(1.) “Thaures.”—Tabreez, founded by Zobeide the wife of
Haroun-al-Rashid, was long distinguished for the extent of its
commercial relations, in which the Genoese and Venetians took part.
Although frequently pillaged at the hands of enemies, notably by
Janibek in 1357, and by Toktamish in 1387, Tabreez soon recovered
from its misfortunes. This capital even became the principal depôt
for merchandise from India and China, after the destruction of the
cities of Ourjenj and Astrahan by Timour, who established a commodious
route between Tabreez and Samarkand by way of Kashin and Soultanyà.
Schiltberger’s statement as to the custom’s revenue at Tabreez,
will not seem exaggerated in presence of the fact, that in 1460 it
amounted to 60,000 ducats. Ramusio observes that Tabreez, the great
depôt, rivalled Paris in its magnificence, and in the number of its
inhabitants.—BRUUN.
(1A.) Writing in 1868, Abbott (_Persian Azerbaijan_, MS.) says that
Tabreez was the principal seat of commerce in all Persia, and the mart
from which nearly all the northern and midland countries were supplied
with the produce and manufactures of Europe, conveyed to it chiefly by
land transport from the Black Sea; the yearly value was estimated at
£1,750,000, the value of goods imported from England being probably
three-fourths of that sum. The city contained about 3100 shops of all
descriptions; thirty karavansaraïs, occupied by merchants and traders;
and about forty others devoted to the accommodation of muleteers and
their cattle. Abbott adds, that the commerce of Tabreez had made great
advances since 1830, having increased eight-fold in 1860.—ED.
(2.) “Rei.”—After passing Teheran, upon the occasion of his journey
from Soultanyà to Samarkand, Clavijo perceived, at a distance of two
leagues, a great city in ruins ... “but there appeared towers and
mosques, and the name of the place was Xahariprey”—Shehri-Rei, the
city of Rei, “at one time the largest city in all the land”, says
Khanikoff, “though it is now uninhabited”. But Rey did not remain long
thus unpeopled, because the Russian merchant Nikitin (who visited India
thirty years before Vasco de Gama), though leaving Teheran unnoticed,
as does Schiltberger, speaks of his stay at Rey, where he witnessed the
celebration of the famous Persian festival, instituted in commemoration
of the death of Hussein, the son of Ali and grandson of the prophet.
(_Poln. Sobr._, etc., vi, 332.)—BRUUN.
(2A.) To the above might be added the evidence of Ibn Haukal, that there
was not in the eastern regions any city more flourishing. Rey was
celebrated for its gates, for its many remarkable quarters and streets,
its numerous bazaars, karavansaraïs, and market-places. The fine
linen, camelot, and cotton manufactured at Rey, was sent to all parts
of the world. Late travellers have found its site marked by hollows
and mounds; mouldering towers, tombs, and wells, constructed of burnt
and sun-dried materials (Ker Porter, _Travels in Georgia, Persia_,
etc., 1822; Mounsey, _Journey through the Caucasus_, etc., 1872).
In the 3rd century of Mahomedanism, Rey was specially noted for its
wealth, and was styled, The First of Cities—The Spouse of the World—The
Market of the Universe. (Chardin, _Langlès edition_, ii, 411.)—ED.
(3.) “Raphak.”—If Schiltberger’s companions, when on his journey to Rey
or Rhe, were Sunnites, they probably looked upon the people of that
city as apostates from the faith; for “Raphak”, therefore, we should
read Raphadzhy—abjurer—a term applied to renegades. These disciples
admit themselves to be Shey—partisans—whence the term Shyites, and in
the present instance they were evidently called by the opprobrious name
of Raphadzy, as being apostates, by those of a different sect. Ibn
Batouta met at Kotaïf (Katiff of Benjamin of Tudela), on the Persian
Gulf, some Arabs of the Rafiza sect, who were most enthusiastic,
publishing their sentiments everywhere, and fearing no one.
There are Shyite Tatars in Transcaucasia, chiefly in the valley of the
Araxes, also in the richly cultivated province of Ouroumyeh, the seat
of the Christian Nestorians, where they people eight villages. These
Shyites call themselves Ali Allahy—Worshippers of Ali—and are not
averse to drinking wine.—ED.
(4.) “Nachson.”—Clavijo (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 80) sojourned for a time
in a city which he calls Calmarin, and attributes its foundation to a
son of Noah. This place was probably Sourmalou on the Araxes, taken
by Timour in 1385. Tutan, the Turkoman who resided here, might have
been the “Tetani, Emperor of Tartary”, who, according to Clavijo,
had conquered the place, though only a viceroy. There was a Titanus,
Vicarius Canlucorum, of the Genoese, in 1449; the Tautaun, Taudoun,
of the Avares and Khozars. Two days before reaching Calmarin, Clavijo
passed the night in a town called Naujua, where there were many
Armenians, which must have been the “Nachson” of Schiltberger, now
known as Nahitchevan.—BRUUN.
(5.) “Maragara.”—There are numerous remains of ancient fortifications on
the heights around Meragha. In a westerly direction, at a distance of
thirteen miles to the south-west of Tabreez, are the foundations of a
round tower, believed to have been the celebrated observatory of Khodja
Nazr uddin—defensor fidei—the friend of Houlakon, who transferred his
residence to Meragha after the capture of Baghdad in 1258. To this day
is shown his tomb,[1] and that of his wife Dogous or Dokouz Khatoun,
the protectress of Christians, but especially of Nestorians, in whose
doctrines she had great faith (Hammer, _Gesch. der Ilchane_, etc.,
i, 82). Shortly after her death, the patriarch, Iabellasa, agreed to
recognise the supremacy of the Pope, the act having been presented
to Benedict II. by a Dominican friar named Jacob. Mosheim (_Hist.
Tartarorum Eccles._, 92) pronounces against the authenticity of this
document, an opinion shared by Heyd (_Die Colon. der Römisch. Kirche_,
etc., 322), on the grounds that it was signed at Meragha. It may,
however, be contended that the patriarch might have resided for a time
at Meragha, after the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols, considering
that his successors had no fixed residence to 1559, in which year
the patriarch Elias definitively established the seat at Mosoul; and
that a tradition is preserved amongst the Nestorians or Chaldæans
of Kourdistan, to the effect that their ancestors, who had resisted
Timour, were domiciled between the lakes Van and Ouroumyeh.
In the early part of the 14th century, another brother preacher,
Jordanus Catalani, recorded in his _Mirabilia_ (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._,
9), that those schismatics had adopted the Catholic faith in several
cities of Persia, to wit, at Tabreez, Soultanyà, and at “Ur of the
Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant
about two days from Tabriz”. Heyd says that this Ur cannot be Orfa,
a town in central Mesopotamia, which has been identified with the
Ur-Khasdim of the Arabians (Ritter, _Die Erdkunde_ etc., x, 333); but
is more probably the ancient city of Maranda, not far from the lake
Ouroumyeh and fifty miles only from Tabreez. But Meragha was, in like
manner, at no great distance from the said lake, and only twenty-four
miles, or, according to Hadjy Khalpha, seven farsangs from Tabreez; we
are, therefore, justified in concluding, that it was this place the
friar designated as Ur of the Chaldees, especially as it was a large
city and a bishop’s see in 1320 (Galanus, _Concil. Eccl. Arm. cum
Rom._, i, 508; quoted by Heyd, 324). The same cannot be said of Maranda.
Bartholomew of Bologna has given evidence of his zeal, in the fact that
many of the Armenian clergy went over to the Church of Rome, and with
the view of cementing this union, a new Order, “Fratres prædicatores
Uniti”, was founded and affiliated to the Dominicans, whose head-centre
was at Meragha. But the theory propounded by Bishop Aïvazoffsky is
worthy of consideration, viz., that Ur is no other than Urmi or Ormi, a
town of some size, hitherto largely inhabited by Nestorian Chaldæans,
and that has given its name to the lake Ourmiah, Ormi, or Ouroumyeh.
It is believed to be the birth-place of Zoroaster, who might have been
mistaken for Abraham as easily as he has been for Moses.—BRUUN.
[1] Abbott says (_Persian Azerbaijan_, MS.) that the tomb
of Houlakou, or its reputed site, is pointed out near the
town of Meragha.—ED.
(6.) “Gelat.”—Khelat was taken in 1229 by the sultan, Jalaluddin, after
a three days’ siege. Aboulfeda quotes Abou Said, who says that it
rivalled Damascus. Bakui (_Not. et Extr._, ii, 513) extols Khelat for
its good water, fruit, and the fish taken from the lake, especially the
tamrin, possibly the dorakine found in the Kour, as related by Ystachry
(_Mordtmann edition_, 1845). The numerous ruins in the neighbourhood
are of the time when Akhlat was the residence of the Shahy Armen—kings
of Armenia; they include those of a superb palace, of gorgeous tombs,
artificial grottoes, and of a fortress on the shore of Lake Van. Khelat
is now a miserable hamlet occupied by Kurds.—BRUUN.
(6A.) Khelat, Ghelath, Ashlath, was long the residence of a suffragan
bishop of the Armenian Church.—ED.
(7.) “Kirna.”—On the Gharny-tchaï, a tributary of the Zenga, east of
Erivan, is Gharny or Bash Gharny, now an insignificant village, but
at one time a place of considerable importance. According to the
old Armenian chroniclers, Kharny was founded 2000 B.C. by a prince
Keghamè, who named it after himself; but the name was afterwards
changed by Kharnig, the grandson of Keghamè, to Kharny. It was here
that Tiridates, 286–314, constructed for his favourite sister a superb
residence, to which Moses Chorensis (_Whiston edition_, 1736), the
Armenian chronicler of the 5th century, thus refers: “Per id tempus
Tiridates castelli Garnii ædificationem absolvit, quod quadratis et
cæsis lapidibus, ferro et plumbo coagmentatis construxit, atque ibi
umbraculum statuit et monumentum mirifica arte cælatum, pro sorore
sua Chosroiduchta, in eoque memoriam sui græcis literis inscripsit.”
This remarkable edifice is alluded to by Kiracos of Gantzac, also an
Armenian chronicler, of the 13th century, as “the marvellous throne
of Tiridates”, in front of the cemetery of Kharny (_Hist. d’Arménie_
trans. by M. Brosset, St. Petersburg, 1870). It is now a heap of ruins,
known to the natives as Takht Dertad—Throne of Tiridates.
At a short distance above Gharny, also on the Gharny-tchaï in the
Goktcha valley, is the venerable monastery of Aïrits vank, Ghergarr or
Keghart, noted for its memorial inscriptions of the 12th, 13th, and
14th centuries (_The Crimea and Transc._, i, 211, 221).—ED.
(8.) “the priests are of the Order of Preachers, and sing in the
Armenian tongue.”—What Schiltberger says with regard to “Meya”—Magou—is
confirmed by Clavijo (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 83). “On Sunday, the first
of June, at the hour of vespers, they came to a castle called Maca,
belonging to a Catholic Christian called Noradin, and the people who
lived in it were Catholic Christians, though they were by birth and
language Armenians, and they also knew the Tartar and Persian tongues.
In this place there was a monastery of Dominican friars. The castle was
in a valley, at the foot of a very high rock, and there was a village
on a hill above, and on the top of the hill there was a wall of stone
and mortar, with towers, and against the wall there were houses. There
was also another wall with towers, and the entrance to it was by a
great tower, built to guard it, along steps cut in the rocks. Near the
second wall there were houses cut in the rock, and in the centre were
some towers and houses, where the lord lived, and here all the people
in the village kept their provisions. The rock was very high, and rose
above the walls and houses; and from the rocks an overhanging part
stretched out, which covers the castle, walls, and houses, like the
heaven that is above them.”—BRUUN.
(8A.) Tradition asserts that Makou, Makouyeh, in the Armenian province
of Artazo-Tasht, to the east of Ararat and south of the Araxes, is
built over the place where St. Thaddeus suffered martyrdom. The
fortress is situated in a gorge above the village (J. Saint Martin,
_Mém. sur l’Arménie_, i, 135).—ED.
(9.) “Ress.”—Resht, the chief town of Ghilan, a place of great
commercial importance in Schiltberger’s time, is distant six miles from
the Caspian Sea. The Genoese and Venetians secured the rich produce of
this province, especially the silken stuffs made there or imported from
Yezd and Kashan. Marco Polo (Yule, i, 54) speaks of silk called Ghellè,
after the name of the country on the Sea of Ghel or Ghelan—the
Caspian.—BRUUN.
(10.) “Strawba.”—Schiltberger changes Astrabad to “Strawba”, just as
his Italian contemporaries have called the place Strava, Strevi, and
Istarba. Its commerce was not considerable, but Astrabad was of some
importance as being the depôt for merchandise in transit across the
Caspian, from India and Bokhara.—BRUUN.
(11.) “Antioch.”—Several cities of Asia were in ancient times called
Antiochia. Stephen of Byzantium knew of eight, two of which, Edessa
and Nisibis, were in Migdonia; and as each, in its turn, had become
the foremost bulwark of Christianity, their possession was frequently
disputed by the Infidels. Allusion is made in the text to Nisibis, with
its ramparts of brick, rather than to Edessa, which was encircled by
whitewashed walls.—BRUUN.
(12.) “Aluitza.”—If the author here alludes to the same fortress
(Alindsha?) as is mentioned in chapter 16, of which there can scarcely
be a doubt, that is to say, the fortress in which Ahmed ben Oweis kept
his treasure; then the story of its siege by Timour for the space of
sixteen years, was a gross exaggeration on the part of his informants,
because we know from contemporary authors that the siege of Alindsha
lasted eight years only.—BRUUN.
(13.) “There is a city called Scheckhy; it is in a fertile country near
the White Sea.”—It will be generally admitted that this White Sea is
no other than the Caspian. Hammer (note, p. 45) says it was so called
to distinguish it from the Black Sea; but Wahl (_Allg. Beschr. d.
persischen Reichs_, ii, 679) attributes the distinctive name to the
petrified shells, white and gray sand, with which the bed of the sea is
overspread. It is pretty certain that White Sea is not a name invented
by the author, but that he supplies us with the literal translation
of the Georgian words—Tetrysea and Sywa, which have a similar
signification, and are even now employed to designate the Caspian Sea.
Hammer is mistaken in saying that Schiltberger called the eastern shore
of the Caspian by the name of Scherky, as the word appears in Penzel,
and which is simply a corruption of “Scheckhy”, now known as Sheky,
on the left bank of the river Kour, between Georgia, the districts of
Gandja, Shirwan and Daghestan. It is said that this part of the country
was occupied as early as the 10th century by the Shekis or Shekines, a
Christian people given to commerce and industrial pursuits (D’Ohsson,
_Des Peup. du Cauc._ 18, and note xiv).—BRUUN.
(14.) “the kingdom Horoson, and its capital is called Hore.”—As stated
by Neumann, these places are intended for Khorasan and Herat. According
to Masoudi (Ritter, _Die Erdkunde_ etc., x. 65), there existed at the
time of the conquest of Hira near the Euphrates, _circa_ A.D. 637,
the negotiator Abd-el-Mesy, a man greatly revered by the Arabs in
consequence of his wisdom and great age. He had attained his 350th
year, and enjoyed the distinction of being considered, if not a saint,
at least a servant of God, that is to say, an Ibadite or Jacobite
Christian.
Ibn Haukal states that the city of Hira, which was still in existence
in the time of Edrisi (_Recueil des Voy. et des Mém._, iii, 366),
was distant one farsang from Koufa, which with Basra was called
Basraten—dualis of Basra—or the two Basras, the metropolis of the
Nestorians at Basra being known as Euphrates Pherat Mesene or Perat
Meissan, a name it had borne since A.D. 310. We are informed by
Eastern writers, that at Konfa was the tomb of the saint, Adam
(Ritter, _Die Erdkunde_ etc., x, 179–184), a name that reminds us of
“Phiradamschyech”, whose age coincided with that of Abd-el-Mesy.
Schiltberger may perhaps have applied to Herat, which he visited, the
legend of Hira, a Shyite place of pilgrimage.—BRUUN.
(15.) “Phiradamschyech.”—This is one of the few names in Schiltberger’s
narrative that appears somewhat difficult to determine. Pir, in
Persian, signifies an old, a venerable man; also, a chief. Sheykh has
a similar meaning in Arabic. Adam is the Persian, Turkish, and Arabic
for man; so that “Phiradamschyech” consists of three substantives, and
being interpreted, reads thus: A chief—a man—a chief.
A very similar story is related by Ibn Batouta, Schiltberger’s
predecessor by about fifty years. After passing the Hindu Kush, he got
to a mountain called Bashai where he saw in a cell an old man named Ata
Evlia—Father of the Saints—said to be 350 years old, but who appeared
to be about fifty. Every hundred years he had a new growth of teeth and
hair. There is no doubt whatever of Ibn Batouta’s own incredulity as
to the reputed history of this man, to whom he put several questions,
which, being unsatisfactorily answered, caused him to apprehend that
there was no truth in the wonderful statements made about him.—ED.
(16.) “Schiras.”—“Kerman.”—Sheeraz, the birth place of Saadi and Hafiz,
two of the most celebrated and popular poets of Persia, was so called,
says a rare Persian manuscript, after a word in the old Persick
language signifying—Lion’s paunch—because all the wealth of every town
in the same region was transported thither not to return elsewhere
(Ouseley, _Travels_, etc., ii, 23). Edrisi’s definition (_Jaubert
edition_, 392) is somewhat clearer, for he says that the name was given
because the place consumed without producing anything. This city is
said to have been founded in the earliest years of Islam; the walls,
which measured 12,500 paces in circumference, being constructed in the
10th century. Kazvini (quoted by Ouseley) observed nine gates, and in
1811 Ouseley saw six only. Ibn Haukal (_Ouseley edition_, 101) wrote of
Sheeraz as being a modern city.
In 1627, Sir Thomas Herbert (_Travels into Divers Parts_, etc., 127)
found some of the old walls of “the pleasantest of Asiatick cities”
still standing, but in Chardin’s time (_Langlès edition_, viii, 414)
they had disappeared. The present fortifications, erected by Kerim
Khan in the middle of the 18th century, were ruined by Aga Mohammed
Shah after the struggle between the Zund and Kujjar families. They are
of the extent of about three and a half miles, and were originally of
such massive construction, that it was said three horsemen might have
ridden abreast on them. The population in 1850 was estimated at 35,000
to 40,000; but the general want of employment begat amongst the people
that disposition for mischief, brawls and insurrections, for which the
place was remarkable beyond any other town in Persia (Abbott, _Southern
Cities of Persia_, MS.).
Kirman, also visited by Abbott, is encircled by walls of two and a half
miles to three miles in circumference, and had a population (1850)
not exceeding 25,000. The appearance of this town and the scenery
around, are extremely unpromising and dreary, from the scarcity of
trees, the little cultivation, and the few villages about. A vastly
different condition to the “good country” noted by Schiltberger, and
the statement of Marco Polo (Yule, i, 92), that on quitting the city of
Kerman “you ride on for seven days, always finding towns, villages, and
handsome dwelling-houses, so that it is very pleasant travelling”.
Abbott says further, that Kirman was not of much commercial importance,
being so far removed from the direct lines of communication between
other chief places, and being adjacent to vast and unproductive regions.
It is by no means clear that Schiltberger was ever at Kirman; but if
his account of that town and of the islands in the Persian Gulf is
given from personal observation, which is very doubtful, it is possible
that he followed the same route as traced by Colonel Yule in Marco
Polo’s _Itineraries_, No. ii.—ED.
(17.) “Keschon”, “Hognus”, “Kaff”.—Kishm, Hormuz, and Kais, are three
islands in the Persian Gulf, which, however, Schiltberger does not
particularise as such. Kishm, the largest of the three, is called by
the Persians, Draz Jazyra—Long Island—the more familiar name being
Harkh. An excellent harbour is formed on the south side by the island
of Angar. Kishm was occupied in 1622 by an English force, which
destroyed a fort the Portuguese had erected the previous year, one of
the few Englishmen killed upon the occasion being William Baffin who in
1616 sailed round Baffin’s Bay.
Colonel Yule (Marco Polo, i, 113) has clearly established the site of
ancient Hormuz on the main land, a city that was abandoned for the
island of Zarun, afterwards Hormuz, in 1315 (Ouseley, _Travels_, etc.,
i, 157), as a protection, says Aboulfeda, from the repeated incursions
of the Tatars. Already, in the days of Ibn Batouta, who mentions both
Old and New Hormuz (_Lee edition_, 63), was Harauna, the new city and
residence of the king, a large and beautiful place; and Friar Oderic,
his contemporary, remarks on the efficient fortifications of Ormes, and
its great store of merchandise and treasure; so that its reputation
as a great commercial depôt was well established in Schiltberger’s
time. Of the many travellers who have described the island, Varthema,
1503-1508 (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 94), reported, that as many as three
hundred vessels belonging to different countries were sometimes
assembled at the noble city of Ormus, which was extremely beautiful;
and some years later, 1563, Cesare Federici (Hakluyt _Voyages_, ii,
342) noticed a great trade there in all sorts of spice, drugs, silk,
cloth of silk, brocardo, and other merchandise. Hormuz, like Kishm, was
also recovered from the Portuguese by the English for Shah Abbas in
1623, until which period it was a stately and rich place, of which the
inhabitants made the boast that “if the world were a ring, Ormus must
be considered as the diamond”.
The city has now completely disappeared, and over the space of
about one square mile of its site may be seen, here and there, the
foundations of houses, those near the sea being the most visible. In
the neighbourhood are several hundred reservoirs, and many Mussulman
tombs, some of which are enclosed within domed buildings that had some
pretensions to architecture (_Persian Gulf Pilot_, 1870, 148).
Kais is mentioned by many authors as being a place of considerable
importance. It was the ancient Καταία (_Nearchi Paraplus ex Arriano_,
31; _Hudson edition_, i), is called Keis by the Arabs, is named Ken
by Kinnear (_Memoirs of the Persian Empire_, 17), and appears in the
Admiralty chart as Kais or Gais, inhabited by pearl fishers. Yagout
(Barbier de Meynard, _Dict. Géog._, etc., 499) in the 13th century says
of Kisch, that it was the residence of the sovereigns of Oman, whose
authority extended over all the sea, on which they were very powerful;
it was the place of call for vessels trading between Fars and India,
and a celebrated pearl fishery. Kazvini (_Kosmographie_, 235) speaks of
Kis as the resort of merchants who went there to trade; and Benjamin of
Tudela, a century earlier, describes it as being a port of transit.
The ancient town of Harira is now represented by tottering masses of
masonry; a portion of a minaret of well cut stone, and many fallen
pillars of the mosque to which the minaret belonged, being the only
architectural remains. Great quantities of broken pottery, some of fine
quality, lie scattered among the _débris_. At a distance of a quarter
of a mile are large reservoirs for water, all faced with masonry, but
in a sad state of decay; some measure 120 ft. in length, by 24 ft., and
are 24 ft. in depth.
Admitting the authority of a Persian manuscript, says Ouseley (_l. c._,
i, 170), the name of the island may be assigned to the 10th century,
when one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Siraf, embarked for India
with his sole property, a cat. There he arrived at a fortunate time,
for the king’s palace was infested with mice. Keis produced his cat,
the noxious animals disappeared, and the adventurer of Siraf was
magnificently rewarded. He returned to his home, but afterwards settled
with his mother and brothers on the island, which was named Keis, or,
according to the Persians, Keish. Modern attempts to rationalise
Whittington may surely be given up, observes Colonel Yule with
reference to this story related by Wassaf.—ED.
(18.) “Walaschoen.”—This name, employed also by Orientals, is now
Badakshan, called Badashan by Marco Polo, who says that rubies were
found in the province. Ibn Haukal was also aware that Badakshan yielded
rubies and lapis-lazuli, and Ibn Batouta asserts that the rubies
(balas rubies) from the mountains of Badakshan were commonly called Ak
Balaksh. A river flowed from these mountains, the water of which was
as white as that of the sea. He adds that Jengiz, king of the Tatars,
ruined the country, so that it never flourished afterwards. Judging,
however, from Schiltberger’s account, it is probable that its condition
had improved.
The unicorns may have been horses of a good breed, as alluded to
by Marco Polo (Yule, i, 166), who states that, “not long ago they
possessed in that province a breed of horses from the strain of
Alexander’s horse, Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth
a particular mark on the forehead”. If we consider that in the
time of Timour, the nationality of the inhabitants, the military
administration, and the breed of horses in this country, were the same
as in the days of Kublai, the ruler had, no doubt, ever been a “None”,
Nono, which Marco Polo (_idem_, i, 183) gives as the equivalent for
Count. Whatever the origin and primitive significations of this term, I
may, perhaps, not be far out in asserting, that in the present instance
it designated a noyon or myriarch, such as was Jebe, the vanquisher of
the Russians at the battle of the Kalka in 1223 (Berezin, _Nashestvye
Mongolov_, 226), and Noë, Duke of Sousdal, who, at about the same
period, gave to Julian the missionary, letters of recommendation to
Bela IV., King of Hungary (Kunik, _Outch. Zap._, etc., iii, 739), and
Tolak Timour the cruel governor of Soudak (_Zap. Odess. Obstschest._,
v, 507).—BRUUN.
(18A.) When Captain Wood was in Badakshan, he was told that the valley
of Meshid was extremely populous in former times, and a legend was
current to the effect that it used to be greatly infested with
scorpions (_Journey to the Source of the River Oxus_, 1872). Colonel
Yule thinks, that if the existence of unicorns was not a mere fable,
the animal referred to was probably the rhinoceros, at that time common
in the country near Peshawur—not very far from Badakshan.—ED.