The Voyages of Marco Polo. Марко Поло

blew a little over the cup and then emptied it at a draught, and took no harm. His Holiness then on his side demanded that the Chacham Bashi should quaff a cup to the health of the Khalif, which he (the Patriarch) should first taste, and this the Khalif found only fair and right. But hardly had the Chacham Bashi put the cup to his lips than he fell down and expired.' Still the Musulmans and Jews thirsted for Christian blood. It happened at that time that a mass of the hill Mokattani became loose and threatened to come down upon Babylon. This was laid to the door of the Christians, and they were ordered to stop it. The Patriarch in great distress has a vision that tells him summon the saintly cobbler (of whom the same story is told as here)—the cobbler bids the rock to stand still and it does so to this day. 'These two stories may still be heard in Cairo'—from whom is not said. The hill that threatened to fall on the Egyptian Babylon is called in Turkish Dur Dagh, 'Stay, or halt-hill.' (L.c. April, 1878")—MS. Note, H. Y.

      CHAPTER XI.

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      OF THE NOBLE CITY OF TAURIS.

      Tauris is a great and noble city, situated in a great province called YRAC, in which are many other towns and villages. But as Tauris is the most noble I will tell you about it.[NOTE 1]

      The men of Tauris get their living by trade and handi crafts, for they weave many kinds of beautiful and valuable stuffs of silk and gold. The city has such a good position that merchandize is brought thither from India, Baudas, CREMESOR,[NOTE 2] and many other regions; and that attracts many Latin merchants, especially Genoese, to buy goods and transact other business there; the more as it is also a great market for precious stones. It is a city in fact where merchants make large profits.[NOTE 3]

      The people of the place are themselves poor creatures; and are a great medley of different classes. There are Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and finally the natives of the city themselves, who are worshippers of Mahommet. These last are a very evil generation; they are known as TAURIZI.[NOTE 4] The city is all girt round with charming gardens, full of many varieties of large and excellent fruits.[NOTE 5]

      Now we will quit Tauris, and speak of the great country of Persia. [From

       Tauris to Persia is a journey of twelve days.]

      NOTE 1.—Abulfeda notices that TABRÍZ was vulgarly pronounced Tauriz, and this appears to have been adopted by the Franks. In Pegolotti the name is always Torissi.

      Tabriz is often reckoned to belong to Armenia, as by Hayton. Properly it is the chief city of Azerbaiján, which never was included in 'IRAK. But it may be observed that Ibn Batuta generally calls the Mongol Ilkhan of Persia Sáhib or Malik ul-'Irák, and as Tabriz was the capital of that sovereign, we can account for the mistake, whilst admitting it to be one. [The destruction of Baghdad by Hulaku made Tabriz the great commercial and political city of Asia, and diverted the route of Indian products from the Mediterranean to the Euxine. It was the route to the Persian Gulf by Kashan, Yezd, and Kermán, to the Mediterranean by Lajazzo, and later on by Aleppo—and to the Euxine by Trebizond. The destruction of the Kingdom of Armenia closed to Europeans the route of Tauris.—H. C.]

      NOTE 2.—Cremesor, as Baldelli points out, is GARMSIR, meaning a hot region, a term which in Persia has acquired several specific applications, and especially indicates the coast-country on the N.E. side of the Persian Gulf, including Hormuz and the ports in that quarter.

      NOTE 3.—[Of the Italians established at Tabriz, the first whose name is mentioned is the Venetian Pietro Viglioni (Vioni); his will, dated 10th December, 1264, is still in existence. (Archiv. Venet. XXVI. pp. 161–165; Heyd, French Ed., II. p. 110.)—H. C.] At a later date (1341) the Genoese had a factory at Tabriz headed by a consul with a council of twenty four merchants, and in 1320 there is evidence of a Venetian settlement there. (Elie de la Prim, 161; Heyd, II. 82.)

      Rashiduddin says of Tabriz that there were gathered there under the eyes of the Padishah of Islam "philosophers, astronomers, scholars, historians, of all religions, of all sects; people of Cathay, of Machin, of India, of Kashmir, of Tibet, of the Uighúr and other Turkish nations, Arabs and Franks." Ibn Batuta, "I traversed the bazaar of the jewellers, and my eyes were dazzled by the varieties of precious stones which I beheld. Handsome slaves, superbly dressed, and girdled with silk, offered their gems for sale to the Tartar ladies, who bought great numbers. [Odoric (ed. Cordier) speaks also of the great trade of Tabriz.] Tabriz maintained a large population and prosperity down to the 17th century, as may be seen in Chardin. It is now greatly fallen, though still a place of importance." (Quat. Rash., p. 39; I. B. II. 130.)

      [Illustration: Ghazan Khan's Mosque at Tabriz.—(From Fergusson.)]

      NOTE 4.—In Pauthier's text this is Touzi, a mere clerical error, I doubt not for Torizi, in accordance with the G. Text ("le peuple de la cité que sunt apelés Tauriz"), with the Latin, and with Ramusio. All that he means to say is that the people are called Tabrizís. Not recondite information, but 'tis his way. Just so he tells us in ch[*illegible*]u that the people of Hermenia are called Hermins, and elsewhere that the people of Tebet are called Tebet. So Hayton thinks it not inappropriate to say that the people of Catay are called Cataini, that the people of Corasmia are called Corasmins, and that the people of the cities of Persia are called Persians.

      NOTE 5.—Hamd Allah Mastaufi, the Geographer, not long after Polo's time, gives an account of Tabriz, quoted in Barbier de Meynard's Dict. de la Perse, p. 132. This also notices the extensive gardens round the city, the great abundance and cheapness of fruits, the vanity, insolence, and faithlessness of the Tabrízis, etc. (p. 132 seqq.) Our cut shows a relic of the Mongol Dynasty at Tabriz.

      CHAPTER XII.

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      OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. BARSAMO ON THE BORDERS OF TAURIS.

      On the borders of (the territory of) Tauris there is a monastery called after Saint Barsamo, a most devout Saint. There is an Abbot, with many Monks, who wear a habit like that of the Carmelites, and these to avoid idleness are continually knitting woollen girdles. These they place upon the altar of St. Barsamo during the service, and when they go begging about the province (like the Brethren of the Holy Spirit) they present them to their friends and to the gentlefolks, for they are excellent things to remove bodily pain; wherefore every one is devoutly eager to possess them.[NOTE 1]

      NOTE 1.—Barsauma ("The Son of Fasting") was a native of Samosata, and an Archimandrite of the Asiatic Church. He opposed the Nestorians, but became himself still more obnoxious to the orthodox as a spreader of the Monophysite Heresy. He was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon (451), and died in 458. He is a Saint of fame in the Jacobite and Armenian Churches, and several monasteries were dedicated to him; but by far the most celebrated, and doubtless that meant here, was near Malatia. It must have been famous even among the Mahomedans, for it has an article in Bákúi's Geog. Dictionary. (Dír-Barsúma, see N. et Ext. II. 515.) This monastery possessed relics of Barsauma and of St. Peter, and was sometimes the residence of the Jacobite Patriarch and the meeting-place of the Synods.

      A more marvellous story than Marco's is related of this monastery by Vincent of Beauvais: "There is in that kingdom (Armenia) a place called St. Brassamus, at which there is a monastery for 300 monks. And 'tis said that if ever an enemy attacks it, the defences of the monastery move of themselves, and shoot back the shot against the besieger."

      (Assemani in vol. ii. passim; Tournefort, III. 260; Vin. Bell. Spec. Historiale, Lib. XXX. c. cxlii.; see also Mar. Sanut. III. xi. c. 16.)

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