OF MANY NAMES OF SULTANS, AND OF THE TOWER OF BABYLON.
And he who will go by land through the land of Babylonia, where the sultan dwells commonly, he must get leave and grace of him, to go more safely through the lands and countries. And to go to the Mount of Sinai, before men go to Jerusalem, they shall go from Gaza to the castle of Daire. And after that, they come out of Syria and enter a wilderness where the way is sandy; and that wilderness and desert lasts eight days. But men always find good inns and all they need of victuals. And that wilderness is called Athylec. And when a man comes out of that desert, he enters into Egypt, which is called Egypt Canopac: and after other language, men call it Morsyn. And there men first find a good town, called Belethe, which is at the end of the kingdom of Aleppo; and from thence men go to Babylon and to Cairo.
At Babylon there is a fair church of our Lady, where she dwelt seven years, when she fled out of the land of Judea for dread of king Herod. And there lieth the body of St. Barbara, the virgin and martyr. And there dwelt Joseph after he was sold by his brethren. And there[302] Nebuchadnezzar, the king, caused the three children to be thrown into the furnace of fire because they were in the true belief; which children were called Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, as the psalm of Benedicite says. But Nebuchadnezzar called them otherwise, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that is to say, God glorious, God victorious, and God over all things and realms, on account of the miracle, that he saw God's Son go with the children through the fire, as he said. The sultan dwells in his Calahelyke (for there is commonly his residence), in a fair castle, strong and great, and well set upon a rock. In that castle dwell always, to keep it and to serve the sultan, more than 6000 persons, who receive here all necessaries from the sultan's court. I ought to know it well, for I dwelt a great while with him as soldier in his wars against the Bedouins; and he would have married me full highly to a great prince's daughter if I would have forsaken my law and my belief. But I thank God I had no will to do it for anything that he promised me. And you shall understand that the sultan is lord of five kingdoms, that he hath conquered and taken possession of by strength; and these are their names: the kingdom of Canopac, that is Egypt; and the kingdom of Jerusalem, where David and Solomon were kings; and the kingdom of Syria, of which the city of Damascus was chief; and the kingdom of Aleppo, in the land of Mathe; and the kingdom of Arabia, that belonged to one of the three kings who made offering to our Lord when he was born. And he holds many other lands in his hand. And therewithal he holds khalifs, which is a full great thing in their language, being as much as to say, kings. And there were wont to be five sultans, but now there is no more but he of Egypt. The first sultan was Sarocon[303], who was of Media (the father of Saladin), who took the khalif of Egypt and slew him, and was made sultan by strength. After him was sultan Saladin, in whose time the king of England, Richard I., with many others, kept the passage, that Saladin might not pass. After Saladin, reigned his son Boradin; and after him his nephew. After that the Comanians, who were in slavery in Egypt, feeling themselves of great power, chose them a sultan amongst them, who took the name of Melechesalan, in whose time St. Louis, king of France, entered into the country and fought with him; and the sultan took him prisoner. This sultan was slain by his own servants. And after, they chose another to be sultan, who was called Tympieman; he delivered St. Louis out of prison for a certain ransom. After him one of the Comanians reigned, named Cachas, and slew Tympieman, in order to be sultan; he took the name of Melechemes. He was succeeded by one named Bendochdare, who slew Melechemes to be sultan, and called himself Melechdare. In his time the good king Edward of England entered into Syria, and did great harm to the Saracens. This sultan was poisoned at Damascus; and his son thought to reign after him by heritage, and took the name of Melechsache; but another, named Elphy, drove him out of the country, and made himself sultan. This man took the city of Tripoli, and destroyed many of the Christian men, in the year of Grace 1289; but he was soon after slain. Elphy's son succeeded as sultan, and took the name of Melechasseraff; he took the city of Acre, and expelled the Christians; and he also was poisoned, upon which his brother was made sultan, and called Melechnasser. And after, one who was called Guytoga took him and threw him into prison in the castle of Mount Royal, and usurped the sovereignty by force, and took the name of Melechcadelle; and he was a Tartar. But the Comanians drove him out of the country, and caused him much sorrow; and made one of themselves sultan, named Lachyn, who assumed the name of Melechmanser. One day he was playing at chess, and his sword lay beside him, and it befel that one angered him, and he was slain with his own sword. After that there was great discord before they could choose a sultan, and finally they agreed to take Melechnasser, whom Guytoga had put in prison at Mount Royal. He reigned long and governed wisely; so that his eldest son, Melechemader, was chosen after him; he was secretly put to death by his brother, who succeeded him, and was called Melechmadabron. And he was sultan when I departed from that country[304].
Now you must know that the sultan can lead out of Egypt more than 20,000 men of arms; and out of Syria, and Turkey, and other countries that he holds, he may raise more than 50,000. And all these are at his wages; and they are always ready, besides the people of his country, who are without number. And each of them has six score florins by the year; but he is expected to keep three horses and a camel. And in the cities and towns are admirals, that have the government of the people. One has four to govern, another five, another more, and another a much greater number. And the admiral, himself alone, receives as much as all the other soldiers under him. And therefore, when the sultan will advance any worthy knight, he makes him an admiral. When there is dearth, the knights are very poor, and then they sell both their horses and their harness. The sultan has four wives, one Christian, and three Saracens; of whom one dwells at Jerusalem, another at Damascus, and another at Ascalon. And when they please they remove to other cities; and when the sultan will he may go and visit them. And he has as many paramours as he pleases; for he causes to be brought before him the fairest and noblest damsels of his country, who are kept and served full honourably, and when he will have one to lie with him, he makes them all come before him, and looks at them all to see which is most to his liking, and to her anon he sends or throws a ring from his finger; and then anon she shall be bathed and richly attired, and anointed with delicate things of sweet smell, and then led to the sultan's chamber. And thus he acts as often as he likes, when he will have any of them. No stranger comes before the sultan without being clothed in cloth of gold, or of Tartary, or of Camaka, in the Saracens' guise, and according to the usage of the Saracens. And when men see the sultan for the first time, be it at the window, or in any other place, they must kneel to him and kiss the earth, for that is the manner for those who speak with the sultan to do reverence to him. When messengers of foreign countries come before him, the sultan's people, when the strangers speak to him, stand round the sultan with drawn swords and gysarmes and axes, their arms raised up on high with their weapons, to smite them, if they say any word that is displeasing to the sultan. Neither does any stranger come before him without receiving a promise and grant of what he asks reasonably, if it be not against his law; and so do other princes beyond. For they say that no man should come before a prince without being the better, and departing from his presence in greater gladness than when he came before him.
You must understand that the Babylon of which I have spoken, where the sultan dwells, is not that great Babylon where the diversity of languages was first made by the miracle of God when the great tower of Babel was begun, of which the walls were sixty-four furlongs high; for that is in the great deserts of Arabia, on the way as men go toward the kingdom of Chaldea. But it is full long since any man dare approach to the tower; for it is all desert and full of dragons and great serpents, and infested by divers venomous beasts. That tower, with the city, was twenty-five miles in the circuit of the walls, as they of the country say, and as men may judge by estimation, according to what men of the country tell. And though it is called the tower of Babylon, yet there were ordained within it many mansions and great dwelling-places, in length and breadth; and it included an extensive district, for the tower alone was ten miles square. That tower was founded by king Nimrod, who was king of that country, and he was the first king in the world. He caused an image to be made in the likeness of his father, and obliged all his subjects to worship it, in imitation of which other lords begun to do the same, and this was the commencement of idols and simulacres[305]. The town and city were situated in a fair country on a plain, which they call the country of Samar: the walls of the city were two hundred cubits in height, and fifty cubits in breadth. The river Euphrates ran through the city and about the tower; but Cyrus, king of Persia, took from them the river, and destroyed all the city and the tower also, for he divided the river into three hundred and sixty small rivers, because he had sworn that he would put the river in such point that a woman might easily pass it without taking up her clothes; because he had lost many worthy men that tried to pass the river by swimming[306]. And from Babylon, where the sultan dwells, to go right between the east and the north, towards the great Babylon, it is forty days across the desert. But the great Babylon is not in the land and power of the said sultan, but in the power and lordship of the king of Persia, who holds it of the great chan, who is the greatest emperor and the most sovereign lord of all the parts beyond; and he is lord of the isles of Cathay and of many other isles, and of a great part of India. His land borders unto Prester John's land; and he possesses so much land, that he knoweth not the end of it. And he is a mightier and greater lord without comparison than the sultan. I shall speak more fully of his royal estate and of his might when I treat of India.
The city of Mechon (Mecca), where Mohammed is buried, is also in the great desert of Arabia. His body lies there very honourably in their temple, which the Saracens call mosque. It is from Babylon the Less, where the sultan dwells, to Mechon, about thirty-two days. The realm of Arabia is a very great country; but therein is over much desert, and no man may dwell there in that desert, for want of water, because the land is all gravelly and full of sand. And it is dry and entirely barren, because it hath no moisture, and therefore is there so much desert. And if it had rivers and wells, and the land were as in other parts, it would be as full of people and as well inhabited as in other places. For there is a great multitude of people wherever the land is inhabited. Arabia reaches from the borders of Chaldea to the extremity of Africa, and borders on the land of Idumea, towards the end of Botron. And in Chaldea the chief city is Baldak[307]. The chief city of Africa is Carthage, which Dido, who was Eneas's wife, founded. Mesopotamia stretches also unto the deserts of Arabia; it is an extensive country, and in it is the city of Haran, where Abraham's father dwelt, and from whence Abraham departed by command of the angel[308]. And of that city was Ephraem[309], who was a celebrated scholar. Theophilus was also of that city, whom our Lady saved from the evil one[310]. Mesopotamia reaches from the river Euphrates to the river Tigris, lying between those two rivers; and beyond the Tigris is Chaldea, which is a very extensive kingdom. In that realm, at Baldak abovesaid, the khalifs formerly dwelt, who were both as emperors and popes of the Arabians, lords spiritual and temporal. They were the successors of Mohammed, from whom they were descended. The city of Baldak was formerly called Sutis[311], and was founded by Nebuchadnezzar. There dwelt the holy prophet Daniel, and there he saw visions of heaven, and there he made the exposition of dreams[312]. There were formerly three khalifs, and they dwelt in the city of Baldak abovesaid.
The khalif of Egypt dwelt at Cairo, beside Babylon; and at Marrok, on the west sea, dwelt the khalif of the Barbarians[313] and Africans. But there are now none of the khalifs, nor have there been any since the time of the sultan Saladin, since which the sultan calls himself the khalif, and thus the khalifs have lost their name. You must know that Babylon the Less, where the sultan dwells, and the city of Cairo, which is near it, are great and fair cities, the one nearly adjacent to the other. Babylon is situated on the river Gyson, sometimes called the Nile, which comes out of terrestrial Paradise. The river Nile, every year, when the sun enters the sign of Cancer, begins to increase, and continues increasing as long as the sun is in Cancer and in Leo. And it increases to such a degree, that it is sometimes twenty cubits or more deep, and then it does great harm to the goods that are upon the land; for then no man can till the earth on account of its great moistness, and therefore there is dear time in that country. And also, when it increaseth little, it is dear time in that country, for want of moisture. And when the sun is in the sign of Virgo, then begins the river to wane and decrease gradually, so that when the sun is entered into the sign of Libra, then they enter between these rivers. This river comes from terrestrial Paradise, between the deserts of India; and after it descends on the earth, and runs through many extensive countries under earth; and after it comes out under a high hill, which they call Alothe, between India and Ethiopia, at a distance of five months' journey from the entrance of Ethiopia; and after it environs all Ethiopia and Mauritania, and goes all along from the land of Egypt, to the city of Alexandria, to the end of Egypt, where it falls into the sea. About this river are many birds and fowls, as storks, which they call ibes.
Egypt is a long country, but it is narrow, because they may not enlarge it towards the desert for want of water. And the country is situated along the river Nile; so that that river may serve by floods or otherwise, that when it flows it may spread abroad through the country. For it raineth but little in that country, and for that cause they have no water, unless it be by the overflowing of that river. And as it does not rain, the air is always pure and clear; therefore, in that country are good astronomers, for they find there no clouds to obstruct them.
The city of Cairo is very great, more extensive than that of Babylon the Less; and it is situated above towards the desert of Syria, a little above the river aforesaid. In Egypt there are two parts; Upper Egypt, which is towards Ethiopia, and Lower Egypt, which is towards Arabia. In Egypt is the land of Rameses and the land of Goshen. Egypt is a strong country, for it has many dangerous havens, because of the great rocks, that are strong and dangerous to pass by. Towards the east of Egypt is the Red Sea, which extends to the city of Coston; and towards the west is the country of Lybia, which is a very dry land, and unfruitful, on account of the excess of heat. And that land is called Fusthe. And towards the south is Ethiopia. And towards the north is the desert, which extends to Syria. Thus the country is strong on all sides. And it is full fifteen days' journey in length, and more than twice as much of desert, and it is but two days in breadth. Between Egypt and Nubia there is full twelve days of desert. The men of Nubia are Christians, but they are black, like the Moors, on account of the great heat of the sun.
In Egypt there are five provinces: one is called Sahythe; the other, Demeseer; another, Resithe[314], which is an isle in the Nile; another, Alexandria; and another, the land of Damiette. This latter city was once very strong, but it was twice taken by the Christians, and therefore the Saracens have beaten down the walls. And with the walls and the tower thereof the Saracens made another city farther from the sea, and called it New Damiette, so that now the older town of Damiette is uninhabited. That city of Damiette is one of the havens of Egypt, and at Alexandria is the other. This is a very strong city; but it has no water except what is brought by conduit from the Nile, which enters into their cisterns; and if any one stopped that water from them they could not hold out a siege. In Egypt there are but few forts or castles, because the country is so strong of itself.