A DESCRIPTION OF ARMENIA THE LESSER; OF THE COUNTRY OF THE TURKS; OF
ARMENIA THE GREATER; OF THE PROVINCE OF ZORZANIA, THE KINGDOM OF
MOSUL; OF THE CITY OF BALDACH OR BAGDAT; OF THE CITY OF TAURIS; WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE EARTHQUAKE.
There are two Armenias, the Greater and the Less. In the Lesser
Armenia the ting resides, in a city called Sebaste, and in all his
country is observed justice and good government. The kingdom itself
hath many cities, fortresses, and castles; the soil also is fertile,
and the country abounds with everything necessary, nor is there any
want of game or wild-fowl; the air indeed is not very good. The
gentlemen of Armenia, in times past, were stout men and good
soldiers, but are become now effeminate and nice, giving themselves
up to drunkenness and riot. There is a certain city in this kingdom
seated near the sea, which is called Giazza, having an excellent
haven, whither merchants resort from divers countries, and even from
Venice and Genoa, on account of several sorts of merchandise brought
thither, especially spices of sundry kinds, and abundance of other
valuable goods brought thither out of the east countries; for this
place is, as it were, the settled mart of all the east.
In Turcomania are three sorts of nations, viz., the Turcomans or
Turkmen, who observe the law of Mohammed. They are men illiterate,
rude, and savage, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places,
where they can find pastures; for they live only by their cattle.
There are good horses in this country, which are called Turkish
horses; mules are also in that country of great estimation. The
other nations are Grecians and Armenians, who possess the cities and
towns, and bestow their labour on merchandise and arts. They make
the best carpets in the world, and they have many cities, the chief
whereof are Cogno, Iconium, Cæsarea, and Sebaste, where St. Basil
suffered martyrdom for Christ, and they acknowledged one of the
Khans, kings of the Tartars, for their lord.
Armenia the Greater is a very large province, tributary to the
Tartars, and hath many cities and towns, the chief city whereof is
called Arzugia, and the best buckram in the world is made there.
Most wholesome hot waters also spring there for the washing and
curing of men's bodies; and the other more famous cities next to the
metropolis are Argiron and Darziz. In the summer time many Tartars
resort there with their flocks and herds, drawn thither by the
fatness of their pastures; and again in the winter depart for a
certain time, by reason of the abundance of snow. The Ark of Noah
remained in the mountains of this Armenia.
This country hath the province of Moxul and Meridin bordering on the
east; but on the north is Zorzania, in the confines of which a
fountain is found, from which a liquor like oil flows, and though
unprofitable for the seasoning of meat, yet is very fit for the
supplying of lamps, and to anoint other things; and this natural oil
flows constantly, and that in plenty enough to lade camels. In
Zorzania is a king called David Melic, or King David; one part of the
province is subject unto him, the other pays tribute to a Khan of the
Tartars. The woods there are of box-trees. The country extends to
the two seas, Marmaggiore, or the Euxine, and that of Baccu, or the
Caspian, which containeth in circuit two thousand eight hundred
miles, and is like a lake having no communication with other seas.
In it are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which are
inhabited by those that fled from the Tartars out of Persia.
The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with
other Christians. They keep their hair short like the western
clergy; the inhabitants have many cities, and their country abounds
with silk, of which they make very fine manufactures. Moxul is a
province in which there are many sorts of people: some called
Arabians, are Mohammedans, others are Christians, some Nestorians,
others Jacobites, and others Armenians; and they have a patriarch
called Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots, and
sends them through all parts of India, and to Cairo and Baldach, or
Bagdat, and wherever Christians dwell, as is done by the Pope of
Rome; and all the stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are
wrought in Moxul.
But in the mountains of this kingdom dwell the people called Curdi,
of whom some are Nestorians, others Jacobites, and some followers of
Mohammed; they are wicked men, and rob merchants. Near to them is
another province called Mus, or Meridin, wherein grow great
quantities of cotton, whereof they make buckrams, and other works;
they are subject to the Tartars. Baldach, or Bagdat, is a great
city, in which resided the great Khaliff, that is the Pope of all the
Saracens; a river runs through it, from whence to the sea is
accounted seventeen days' journey. They sail by a city called Chisi;
but before they reach the sea they come to Balsora, about which grow
the best dates in the world. In Baldach, or Bagdat, are many
manufactures of gold and silk. There are wrought damasks and
velvets, with figures of various creatures: all the pearls in
Christendom come from thence. In that city is an university, where
is studied the law of Mohammed, physic, astronomy, and geomancy. It
is the chief city in those parts.
When the Tartars began to extend their conquests there were four
brethren, the eldest of which, Mangu, reigned in Sedia. These
purposiug to subdue the world, went one to the east, another to the
north, to the south a third, which was Ulan, and the other to the
west. In the year of Our Lord 1250, Ulan, having a great army of one
hundred thousand horse, besides foot, used policy, and having hid a
great part of his men, brought, by pretending flight, the Khaliff
into his ambuscade, and took him and the city, in which he found
infinite store of treasure, insomuch that he was amazed. He sent for
the Khaliff and reproved him, that in that war he had not provided
himself with soldiers for defence, and commanded that he should be
enclosed in that tower where his treasure was, without other
sustenance.
This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ on him; for in
the year 1225, seeking to convert the Christians to the Mohammedan
religion, and taking advantage from that place of the Gospel, "That
he which hath faith, as the grain of mustard-seed, shall be able to
remove mountains," he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and
Jacobites, and propounded to them in ten days to remove a certain
mountain, or turn Mohammedans, or be slain, as not having one man
amongst them which had the least faith. They therefore continued
eight days in prayer, after which a certain shoemaker, in consequence
of a revelation made to a certain bishop, was fixed upon to perform
it. This shoemaker, once tempted to lust by sight of a young woman
in putting on her shoe, zealously had fulfilled that of the Gospel,
and literally had put out his right eye. He now on the day
appointed, with other Christians, followed the cross, and lifting his
hands to heaven, prayed to God to have mercy on his people, and then
with a loud voice commanded the mountain in the name of the Holy
Trinity to remove; which presently, with great terror to the Khaliff
and all his people, was effected, and that day is since kept holy by
fasting, also on the evening before it.