they may generally
be found in authors of those times. They are, therefore, here omitted;
most of them, however, will be found in the narrative of John de Maundeville.
Two of these galleries, or porticos, called by our author cloisters, as well
as the columns, still exist. These last are formed of different materials,
porphyry, granite, marble, &c.; and this is the reason why the traveller, not
being a naturalist, represents them as being of various colours.
This emperor was John Paleologus II.; his brother Demetrius, despot
or prince of the Peloponnesus; his mother Irene, daughter to Constantine
Dragasés, sovereign of a small country in Macedonia; his wife Maria Comnenes,
daughter to Alexis, emperor of Trebisonde.
These devout plays were then as common in the Greek church as in the
Latin. They were called "Mysteries" in France; and this is the name
given by our traveller to the one he saw in St. Sophia.
The pucelle had been made prisoner in 1430, by an officer of Jean de
Luxembourg, the duke's general, and, being afterwards sold by Jean to the
English, was burnt the following year.
La Brocquière must have thought these joustings ridiculous, from being
accustomed to our tournaments, where the knights, cased in iron, fought with
swords, lances, and battle-axes, and where, very frequently, men were killed,
wounded, or trodden under foot by the horses. This has made him twice
say, that in this jousting with sticks no one was wounded.
Trajanopoly was not so called from having been built by Trajan, but
because he died there. It existed before his time, and was named Selinunte.
Hadrian was not the father of Trajan, but his adopted son, and, in
this right, became his successor. Adrianople was not founded by Hadrian.
An earthquake had ruined it, and he ordered it to be rebuilt, and gave it his
name. Such errors are excusable in an author of the fifteenth century. As
for the sheep's ear, it is spoken of as a Saracenic fable.
There must be here an error of the copyist, for 25,000 ducats as tribute
is too small a sum. We shall see, further on, that the despot of Servia
paid annually 50,000 for himself alone.
The sultan mentioned here under the name of Amourat Bey is Amourath
II., one of the most celebrated of the Ottoman princes. History records
many of his victories, which are indeed for the most part posterior to the
account of our traveller. If he did not conquer more, it was owing to
having Huniades, or Scanderberg, opposed to him. But his glory was eclipsed
by that of his son, the famous Mohammed II., the terror of Christians, and
surnamed by his countrymen "the Great," who twenty years after this
period, in 1453, took Constantinople, and destroyed what little remained of
the Greek empire.
The quarte, so called from being the fourth part of the chenet, which
contained four pots and one French pint. The pot held two pints, consequently
the quarte made two bottles more than half a septier; and twelve
gondils made twenty-three bottles.
Having court fools was a very ancient custom at the eastern courts. It
had been introduced by the Crusaders at the courts of Christian princes, and
was continued at that of France until the reign of Louis XIV.
The grandfather of Amurath II. was Bajazet I., who died prisoner to
Tamerlane, either treated with kindness by the conqueror, as some authors
pretend, or confined in an iron cage, according to others. This story of the
Servian cannot, therefore, regard him. But we find in the life of Amurath I.,
father to Bajazet, and, consequently, great-grandfather to Amurath II., a
circumstance that may have been the foundation for this story of the assassination.
This prince had just gained a complete victory over the despot of
Servia, in which he was made prisoner, and was passing over the field of
battle near to a Servian soldier, mortally wounded, who, knowing him,
exerted his remaining strength and poniarded him. According to others, the
despot, named Lazarus, or Eleazer Bulcowitz, finding himself attacked by
Amurath, with an irresistible army, and seeing no other chance of opposing
him but by treason, gains over one of the great lords of his court, who, feigning
discontent, passes over to the party of the sultan, and assassinates him.
(Ducange, 'Familiæ Bisant.,' p. 334.) According to another account, Amurath
was slain in the combat; and Lazarus, being made prisoner by the
Turks, was hewed to pieces on the bleeding corpse of their master. It
seems, from the recital of La Brocquière, that the account of the assassination
by the Servian is the true one. This, at least, appears probable, from
the precautions taken in subsequent times, at the Ottoman Porte, against
foreign ambassadors; for, when they were introduced to the sultan, they
were held by the sleeves of their coats.
It was in fact this same year, 1433, that the renowned Scanderbeg
having, by a stratagem, regained possession of Albania, of which his ancestors
were the sovereigns, commenced that sagacious war against Amurath, which
covered him with glory, and tarnished the last years of the sultan.
This holy council concluded its sittings by citing to its tribunal, and
deposing the pope, whilst the pope commanded it to dissolve itself, and convoked
another at Ferrara. At Florence he had undertaken to form a
union of the Greek and Latin churches, and with this design had sent the
ambassadors to the emperor. He came actually to Italy, and signed at
Florence that political and simulated union before mentioned.
The reader may perhaps be surprised that our author, when he speaks
of the garrison of any strong place, particularizes only cavalry; and that,
when he mentions the contingent sent by the despot to the Turkish army,
he specifies but horse. The reason is, that, when he wrote, Europe paid no
attention but to cavalry; and the infantry, badly armed, formed, and
equipped, was not considered of any consequence.
From our author thus noticing the brass cannon, it should seem they
were still rare in his time, and looked on as wonders. Louis XI. had a
dozen cast, and gave them the names of the twelve peers of France.
It was then the fashion to make pieces of artillery of an enormous size.
Mohammed II., at the siege of Constantinople, employed cannon cast on the
spot that threw, as they say, balls of two hundredweight. Monstrelet
speaks of a gun that Louis XI. had cast at Tours, and carried afterwards to
Paris, that flung balls of five hundred pounds. In 1717, prince Eugene,
after his victory over the Turks, found in Belgrade a cannon twenty-five feet
long, that shot balls of one hundred and ten pounds, whose charge was
fifty-two pounds of powder. It was also then customary to make the balls
of marble or stone, worked to fit the mouths of different cannons.
John, count of Nevers, surnamed sans peur, and son to Philippe le
Hardi, duke of Burgundy. Sigismond having formed a league to check the
conquests of Bajazet, Charles VI. sent him a body of troops, in which were
two thousand gentlemen, under the command of the count of Nevers. The
Christian army was defeated at Nicopolis in 1396, and the French slain or
made prisoners. See further particulars in Froissart. When Jean succeeded
his father, as duke of Burgundy, he caused the duke of Orleans, brother to
the king of France, to be assassinated. He was murdered in his turn by
Tannegui du Châtel, an ancient servant of the duke of Orleans. These facts
prove that La Brocquière was in the right, when speaking of John, to pray
that God would pardon him.
Sigismond, in his travels to France, had visited the manufactories, and
particularly those of Flanders, at that time famous for its tapestries. He
wished to establish similar ones in his capital of Hungary, and for this effect
had engaged different workmen to follow him.
The knights in France were mounted for tournaments or battle on large
strong horses, called "palefrois." Their saddles were high-piqued before
and behind, which afforded them the greater means of resisting the shock of
the lance than the small horses and low saddles of the Hungarians; and this
is the reason our author says that, in the tilts of the Hungarians, it may be
easily seen which knight has the best seat on his horse.
Formerly there was, at the tables of sovereigns, an officer to taste every
dish before it was put on the table. This precaution had originally been
taken against poison.
Glaçon, or glachon, a kind of defensive armour. The French called
"glaçon," a sort of fine cloth that was doubtless glazed. Glaçon, in German,
was perhaps a kind of coat-armour made of many folds of quilted cloth, such
as our gambisons. Perhaps it may be only a cuirass.
This relates, probably, to the famous secret tribunal; and the Bavarian,
whom Trousset wanted to hang, may have been a false brother, who had revealed
the secrets of it.
Jean Germain, born at Cluni, and consequently a subject to the duke of
Burgundy, had, when a child, pleased the duchess, who sent him to study at
the university of Paris, where he distinguished himself. The duke, whose
favour he afterwards gained, made him, in 1431, chancellor of his order of
the Golden Fleece, and not knight, as La Brocquière says. The year following
he was nominated bishop of Nevers; sent in 1432 ambassador, first to
Rome, and then to the council at Basil, as one of his representatives. In
1436, he was translated from the see of Nevers to that of Châlons-sur-Saône.
What La Brocquière says of this bishop seems peevish; but if the reader will
consider, not hearing any thing of the two interesting manuscripts he had
brought from Asia, he had cause for being out of humour. Germain, however,
was employed on them, but he was labouring to refute them. At his
death, in 1461, he left two works in manuscript, copies of which are to be
found in some libraries; one entitled, "De Conceptione beatæ Mariæ Virginis,
adversus Mahometanos et Infideles, Libri duo:" the other, "Adversus
Alcoranum, Libri quinque."
Mr. Ainsworth informs me that he verified the account given of this
fissure by personal examination, and found it to be perfectly correct in its
descriptive details.
Ammianus Marcellinus says the Greek and Roman names of places never
took amongst the natives of this country, which is the reason that most
places retain their first oriental names at this day.—Hist. lib. xiv., non
longe ab initio.
Acre has gained a new celebrity by the events of which it has been the
scene in more recent times. Most of the ruins described by Maundrell have
disappeared to make place for modern buildings; and the population, said to
have been not more than 300 or 400 in the seventeenth century, is now estimated
at above 20,000.
Many of the pillars still remain. According to the accounts of modern
travellers, the ruins of Sebaste appear to be more interesting than we might
suppose from Maundrell's slight notice.
The mandrake was a very popular object of superstition in the Middle
Ages. The fullest information on the subject will be found in the editor's
Archæological Album, p. 178.
See, before, the account of the honey trees, given by Arculf, p. [8]. It is
curious to compare these traditions of mistaken interpretations, which lasted
long, and influenced many good writers.
Few European travellers, either before or since Maundrell's time, have
visited the ruins of Cyrrhus in Cyrrhestica, above described; a circumstance
which gives especial interest to Maundrell's account of them.