The opening section of The Description illustrates the difficulties in trying to construe the work as the itinerary of Marco’s actual travels. It begins in Anatolia. Greater Armenia serves as a pivot from which to explore Georgia to the north and Mosul to the south, before descending the Tigris River to Baghdad. The text then jumps northeast to Tabriz, working its way southeast to Sava and Persia (described as comprising eight kingdoms), through Yazd and Kerman to the frontier with India. From there, it descends the “Great Slope” to Hormuz (due south of Kerman), then returns to Kerman and goes northwest to Kuh-Banan and through the desert. After an interlude recounting the eradication of the Assassins, it jumps back to Shaburghan (in northern Afghanistan) and goes due east through Balkh and Badakhshan to the high mountain regions of eastern Afghanistan. It jumps northeast to Kashgar, goes due west to Samarqand, then east along the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert/Tarim Basin (the so-called southern Silk Road) to Dunhuang. Dunhuang serves as a base for brief itineraries to the northwest, southeast through the Gansu corridor, and north to Edzina before continuing on to Qaraqorum.
It is true that there are two Armenias: one great and one little.1 The little one is ruled by a king who holds the land and rules equitably, and is subject to the Tartar.2 There are many towns and many castles, and everything in great abundance. What’s more, it is a land of great pleasure when it comes to all kinds of hunting, of both animals and birds. But I also tell you that it is not a healthy province, but very sick. Formerly, its nobles were brave and valiant men-at-arms, but now they {16} are craven and base and without any good, except for being good drinkers. Also, there’s a city on the sea called Laias, which is a great center of trade: for know in all truth that all the spices, cloth, and other expensive goods are brought to this city from the interior; merchants of Venice, Genoa, and everywhere come and buy them. All men and merchants wishing to travel inland start from this city. Now we have told you about Lesser Armenia; after this we will tell you about Turcomania.
In Turcomania there are three races [jenerasion] of people. These are Turcomans, who worship Muhammad and hold to his law;3 they are a simple people with a rough language. They live in the mountains and moors where they know there is good pasture, for they live from their animals. I tell you that good Turcoman horses and good, worthy mules are born there.4 The other people are Armenians and Greeks, who live mixed among them in towns and castles, who live off trade and crafts. Know that the best, most beautiful carpets in the world are made there; also made there are very beautiful and rich silk cloth in crimson and other colors, and many other things besides. Their notable cities are Konya [Conio], Caesarea [Casserie], Sebastea [Sevasto];5 there are also many other cities and castles that I won’t describe to you, for it would be too lengthy to mention.6 They are subject to the Tartar of the East, and he imposes his lordship there.
Now we leave off [speaking] of this province and will speak of Greater Armenia.
Greater Armenia is a large province. It starts with a city called Erzincan [Arçinga], where the best bouqueran in the world is made.7 There are the most beautiful baths {17} and the best springs in the world. The people are Armenian and are subjects of the Tartar. There are many castles and cities; the noblest city is Erzincan, which has an archbishop; the others are Erzurum [Argiron] and Arzizi [Darçiçi].8 It’s a very large province. I tell you that in summer, the entire army of the Tartars of the East stays there, for in the summer this province has very good pasturage; that’s why the Tartars stay there with their animals during the summer.9 But in winter they don’t stay there on account of the great cold of the snow beyond measure, such that the animals could not survive; therefore in winter the Tartars leave and go to a warm place where they find grass and good pasture for their animals. I also tell you that Noah’s ark is in Greater Armenia, on a big mountain.
On the southeast, it borders on a kingdom called Mosul whose people are Christian—Jacobites and Nestorians, whom I will tell you about further on [§24]; to the north, it borders on Georgia, which I will tell you about further on [§23]. On the Georgian border, there’s a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, enough to fill a hundred boats at a time; it is not good to eat, but it is good to burn and to rub on camels for mange. Men come from afar for this oil and the whole surrounding country burns no other oil but this.
Now we leave off about Greater Armenia and will tell you about the province of Georgia.
In Georgia, there is a king who for all time is called Davit Melic, which means “David king” in French; and he is subject to the Tartar.10 Formerly, all the kings of this province were born with the sign of an eagle on their right shoulder. They are {18} handsome people, brave at arms, good archers, good fighters in battle. They are Christian and hold to the Greek law. They wear their hair short, like clerics. This is the province that Alexander was unable to cross when he attempted to go west because the road is narrow and scary. For on one side is the sea and on the other a great mountain you cannot cross on horseback. The road between the mountain and the sea is very narrow, continuing like that for more than four leagues, such that a few men could hold it against everyone. That is why Alexander could not pass. I tell you that Alexander had a tower and a fortress built so that these people could not attack him. It was called the Iron Gate; that’s the place that the Book of Alexander says encloses the Tartars between two mountains.11 It is not true that they were Tartars, but a people called the Cumans and many other races, because there were no Tartars at that time.12 There are many towns and castles; they have silk in great abundance and they make cloth of silk and cloth of gold—the most beautiful ever seen by man. There are the best goshawks in the world. Everything is plentiful there and they live by trade and labor. The province is full of great mountains and strong, narrow passes, so that I tell you that the Tartars will never be able to rule it completely.
There is also a monastery of nuns called Saint Leonard, site of such a marvel that I will relate to you. Know that beside the Church of Saint Leonard, there is a great lake of water that comes from a mountain; and in the water that comes from the mountain, no fish, great or small, are found at any time of the year, except that on the first day of Lent they begin to come and come every day of Lent until Holy Saturday (that is, Easter eve). During this whole period, there are fish aplenty, but at all other times of the year none at all are found. What’s more, I tell you that the sea I’ve told you about, which is just beside the mountain, is called the Glevechelan Sea; it’s about 2,700 miles around and is a good twelve days’ journey distant from any sea. The Euphrates and many other rivers empty into it, and it is completely surrounded by mountains and land.13 Recently, merchants from Genoa {19} have been sailing this sea, for they have introduced ships in which they sail.14 The silk called Ghelle comes from there.
Now we have told you about the northern border of Armenia. Now we want to recount the other borders between the south and east.
Mosul is a great kingdom inhabited by many races of people whom I will now describe to you. There is a people called Arabs who worship Muhammad; there is another race of people who hold the Christian law, but not the way the church of Rome commands, for they fall short in several things. They are called Nestorians and Jacobites.15 They have a patriarch, who is called Catholicos [Jatolic]; this patriarch creates archbishops, bishops, abbots, and prelates of all kinds, and he sends them all over India, Cathay, and Baghdad, just like the pope of Rome [see also §190]. I tell you that all the Christians you will encounter in these parts I have told you about are all Nestorian and Jacobite.16 All the silk-and-gold cloth called muslin is made there. I also tell you that all the very great merchants, called Mosulin, who import very great quantities of all precious spices are from this kingdom I’ve told you about above. In the mountains of this kingdom live people called Kurds, who are Nestorian and Jacobite Christians; some are Saracens, who worship Muhammad. They are valiant men-at-arms and bad people; and they willingly rob merchants.
Now we leave off about the kingdom of Mosul and we will speak to you of the great city of Baghdad.
Baghdad is a very great city where the caliph of all the world’s Saracens is, just as the head of all the Christians of the world is in Rome. Through the city flows a very large river, and on this river one can well reach the Indian Sea.17 There merchants come and go with their merchandise. Know that, from Baghdad to the Indian Sea, the river is a good 18 days’ journey long; merchants who wish to go to India follow this river down to a city called Kish [Chisi] and from there enter the Indian Sea.18 What’s more, I tell you that on this river, between Baghdad and Kish, there is a great city called Basra [Bascra]; in the woods all around the city grow the best dates in the world. In Baghdad, cloth of gold and silk—that is, nassit, nac, cremosi, and others—are worked in many ways: very richly worked with animals and birds.19 This is the noblest and largest city in all these parts.
Know in truth that the greatest treasure of gold, silver, and precious things ever known to man happens to belong to the caliph of Baghdad, and I will tell you how. It is true that, around the year 1255 after the birth of Christ, the great lord of the Tartars called Hülegü, who was the brother of the great lord now reigning, assembled a very large host, marched on Baghdad, and took it by force.20 This was really a big thing, because there were more than 100,000 knights in Baghdad, not counting the foot soldiers. When he had taken it, he found that the caliph had a tower full of gold, silver, and other treasure—such that never had so much been seen in a single place at one time. When he saw this great treasure, he marveled and sent for the caliph to come before him, and said: “Caliph, why have you amassed so much treasure? What were you trying to do? Didn’t you know that I was your enemy and that I was advancing with a great host in order to ruin you? Since you knew this, why didn’t you take your treasure and give it to knights and mercenaries to defend you and your city?” The caliph made no answer for he didn’t know what he should say. Then Hülegü said to him: “Caliph, since I see that you love treasure so much, I’m going to give you your own to eat.” Then he had the caliph taken and put in the treasury tower and ordered that nothing be given him to eat or drink; then he said to him: “Caliph, now eat as much of your treasure as you’d like, since it pleases you so much; for never will you eat anything other than this treasure.” After that, he left him in the tower, where he died after {21} four days. So it would have been better for the caliph to have given his treasure to men to defend his land and his people, rather than to die with all his people, stripped of power. After this caliph, there was no longer a caliph.21
Now we will tell you of Tabriz [see §30]: it is very true that I could well have first told you about their deeds and their customs; but because this would be too lengthy, I’ve abridged my account, and therefore will relate other great and marvelous things, as you can hear.
I further wish to relate to you a great marvel that occurred between Baghdad and Mosul. Truly, in the year 1275 after Christ’s incarnation there was a caliph in Baghdad who wished very great ill on the Christians and thought day and night about how he could make all the Christians in his land turn Saracen or, failing this, put them to death.22 And every day he took counsel with his regular clerics and wise men, for all of them wished harm on the Christians. This is a truth: that all the Saracens in the world wish great harm to all the Christians of the world. Now it happened that the caliph and the sages around him found a passage that I will tell you about. They found in a gospel where it said that if there were a Christian who had as much faith as a mustard seed, that through praying to his Lord God, he could make two mountains come together. When they found this they were very happy, for they said that this was the thing that would turn all the Christians into Saracens or put them to death all together. Then the caliph sent for all the Christians—Nestorian and Jacobite—in his lands, which was a very {22} great number. When they had come before the caliph, he showed them this gospel and had them read it. And when they had read it, he asked if this were true. The Christians said that truly, this was the truth. “So you are saying,” said the caliph, “that a Christian who had as much faith as a mustard seed could, in praying to his lord, make 2 mountains come together?” “Truly, we say that,” said the Christians. “Then I will put a wager before you,” said the caliph; “since you are so Christian, there ought to be one among you with a bit of faith. So I say to you: either you move the mountain you see there”—and he pointed to a nearby mountain—“or I will have you all put to a bad death. For if you don’t move it, you will have shown that you have no faith; I will have you all killed or you will return to our good faith, which Muhammad gave for our benefit; you will have faith and be saved. To do this, I’ll give you ten days’ respite, and if you haven’t accomplished this by that time, I will have you all put to death.” With that, the caliph said no more and gave the Christians leave to go.
When the Christians heard what the caliph had said to them, they were very anguished and scared of dying; nevertheless, they had good hope that their creator would help them out of this great peril. They consulted all the Christian sages, who were prelates (for they had a lot of bishops, archbishops, and priests). They got no advice except to pray to their Lord God, for pity and mercy’s sake, to advise them in this matter and to save them from the cruel death the caliph would subject them to if they didn’t do what he asked. What should I tell you? Know in all truth that the Christians spent all day and all night in prayer and prayed devoutly to the Savior, god of heaven and earth, that for pity’s sake he should help them out of the great peril in which they found themselves.
The Christians—male and female, little and great—spent eight days and eight nights in great prayers and orations. Now it happened that while they were praying, an angel came in a vision to a bishop who led a very holy life with a message from God. He said: “O bishop, go now to a one-eyed shoemaker and tell him to pray for the mountain to move, and the mountain will move immediately.” I tell you about this shoemaker and his life. Now know truly that he was a very honest and chaste man. He fasted and committed no sin; he went to church and to mass every day; every day, for the sake of God, he gave away his bread. He was a man of such good habits and such a saintly life that no better one could be found, near or far. I will tell you something he did that caused people to say he was a good man of good faith and good life. It is true that he had often heard read the part of the holy gospel that says that if your eye incites you to sin, you should pull it from your head or blind it so that it did not cause you to sin. It happened that one day a beautiful woman came to the shoemaker’s house to buy shoes. The master wanted {23} to see her leg and foot to see what shoe would fit her. So the woman showed him her leg and foot—and no question she was beautiful, and you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful leg and foot. When the master (who was so good, as I’ve told you) saw this woman’s leg and foot, he was strongly tempted, for he could not take his eyes off her. He let the woman leave and didn’t want to sell her the shoes. When the woman had left, the master said to himself: “Ha! disloyal and treacherous one, what are you thinking? Certainly, I will take vengeance on the eyes that scandalize me.” At this he immediately took up a little tool, sharpened it, and thrust it into one of his eyes in such a way that it burst inside his head and would never see again. In this way as you have heard, this shoemaker—who was without doubt a most holy and good man—spoiled one of the eyes in his head. Now we will return to our story.
Now know that when this dream-vision [avision] had come to the bishop several times—that he should send for this shoemaker and that he, by his prayer, would make the mountain move—this bishop told the other Christians everything about the dream-vision that had come to him so many times. The Christians all counseled that this shoemaker should be brought before them, and so he was sent for. When he had come, they said that they wished him to pray to the Lord God that he should move the mountain. When the shoemaker heard what the bishop and the other Christians were telling him, he said that he was not so good a man that God would do such a great thing on account of his prayer. The Christians very gently entreated him to make this prayer to God. What should I tell you? They begged him so much that he said he would do what they wanted and made this prayer to his Creator.
When the day of the deadline had come, the Christians got up early; male and female, little and great, they all went to their church and sang holy mass. When they had sung and done the Lord God’s entire service, they set out, all together, on the road to the plain at the foot of the mountain, carrying the cross of the Savior in front of them. When all the Christians—they numbered a good 100,000—had come to this plain, they placed themselves in front of the Lord’s cross. The caliph was there with such a multitude of Saracens that it was a marvel: they had come to kill the Christians, for they in no way believed the mountain would move. The Christians, all of them, little and great, had great fear and great doubt, but nevertheless had good hope in their Creator. When all these people, Christians and {24} Saracens, were in this plain, then the shoemaker knelt before the cross, stretched his hands toward heaven and implored his Savior that this mountain might move and that all the Christians that were there might not suffer a bad death. No sooner had he made his prayer than the mountain began to break down and move. When the caliph and the Saracens saw this, they greatly marveled and several of them turned Christian. And the caliph himself became Christian, but in secret: except that, when he died, a cross was found around his neck; so the Saracens didn’t bury him in the tomb of the other caliphs, but put him in another place.23
This is how the marvel happened, as you have heard.
Tabriz is a great city which is in a province called Iraq, in which there are many other cities and many castles; but since Tabriz is the noblest city of the province, I’ll tell you about it.24
It is true that the men of Tabriz live from trade and crafts, for much very precious cloth of silk and gold is produced there. The city is so well sited that merchandise from India, Baghdad, Mosul, Hormuz, and many other places comes there; and many Latin merchants come to buy this merchandise that comes there from foreign countries. They also buy the precious stones that are found there in great abundance.25 It’s a city where merchants doing business make great profits. They are people of little account and are very mixed in many ways: there are Nestorian and Jacobite Armenians, Georgians, Persians. There are also men who {25} worship Muhammad; these are the people of the city, who are called Tabrizis. The city is completely surrounded by good and delectable gardens, full of many fruit and good things. The Saracens of Tabriz are very bad and disloyal, for their faith, given to them by their prophet Muhammad, commands them to do all the ill they can to all people who are not of their faith and whatever they can take from them is not regarded as a sin; for this reason they would do much ill if not for the lordship [segnorie]. And all the other Saracens of the world behave in this way.
Now we will leave Tabriz and begin with Persia.
Persia is a very large province, which formerly was very noble and important; but now, the Tartars have destroyed it and laid it to waste. In Persia is a city called Sava, from which the three magi came to worship Jesus Christ. In this city, the three magi are buried in three large and beautiful sepulchres; above the sepulchres are square houses—very well constructed, one right next to the other. Their bodies are still entirely whole, with hair and beards. One was named Beltasar, the other Gaspar, the third Melchior. Messer Marco asked several people of this city about these three magi, but there was no one who could tell him anything except that these were three kings who were buried there in the old days.26 But they [the Polos?] learned what I will tell you.
Three days farther on, they found a castle called Cala Ataperistan, which means “castle of the fire worshippers” in French; and this is really true, for the men of this castle worship fire.27 I will tell you why they worship it: the men of this castle say that in the old days, three of the kings of this country went to worship a prophet who had been born, and they carried three offerings—gold, incense, and myrrh—to find out whether this prophet was god, an earthly king, or a physician. For they said: if he takes the gold, he is an earthly king; if he takes {26} the incense, he is god; and if he takes the myrrh, he is a physician.28 When they came to where the child had been born, the youngest of the three kings went to see the child alone, and he found him just like himself in appearance, for he resembled him in age and manner; then he came outside, marveling greatly. Then the second one, who was of middle age, went in and, as with the first, he seemed to him of his own manner and age; and he too exited completely amazed. Then the third one, who was older, went in, and it happened to him as to the other two; and he too came out very pensive. When the three kings were all together, each told the others what he had seen; and they marveled greatly over it and said they would all three go in at the same time. Then all three went before the child together: and they found him the appearance and age he was, for he was only 13 days old. Then they worshipped him and offered him the gold, incense, and myrrh. The child took all three offerings; then the child gave them a closed box. The three kings left to return to their country.
When they had ridden some days, they said they wanted to see what the child had given them. Then they opened the box and found a stone within. They marveled greatly at what it could be. The child had given it to them to signify that they should be as solid as a stone in the faith they had undertaken. For when the three kings saw that the child had taken all three of their offerings, they said that he was god, earthly king, and physician. Because the child knew that these three kings had faith, he gave them the stone signifying that they should be firm and constant in what they believed. The three kings took this stone and threw it in a well, for they didn’t know why the stone had been given them; and as soon as the stone had been thrown in the well, a burning fire fell from the sky and went straight into the well, where the stone had been thrown. When the three kings saw this great marvel, they were amazed and repented of having thrown away the stone; for they saw that it had good and great meaning.29 Now they took this fire and carried it to their country and put it in one of their churches, which was very beautiful and rich. They kept it burning for all time and worshipped it as god, and all the sacrifices and burned offerings they make are cooked with this fire. If it ever happened that the fire went out, they go to others who hold the same faith and also worship fire and get some of the fire burning in their church and return to rekindle their fire: never do they kindle it except with the fire I have told you {27} about. To find this fire, they will often travel for 10 days. For the reason I have told you, the inhabitants of this country worship fire. I tell you they are numerous. These are all things the people of the castle told Messer Marco Polo; thus it is the truth. What’s more, I tell you that one of the three kings was from Sava [Saba], the other from Aveh [Ava], and the third from Kashan [Caxan].
Now I’ve told you of this matter quite completely; after this I will tell you about many other cities of Persia—their facts and customs.
Now know that there are 8 kingdoms in Persia, for it is a very large province; I will describe them all to you by name. The first kingdom, from the beginning, is called Qazvin [Casum]; the second, toward the south, is called Kurdistan [Curdistan]; the third is called Luristan [Lor]; the fourth Shulistan [Çulistan]; the fifth Isfahan [Isfaan]; the sixth Shiraz [Ceraçi]; the seventh Shabankara [Soncara]; the eighth Tun-va-Kain [Tunocin], at the far end of Persia. All these kingdoms are toward the south, except for one, Tun-va-Kain, which is near the Dry Tree.30
In this kingdom are many fine warhorses, many of which are taken to India to be sold. Know that they are very valuable horses, for each one sells for a good 200 pounds tournois, and most of them are that valuable. There are also the most beautiful donkeys in the world, each one well worth thirty silver marks, for they are great runners and are good at carrying loads at an amble. The people of this kingdom take the horses that I’ve mentioned to Qays and Hormuz [§37], which are two cities on the banks of the Indian Sea. There they find merchants who buy them and take them to India and sell them there for the high prices I have told you.
In these kingdoms are many cruel and murderous people, for they are always killing each other and, were it not for fear of the lordship, that is, of the Tartar of the East, they would do great harm to merchants selling things. Throughout the whole lordship, they have not often ceased doing them great damage. For if merchants are not well equipped with arms and bows, they kill them and mistreat them badly. I tell you with no mistake that all of them are of the faith of their prophet Muhammad.
In the city there are many merchants and craftsmen, living from trade and labor, for they make every kind of cloth of gold and cloth of silk. A lot of cotton is grown here. They have wheat, barley, millet, panic grass, all kinds of wheat, wine, and all fruits in abundance.
Now we leave this kingdom and we will tell you all about the condition and customs of the great city of Yazd.
Yazd is in Persia proper, a good and noble city, very mercantile. There they make a lot of the silk called iasdi, which merchants export to many parts to make a profit. They worship Muhammad. When one leaves this land to go on, he rides a full 7 days, and in only three places are there dwellings where one can stay. There are many beautiful woods, fine for riding through, and there is a lot of woodland game. There are lots of partridge and quail. Merchants riding through there take great solace; there are also some very beautiful wild donkeys. After 7 days is found a kingdom called Kerman.31
Kerman is a kingdom of Persia proper and in former times it had a hereditary lord; but since the Tartars conquered it, rule is not passed on by heredity but the Tartar sends out whatever lord he wishes. The stones called turquoise come from this kingdom in great abundance, for they are found in the mountains where they dig them out of the rock. There are also many veins of steel and Indian steel [ondanique]. They make all kinds of very good equipment for knights: bits, saddles, spurs, swords, bows, quivers, and all their armor, according to their practices. Their ladies and maidens nobly ply their needles on silk cloths of all colors, making animals, birds, and many other images. So well do they work the hangings for barons and lords that it’s a marvel to see; they also do very delicate work on coverlets, cushions, and pillow covers. In the mountains of this country the best, finest flying falcons in the world are born; smaller than peregrine falcons, they are red on the chest, under the tail, and between the thighs. I tell you that they are such extraordinary flyers that no bird can escape them by flight.
When one leaves the city of Kerman, he rides 7 days, finding many castles, towns, and dwellings the whole time. There are many very pleasant stretches, for there is a lot of game and partridge in abundance. When one has ridden across this plain for 7 days, then he finds a very great mountain and slope, for one rides downhill for two days, finding all kinds of fruit in abundance the whole way. Formerly32 there were dwellings but now there are none, but there are people there with their grazing animals. From the city of Kerman to this slope it is so very cold in winter that one barely makes it wearing lots of cloth and fabric.
When one has gone downhill for the two days I mentioned to you, then one finds a very large plain; at the start of this plain is a city called Qamadin, which in the old days was a large and marvelously noble city, but now is neither as large nor as good: for Tartars from another country have ravaged it several times. I tell you that this plain is very hot.
The province we are now beginning to describe is called Reobar. Its fruits include dates, apples of paradise, pistachios, and other fruits which are not found in our cold lands. In this plain there’s a species [generasion] of birds called francolins, which are different from francolins of other countries, for they are mixed black and white, with red feet and beaks. The animals are also different. First I’ll tell you about the oxen: the oxen are very large and white as snow all over; their coats are short and smooth, because of the heat of the place. They have short horns, thick but not pointed, and between their shoulders they have a round hump a good two palms high. They are the most beautiful things in the world to see. When you want to load them, they lie down just as camels do, and when you’ve loaded them, they stand up and carry their loads very well, for they are strong beyond measure. There are sheep as big as asses; they have tails so thick and wide that it weighs a good 30 pounds; they are very beautiful and fat and are good to eat.
In this plain there are several castles and towns that have high, thick earthen walls to protect them from the Qara’unas—bandits who ravage the country. Why are they called Qara’unas?33 Because their mothers were Indian and their fathers Tartar. When these people ravage a country and plunder, they do it by enchantment: through their devilry, the day becomes so dark that one can’t see far at all; and they make this darkness last seven days. They know the country very well: when they’ve brought on the darkness, they ride one beside the other. They number a good 10,000 at a time—sometimes more and sometimes less—and in this way cover the entire plain they wish to plunder, such that no one they find in the plains—neither men, animals, nor things—can escape their capture. When they have captured the men, they kill all the old ones, taking the young ones away and selling them as servants and slaves. Their king is called Nogodar; and this Nogodar went to the court of Chaghadai (the brother of the Great Khan) with a good 10,000 of his men, remaining with him since he was his uncle and a very great lord. While he was staying with him, Nogodar pondered and committed a great felony: I will tell you how.34 He left his uncle Chaghadai, who was {30} in Greater Armenia, and fled with 10,000 of his men, who were very cruel and felonious, crossing through Badakhshan, through a province called Pashai [§48], and another province called Kashmir [§49]; there he lost many of his people and animals, for the roads were narrow and poor. When they had crossed through all these provinces, they entered India—within the bounds of a province called Dilivar. They captured a noble city called Dilivar, staying in that city and capturing the kingdom that they took from a king named Ghiyath al-Din [Asidin Soldan], who was very powerful and rich.35 There Nogodar remained with his people, fearing no one. He makes war on all the other Tartars surrounding his kingdom.
Now I have told you about this plain and the people who bring on the darkness in order to plunder. I further tell you that Messer Marco himself was captured by these people in this darkness; but he escaped to a castle called Canosalmi; many of his companions were captured and sold, and some died. Now we will continue on to other things.
It is true that this plain stretches southward for five days’ journey; at the end of five days, one finds another slope that one must go straight down for 20 miles. It’s a very bad road; bad men come there, robbers, and thus it is a frightening road.
When one has descended this slope, there is another, very beautiful plain called the plain of Hormuz; it is two days’ journey in length. There are fine rivers and many date palms; there are birds—francolins, parrots, and others—that are not like ours.
When one has ridden for two days, he finds the Ocean Sea [la mer osiane], and on the shore there is a city called Hormuz, which has a port [see §198]. I tell you that merchants come there from India with their ships, bringing all kinds of spices, precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephant tusks, and much other merchandise; and in this city they sell it to other men who then transport them all over the world, selling them to other people. It is a city of very great merchandise; there are many cities and castles under it: it is the chief city of the kingdom. The king is called Rukn al-Din Mahmud [Ruemeden Acomat]. It is very hot there, for the sun is very hot; and the land is unhealthy. And if any merchant from another country dies there, the king takes all his property.
In this land they make wine from dates, with many other spices; it’s very good. When men drink it who are not accustomed to drink, it really takes them down and they purge everything; but then it does them good and puts meat on their bones. Men aren’t accustomed to our food, for if they eat wheat bread and meat, {31} they fall ill; to be healthy, they eat dates and salted fish (tuna, that is); they also eat onions. To stay healthy they customarily eat this food I’ve described to you.
Their ships are very bad and many of them perish, for they are not nailed with iron nails but are stitched with thread made from the bark of Indian nuts [coconuts]: they soak it and it becomes like the hair of a horse’s mane; then they make thread and stitch their ships; it is not damaged by salty seawater but is quite durable. The ships have one mast, one sail, and a rudder. They have no cover, but when they are loaded, they cover the merchandise with leather; and after they’ve covered it, they put the horses they are taking to India to sell on top. They have no iron for making nails; therefore they make wooden pegs and thread stitching. For this reason it’s quite dangerous sailing in these ships. I tell you that many of them sink, because the Indian Sea is often very stormy.
The people are black and worship Muhammad. In summer, the people do not remain in the cities, for it is so hot that they would all die there; but I tell you that they go outside to their gardens, where there is a river and a lot of water. For all this, they would not escape if not for what I am about to tell you. Truly, often in summer from the sands surrounding this plain there blows a wind which is so exceedingly hot that it would kill men if not for this: as soon as the men see that this hot wind is blowing, they get into the water and in this way escape this hot wind. What’s more, I tell you that they sow their wheat, barley, and other grains in the month of November and harvest it all through March; thus it is with all their crops, for they are ready and ripe in the month of March. Nor will you find any vegetation on the land other than date palms which last until the month of May; this is on account of the great heat, which dries everything out.
About the ships: I will tell you that they are smeared not with pitch but with fish oil.
I tell you that when men or women die, they mourn them greatly. I also tell you that ladies mourn their dead a good four years after their death, at least once every day, for they gather with their relatives and neighbors and greatly weep and greatly wail and greatly lament the dead.
Now we will leave this city. We will not describe India to you at this point, for I will tell you about it farther on in our book, in the proper time and place; but I will return northward to describe those provinces, and will return to the city of Kerman, which I have told you about [§35], by another route, because you can’t get to those regions I want to tell you about except from Kerman. I tell you that King Rukn al-Din Mahmud, whom we are taking leave of now, is the vassal of this king of Kerman. Returning from Hormuz to Kerman, there is a very fine plain with abundant provisions: there are many hot springs; there are lots of partridges and great markets; fruit and date trees are plentiful. The wheat bread is so bitter that no one who is not accustomed to it can eat it; this is because the water is bitter there. The baths, which I mentioned above, are of very hot spring water, and are very good for many ailments and sores.
Now I want to begin the countries toward the north that I will name for you in my book; you will learn how.
Leaving Kerman, one rides a good seven days along a very trying path; I will tell you how. There are three days where you find few or no rivers. What you do find is salty, as green as a grassy field, and so bitter that no one could bear drinking it: if you drank a drop it would make you go more than 10 times. Likewise with the salt this water makes: anyone who eats the smallest granule also gets the runs. For this reason, men who pass through here carry drinking water with them. The animals drink from it out of great compulsion and thirst, and I tell you that the water gives them an exceedingly bad case of the runs. All these three days, there is no habitation: it is all a desert, very dry; there are no animals, for they would find nothing to eat.
At the end of three days we find another stretch, lasting four days, which is also a completely dry desert, where the water is as bitter and there are no trees or animals except only asses.
{33} At the end of these four days the kingdom of Kerman ends and we find the city of Kuh-Banan.
Kuh-Banan is a large city; the people worship Muhammad. There is a lot of iron, steel, and Indian steel, and they make very large and beautiful steel mirrors there. There they make everything that is pleasing to the eyes; they also make spodium, and I will tell you how: they take a vein of earth which is suited to this purpose and put it in a furnace with a burning fire, with an iron grate above the furnace. The smoke and humidity exuded by this earth catches on the iron grate: this is tutia, and the part of the earth remaining in the fire is spodium.36
Now we leave this city and go forward.
Leaving the city of Kuh-Banan, one goes a good 8 days through a desert, where it is very dry and there are no fruit or trees and the waters are very bitter and bad; so one must carry everything needed to eat and drink, except for the water that the animals are obliged to drink.
At the end of these eight days is a province called Tun-va-Kain [Tonocain].37 There are many cities and castles. It is within the borders of Persia toward the north, and there is a very large plain with the lone tree that Christians call the Dry Tree; I will tell you how it is made. It is very large and very thick; its leaves are green on one side and white on the other; it produces prickly burs like those of chestnuts, but empty inside. Its wood is very strong and yellow like boxwood. There are no other trees for more than 100 miles beyond that, except at one point about 10 miles away where there are a few. That is where, according to those of that country, the battle between Alexander and Darius took place.38 The cities and castles have an abundance of all good and beautiful things, because the country is exceedingly moderate: neither too hot nor too cold. The people all worship Muhammad. The people there are handsome—especially the women, who are exceedingly beautiful.
We will leave from here and tell you about a country called Alamut, where the Old Man of the Mountain used to live.
Alamut [Mulecte] is a country where the Old Man of the Mountain used to live formerly.39 Mulecte means “heretics” in Saracen.40 Now I will tell you all about him according to what my lord Marco told to several men.
In their language, the Old Man was called cAlā’ al-Dīn [Alaodin].41 Between two mountains, in a valley, he had constructed the biggest, most beautiful garden {34} ever seen, that had all the good fruit in the world. He made the most beautiful houses and the most beautiful palaces ever seen, for they were gilded and painted with all the world’s most beautiful things. Then he had four pipes built: one carried wine, one milk, one honey, and one water.42 There were the world’s most beautiful ladies and damsels, who could play any instrument, sing, and dance better than other women. The Old Man gave his men to understand that this garden was paradise. And he made it this way because Muhammad had told his Saracens that those who went to paradise would find beautiful women—as many as they could want—and that they would find there rivers of wine, milk, honey, and water. Therefore he had the garden made to resemble the paradise Muhammad had described to the Saracens and the Saracens of that country truly believed that that garden was paradise.
No man ever entered this garden excepting only those that he wished to make assassins. At the entrance to the garden there was a castle so strong that it would fear no man in the world, and there was no other way to enter. The Old Man kept with him, in his court, all the youths of the country between twelve and twenty years old—that is, those who seemed men-at-arms. By hearsay, they knew very well that, according to what their prophet Muhammad had told them, paradise was constructed in such a way as I have described, and so they truly believed it. What should I tell you? The Old Man put these youths—by fours or tens or twenties, as he wished—in this paradise in this way: he gave them a drink that made them instantly fall asleep. Then he had them taken and put in the garden and woken up.
When the youths were awakened, they found themselves within and, seeing all the things I have described to you, believed themselves truly to be in paradise. The ladies and damsels stayed with them the whole time, playing instruments, singing, making merry, and doing whatever the youths wished. Thus these youths had everything they could want and would never wish to leave. The Old Man’s court was very beautiful and great; he conducted himself most nobly and made these simple mountain folk around him believe he was a prophet: thus they truly believed him.
{35} When the Old Man wanted to send one of them someplace to kill another man, he gave the drink to as many of them as he pleased; when they fell asleep, he had them taken and carried to his palace. When these youths awoke and found themselves in this castle and palace, they marveled and were not happy, because never by their own will would they have left the paradise from which they had come. Immediately they went before the Old Man and humbled themselves before him, believing him to be a great prophet. The Old Man asked them where they were coming from and they said they came from paradise. They said that this is truly the paradise our ancestor Muhammad described and related all the things found there. The others who were listening who had not been there were eager to go to paradise and wanted to die in order to be able to go there, and very much wanted to go there that very day. When the Old Man wanted to have a great lord killed, he gave the nod to those he thought the best of his assassins. He sent several out in the surrounding country nearby, ordering them to kill some men. They would immediately go and carry out their lord’s command, then return to court—those who escaped, for some were caught and put to death for having killed people.
When those who had escaped returned to their lord, they told him that they had carried out their task. The Old Man showed them great joy and great celebration; and he knew well which of them had acted with the greatest zeal, for he had sent some of his men to follow each of them, who could tell him which was the most zealous and the best at killing.
When the Old Man wanted to have some lord or other man killed, he took some of these assassins and sent them there where they were wanted and told them that he wanted to send them to paradise, and that they were to go kill such-and-such a man and, if they died, that they would go immediately to paradise. Those who had received the Old Man’s orders carried them out very willingly, more than anything else they might do, and went and did everything the Old Man had commanded them. In this way, no one escaped being killed, when the Old Man of the Mountain desired it. I tell you in all truth that several kings and several barons paid him tribute and maintained good relations with him for fear that he might have them killed.
Now I’ve told you about the Old Man of the Mountain and his assassins; now I will tell you how he was destroyed and by whom; I also want to tell you another thing about him that I had left out. For I tell you that this Old Man had chosen two other Old Men who were subordinate to him and who kept all his way and his customs: one he sent to the area around Damascus, the other he sent to Kurdistan. Now let’s leave this and get to his destruction. It was true that, around the year 1262 of Christ’s incarnation, Hülegü, lord of the Tartars of the East, found out all the bad things this Old Man was doing and said to himself that he would {36} destroy him. Then he took some of his barons and sent them to this castle with a lot of people. They besieged the castle a good three years without succeeding in taking it, and they would never have taken it as long as [those inside] had enough to eat. But after three years, they had nothing left to eat. So the Old Man, whose name was cAlā’ al-Dīn, was, along with all his men, taken and killed. From that Old Man until now, there has been no Old Man and no assassin; with him, the rule and all the evils that Old Men of the Mountain had committed in former times came to an end.43
Now we leave this matter and will go forward.
On leaving this castle, one rides through a fine plain, a fine valley, and fine hills, where there is good grazing, good pasturage, much fruit, and all good things in great abundance. Armies willingly stay there for the great abundance there. This country stretches for a good six days’ journey; there are cities and castles, and the men worship Muhammad. Sometimes you find a desert of 60 miles, and 50, in which no water is found; instead, men must carry it with them. The animals don’t drink until they’ve exited the desert and come to a place where they find water.
Having ridden for six days, as I have told you, then one finds a city called Shaburghan. This is a city with a great abundance of all things; and I tell you that there is a very great quantity of the world’s best melons, that they dry in this way: they slice them all around like straps, then they put them in the sun and dry them: they become as soft as honey. I tell you that they trade in them and go selling great quantities throughout the country. There are game animals and birds past counting.
Now we will leave this city and will tell you about another city called Balkh.
Balkh is a large and noble city; in former times it was a good deal nobler and larger, for the Tartars and other people laid it waste [gastés] and ravaged it, for I tell you that in former times there were many beautiful palaces and many beautiful marble houses; they are still there, ruined and wasted [gastee].44 I also tell you that it was in this city that Alexander married Darius’ daughter, according to what {37} is told about this city. The people worship Muhammad. Know that the land of the Tartar of the East reaches up to this city; this city is where Persia ends to the east-northeast.
Now we leave this city and begin to describe another country called Dogana. Leaving this city I’ve told you about, he rides between east and northeast for a good 12 days, finding no habitations, for the people have all fled to fortresses in the mountains, for fear of evil people and the armies that were doing them much damage. I tell you that there is a lot of water; a lot of game; there are also lions. For these twelve days, no food is to be found; whoever travels this way must carry with them food for their horses and themselves.
Having gone these twelve days, one finds a castle called Taleqan [Taican], where there’s a great wheat market; it’s in fine country; toward the south, the mountains are very large and completely of salt; from the entire country, people come from up thirty days’ journey for this salt, which is the best in the world. It is so hard that you can’t mine it except with large iron picks. I tell you that it’s in such great abundance that the whole world would have enough to last to the end of the world.
Leaving this city, he went three days between northeast and east, the whole time through fine country with many dwellings and an abundance of fruit, grain, and vines. The people worship Muhammad; they are bad, murderous people; they are habitually drunk, for they drink willingly, for they have very good cooked wine. They wear nothing on their heads except a cord ten palms long; this they wrap around their heads. They are very good hunters and catch a lot of game. They have no clothing other than the skins of the animals they catch; these they tan, making their clothing and shoes from it; and everyone knows how to tan the skins of the animals they catch.
Having gone for three days, one finds a city called Ishkashim [Scasem], which belongs to a count (his other cities and castles are in the mountains), and a fairly large river flows through the middle of this city. There are many porcupines. When hunters want to trap them, they set dogs on them, and the porcupines collect together and throw the quills on their backs into the dogs’ flanks, wounding them in several places.
This Ishkashim is in a great province, and has a language of its own. The country folk with their animals remain in the mountains, for they make large and fine dwellings, for they make caves there: they can do this easily, because the mountains are of earth.
Leaving this city I’ve described to you above, one goes three days without finding any dwellings, nor anything to eat or drink; you carry provisions with you. And after three days you find the province of Badakhshan; I will describe it to you.
Badakhshan is a province whose people worship Muhammad and have a language of their own. It is a large kingdom and [has] a hereditary king: they are from a single lineage, descended from Alexander and King Darius, the great lord of Persia. What’s more, all these kings are named Zulkarnein [Çulcarnein] in their Saracen language (meaning “Alexander” in French), for love of the great Alexander.45
From this province come the precious stones called balasci,46 very beautiful and of great worth, that come from rocks in the mountains. I tell you they make great caverns in the mountains and go very deep, just like those mining for silver, and this in one particular mountain called Shighnan [Sighinan]. Know also that the king makes them dig for him; no other man could go to this mountain to mine balasci without immediately being put to death. What’s more, I tell you that if anyone takes any out of his kingdom, he risks his head and his goods; for the king sends them via his men to other kings, princes, and great lords—sometimes for tribute, sometimes for love—and also sells some in exchange for gold and silver. The king does this in order that his rubies be expensive and of great worth; for if he let other men mine it and take it throughout the world, they would extract them until they would be less expensive and of lesser worth. That is why the king has set such a high punishment—so no one extract any without his permission. Know also, in truth, that in this same country, in another mountain, are found the stones from which azure [lapis lazuli] is made: this is the finest and best azure in the world, and the stones I mentioned to you, from which azure is made, come from veins in the mountains similar to other veins.
What’s more, I tell you that there are mountains in which are found veins from which great quantities of silver are extracted.
It is a very cold country and province. Know also that very good horses come from here; they run well and do not wear iron on their feet, and are always going through the mountains. Also from these mountains are saker falcons that are very good and fly well; there are also lanner falcons. There is an abundance of game {39} animals and birds. They have good wheat, they have huskless barley; they don’t have olive oil, but make it from sesame and walnuts. In this kingdom there are many narrow paths and many fortified places, so they do not fear that any people will come to cause them harm: their cities and castles are in the high mountains, in very fortified spots. They are good archers and hunters; most of them wear animal leather, for they lack cloth. Great ladies and nobles wear trousers, as I will describe to you: there are ladies who put a good hundred ells47 of cloth and cotton in one trouser leg (some put 80, and some 60); and they do this to show that they have big hips, because their men take pleasure in fat women.
Now we have told you about this kingdom and will leave off here to tell you about another people, toward the south, 10 days’ journey from this province.
It is true then 10 days’ journey south of Badakhshan there is a province called Pashai: they have a language of their own,48 and the people are idolators who worship idols. They are a brown people. They know a lot about enchantment and diabolical arts. The men wear hoops and earrings of gold, silver, pearls, and many precious stones. They are a malicious people, wise in their customs. This province is a very hot place; their food is meat and rice.
Now we leave this and we will tell you about another province 7 days to the southeast called Kashmir.
Kashmir is a province [whose people are] also idolators and have a language of their own.49 They know so many devilish enchantments that it’s a marvel: for they make their idols talk. Through enchantment, they change the weather and cause great darkness to fall. Through enchantment and reason, they do such great things that no one who sees them can believe them. I tell you that they are the head of other idolators and idols descend from them. And from this place you could go to the Indian Sea. They are brown and slim; the women are very beautiful in the way of brown women. Their food is meat and rice. It is a temperate land, which is neither too hot nor too cold. There are many cities and castles. They have woodlands and deserts and such fortified paths that they fear no one. {40} They are independent, for they have their king who maintains justice. They have their own kind of hermits who live in their hermitages and perform great feats of abstinence from food and drink and are very chaste when it comes to pleasures, taking extraordinary measures to commit no sins contrary to their faith. Their people hold them to be very holy; I tell you that they live to a great age and the great abstinences they perform in not sinning are for love of their idols. They also have many abbeys and monasteries of their faith. And coral taken from our land to sell is sold in this country more than any others.50
Now we leave this province. We will not go further from these parts, because if we went further we would come to India and I don’t want to go there at this point, because on our return route we will tell you everything relating to India in order. Therefore we will return toward our province of Badakhshan, in order to go to other provinces.
On leaving Badakhshan,51 one went twelve days between east and northeast along a river that belongs to the brother of the lord of Badakhshan, where there are many castles and settlements. The people are worthy and worship Muhammad. After twelve days one finds a province that is not very large, for it is three days’ journey in every direction and is called Wakhan [Vocan]. The people worship Muhammad and have a language of their own; they are worthy men-at-arms. They have no lord except one called None, which means “count” in the French language;52 they are subject to the lord of Badakhshan. They have many wild animals and game animals of all kinds.
On leaving this place, one went northeast for three days, through mountains the whole time, climbing so much that it is said that this is the highest place in the world.53 In this high place, one finds a plain between two mountains in which there is a very beautiful river: the best pasture in the world is found there, for a skinny animal fattens up there in 10 days. There is a great abundance of all wild things: there is a multitude of very large wild sheep, with horns a good six palms, and at least four or three. From these horns the shepherds make big bowls that they eat from. The shepherds also use these horns to enclose the spaces where they keep their animals.54 One went a good twelve days across this plain, which is {41} called Pamir; and in all these twelve days there was neither settlement nor pasture, but merchants have to carry food with them. There are no birds, on account of the height and the cold of the place. I tell you that, because of the cold, fire is not as bright or of the same color as in other places and does not cook things well.
Now we leave this and we will tell you about other things further to the northeast and to the east. When one has gone three days, as I’ve said, one must ride a good 40 days between northeast and east, the whole time through mountains, hills, and valleys, passing many rivers and many desertlike places; nor are there any settlements or pasturage in all this time, but merchants must carry food with them. This country is called Bolor [Belor]; the people there live in very high mountains. They are idolators, very wild, and live solely from hunting; their clothing is made from animal leather, and they are a very bad people.
Now we leave this country and will tell you about the province of Kashgar.
Kashgar was formerly a kingdom, but now it is subject to the Great Khan. The people worship Muhammad. There are many cities and castles, and the biggest, noblest city is Kashgar.55 They are also between northeast and east. They live from trade and crafts; they have very beautiful gardens and vines and beautiful lands. Much cotton comes from there. From this country, many merchants go out who travel over the whole world selling merchandise. They are a very miserly and wretched people, for they eat badly and drink badly. Some Nestorian Christians live in this country and have their church and their faith. The people of the province have a language of their own. This province is 5 days’ journey across.
Now we leave this country and will tell you about Samarqand.
Samarqand is a very large and noble city;56 the people are Christians and Saracens. They belong to a nephew [neveu] of the Great Khan who is not his friend, but has {42} been at odds with him several times. It is to the northwest, and I will tell you a great marvel that happened in this city.
It was true that not very long ago, Chaghadai, the brother of the Great Khan, became Christian and was lord of this country and many others.57 When the Christians of the city of Samarqand saw that their lord was Christian, they were very happy; they then built in this city a large church in honor of Saint John the Baptist: that was how the church was named. They took a very beautiful stone that belonged to the Saracens and used it for the pillar of a column in the middle of the church that held up the roof. Now it happened that Chaghadai died, and when the Saracens saw that he was dead, and because they had been and were still very angry over these stones that were in the Christian church, said among themselves that they wanted these stones back by force. They could well do this, for they were ten times more numerous than the Christians. Then some of the leading Saracens went to the Church of Saint John and told the Christians who were there that they wanted these stones, which had belonged to them. The Christians said that they were willing to give them whatever they wanted to leave the stone, for it would damage the church too much if this stone were removed. The Saracens said that they wanted neither gold nor treasure, but wanted their stones come what may. What should I tell you? The lordship was held by this nephew of the Great Khan.58 He commanded the Christians to give these stones back to the Saracens within two days. When the Christians received this order, they were very vexed and didn’t know what they should do. Now a miracle occurred just as I will tell you: know that on the morning of the day when they were to return the stones, the column that was on the stone, through the will of our lord Jesus Christ, had removed itself from the stone to a height of three palms; and it was supported just as well as had been with the stone underneath it. From that day forward, this column has always remained, and is still, in that position. And it was and still is held to be one of the great miracles that has occurred in the world.
Now we leave this and will go further and tell you about a province called Yarkand.
Yarkand is a province that is five days’ journey across. The people are of Muhammad’s faith and there are some Nestorian Christians. They belong to the nephew {43} of the Great Khan that I told you about above. They have an abundance of everything. But because there’s nothing that deserves mention in our book,60 we leave it and will tell you about Khotan.
Khotan is a province between the east and northeast, 8 days’ journey across.61 It belongs to the Great Khan; the people all worship Muhammad. There are many cities and castles; the noblest city and capital is called Khotan: this is the name of the province. There is an abundance of everything: a lot of cotton comes from there; they have vines and many lands and gardens. They live from trade and crafts and are not men-at-arms.
Now we will leave here and will tell you about another province called Pem.
Pem is a province that is five days’ journey across between the east and northeast.62 The people worship Muhammad and belong to the Great Khan. There are many cities and castles; the noblest city and capital is called Pem. There is a river in which many stones called jasper and chalcedony are found. They have everything in abundance: a lot of cotton comes from there. They live from trade and crafts, and they have a custom that I will describe to you. For when a woman has a husband, and he leaves her to go on a trip lasting twenty days or more, the wife, as soon as her husband has left on his trip, takes [another] husband; and she can very well do this according to their custom. As for the men, wherever they go, they also take wives. Know that all these provinces I have told you about, from Kashgar to here and beyond, are part of Greater Turkey.
Now we leave this and will tell you about a province called Qarqan.
Qarqan is a province of Greater Turkey to the northwest. The people worship Muhammad. There are many cities and castles, and the head city in the region is called Qarqan. There’s a river from which they mine jasper and chalcedony, which they take to Cathay [Cata] to sell at great profit, because they are plentiful and good. The entire province is sandy: it is also sandy from Khotan to Pem, and from Pem to here is also sandy. There are many bad and bitter waters; in many other places, the water is good and sweet. When an enemy army happens to pass through the region, they flee with their wives, sons, and animals, two or three days’ journey into the sand to a place where they know there is water and they can live with their animals. I also tell you that no one can see where they went, because the wind covers their tracks with sand so that no trace of their path is visible and it looks like no man or animal has passed that way. Thus they escape from their enemies in the way I have told you. If it happens that a friendly army passes that way, then they just take their animals away, because they don’t want them to be taken and eaten, for armies don’t pay for what they take.
On leaving Qarqan, he went five days through sand that had bad, bitter water, as well as through places where it was good and sweet. There is nothing that deserves mention in our book. At the end of 5 days you find a city at the start of a great desert, where men get food to cross the desert. Now we will leave this and go on with our account.
Lop is a large city which is the entry point for the great desert, called the desert of Lop, which is between the east and northeast. This city belongs to the Great Khan; the people worship Muhammad. I tell you that whoever wishes to cross the desert stays in this city a week to refresh themselves and their animals; after a week, they acquire a month’s worth of food for themselves and their animals. Then they leave this city and enter the desert.
I tell you that, according to what they say, it is so long that it takes a year to cross; in the narrower spot, you’d be hard-pressed to cross it in a month. It is all mountains, sand, and valleys, with nothing to eat. But I tell you that when you’ve gone a day and a night, you find drinking water: not enough for a lot of people, but [enough for] fifty or a hundred men with their animals. Throughout the whole desert you must go a day and a night before finding water: and I tell you that in three or four places, bitter and salty water is found, and in all the other places it is good: about 28 sources of water. There are no animals or birds, for there is nothing for them to eat; but I tell you that a marvel is found there, such as I will describe to you.
{45} It is true that when one rides through this desert at night and something happens that causes someone to stay behind and get separated from his companions (to sleep or some other reason), then want to rejoin his companions, then they hear spirits talking in a way that seems to be his companions: for sometimes they call them by name. Many times they cause them to stray in such a way that they are never found; in this way, many have died and been lost. I also tell you that men hear these spirit voices even during the day, and often it seems like you hear many instruments—that is, drums—being played.
This is how it is to cross this desert—with many hardships, as you have heard. From this point we will leave the desert, which we have fully described to you and will tell you about the provinces one finds on exiting this desert.
When one has ridden these thirty days across the desert I have described to you, then one finds a city called Shazhou [Saciou], which belongs to the Great Khan. The province is called Tangut.63 They are all idolators. It’s very true there are some Nestorian Christians; there are also some Saracens. The idolators have their own language. The city is between the northeast and east. They are not people who live from trade, but live on gains from the wheat they harvest from the land. They have many abbeys and many churches, which are all full of many sorts of idols, to which they make great sacrifices and show great honor and reverence.64 Know that all the men who have children raise a sheep in honor of the idols; after a year, or on the feast of the idol, the one who has raised the sheep takes it, along with his children, before the idol—both he and his children showing great reverence. When they’ve done it, they have it cooked. Then they carry it before the idol with great reverence and leave it there until they have said their office and prayer that the idol safeguard their children; and they say that the idol eats the substance of the meat. After they have done this, they take this meat that has been before the idol and take it home or somewhere else and, sending for their relatives, eat it with great reverence and festivity. When they have eaten the meat, they gather the bones and keep them very securely in a chest. Know that all the {46} idolators in the world, when they die, the others burn their bodies. I also tell you that when these idolators are carried from their homes to the place where they are to be burned, the relatives of the dead man have a wooden house covered with silk cloth and cloth of gold made in the middle of the road somewhere along the way. When the dead man is carried by the house adorned in this way, they stop. The men lay wine and food before the dead man, and they do this because they say that he will then be received with such honors in the otherworld. When he is carried to the place where he is to be burned, his relatives have men, horses, camels, and coins as big as bezants cut from pieces of paper; all these things are burned with the body. They say that in the otherworld the dead man will have as many slaves, animals, and sheep as they burn out of paper. I also tell you that when the bodies are carried off to be burned, the body is preceded by all the instruments in the land being played.65
I tell you another thing as well: when these idolators die, they send for their astrologer and tell him the dead man’s birth date—that is, when he was born (what month, day, and hour). When the astrologer has learned this, he performs his divinations by diabolical arts and says, since he has done his art, which day the body should burn. I tell you that sometimes they hold off burning the body for a week, sometimes a month, sometimes 6 months. Therefore, the dead man’s relatives keep them in the house as I have told you, for they would never burn a body before the time the divinator has told them. In the meanwhile, before the body is burned and is being kept in their house, this is how they do it. For I tell you that they have a casket of planks one palm thick, well fitted together and richly painted all over; they put the body inside and then cover it with cloths and arrange it with camphor and other spices so that the body’s stink doesn’t affect those in the house. I also tell you that every day that the body remains with them, the dead man’s relatives—those in the house—set a place for him at the table and put food to eat and also drinks as if he were alive before the casket where the body is and leave it for the time it would take to eat it and they say that his soul eats this food; they keep it in this way until the day comes to burn it. I also tell you how they do another thing: often this diviner says to the dead man’s relatives that it is not good for them to carry the dead body through the door of the house and that they find a chest or some other thing to put against this door. Thus the dead man’s relatives have him carried by another door and often have the wall broken and carry him out from there. All the idolators of the world act in the manner I have told you.
Now we leave this matter and will speak to you about another city, toward the northwest, by the start of this desert.
Kumul is a province that was formerly a kingdom; there are many cities and castles and the capital is called Kumul. The province is between two deserts: for on one side is the Great Desert, and on the other a little desert, three days across. The people are all idolators and have a language of their own. They live off the fruit of the land, for they have plenty to eat and drink and sell to merchants who pass through there. They are very cheerful men, for they tend to nothing except playing their instruments, singing, dancing, and bodily pleasures. I tell you that when a foreigner comes to lodge in their house, he is most happy for it. He orders his wife to do everything the foreigner wants and he leaves his house and goes about his business for two or three days while the foreigner stays with his wife in the house and does whatever he wants and lies with her in a bed just as if she were his wife and they take great pleasure. Everyone in this city and province is this way in regard to his wife; but I tell you that they don’t think it shameful. The women are beautiful, pleasing, and cheery.
Now, it happened in the time when Möngke [Mongu] Khan, lord of the Tartars, was reigning,67 the way the people of Kumul had their wives commit adultery with foreigners was denounced. This Möngke sent them a message commanding them, under great penalty, not to offer lodging to foreigners. When those of Kumul received this command, they were very pained. Then they met and took counsel and did what I will tell you. For they took a great present and carried it to Möngke and begged him to let them keep up the custom regarding their wives that their ancestors had left them; and they told him how their ancestors had said that the idols looked very favorably on the pleasure that they afforded foreigners through their wives and possessions and greatly multiplied their wheat and their work on the land because of it. When Möngke Khan heard this, he said: “Since you desire your shame, may you have it.” Then he consented that they do whatever they wanted; and I tell you that they kept up this custom and keep it still.
Now we leave Kumul and will describe what else is between the north and northwest. Know that this province belongs to the Great Khan.
Ghinghintalas is a province that borders the desert to the north and northwest. It is 16 days’ journey large; it belongs to the Great Khan. There are many cities and castles; there are three races [generasionz] of men: idolators, those who worship Muhammad, and Nestorian Christians. At the northern border of this province there is a mountain with very good veins of steel and Indian steel.
In this very mountain is found a vein from which salamander is made; know that salamander is not, as is said, an animal but is such as I will describe to you below. It is the truth, as you well know, that no beast or animal can live in fire, as all animals are made of the four elements. Since people did not know the truth about the salamander they used to say, and still say, that the salamander is an animal, but this is not the truth.68 I will tell you now: for I tell you that I had a companion named Çurficar, a very wise Turk, who on the Great Khan’s behalf stayed in this province for three years to extract this salamander, this Indian steel, this steel, and everything. For the Great Khan regularly sends lords for three years to govern the province and see to the salamander; my companion told me about it and I saw it myself. For I tell you that when they have dug this vein that you’ve heard about from the mountain and break it up, the pieces hold together and form a thread like wool; therefore, when you have this vein, you dry it, then have it pounded in a big copper mortar, then wash it. What’s left is this thread I have described to you; they throw out the earth, which is worth nothing. Then they take this thread, which is like wool, and spin it and then make cloths out of it. And when the cloths are made, I tell you that they are not at all white, but they put them in fire and leave them there awhile, and the cloth becomes white as snow. Whenever this salamander cloth has any dirt or stains, they put it in fire and leave it there awhile, and it becomes white as snow. What I have told you is the truth concerning salamander; other things said about it are lies and fables. I also tell you that in Rome, there’s a cloth that the Great Khan sent to the pope as an important present: the holy shroud of Jesus Christ was wrapped in it.
Now we leave this province and will tell you about other provinces to the northeast.
On leaving this province I’ve told you about, he went 10 days between the east and northeast. Along the whole road there are but few settlements, and nothing worth mentioning in our book.
After ten days one finds a province called Suzhou,69 in which there are many cities and castles. The leading city is called Suzhou. There are Christians and idolators; they belong to the Great Khan. The larger province in which this province (along with the two provinces I’ve told you about previously) is situated is called Tangut. In all its mountains, rhubarb is found in great abundance; there the merchants buy it and then carry it throughout the world.70 They live from the fruit they grow from the earth; but they work little at trade.
Now we will leave here and will tell you about a city called Ganzhou.
Ganzhou is a city in Tangut itself, which is a very large and noble city; it is the head, and rules the entire province of Tangut.71 The people are idolators and there are some worshippers of Muhammad; there are also Christians, who have three large, beautiful churches in this city; the idolators have many churches and abbeys, according to their custom. They have a very great number of idols, and I tell you that there are some that are 10 paces long: some made of wood, some of earth, and some of stone—all of them covered with gold and very well wrought. The large idol is lying down, and several other small idols are around the large one and seem to be showing him humility and reverence.72 And because I have not told you everything about idolators, I want to tell you about them here.
Now know that the idolators’ monks live more honestly than the other idolators. They avoid debauchery, not because they hold it to be a great sin, but I tell you that if they find any man having unnatural relations with a woman, they sentence him to death. I tell you that they have lunar cycles just as we have the {50} months. There are some lunar cycles when all the idolators of the world kill neither animals nor birds for five days, nor do they eat flesh that has been killed for these five days; and for these five days they live more honestly than on other days. They take up to thirty wives—more or less according to their wealth and how many they can keep. For a dowry, men give their wives animals, slaves, and coin, according to what they can afford; but know that he holds the first one to be the best. I also tell you that if he sees that one of his wives is not good and does not please him, he can rid himself of her and do as he wishes. They marry their cousins and take their father’s wife.73 They do not regard as sins many of our grave sins, for they live like animals.
With this, we will immediately leave off and will tell you about the others toward the north. I tell you that Messer Niccolò, Messer Maffeo, and Messer Marco stayed in this city for one year for reasons not worthy of mention; so we will leave here and will go sixty days toward the north.
On leaving this city of Ganzhou, one rides twelve days and finds a city called Edzina, which borders the desert of sand, toward the north, and is in the province of Tangut.74 The people are idolators. They have a lot of camels and animals; there are many lanner and saker falcons there, which are very good. They live from the fruits of the earth and animals; they are not men of trade.
In this city one gets food for 40 days; for know that on leaving this city of Edzina, one rides for 40 days north through a desert where there are no settlements or places to stay; there are no people in the valleys and mountains except during the summer. Many wild animals and wild asses are found there; there are many pine forests. When one has ridden forty days across this desert, one finds a province toward the north; you will hear which.
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1. In both the rubrics and the text proper, The Description refers to “big” [grant] and “little” [petite] Armenia. Lesser Armenia, on the Mediterranean coast of Cilicia, was the result of the resettlement of populations from Greater Armenia in the second half of the eleventh century in the wake, first of Byzantine, then of Seljuk Turkish conquests (Boase 1978, 1–2).
2. With the Mongol conquests of the late 1230s and early 1140s, the kings of Cilicia were quick to acknowledge Mongol overlordship, first of the Great Khans Güyük and Möngke, then of the Ilkhan Hülegü and his successors, making common cause with the Ilkhanate against Mamluk Egypt (Boase 1978, 25–26; Mutafian 1993, 54–56).
3. The notion that Muslims worship Muhammad is a fundamental misconception about Islam that was widespread in the Latin Middle Ages.
4. Central Anatolia was ideal for horse breeding; by the fourteenth century, Turcoman horses were exported to (among others) Venetians on Crete, Genoese on Cyprus, and the Hospitallers of Rhodes (Fleet 231–32).
5. Konya, capital of the Seljuk sultanate of Rum, Caesarea (modern Kayseri), and Sebastea (modern Sivas) were three important stops on the southwest-to-northeast caravan route linking the southern Anatolian coast to the Black Sea. Earlier in the century, the Seljuks had revitalized the route with a number of hans and caravanserais. In 1255, William of Rubruck’s route home from his visit to the Mongol court took him through Sebastea, Caesarea, and Konya, where he encountered “several Franks and a Genoese trader from Acre” (2009, 272–73).
6. There were important Armenian communities in Caesarea and Sebastea (Boase 1978, 2).
7. Bouqueran is buckram.
8. Erzurum, located in far eastern Anatolia, was traditionally a border region between the Byzantine Empire (and later the Seljuk sultanate of Rum), Armenia, and Iran. With the Mongol conquest of Anatolia in the early 1240s, however, it became their gateway to the region, especially following the establishment of the Ilkhanate of Persia in the late 1250s. As a link on the caravan route between Anatolia and the Ilkhanid capital of Tabriz, it became an important intellectual center with the founding of three new madrasas between 1290 and 1315 (Blessing 2014, 123–30).
9. Ala Dagh, northeast of Lake Van, was one of the summer camps (yaylaqs) frequented by the Ilkhans of Persia (Masuya 2002, 76–77).
10. Malik is Arabic for “king.” This reference to the meaning of Davit Melic “in French” is an important clue that French is the original language of The Description. The kingdom of Georgia, which had enjoyed a “golden age” in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries under the Baghratid rulers George III and his daughter Tamar, was severely disrupted by the Mongol invasions of the 1240s. In the second half of the century, David VI Narin, nominally the vassal of the Ilkhans of Persia (though often siding with their dissident contenders), ruled, sometimes jointly and sometimes in contest with his first cousin, David VII Ulu.
11. William of Rubruck’s description of the Iron Gate (2009, 260–61) has been identified as the city of Derbent, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea.
12. The Cumans (also called the Qipchaq) were a tribal confederation that had long controlled the western Asiatic steppe (what subsequently became the lands of the Khanate of the Golden Horde). Fleeing westward before the Mongols, some Cumans converted to Christianity and intermarried with the Hungarian royal family. William of Rubruck makes multiple allusions to former Cuman lands devastated by the Mongols (2009, 70, 99, etc.).
13. This is the Caspian Sea. The name “Glevechelan” likely represents a garbled version of “Gil or Gilan,” the conflation of two alternate names for the province on the southwestern shore of the sea, source of the “silk called Ghelle” (Pelliot 1959–1973, II.733–35). William of Rubruck had taken pains to emphasize that the sea was “completely landlocked” (2009, 129), in contrast to “authoritative” accounts like that of the seventh-century encyclopedist Isidore of Seville or of Marco’s near contemporary Brunetto Latini, for whom the Caspian Sea runs to the ocean (2007, I.122.15). The Euphrates does not flow into the Caspian; its main source is the Volga.
14. In 1290, several hundred Genoese were reported building ships for the Ilkhan Arghun, not on the Caspian Sea but in Mesopotamia (Richard 1968, 49).
15. The Nestorians and the Jacobites were two Christian groups to emerge from the Christological controversies of late antiquity, both using forms of Syriac (derived from Aramaic) as a liturgical language. Nestorianism (named for Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople), which emphasized the distinction between the divine and human natures of Christ, was anathemized at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and declared a heresy at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Thus expelled from the Church, Nestorians reestablished themselves in pre-Islamic Persia; from there, Nestorianism developed a wide network of converts in Central and East Asia, including in China and among the Mongols. The Jacobites (possibly named for a fifth-century bishop of Edessa) were Syrian Orthodox Christians who, like other Miaphysites (also called Monophysites), emphasized the single nature of Christ, equally human and divine.
16. “Jatolic” reflects the Arabo-Persian transcription of “Catholicos” (Pelliot 1959–1973, II.754). Contrary to what the text here suggests, Nestorians and Jacobites had their own patriarchs. The matter-of-fact tone of The Description‘s mentions of Nestorians and other Eastern Christians contrasts with William of Rubruck’s frequent complaints of their ignorance, behavior, and doctrinal errors (2009, 46–47).
17. The Tigris flows into the Persian Gulf below Basra. The claim that the pope controls all the world’s Christians of course contradicts what the previous section tells us about Jacobites and Nestorians.
18. In period sources, Kish, in the Strait of Hormuz (see also §197), is sometimes confused or conflated with the island of Qays, about ten miles from the Iranian coast, due north of Abu Dhabi (Ibn al-Mujawir 143n9). COmpare the miracle recounted in §52.
19. Baghdad was famed for its silk. On cloth of gold, see §74n27.
20. Hülegü’s conquest of Baghdad and overthrow of the last Abbasid caliph took place in 1258.
21. Similar stories of Hülegü’s taunting the caliph and leaving him to starve with his treasure are recounted in two roughly contemporary French texts. The first was authored by Hayton, an Armenian prince who belonged to the Latin Christian monastic order of the Premonstratensians; in 1307, he presented his work La Flor des estoires d’Orient (Florilegium of Histories of the East) to Pope Clement V in order to promote a new crusade alliance with the Mongol Ilkhan Ghazan, overlord of the kings of Cilician Armenia (see §20) against the Mamluk sultan of Egypt. The second was Jean de Joinville’s Vie de Saint Louis (§§586–87; Joinville 1963, 311–12), a biography of his erstwhile companion Louis IX of France (d. 1270; canonized 1297); it was commissioned by the king’s granddaughter-in-law, the French queen Joan of Navarre, before her death in 1305 but not completed until 1309.
22. The date, twenty years (according to the previous section) after the death of the last caliph, puts this anecdote in the never-never time of the imagination. Otherwise, this account of anti-Christian sentiment in Baghdad may allude to the brief reign (1282–1284) of the Mongol Ilkhan Ahmad Sultan (see §§203–13), a Muslim who, in his “determined effort to present himself as an orthodox ruler in the public sphere,” attempted to reimpose the jizya (the tax levied on non-Muslims under Muslim rule) on and demand the wearing of distinctive garb by Baghdadi Christians and Jews (Amitai 2001, 26–27).
23. The reference to the power of faith to move mountains comes from Matthew 17.20. The miracle of moving a mountain to construct a church is attributed to the third-century saint Gregory Thaumaturgus. A miracle similar to Marco Polo’s is told about tenth-century Fatimid Egypt. Faced with the caliph’s demand that the Christians under his rule make good on this biblical passage, the Coptic patriarch—with the aid of a one-eyed tanner—elevates Muqattam Mountain. The caliph is so impressed that he grants permission for the restoration of two churches in Fustat (Old Cairo): the so-called Hanging Church and the complex of Saint Mercurius. This miracle is related in two slightly different variants, one from a mid-eleventh century Coptic source, the other from a late twelfth-/early thirteenth-century Armenian source (Pruitt 2015). Compare the miracle recounted in §52.
24. Tabriz, on the northern trade route between East Asia and the Mediterranean, is located in present-day northwestern Iran, in the region where the Ilkhans maintained their summer and winter camps. It became the Ilkhanid capital under Ghazan (r. 1295–1304), who came to power just after the Polos passed through the area on their way home to Venice (Masuya 2002, 77). In the early fourteenth century Tabriz was a flourishing cultural center.
25. Chief among these “Latin merchants” were the Genoese; thanks to their alliance with the Ilkhans of Persia, they gained access in the 1290s to the trade route leading from Trebizond to Tabriz, and from there to Hormuz and the Persian Gulf (Ciocîltan 2012, 123–24).
26. In the Latin West, the cult of the Three Kings had been linked since 1164 with Cologne, the German city whose cathedral claimed to house their bodies and whose archbishop played an important role in political rituals legitimizing the rule of the German emperors (Hamilton 1985, 183, 190; Trexler 1997, 78–82). This account locating the bodies of the Three Kings in Persia thus challenges one of Western Europe’s central political myths.
27. “Cala Ataparistan” is a garbled version of the Persian Qal’ah-i Atäsparastan, which does indeed mean “castle of the fire worshippers,” and which perhaps lay in the vicinity of Kashan, southeast of Sava (Pelliot 1959–1973, I.131–32). The fire worshippers are Zoroastrians, adherents of the ancient pre-Islamic faith of Iran. Under Ilkhanid rule, their high priest of high priests took refuge in a small village in the region of Yazd (§34), while two sacred fires were installed in a nearby village in humble mud-brick houses for safekeeping. Another sizeable Zoroastrian community was found in and around the city of Kerman (§35) (Boyce 1979, 163–65).
28. This is something of a pun in Old French: “if he takes the myrrh [mire], he is a physician [mire].”
29. There exists a Uighur Nestorian version of the story of the stone thrown in the well (Pelliot 1959–1973, I.131–32).
30. The Dry Tree is mentioned again in §§40, 202, 214–15.
31. Yazd, in central Iran, and Kerman, further to the southeast, were in areas little frequented by the Mongols. In the early years of the Ilkhanate, they remained in the hands of local princes who had submitted to Mongol rule (Melville 2002, 46).
32. Ansienement (“formerly”) is a refrain in this section, marking a break between the “before” and “after” of the Mongol conquest of Persia.
33. The Qara’unas (“baseborn”) were an autonomous group of Mongols originally part of the Golden Horde (Jochid) forces in the war against the Ilkhanate of Persia. They were sometimes called Negüderis after Negüder, the Jochid general who was defeated by Hülegü (Jackson 1999, 328; Biran 2009, 52; Martinez 2009, 96).
34. The figure described here is actually Tegüder, a Chaghadid prince in the service of the Ilkhans of Persia who eventually sided with his Chaghadid kinsman Baraq in the latter’s war (§202) against the Ilkhan Abaqa (Jackson 1999, 115n66; Biran 1997, 146n101).
35. Ghiyath al-Din, nicknamed Balban (“sparrowhawk”), sultan of Delhi from 1266 to 1287, was the deputy and father-in-law of his predecessor, Mahmud Shah (r. 1246–1266) (Jackson 1999, 48–52). “Dilivar” is likely Lahore.
36. Tutia comes from an Arabic word for eyedrops made of pure zinc oxide (Ménard I, 216, note to §38.4, from Pauthier 1865 93); spodium, the residue of zinc oxide, is used as a pigment.
37. Tun-va-Kain names two separate cities, Tun and Qa’in.
38. There is no clear source for the Dry Tree in the Alexander tradition preceding Marco Polo; subsequent mentions appear in the fourteenth century, in texts by the Franciscan Odoric of Pordonone and John Mandeville, and in the Old French Les Voeux du paon (The Vows of the Peacock) (Pelliot 1959–1973, II.633–34).
39. The Old Man of the Mountain was Latin Europe’s name for the leader of the Nizaris, a dissident sect of Shia Ismailis, named for the unsuccessful candidate in a succession dispute (in 1094) over the Fatimid caliphate of Egypt. Established at Alamut (in the Alborz mountains in northern Iran) and other mountain strongholds, the Nizaris attacked their Sunni opponents not on the battlefield but by targeting their leaders. In Latin Europe, the legend arose that the Old Man of the Mountain drugged his followers with hashish—from which the term assassin was thus derived (Morgan 1988, 44–46).
40. Mulāhida is indeed Arabic for “heretics” (as the Ismailis were considered by Sunni Muslims (Pelliot 1959–1973, II.785).
41. Writing in the early fourteenth century, Jean de Joinville recounts a diplomatic exchange between the Old Man of the Mountain and King Louis IX of France while the latter was in Acre on Crusade in 1250–1251. In his account, Louis’ envoy, Brother Yves le Breton, “an expert in the Saracen tongue,” reports back to the king that the Old Man “was not a follower of Mahomet, but subscribed to the laws of Ali” [incorrectly identified as Muhammad’s uncle rather than his cousin and son-in-law], ascribing to him the belief that “if a man is killed while obeying his lord’s orders his soul goes into a more pleasing body than before” (Joinville 1963, 277–80).
42. William of Rubruck describes a similar fountain in the palace of the Great Khan Möngke outside Qaraqorum. Built, he relates, by the goldsmith Master William of Paris, it took the form of a large silver tree that dispensed white mares’ milk, wine, qumis, mead, and rice wine (2009, 209–10).
43. Hülegü actually took Alamut in 1256, two years before his conquest of Baghdad. cAlā’ al-Dīn had died just before the attack; his son, Rukn al-Dīn Khūrshāh, was the last Assassin Master.
44. In Old French, the variants of gaste used here evoke the “wasteland” [terre gaste]. The Mongol destruction of Balkh in 1221 is described by Juvaini (1997, 130–1).
45. Dhu-al-Qarnayn, the “two-horned one,” appears in the Qur’an (Sura 18, “The Cave”) as the figure who constructs the wall encircling Gog and Magog. It is the epithet used for Alexander the Great in Arabic and Persian versions of the Alexander Romance.
46. These are balas rubies. In his Book of Minerals, composed c. 1254–1262 (Wyckoff 1967, xli), the German Dominican Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) writes: “Balagius … is a gem of red color, of very bright material and very transparent substance. It is said to be the female of the carbuncle, for its color and powers are like those of the carbuncle, but weaker, just as the female is as compared to the male. And some say it is the ‘house’ [of the carbuncle], and therefore it is called its ‘palace’ (palatium). For carbuncle is frequently produced there: recently, in our own time, one has been seen that was balagius outside and carbuncle inside, in the [same] stone. Therefore Aristotle says that this stone is a kind of carbuncle” (1967, 75).
47. An ell (here brace, from the French for “arm”) is an arm’s length, measured from the elbow to the fingertips.
48. Pashai is an Indo-Iranian language, related to Kashmiri, spoken today in eastern Afghanistan.
49. From the time of the Great Khan Ögödei, the Mongols repeatedly invaded Kashmir, making it into a vassal state (Jahn 1965).
50. Coral was plentiful in the western Mediterranean, with production centers in places like Barcelona, Mallorca, Marseilles, and Sicily attested from at least the fourteenth century.
51. The text loops back to the end of §47, this time going east-northeast instead of south.
52. This perhaps reflects the Mongol honorific noyon, a title given to military leaders or administrators.
53. These are the Pamir Mountains.
54. These are Marco Polo sheep (ovis poli), named for our author.
55. Kashgar is a caravan city at the eastern foot of the Pamir Mountains and the western end of the Tarim Basin, where the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road converge (Tucker 2003, 163). In the tenth century, it was one of the capitals of the Qara-khanid khanate. Chinggis Khan conquered it from the Qara-khitai in 1219; after his death, it became part of the Chaghadai khanate.
56. Like Kashgar, Samarqand was a Qara-khanid capital. The Persian historian Juvaini vividly described Chinggis Khan’s conquest of Samarqand and massacre of its population in his History of the World Conqueror (Rossabi 2011, 79–83).
57. Chaghadai, second son of Chinggis Khan, was Qubilai’s uncle. He was renowned as an expert in Mongol ritual traditions and customary law, and he may indeed have been baptized Christian (Biran 2009, 63–64).
58. Qaidu was a grandson of the Great Khan Ögödei, and thus not Qubilai’s nephew but a first cousin once removed. Qaidu’s wars against Qubilai are recounted in §§199–200.
59. After Samarqand (§52), the text jumps back to Kashgar (§51) and proceeds southeast. Yarkand is the first of five stops on the ancient southern Silk Road (in the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang) between Kashgar and Dunhuang (§58), on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (Tucker 2003, 167–85). This area was explored by the noted British archaeologist Aurel Stein in the early twentieth century.
60. This is the first occurrence of a frequently used formulaic phrase.
61. Though the text does not say so, Khotan was long associated with silk production. One of the so-called Dunhuang tales recounts that a Chinese princess sent to marry the king smuggled the basics of silk technology to her new home in her headdress.
62. Pem is Keriya or Yutian; Qarqan (§56) is the Uighur name for Quiemo, in modern Xinjiang Province (Haw 2006, 87). Lop (§57) is Lob, or Luobuzhuang, just north of the modern city of Ruoqiang/Kargilik (Haw 2006, 87–88; Baumer 2000, 121).
63. Shazhou, “city of sands,” is Dunhuang (Haw 2006, 88; Cable and French 41). Tangut was a widespread Turkic name for the Xi-Xia (Western Xia), a Tibeto-Burman Buddhist kingdom with a multicultural population that included Chinese, Tibetans, Uighurs, Khitans, and various other Turkic groups. Formerly a vassal state of the Southern Song, the kingdom became autonomous in 982 and was conquered by the Mongols in 1227 (Dunnell 1994).
64. Dunhuang had been an important center of Buddhism since the fourth century. The valley surrounding this garrison town contains hundreds of temples cut into the rock, decorated with murals and filled with clay statues. Many of the murals were restored in the period under Mongol rule (Tucker 2003, 125–35).
65. Compare the account of the burial customs of the Mongols (§70) and of Mangi (§152).
66. Returning to Dunhuang, the text now moves briefly to the northwest (§§59–60). Kumul (modern Hami) was one of a series of oasis towns at the foot of the Tian Shan (Tucker 2003, 140).
67. Möngke (r. 1251–1259) was Qubilai’s elder brother and predecessor as Great Khan, visited by Friar William of Rubruck in 1253–1254 (2009, 176–81).
68. In Tresor (1260s), for example, Brunetto Latini describes the salamander as “resembling a little lizard of variegated color…. Know that salamander lives in the flames of a fire without pain and without damage to its body; rather, it extinguishes the fire by its nature” (2007, §144, “On Lizard”). What the text proceeds to describe from Marco’s eyewitness testimony is obviously asbestos.
69. Again returning to Dunhuang, the text proceeds southeast through the Gansu corridor (§§61–62). Suzhou (modern Jiuquan) also originated as a frontier garrison in the second century BCE (Tucker 2003, 122).
70. High-quality wild rhubarb is still common in the Qilian Shan and other mountain ranges on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. Its root, da huang, is prized in Chinese medicine (Haw 2006, 124–25).
71. Ganzhou (modern Zhangye), southeast of Jiuquan, was another of the four Han commanderies. It had been the capital of an early Uighur state conquered by the Tangut in the early eleventh century (Haw 2006, 90).
72. The monastery of the Great Buddha, built in 1098, still houses the largest reclining Buddha in China (Tucker 2003, 119).
73. Many of these same marriage practices, minus the possibility of repudiating a wife, are repeated in the section on Mongol customs (§69), with no note of condemnation.
74. In northwestern Inner Mongolia, Edzina (Khara Khotu) was a major town at the northern edge of the Xia state, on the north-south route crossing the western Gobi Desert. Many Buddhist artifacts now housed in the Hermitage Museum were found there in the early twentieth century (Haw 2006, 90; Tucker 2003, 120–21).