XXV., p. 146.
OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.
Regarding the reduction of the Ismaelites, the Yuän Shï tells us that in 1222, on his way back after the taking of Nishapur, Tuli, son of Genghis, plundered the State of Mu-la-i, captured Herat, and joined his father at Talecan. In 1229 the King of Mu-lei presented himself at the Mongol Court.... The following statement is also found in the Mongol Annals: “In the seventh moon [1252] the Emperor ordered K’i-t’ah-t’êh Pu-ha to carry war against the Ma-la-hi.’” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 136.)
XXVI., p. 149. “On leaving the Castle [of the Old Man], you ride over fine plains and beautiful valleys, and pretty hill-sides producing excellent grass pasture, and abundance of fruits, and all other products.... This kind of country extends for six days’ journey, with a goodly number of towns and villages, in which the people are worshippers of Mahommet. Sometimes also you meet with a tract of desert extending for 50 or 60 miles, or somewhat less, and in these deserts you find no water, but have to carry it along with you.... So after travelling for six days as I have told you, you come to a city called Sapurgan....”
Sven Hedin remarks: “From this it is apparent that the six days’ journey of fine country were traversed immediately before Marco Polo reached Sapurgan. Sir Henry Yule says in a note: ‘Whether the true route be, as I suppose, by Nishapur and Meshed, or, as Khanikoff supposes, by Herat and Badghis, it is strange that no one of those famous cities is mentioned. And we feel constrained to assume that something has been misunderstood in the dictation, or has dropped out of it.’ Yule removes the six days of fine country to the district between Sebsevar and Meshed, and considers that for at least the first day’s marches beyond Nishapur Marco Polo’s description agrees admirably with that given by Fraser and Ferrier.
“I travelled between Sebsevar and Meshed in the autumn of 1890, and I cannot perceive that Marco Polo’s description is applicable to the country. He speaks of six days’ journey through beautiful valleys and pretty hillsides. To the east of Sebsevar you come out into desert country, which, however passes into fertile country with many villages.[2] Then there comes a boundless dreary steppe to the south. At the village Seng-i-kal-i-deh you enter an undulating country with immense flocks of sheep. ‘The first stretch of the road between Shurab and Nishapur led us through perfect desert ...; but the landscape soon changed its aspect; the desert passed by degrees into cultivated lands, and we rode past several villages surrounded by fields and gardens.... We here entered the most fertile and densely peopled region in Khorasan, in the midst of which the town of Nishapur is situated.’ Of the tract to the east of Nishapur I say: ‘Here are found innumerable villages. The plain and slopes are dotted with them. This district is extraordinarily densely inhabited and well cultivated.’ But then all this magnificence comes to an end, and of the last day’s journey between Kademgah and Meshed I write: ‘The country rose and we entered a maze of low intricate hillocks.... The country was exceedingly dreary and bare. Some flocks of sheep were seen, however, but what the fat and sleek sheep lived on was a puzzle to me.... This dismal landscape was more and more enlivened by travellers.... To the east stretched an undulating steppe up to the frontier of Afghanistan.’
“The road between Sebsevar and Meshed is, in short, of such a character that it can hardly fit in with Marco Polo’s enthusiastic description of the six days. And as these came just before Sapurgan, one cannot either identify the desert regions named with the deserts about the middle course of the Murgab which extend between Meshed and Shibirkhan. He must have crossed desert first, and it may be identified with the nemek-sar or salt desert east of Tun and Kain. The six days must have been passed in the ranges Paropamisus, Firuz-kuh, and Bend-i-Turkestan. Marco Polo is not usually wont to scare his readers by descriptions of mountainous regions, but at this place he speaks of mountains and valleys and rich pastures. As it was, of course, his intention to travel on into the heart of Asia, to make a détour through Sebsevar was unnecessary and out of his way. If he had travelled to Sebsevar, Nishapur, and Meshed, he would scarcely call the province of Tun-o-Kain the extremity of Persia towards the north, even as the political boundaries were then situated.
“From Balkh his wonderful journey proceeded further eastwards, and therefore we take leave of him. Precisely in Eastern Persia his descriptions are so brief that they leave free room for all kinds of speculations. In the foregoing pages it has been simply my desire to present a few new points of view. The great value of Marco Polo’s description of the Persian desert consists in confirming and proving its physical invariableness during more than six hundred years. It had as great a scarcity of oases then as now, and the water in the wells was not less salt than in our own days.” (Overland to India, II., pp. 75–77.)
XXVII., p. 152 n.