Chapter XCVIII: Section III

_Of the Country of Persia, the Cities of Jasdi, Cermam and Camandu, and the Province of Reobarle._

Tauris is a great city in the province of Hircania[1], and is a very populous place. The inhabitants live by the exercise of manufacture and trade, fabricating, especially, stuffs of silk and gold. The foreign merchants who reside there make very great gains, but the inhabitants are generally poor. They are a mixed people, of Nestorians, Armenians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and Mahometans. These last are perfidious and treacherous people, who think all well got which they can filch or steal from those of other religions; and this wickedness of the Saracens has induced many of the Tartars to join their religion; and if a Saracen be killed by a Christian, even while engaged in the act of robbery, he is esteemed to have died a martyr. It is twelve days journey from Tauris to Persia[2]. In the confines stands the monastery of St Barasam, of which the monks resemble Carmelites: they make girdles, which they lay on the altars and give to their friends, who esteem them as holy. Persia is divided into eight kingdoms, _viz_. Casbin, Curdistan[3], Laristan, Susistan or Chorassan, Spahan, Ispahan or Fars, Shiras[4], Soncara[5], and lastly Timochaim, which is near Arboreseco, towards the north[6]. Persia breeds excellent horses, which are sold to the Indies; also very good asses, which are sold for a higher price than the horses, because they eat little, carry much, and travel far. They have camels also, which, though not swift, are necessary in these countries, which, sometimes for a long way, yield no grass or water.

The people in these countries are very wicked and covetous, thieves and murderers, killing the merchants unless they travel in caravans, yet they profess to follow the law of Mahomet. In the cities there are excellent artificers in gold, silk, and embroidery; and the country abounds with silk-worms, wheat, barley, millet, and other kinds of grain, with plenty of fruits and wine; and though wine is forbidden by the Mahometan law, they have a gloss to correct or corrupt the text, saying, that when boiled, it changes its taste and name, and may be then drank.

Jasdi is a great city on the confines of Persia, which carries on a great trade, and has many manufactures of silk. Chiaman[7] is a kingdom on the frontiers of Persia to the east, which is subject to the Tartars. In the veins of the mountains, the stones commonly called turquoises are found, and other valuable jewels. They here make all sorts of warlike weapons; and the women work admirably with the needle in silken embroidery, on which they pourtray the figures of various animals in a most beautiful manner. They have the best falcons in the world, which are red breasted, of very swift flight and more easily trained than those of other countries. Proceeding from Chiaman or Crerina, for eight days journey through a great plain, in which are many towns and castles, and many habitations, with abundance of game, you come to a great descent, in which there are abundance of fruit trees, but no habitations, except those of a few shepherds, though, in ancient times, it was well inhabited. From the city of Crerina to this descent, the cold, in winter, is quite insupportable. After descending for two days journey, you come to a wide plain, at the beginning of which is a city called Adgamad or Camandu, which, in ancient times, was large and populous, but is now destroyed by the Tartars. This plain is very warm, and the province is called Reobarle[8], in which grow pomegranates, quinces, peaches, dates, apples of paradise, pistachios, and other fruits. The oxen are large, white, and thin haired, with thick short blunt horns, and having a hunch like a camel between the shoulders about two spans round. They are accustomed to bear great burthens, and when they are to be loaded, they are taught to bow their knees like camels, and rise again when loaded. The sheep of this country are as large as small asses, having such long and broad tails, that some of these weigh thirty pounds, and this part is most delicate and extremely rich food. In this plain there are many cities and towns, having high and thick ramparts of earth to defend them against the Caraons, who are a mixed race between Tartar fathers and Indian mothers, ten thousand of whom are commanded by one Nugodar, the nephew of Zagathai, who once ruled in Turkestan. This Nugodar having heard of the weakness of the Malabars subject to soldan Asiden, went, without his uncles knowledge, and took Dely and other cities, in which he erected a new sovereignty[9]; and his Tartar soldiers, by mixing with the women, of the country, produced this spurious breed called Caraons, who go up and down, committing depredations in Reobarle, and other neighbouring districts.

When these people wish to commit robberies, by means of incantations addressed to the demons, they have the means of obscuring the air as if it were midnight darkness, that they may not be seen from any distance. This obscurity, when once raised, lasts for seven days; and they are perfectly acquainted with all the passes of the mountains, in which they march one after another in single file, so that no one can possibly escape them, but all who fall in their way, must encounter death or captivity, the old being slain, and the young sold for slaves. I Marco, who write this book, was once very near falling into their hands, and in the utmost danger, of being either killed or taken prisoner by them in midst of this darkness, if I had not been so fortunate as to make my escape in to a castle, called Ganosulmi, while many of my companions in the journey were either taken or slain[10].

After travelling in this plain for five days, towards the south, the road again begins, by little and little, to descend for twenty miles together, the road itself being very bad, and not without danger from thieves. At the bottom of this declivity there is another plain of great beauty and fertility, which extend for two days journey in breadth. This fine country, which is called Cormos or Ormus[11], abounds in streams of water, and plantations of date palms, and there are abundance of birds of various kinds, particularly of popinjays, which are not like those of Europe.

After two days journey across this plain country, we arrive at the sea, in which is the island and city of Ormus, which is the capital of the kingdom, and a great emporium of commerce, to which many merchants resort, bringing spices, pearls, precious stones, cloth of gold and silver, and all the other rich commodities of India, The king is called Ruchinad Ben Achomach, having many cities and castles under his authority, and he makes himself the heir of all merchants who happen to die in that placed; yet he is himself tributary to the king of Chermain or Kerman. In summer the heat of this country is quite outrageous, and the inhabitants betake themselves to their summer houses, which are built in the waters. From nine o'clock in the morning till noon, there blows a wind, with such extreme heat, from the sands, that it is quite stifling and insufferable, and during this time the people sit in the water. The king of Kerman once sent an array of 5000 foot and 1600 horse against the king of Ormus, to compel the payment of tribute, when the whole army was stifled by that wind. The inhabitants of Ormus eat no flesh, or bread made of corn; but live upon dates, salt fish, and onions. The ships of this country are not very stout, as they do not fasten them with iron nails, because the timber is too brittle, and would split in driving these home; but they are fastened with wooden pins, and sewed with twine made from the husks of certain Indian nuts, prepared in a peculiar manner; this twine or thread is very strong, and is able to endure the force and violence of the waters, and is not easily corrupted[12]. These ships have only one mast, one beam or yard, and one deck, and are not payed with pitch, but with the oil and fat of fishes; and when they cross the sea to India, carrying horses or other cargoes, they lose many ships, because they are not strengthened with iron. The people of this country are black, and have embraced the religion of Mahomet. It is the custom of this country, when the master of a family dies, that the widow shall mourn for him publickly once every day, for four years; but there are women who profess the practice of mourning, and are hired to mourn daily for the dead.

In returning from Ormus to Kerman, you pass through a fertile plain, but the bread made there cannot be eaten, except by those who are accustomed to it, it is so exceedingly bitter, on account of the water with which it is made. In this country there are excellent hot baths, which cure many diseases.

[1] Now Tebriz in Corcan.--E.

[2] This must refer to Fars, or Persia proper; as Tebriz is in Persia.--E.

[3] Perhaps Iracagemi?--E.

[4] Perhaps Kerman?--E.

[5] Inexplicably corrupt.--E.

[6] Timochaim and Arboresecco are inexplicable, perhaps from corrupt
transcription. But Timochaim appears to nave been Mekran on the coast
of the Indian sea, and perhaps reached to the Indus, as observed in a
former note; and it may have included Sigistan.--E.

[7] Jasdi is almost certainly Yezd in Fars. Pinkerton considers Chiaman to
be Crerina, which is impossible, as that place is afterwards named:
Perhaps it may be the province named Timochaim, mentioned in the
immediately preceding note.--E.

[8] As the route may be considered as nearly in a straight line south from
Yesd, Crerina may possibly be the city of Kerrnan, and the cold
elevated plain, a table land between the top of the Ajuduk mountains
and a nameless range to the south, towards Gambroon or Ormus. Adgamad
being destroyed, cannot now be ascertained, but it must have stood on
the fine plain above described, and at the bottom of these southern
mountains. Reobarle is not to be found In our maps, but must have been
a name for the province of Ormus.--E.

[9] There is a series of corruptions or absurdities here: a _Malabar_
government under a _Sultan_ Asiden, or Asi-o-din, situated at _Dely_,
conquered by a secret expedition from _Turkestan_, requires a more
correct edition of the original of Marco Polo to render intelligible.
We can suppose a tribe of Indians or Blacks not far from Gombroon, to
have been under the rule of a mussel man Sultan, and conquered or
subverted by a Tartar expedition from Touran, or the north of Persia:
But this remains a mere hypothetical explanation.--E.

[10] For this paragraph, the editor is indebted to Mr Pinkerton, Mod. Geog.
II. xxii. who has had the good fortune to procure what he thinks an
original edition from the MS. of Marco Polo.--E.

[11] By some singular negligence in translating, Mr Pinkerton, in the
passage quoted in the preceding note, has ridiculously called this
country the plain of _Formosa_, mistaking the mere epithet,
descriptive of its _beauty_ in the Italian language, for its name. The
district was obviously a distinct small kingdom, named Ormus from its
capital city; which, from its insular situation, and great trade with
India, long maintained a splendid independence.--E.

[12] The two Mahometan travellers of the ninth century, give precisely the
same account of the ships of Siraf, in the same gulf of Persia.--E.