The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 62 : We find in Teixeira that the ruler who succeeded in 1290 was _Amir Masa'ud_, who o

We find in Teixeira that the ruler who succeeded in 1290 was _Amir Masa'ud_, who obtained the Government by the murder of his brother Saifuddin Nazrat. Masa'ud was cruel and oppressive; most of the influential people withdrew to Bahauddin Ayaz, whom Saifuddin had made Wazir of Kalhat on the Arabian coast. This Wazir a.s.sembled a force and drove out Masa'ud after he had reigned three years. He fled to Kerman and died there some years afterwards.

Bahauddin, who had originally been a slave of Saifuddin Nazrat's, succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng his authority. But about 1300 great bodies of Turks (i.e. Tartars) issuing from Turkestan ravaged many provinces of Persia, including Kerman and Hormuz. The people, unable to bear the frequency of such visitations, retired first to the island of Kishm, and then to that of Jerun, on which last was built the city of New Hormuz, afterwards so famous. This is Teixeira's account from Thuran Shah, so far as we are concerned with it. As regards the transfer of the city it agrees substantially with Abulfeda's, which we have already quoted (supra, note 1).

Hammer's account from Wa.s.saf is frightfully confused, chiefly I should suppose from Hammer's own fault; for among other things he a.s.sumes that Hormuz was always on an island, and he distinguishes between the Island of Hormuz and the Island of Jerun! We gather, however, that Hormuz before the Mongol time formed a government subordinate to the Salghur Atabegs of Fars (see note 1, ch. xv.), and when the power of that Dynasty was falling, the governor Mahmud Kalhati, established himself as Prince of Hormuz, and became the founder of a petty dynasty, being evidently identical with Teixeira's Ruknuddin Mahmud above-named, who is represented as reigning from 1246 to 1277. In Wa.s.saf we find, as in Teixeira, Mahmud's son Masa'ud killing his brother Nazrat, and Bahauddin expelling Masa'ud. It is true that Hammer's surprising muddle makes Nazrat kill Masa'ud; however, as a few lines lower we find Masa'ud alive and Nazrat dead, we may safely venture on this correction. But we find also that Masa'ud appears as _Ruknuddin_ Masa'ud, and that Bahauddin does not a.s.sume the princely authority himself, but proclaims that of _Fakhruddin Ahmed_ Ben Ibrahim At-Thaibi, a personage who does not appear in Teixeira at all. A MS.

history, quoted by Ouseley, _does_ mention Fakhruddin, and ascribes to him the transfer to Jerun. Wa.s.saf seems to allude to Bahauddin as a sort of Sea Rover, occupying the islands of Larek and Jerun, whilst Fakhruddin reigned at Hormuz. It is difficult to understand the relation between the two.

It is _possible_ that Polo's memory made some confusion between the names of RUKNUDDIN Masa'ud and Fakhruddin AHMED, but I incline to think the latter is his RUOMEDAN AHMED. For Teixeira tells us that Masa'ud took refuge at the court of Kerman, and Wa.s.saf represents him as supported in his claims by the Atabeg of that province, whilst we see that Polo seems to represent Ruomedan Acomat as in hostility with that prince. To add to the imbroglio I find in a pa.s.sage of Wa.s.saf Malik Fakhruddin Ahmed at-Thaibi sent by Ghazan Khan in 1297 as amba.s.sador to Khanbalig, staying there some years, and dying off the Coromandel coast on his return in 1305. (Elliot, iii. pp. 45-47.)

Masa'ud's seeking help from Kerman to reinstate him is not the first case of the same kind that occurs in Teixeira's chronicle, so there may have been some kind of colour for Marco's representation of the Prince of Hormuz as the va.s.sal of the Atabeg of Kerman ("_l'homme de cest roy de Creman_;" see _Prologue_, ch. xiv. note 2). M. Khanikoff denies the _possibility_ of the existence of any _royal dynasty_ at Hormuz at this period. That there _was_ a dynasty of _Maliks_ of Hormuz, however, at this period we must believe on the concurring testimony of Marco, of Wa.s.saf, and of Thuran Shah. There was also, it would seem, another _quasi_-independent princ.i.p.ality in the Island of Kais. (_Hammer's Ilch._ II. 50, 51; _Teixeira, Relacion de los Reyes de Hormuz; Khan. Notice_, p. 34.)

The ravages of the Tartars which drove the people of Hormuz from their city may have begun with the incursions of the Nigudaris and Karaunahs, but they probably came to a climax in the great raid in 1299 of the Chaghataian Prince Kotlogh Shah, son of Dua Khan, a part of whose bands besieged the city itself, though they are said to have been repulsed by Bahauddin Ayas.

[The Dynasty of Hormuz was founded about 1060 by a Yemen chief Mohammed Dirhem Ko, and remained subject to Kerman till 1249, when Rokn ed-din Mahmud III. Kalhati (1242-1277) made himself independent. The immediate successors of Rokn ed-din were Saif ed-din Nazrat (1277-1290), Masa'ud (1290-1293), Bahad ed-din Ayaz Sayfin (1293-1311). Hormuz was captured by the Portuguese in 1510 and by the Persians in 1622.--H. C.]

NOTE 7.--The indications of this alternative route to Kerman are very vague, but it may probably have been that through Finn, Tarum, and the Sirjan district, pa.s.sing out of the plain of Hormuz by the eastern flank of the Ginao mountain. This road would pa.s.s near the hot springs at the base of the said mountain, Sarga, Khurkhu, and Ginao, which are described by Kampfer. Being more or less sulphureous they are likely to be useful in skin-diseases: indeed, Hamilton speaks of their efficacy in these. (I.

95.) The salt-streams are numerous on this line, and dates are abundant.

The bitterness of the bread was, however, more probably due to another cause, as Major Smith has kindly pointed out to me: "Throughout the mountains in the south of Persia, which are generally covered with dwarf oak, the people are in the habit of making bread of the acorns, or of the acorns mixed with wheat or barley. It is dark in colour, and very hard, bitter, and unpalatable."

Major St. John also noticed the bitterness of the bread in Kerman, but his servants attributed it to the presence in the wheat-fields of a bitter leguminous plant, with a yellowish white flower, which the Kermanis were too lazy to separate, so that much remained in the thras.h.i.+ng, and imparted its bitter flavour to the grain (surely the _Tare_ of our Lord's Parable!).

[General Houtum-Schindler says (l.c. p. 496): "Marco Polo's return journey was, I am inclined to think, via Urzu and Baft, the shortest and most direct road. The road via Tarum and Sirjan is very seldom taken by travellers intending to go to Kerman; it is only frequented by the caravans going between Bender 'Abbas and Bahramabad, three stages west of Kerman. Hot springs, 'curing itch,' I noticed at two places on the Urzu-Baft road. There were some near Qal'ah Asgber and others near Dashtab; they were frequented by people suffering from skin-diseases, and were highly sulphureous; the water of those near Dashtab turned a silver ring black after two hours' immersion. Another reason of my advocating the Urzu road is that the bitter bread spoken of by Marco Polo is only found on it, viz. at Baft and in Bards.h.i.+r. In Sirjan, to the west, and on the roads to the east, the bread is sweet. The bitter taste is from the Khur, a bitter leguminous plant, which grows among the wheat, and whose grains the people are too lazy to pick out. There is not a single oak between Bender 'Abbas and Kerman; none of the inhabitants seemed to know what an acorn was. A person at Baft, who had once gone to Kerbela via Kermanshah and Baghdad, recognised my sketch of tree and fruit immediately, having seen oak and acorn between Kermanshah and Qasr-i-s.h.i.+rin on the Baghdad road." Major Sykes writes (ch. xxiii.): "The above description undoubtedly refers to the main winter route, which runs via Sirjan. This is demonstrated by the fact that under the Kuh-i-Ginao, the summer station of Bandar Abbas, there is a magnificent sulphur spring, which, welling from an orifice 4 feet in diameter, forms a stream some 30 yards wide. Its temperature at the source is 113 degrees, and its therapeutic properties are highly appreciated. As to the bitterness of the bread, it is suggested in the notes that it was caused by being mixed with acorns, but, to-day at any rate, there are no oak forests in this part of Persia, and I would urge that it is better to accept our traveller's statement, that it was due to the bitterness of the water."--However, I prefer Gen. Houtum-Schindler's theory.--H. C.]

[1] It is but fair to say that scholars so eminent as Professors Sprenger and Blochmann have considered the original suggestion lawful and probable. Indeed, Mr. Blochmann says in a letter: "After studying a language for years, one acquires a natural feeling for anything un-idiomatic; but I must confess I see nothing un-Persian in _rudbar-i-duzd_, nor in _rudbar-i-la.s.s_.... How common _la.s.s_ is, you may see from one fact, that it occurs in children's reading-books." We must not take _Reobarles_ in Marco's French as rhyming to (French) _Charles_; every syllable sounds. It is remarkable that _Las_, as the name of a small State near our Sind frontier, is said to mean, "in the language of the country," _a level plain_. (_J. A. S. B._ VIII. 195.) It is not clear what is meant by the language of the country. The chief is a Brahui, the people are Lumri or Numri Biluchis, who are, according to Tod, of Jat descent.

[2] Sir Henry Rawlinson objects to this identification (which is the same that Dr. Karl Muller adopts), saying that _Organa_ is more probably "Angan, formerly Argan." To this I cannot a.s.sent. Nearchus sails 300 stadia from the mouth of Anamis to Oaracta, and _on his way_ pa.s.ses Organa. Taking 600 stadia to the degree (Dr. Muller's value), I make it just 300 stadia from the mouth of the Hormuz creek to the eastern point of Kishm. Organa must have been either Jerun or Larek; Angan (_Hanjam_ of Mas'udi) is out of the question. And as a straight run must have pa.s.sed quite close to Jerun, not to Larek, I find the former most probable. Nearchus next day proceeds 200 stadia along Oaracta, and anchors in sight of another island (Neptune's) which was separated by 40 stadia from Oaracta. _This_ was Angan; no other island answers, and for this the distances answer with singular precision.

[3] Moore refers to _Persian Tales_.

[4] This _tison_ can be seen in the cuts from the tomb of St. Peter Martyr and the seal of Winchelsea.

[5] _Spere_, bundles of spars, etc., dragged overboard.

CHAPTER XX.

OF THE WEARISOME AND DESERT ROAD THAT HAS NOW TO BE TRAVELLED.

On departing from the city of Kerman you find the road for seven days most wearisome; and I will tell you how this is.[NOTE 1] The first three days you meet with no water, or next to none. And what little you do meet with is bitter green stuff, so salt that no one can drink it; and in fact if you drink a drop of it, it will set you purging ten times at least by the way. It is the same with the salt which is made from those streams; no one dares to make use of it, because of the excessive purging which it occasions. Hence it is necessary to carry water for the people to last these three days; as for the cattle, they must needs drink of the bad water I have mentioned, as there is no help for it, and their great thirst makes them do so. But it scours them to such a degree that sometimes they die of it. In all those three days you meet with no human habitation; it is all desert, and the extremity of drought. Even of wild beasts there are none, for there is nothing for them to eat.[NOTE 2]

After those three days of desert [you arrive at a stream of fresh water running underground, but along which there are holes broken in here and there, perhaps undermined by the stream, at which you can get sight of it.

It has an abundant supply, and travellers, worn with the hards.h.i.+ps of the desert, here rest and refresh themselves and their beasts.][NOTE 3]

You then enter another desert which extends for four days; it is very much like the former except that you do see some wild a.s.ses. And at the termination of these four days of desert the kingdom of Kerman comes to an end, and you find another city which is called Cobinan.

NOTE 1. ["The present road from Kerman to Kubenan is to Zerend about 50 miles, to the Sar i Benan 15 miles, thence to Kubenan 30 miles--total 95 miles. Marco Polo cannot have taken the direct road to Kubenan, as it took him seven days to reach it. As he speaks of waterless deserts, he probably took a circuitous route to the east of the mountains, via Kuhpayeh and the desert lying to the north of Khabis." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. pp.

496-497.) (Cf. _Major Sykes_, ch. xxiii.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--This description of the Desert of Kerman, says Mr. Khanikoff, "is very correct. As the only place in the Desert of Lut where water is found is the dirty, salt, bitter, and green water of the rivulet called _Shor-Rud_ (the Salt River), we can have no doubt of the direction of Marco Polo's route from Kerman so far." Nevertheless I do not agree with Khanikoff that the route lay N.E. in the direction of Ambar and Kain, for a reason which will appear under the next chapter. I imagine the route to have been nearly due north from Kerman, in the direction of Tabbas or of Tun. And even such a route would, according to Khanikoff's own map, pa.s.s the Shor-Rud, though at a higher point.

I extract a few lines from that gentleman's narrative: "In proportion as we got deeper into the desert, the soil became more and more arid; at daybreak I could still discover a few withered plants of _Caligonum_ and _Salsola_, and not far from the same spot I saw a lark and another bird of a whitish colour, the last living things that we beheld in this dismal solitude.... The desert had now completely a.s.sumed the character of a land accursed, as the natives call it. Not the smallest blade of gra.s.s, no indication of animal life vivified the prospect; no sound but such as came from our own caravan broke the dreary silence of the void." (_Mem._ p.

176.)

[Major P. Molesworth Sykes (_Geog. Jour._ X. p. 578) writes: "At Tun, I was on the northern edge of the great Dash-i-Lut (Naked Desert), which lay between us and Kerman, and which had not been traversed, in this particular portion, since the ill.u.s.trious Marco Polo crossed it, in the opposite direction, when travelling from Kerman to 'Tonocain' via Cobinan." Major Sykes (_Persia_, ch. iii.) seems to prove that geographers have, without sufficient grounds, divided the great desert of Persia into two regions, that to the north being termed Dasht-i-Kavir, and that further south the Dasht-i-Lut--and that Lut is the one name for the whole desert, Dash-i-Lut being almost a redundancy, and that _Kavir_ (the arabic _Kafr_) is applied to every saline swamp. "This great desert stretches from a few miles out of Tehran practically to the British frontier, a distance of about 700 miles."--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--I can have no doubt of the genuineness of this pa.s.sage from Ramusio. Indeed some such pa.s.sage is necessary; otherwise why distinguish between three days of desert and four days more of desert? The underground stream was probably a subterraneous ca.n.a.l (called _Kanat_ or _Karez_), such as is common in Persia; often conducted from a great distance. Here it may have been a relic of abandoned cultivation. Khanikoff, on the road between Kerman and Yezd, not far west of that which I suppose Marco to be travelling, says: "At the fifteen inhabited spots marked upon the map, they have water which has been brought from a great distance, and at considerable cost, by means of subterranean galleries, to which you descend by large and deep wells. Although the water flows at some depth, its course is tracked upon the surface by a line of more abundant vegetation." (Ib. p. 200.) Elphinstone says he has heard of such subterranean conduits 36 miles in length. (I. 398.) Polybius speaks of them: "There is no sign of water on the surface; but there are many underground channels, and these supply tanks in the desert, that are known only to the initiated.... At the time when the Persians got the upper hand in Asia, they used to concede to such persons as brought spring-water to places previously dest.i.tute of irrigation, the usufruct for five generations. And Taurus being rife with springs, they incurred all the expense and trouble that was needed to form these underground channels to great distances, insomuch that in these days even the people who make use of the water don't know where the channels begin, or whence the water comes." (X. 28.)

CHAPTER XXI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF COBINAN AND THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE THERE.

Cobinan is a large town.[NOTE 1] The people wors.h.i.+p Mahommet. There is much Iron and Steel and _Ondanique_, and they make steel mirrors of great size and beauty. They also prepare both _Tutia_ (a thing very good for the eyes) and _Spodium_; and I will tell you the process.

They have a vein of a certain earth which has the required quality, and this they put into a great flaming furnace, whilst over the furnace there is an iron grating. The smoke and moisture, expelled from the earth of which I speak, adhere to the iron grating, and thus form _Tutia_, whilst the slag that is left after burning is the _Spodium_.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--KUH-BANaN is mentioned by Mokaddasi (A.D. 985) as one of the cities of Bardesir, the most northerly of the five circles into which he divides Kerman. (See _Sprenger, Post- und Reise-routen des Orients_, p.

77.) It is the subject of an article in the Geog. Dictionary of Yakut, though it has been there mistranscribed into _Kubiyan_ and _Kukiyan_. (See Leipzig ed. 1869, iv. p. 316, and _Barbier de Meynard_, _Dict. de la Perse_, p. 498.) And it is also indicated by Mr. Abbott (_J. R. G. S._ XXV. 25) as the name of a district of Kerman, lying some distance to the east of his route when somewhat less than half-way between Yezd and Kerman. It would thus, I apprehend, be on or near the route between Kerman and Tabbas; one which I believe has been traced by no modern traveller. We may be certain that there is now no place at Kuh-Banan deserving the t.i.tle of _une cite grant_, nor is it easy to believe that there was in Polo's time; he applies such terms too profusely. The meaning of the name is perhaps "Hill of the Terebinths, or Wild Pistachioes," "a tree which grows abundantly in the recesses of bleak, stony, and desert mountains, e.g.

about Shamakhi, about s.h.i.+raz, and in the deserts of Luristan and Lar."

(_Kampfer_, 409, 413.)

["It is strange that Marco Polo speaks of Kubenan only on his return journey from Kerman; on the down journey he must have been told that Kubenan was in close proximity; it is even probable that he pa.s.sed there, as Persian travellers of those times, when going from Kerman to Yazd, and _vice versa_, always called at Kubenan." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. p.

490.) In all histories this name is written Kubenan, not Kuhbenan; the p.r.o.nunciation to-day is Kobenan and Kobenun.--H. C.]

I had thought my identification of _Cobinan_ original, but a communication from Mr. Abbott, and the opportunity which this procured me of seeing his MS. Report already referred to, showed that he had antic.i.p.ated me many years ago. The following is an extract: "_Districts of Kerman * * * Kooh Benan_. This is a hilly district abounding in fruits, such as grapes, peaches, pomegranates, _sinjid_ (sweet-willow), walnuts, melons. A great deal of madder and some asafoetida is produced there. _This is no doubt the country alluded to by Marco Polo, under the name of Cobinam_, as producing iron, bra.s.s, and tutty, and which is still said to produce iron, copper, and tootea." There appear to be lead mines also in the district, as well as asbestos and sulphur. Mr. Abbott adds the names of nine villages, which he was not able to verify by comparison. These are Puz, Tarz, Gujard, Aspaj, Kuh-i-Gabr, Dahnah, Bughin, Ba.s.sab, Radk. The position of Kuh Banan is stated to lie between Bahabad (a place also mentioned by Yakut as producing _Tutia_) and Ravi, but this does not help us, and for approximate position we can only fall back on the note in Mr.

Abbott's field-book, as published in the _J. R. G. S._, viz. that the _District_ lay in the mountains E.S.E. from a caravanserai 10 miles S.E.

of Gudran. To get the seven marches of Polo's Itinerary we must carry the _Town_ of Kuh Banan as far north as this indication can possibly admit, for Abbott made only five and a half marches from the spot where this observation was made to Kerman. Perhaps Polo's route deviated for the sake of the fresh water. That a district, such as Mr. Abbott's Report speaks of, should lie unnoticed, in a tract which our maps represent as part of the Great Desert, shows again how very defective our geography of Persia still is.

["During the next stage to Darband, we pa.s.sed ruins that I believe to be those of Marco Polo's 'Cobinan' as the modern Kuhbenan does not at all fit in with the great traveller's description, and it is just as well to remember that in the East the caravan routes seldom change." (Captain P.

M. Sykes, _Geog. Jour._ X. p. 580.--See _Persia_, ch. xxiii.)

Kuh Banan has been visited by Mr. E. Stack, of the Indian Civil Service.

(_Six Months in Persia_, London, 1882, I. 230.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--_Tutty_ (i.e. Tutia) is in modern English an impure oxide of zinc, collected from the flues where bra.s.s is made; and this appears to be precisely what Polo describes, unless it be that in his account the production of tutia from an ore of zinc is represented as the object and not an accident of the process. What he says reads almost like a condensed translation of Galen's account of _Pompholyx_ and _Spodos_: "Pompholyx is produced in copper-smelting as _Cadmia_ is; and it is also produced from Cadmia (carbonate of zinc) when put in the furnace, as is done (for instance) in Cyprus. The master of the works there, having no copper ready for smelting, ordered some pompholyx to be prepared from cadmia in my presence. Small pieces of cadmia were thrown into the fire in front of the copper-blast. The furnace top was covered, with no vent at the crown, and intercepted the soot of the roasted cadmia. This, when collected, const.i.tutes _Pompholyx_, whilst that which falls on the hearth is called _Spodos_, a great deal of which is got in copper-smelting." Pompholyx, he adds, is an ingredient in salves for eye discharges and pustules. (_Galen, De Simpl. Medic._, p. ix. in Latin ed., Venice, 1576.) Matthioli, after quoting this, says that Pompholyx was commonly known in the laboratories by the Arabic name of _Tutia_. I see that pure oxide of zinc is stated to form in modern practice a valuable eye-ointment.

Teixeira speaks of tutia as found only in Kerman, in a range of mountains twelve parasangs from the capital. The ore got here was kneaded with water, and set to bake in crucibles in a potter's kiln. When well baked, the crucibles were lifted and emptied, and the _tutia_ carried in boxes to Hormuz for sale. This corresponds with a modern account in Milburne, which says that the tutia imported to India from the Gulf is made from an argillaceous ore of zinc, which is moulded into tubular cakes, and baked to a moderate hardness. The accurate Garcia da Horta is wrong for once in saying that the tutia of Kerman is no mineral, but the ash of a certain tree called _Goan_.

(_Matth. on Dioscorides_, Ven. 1565, pp. 1338-40; _Teixeira, Relacion de Persia_, p. 121; _Milburne's Or. Commerce_, I. 139; _Garcia_, f. 21 v.; _Eng. Cyc._, art. _Zinc_.)