OF THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS.
The Plain of which we have spoken extends in a southerly direction
for five days’ journey, and then you come to another descent some
twenty miles in length, where the road is very bad and full of peril,
for there are many robbers and bad characters about. When you have
got to the foot of this descent you find another beautiful plain
called the PLAIN OF FORMOSA. This extends for two days’ journey; and
you find in it fine streams of water with plenty of date-palms and
other fruit-trees. There are also many beautiful birds, francolins,
popinjays, and other kinds such as we have none of in our country.
When you have ridden these two days you come to the Ocean Sea, and on
the shore you find a city with a harbour which is called HORMOS.{1}
Merchants come thither from India, with ships loaded with spicery and
precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants’ teeth, and
many other wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos, and which
these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of again. In fact,
’tis a city of immense trade. There are plenty of towns and villages
under it, but it is the capital. The King is called RUOMEDAM AHOMET. It
is a very sickly place, and the heat of the sun is tremendous. If any
foreign merchant dies there, the King takes all his property.
In this country they make a wine of dates mixt with spices, which is
very good. When any one not used to it first drinks this wine, it
causes repeated and violent purging, but afterwards he is all the
better for it, and gets fat upon it. The people never eat meat and
wheaten bread except when they are ill, and if they take such food
when they are in health it makes them ill. Their food when in health
consists of dates and salt-fish (tunny, to wit) and onions, and this
kind of diet they maintain in order to preserve their health.{2}
Their ships are wretched affairs, and many of them get lost; for they
have no iron fastenings, and are only stitched together with twine made
from the husk of the Indian nut. They beat this husk until it becomes
like horse-hair, and from that they spin twine, and with this stitch
the planks of the ships together. It keeps well, and is not corroded
by the sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm. The ships are
not pitched, but are rubbed with fish-oil. They have one mast, one
sail, and one rudder, and have no deck, but only a cover spread over
the cargo when loaded. This cover consists of hides, and on the top of
these hides they put the horses which they take to India for sale. They
have no iron to make nails of, and for this reason they use only wooden
trenails in their shipbuilding, and then stitch the planks with twine
as I have told you. Hence ’tis a perilous business to go a voyage in
one of those ships, and many of them are lost, for in that Sea of India
the storms are often terrible.{3}
The people are black, and are worshippers of Mahommet. The residents
avoid living in the cities, for the heat in summer is so great that
it would kill them. Hence they go out (to sleep) at their gardens in
the country, where there are streams and plenty of water. For all that
they would not escape but for one thing that I will mention. The fact
is, you see, that in summer a wind often blows across the sands which
encompass the plain, so intolerably hot that it would kill everybody,
were it not that when they perceive that wind coming they plunge into
water up to the neck, and so abide until the wind have ceased.{4} [And
to prove the great heat of this wind, Messer Mark related a case that
befell when he was there. The Lord of Hormos, not having paid his
tribute to the King of Kerman the latter resolved to claim it at the
time when the people of Hormos were residing away from the city. So he
caused a force of 1600 horse and 5000 foot to be got ready, and sent
them by the route of Reobarles to take the others by surprise. Now,
it happened one day that through the fault of their guide they were
not able to reach the place appointed for their night’s halt, and were
obliged to bivouac in a wilderness not far from Hormos. In the morning
as they were starting on their march they were caught by that wind, and
every man of them was suffocated, so that not one survived to carry the
tidings to their Lord. When the people of Hormos heard of this they
went forth to bury the bodies lest they should breed a pestilence. But
when they laid hold of them by the arms to drag them to the pits, the
bodies proved to be so _baked_, as it were, by that tremendous heat,
that the arms parted from the trunks, and in the end the people had to
dig graves hard by each where it lay, and so cast them in.]{5}
The people sow their wheat and barley and other corn in the month of
November, and reap it in the month of March. The dates are not gathered
till May, but otherwise there is no grass nor any other green thing,
for the excessive heat dries up everything.
When any one dies they make a great business of the mourning, for
women mourn their husbands four years. During that time they mourn at
least once a day, gathering together their kinsfolk and friends and
neighbours for the purpose, and making a great weeping and wailing.
[And they have women who are mourners by trade, and do it for hire.]
Now, we will quit this country. I shall not, however, now go on to tell
you about India; but when time and place shall suit we shall come round
from the north and tell you about it. For the present, let us return
by another road to the aforesaid city of Kerman, for we cannot get at
those countries that I wish to tell you about except through that city.
I should tell you first, however, that King Ruomedam Ahomet of Hormos,
which we are leaving, is a liegeman of the King of Kerman.{6}
On the road by which we return from Hormos to Kerman you meet with some
very fine plains, and you also find many natural hot baths; you find
plenty of partridges on the road; and there are towns where victual
is cheap and abundant, with quantities of dates and other fruits. The
wheaten bread, however, is so bitter, owing to the bitterness of the
water, that no one can eat it who is not used to it. The baths that I
mentioned have excellent virtues; they cure the itch and several other
diseases.{7}
Now, then, I am going to tell you about the countries towards the
north, of which you shall hear in regular order. Let us begin.
NOTE 1.—Having now arrived at HORMUZ, it is time to see what can be
made of the Geography of the route from Kermán to that port.
The port of Hormuz, [which had taken the place of Kish as the most
important market of the Persian Gulf (H. C.),] stood upon the
mainland. A few years later it was transferred to the island which
became so famous, under circumstances which are concisely related
by Abulfeda:—“Hormuz is the port of Kermán, a city rich in palms,
and very hot. One who has visited it in our day tells me that the
ancient Hormuz was devastated by the incursions of the Tartars, and
that its people transferred their abode to an island in the sea
called Zarun, near the continent, and lying west of the old city.
At Hormuz itself no inhabitants remain, but some of the lowest
order.” (In _Büsching_, IV. 261–262.) Friar Odoric, about 1321,
found Hormuz “on an island some 5 miles distant from the main.”
Ibn Batuta, some eight or nine years later, discriminates between
Hormuz or Moghistan on the mainland, and New Hormuz on the Island
of Jeraun, but describes only the latter, already a great and rich
city.
The site of the Island Hormuz has often been visited and described;
but I could find no published trace of any traveller having
verified the site of the more ancient city, though the existence of
its ruins was known to John de Barros, who says that a little fort
called _Cuxstac_ (_Kuhestek_ of P. della Valle, II. p. 300) stood
on the site. An application to Colonel Pelly, the very able British
Resident at Bushire, brought me from his own personal knowledge
the information that I sought, and the following particulars are
compiled from the letters with which he has favoured me:—
“The ruins of Old Hormuz, well known as such, stand several miles
up a creek, and in the centre of the present district of Minao.
They are extensive (though in large part obliterated by long
cultivation over the site), and the traces of a long pier or Bandar
were pointed out to Colonel Pelly. They are about 6 or 7 miles from
the fort of Minao, and the Minao river, or its stony bed, winds
down towards them. The creek is quite traceable, but is silted up,
and to embark goods you have to go a farsakh towards the sea, where
there is a custom-house on that part of the creek which is still
navigable. Colonel Pelly collected a few bricks from the ruins.
From the mouth of the Old Hormuz creek to the New Hormuz town, or
town of Turumpak on the island of Hormuz, is a sail of about three
farsakhs. It may be a trifle more, but any native tells you at once
that it is three farsakhs from Hormuz Island to the creek where
you land to go up to Minao. _Hormuzdia_ was the name of the region
in the days of its prosperity. Some people say that Hormuzdia was
known as _Jerunia_, and Old Hormuz town as _Jerun_.” (In this I
suspect tradition has gone astray.) “The town and fort of Minao
lie to the N.E. of the ancient city, and are built upon the lowest
spur of the Bashkurd mountains, commanding a gorge through which
the Rudbar river debouches on the plain of Hormuzdia.” In these new
and interesting particulars it is pleasing to find such precise
corroboration both of Edrisi and of Ibn Batuta. The former, writing
in the 12th century, says that Hormuz stood on the banks of a canal
or creek from the Gulf, by which vessels came up to the city. The
latter specifies the breadth of sea between Old and New Hormuz as
_three farsakhs_. (_Edrisi_, I. 424; _I. B._ II. 230.)
I now proceed to recapitulate the main features of Polo’s Itinerary
from Kermán to Hormuz. We have:—
Marches.
1. From Kermán across a plain to the top of a
mountain-pass, where _extreme cold was
experienced_ . . . . . . . . 7
2. A descent, occupying . . . . . . . 2
3. A great plain, called _Reobarles_, in a much warmer
climate, abounding in francolin partridge, and in
dates and tropical fruit, with a ruined city of former
note, called _Camadi_, near the head of the plain,
which extends for . . . . . . . . 5
4. A second very bad pass, descending for 20 miles, say . 1
5. A well-watered fruitful plain, which is crossed to
_Hormuz_, on the shores of the Gulf . . . . 2
——
Total 17
No European traveller, so far as I know, has described the most
direct road from Kermán to Hormuz, or rather to its nearest modern
representative Bander Abbási,—I mean the road by Báft. But a line
to the eastward of this, and leading through the plain of Jíruft,
was followed partially by Mr. Abbott in 1850, and completely by
Major R. M. Smith, R.E., in 1866. The details of this route, except
in one particular, correspond closely in essentials with those
given by our author, and form an excellent basis of illustration
for Polo’s description.
Major Smith (accompanied at first by Colonel Goldsmid, who diverged
to Mekran) left Kermán on the 15th of January, and reached Bander
Abbási on the 3rd of February, but, as three halts have to be
deducted, his total number of marches was exactly the same as
Marco’s, viz. 17. They divide as follows:—
Marches.
1. From Kermán to the caravanserai of Deh Bakri in the
pass so called. “The ground as I ascended became
covered with snow, and the weather bitterly cold”
(_Report_) . . . . . . . . . 6
2. Two miles _over very deep snow_ brought him to the
top of the pass; he then descended 14 miles to his
halt. Two miles to the south of the crest he passed a
second caravanserai: “The two are evidently built so
near one another to afford shelter to travellers who may
be unable to cross the ridge during heavy snow-storms.”
The next march continued the descent for 14 miles, and
then carried him 10 miles along the banks of the
Rudkhanah-i-Shor. The approximate height of the pass
above the sea is estimated at 8000 feet. We have thus
for the descent the greater part of . . . . 2
3. “Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed
that I had now reached a totally different climate.”
(_Smith’s Report_.) And Mr. Abbott says of the same
region: “Partly wooded ... and with thickets of reeds
abounding with francolin and _Jirufti_ partridge....
The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and
horse-beans, rice, cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and
dates, and in part are of great fertility.... Rainy
season from January to March, after which a luxuriant
crop of grass.” Across this plain (districts of Jíruft
and Rudbar), the height of which above the sea, is
something under 2000 feet . . . . . . 6
4. 6½ hours, “nearly the whole way over a most difficult
mountain-pass,” called the Pass of Nevergun . . 1
5. Two long marches over a plain, part of which is
described as “continuous cultivation for some 16
miles,” and the rest as a “most uninteresting plain” 2
——
Total as before . . . 17
In the previous edition of this work I was inclined to identify
Marco’s route _absolutely_ with this Itinerary. But a communication
from Major St. John, who surveyed the section from Kermán towards
Deh Bakri in 1872, shows that this first section does not answer
well to the description. The road is not all plain, for it crosses
a mountain pass, though not a formidable one. Neither is it through
a thriving, populous tract, for, with the exception of two large
villages, Major St. John found the whole road to Deh Bakri from
Kermán as desert and dreary as any in Persia. On the other hand,
the more direct route to the south, which is that always used
except in seasons of extraordinary severity (such as that of Major
Smith’s journey, when this route was impassable from snow), answers
better, as described to Major St. John by muleteers, to Polo’s
account. The first _six days_ are occupied by a gentle ascent
through the districts of Bardesir and Kairat-ul-Arab, which are the
best-watered and most fertile uplands of Kermán. From the crest
of the pass reached in those six marches (which is probably more
than 10,000 feet above the sea, for it was closed by snow on 1st
May, 1872), an easy descent of _two days_ leads to the Garmsir.
This is traversed in four days, and then a very difficult pass is
crossed to reach the plains bordering on the sea. The cold of this
route is much greater than that of the Deh Bakri route. Hence the
correspondence with Polo’s description, as far as the descent to
the Garmsir, or Reobarles, seems decidedly better by this route.
It is admitted to be quite possible that on reaching this plain
the two routes coalesced. We shall assume this provisionally, till
some traveller gives us a detailed account of the Bardesir route.
Meantime all the remaining particulars answer well.
[General Houtum-Schindler (_l.c._ pp. 493–495), speaking of the
Itinerary from Kermán to Hormúz and back, says: “Only two of the
many routes between Kermán and Bender ’Abbás coincide more or less
with Marco Polo’s description. These two routes are the one over
the Deh Bekrí Pass [see above, Colonel Smith], and the one _viâ_
Sárdú. The latter is the one, I think, taken by Marco Polo. The
more direct roads to the west are for the greater part through
mountainous country, and have not twelve stages in plains which we
find enumerated in Marco Polo’s Itinerary. The road _viâ_ Báft,
Urzú, and the Zendán Pass, for instance, has only four stages in
plains; the road, _viâ_ Ráhbur, Rúdbár and the Nevergún Pass only
six; and the road _viâ_ Sírján also only six.”
Marches.
The Sárdú route, which seems to me to be the one
followed by Marco Polo, has five stages through fertile
and populous plains to Sarvízan . . . . . 5
One day’s march ascends to the top of the Sarvízan Pass . 1
Two days’ descent to Ráhjird, a village close to the
ruins of old Jíruft, now called Shehr-i-Daqíánús . . 2
Six days’ march over the “vast plain” of Jírúft and Rúdbár
to Faríáb, joining the Deh Bekrí route at Kerímábád, one
stage south of the Shehr-i-Daqíánús . . . . 6
One day’s march through the Nevergún Pass to Shamíl,
descending . . . . . . . . . 1
Two days’ march through the plain to Bender ’Abbás or
Hormúz . . . . . . . . . . 2
——
In all . . . . . . 17
The Sárdú road enters the Jíruft plain at the ruins of the old
city, the Deh Bekrí route does so at some distance to the eastward.
The first six stages performed by Marco Polo in seven days go
through fertile plains and past numerous villages. Regarding the
cold, “which you can scarcely abide,” Marco Polo does not speak of
it as existing on the mountains only; he says, “From the city of
Kermán to this descent the cold in winter is very great,” that is,
from Kermán to near Jíruft. The winter at Kermán itself is fairly
severe; from the town the ground gradually but steadily rises,
the absolute altitudes of the passes crossing the mountains to
the south varying from 8000 to 11,000 feet. These passes are up
to the month of March always very cold; in one it froze slightly
in the beginning of June. The Sárdú Pass lies lower than the
others. The name is Sárdú, not Sardú from sard, “cold.” Major
Sykes (_Persia_, ch. xxiii.) comes to the same conclusion: “In
1895, and again in 1900, I made a tour partly with the object of
solving this problem, and of giving a geographical existence to
Sárdu, which appropriately means the ‘Cold Country.’ I found that
there was a route which exactly fitted Marco’s conditions, as
at Sarbizan the Sárdu plateau terminates in a high pass of 9200
feet, from which there is a most abrupt descent to the plain of
Jíruft, Komádin being about 35 miles, or two days’ journey from
the top of the pass. Starting from Kermán, the stages would be as
follows:—I. Jupár (small town); 2. Bahrámjird (large village); 3.
Gudar (village); 4. Ráin (small town).... Thence to the Sarbizan
pass is a distance of 45 miles, or three desert stages, thus
constituting a total of 110 miles for the seven days. This is the
camel route to the present day, and absolutely fits in with the
description given.... The question to be decided by this section of
the journey may then, I think, be considered to be finally and most
satisfactorily settled, the route proving to lie between the two
selected by Colonel Yule, as being the most suitable, although he
wisely left the question open.”—H. C.]
In the abstract of Major Smith’s Itinerary as we have given it,
we do not find Polo’s city of _Camadi_. Major Smith writes to
me, however, that this is probably to be sought in “the ruined
city, the traces of which I observed in the plain of Jíruft
near Kerimabad. The name of the city is now apparently lost.”
It is, however, known to the natives as the _City of Dakiánús_,
as Mr. Abbott, who visited the site, informs us. This is a name
analogous only to the Arthur’s ovens or Merlin’s caves of our own
country, for all over Mahomedan Asia there are old sites to which
legend attaches the name of _Dakianus_ or the Emperor Decius, the
persecuting tyrant of the Seven Sleepers. “The spot,” says Abbott,
“is an elevated part of the plain on the right bank of the Hali
Rúd, and is thickly strewn with kiln-baked bricks, and shreds of
pottery and glass.... After heavy rain the peasantry search amongst
the ruins for ornaments of stone, and rings and coins of gold,
silver, and copper. The popular tradition concerning the city is
that it was destroyed by a flood long before the birth of Mahomed.”
[General Houtum-Schindler, in a paper in the _Jour. R. As. Soc._,
Jan. 1898, p. 43, gives an abstract of Dr. Houtsma’s (of Utrecht)
memoir, _Zur Geschichte der Saljuqen von Kerman_, and comes to the
conclusion that “from these statements we can safely identify Marco
Polo’s Camadi with the suburb Qumādīn, or, as I would read it,
Qamādīn, of the city of Jíruft.”—(Cf. _Major Sykes’ Persia_, chap.
xxiii.: “Camadi was sacked for the first time, after the death of
Toghrul Shah of Kermán, when his four sons reduced the province to
a condition of anarchy.”)
Major P. Molesworth Sykes, _Recent Journeys in Persia_ (_Geog.
Journal_, X. 1897, p. 589), says: “Upon arrival in Rudbar, we
turned northwards and left the Farman Farma, in order to explore
the site of Marco Polo’s ‘Camadi.’... We came upon a huge area
littered with yellow bricks eight inches square, while not even a
broken wall is left to mark the site of what was formerly a great
city, under the name of the Sher-i-Jiruft.”—H. C.] The actual
distance from Bamm to the City of Dakianus is, by Abbott’s Journal,
about 66 miles.
The name of REOBARLES, which Marco applies to the plain
intermediate between the two descents, has given rise to many
conjectures. Marsden pointed to _Rúdbár_, a name frequently
applied in Persia to a district on a river, or intersected by
streams—a suggestion all the happier that he was not aware of
the fact that there is a district of RUDBAR exactly in the
required position. The last syllable still requires explanation.
I ventured formerly to suggest that it was the Arabic _Laṣṣ_,
or, as Marco would certainly have written it, _Les_, a robber.
Reobarles would then be RUDBAR-I-LAṢṢ, “Robber’s River District.”
The appropriateness of the name Marco has amply illustrated; and
it appeared to me to survive in that of one of the rivers of the
plain, which is mentioned by both Abbott and Smith under the title
of _Rúdkhánah-i-Duzdi_, or Robbery River, a name also applied to
a village and old fort on the banks of the stream. This etymology
was, however, condemned as an inadmissible combination of Persian
and Arabic by two very high authorities both as travellers and
scholars—Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Khanikoff. The _Les_, therefore,
has still to be explained.[1]
[Major Sykes (_Geog. Journal_, 1902, p. 130) heard of robbers, some
five miles from Mináb, and he adds: “However, nothing happened, and
after crossing the Gardan-i-Pichal, we camped at Birinti, which is
situated just above the junction of Rudkhána Duzdi, or ‘River of
Theft,’ and forms part of the district of Rudán, in Fars.”
“The Jíruft and Rúdbár plains belong to the germsír (hot region),
dates, pistachios, and konars (apples of Paradise) abound in them.
Reobarles is Rúdbár or Rüdbáris.” (_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ 1881,
p. 495.)—H. C.]
We have referred to Marco’s expressions regarding the great cold
experienced on the pass which formed the first descent; and it is
worthy of note that the title of “The Cold Mountains” is applied
by Edrisi to these very mountains. Mr. Abbott’s MS. Report also
mentions in this direction, _Sardu_, said to be a cold country (as
its name seems to express [see above,—H. C.]), which its population
(Iliyáts) abandon in winter for the lower plains. It is but
recently that the importance of this range of mountains has become
known to us. Indeed the _existence_ of the chain, as extending
continuously from near Kashán, was first indicated by Khanikoff in
1862. More recently Major St. John has shown the magnitude of this
range, which rises into summits of 15,000 feet in altitude, and
after a course of 550 miles terminates in a group of volcanic hills
some 50 miles S.E. of Bamm. Yet practically this chain is ignored
on all our maps!
Marco’s description of the “Plain of Formosa” does not apply,
now at least, to the _whole_ plain, for towards Bander Abbási it
is barren. But to the eastward, about Minao, and therefore about
Old Hormuz, it has not fallen off. Colonel Pelly writes: “The
district of Minao is still for those regions singularly fertile.
Pomegranates, oranges, pistachio-nuts, and various other fruits
grow in profusion. The source of its fertility is of course the
river, and you can walk for miles among lanes and cultivated
ground, partially sheltered from the sun.” And Lieutenant
Kempthorne, in his notes on that coast, says of the same tract: “It
is termed by the natives the Paradise of Persia. It is certainly
most beautifully fertile, and abounds in orange-groves, and
orchards containing apples, pears, peaches, and apricots; with
vineyards producing a delicious grape, from which was at one time
made a wine called _amber-rosolli_”—a name not easy to explain.
_’Ambar-i-Rasúl_, “The Prophet’s Bouquet!” would be too bold a name
even for Persia, though names more sacred are so profaned at Naples
and on the Moselle. Sir H. Rawlinson suggests _’Ambar-’asali_,
“Honey Bouquet,” as possible.
When Nearchus beached his fleet on the shore of _Harmozeia_ at the
mouth of the _Anamis_ (the River of Minao), Arrian tells us he
found the country a kindly one, and very fruitful in every way
except that there were no olives. The weary mariners landed and
enjoyed this pleasant rest from their toils. (_Indica_, 33; _J. R.
G. S._ V. 274.)
[Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES Nᵒ. II.
Kerman to Hormuz (Bᵏ. I. Ch. 19.)
Approximate Section from Yazd to Hormuz]
The name Formosa is probably only Rusticiano’s misunderstanding of
_Harmuza_, aided, perhaps, by Polo’s picture of the beauty of the
plain. We have the same change in the old _Mafomet_ for Mahomet,
and the converse one in the Spanish _hermosa_ for _formosa_.
Teixeira’s Chronicle says that the city of Hormuz was founded by Xa
Mahamed Dranku, _i.e._ Shah Mahomed Dirhem-Ko, in “a plain of the
same name.”
The statement in Ramusio that Hormuz stood upon an island, is, I
doubt not, an interpolation by himself or some earlier transcriber.
When the ships of Nearchus launched again from the mouth of the
Anamis, their first day’s run carried them past a certain desert
and bushy island to another which was large and inhabited. The
desert isle was called _Organa_; the large one by which they
anchored _Oaracta_. (_Indica_, 37.) Neither name is quite lost; the
latter greater island is Kishm or _Brakht_; the former _Jerún_,[2]
perhaps in old Persian _Gerún_ or _Gerán_, now again desert though
no longer bushy, after having been for three centuries the site
of a city which became a poetic type of wealth and splendour. An
Eastern saying ran, “Were the world a ring, Hormuz would be the
jewel in it.”
[“The _Yüan shi_ mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as
carrying on trade with China; Hormuz is not spoken of there. I may,
however, quote from the Yüan History a curious statement which
perhaps refers to this port. In ch. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan,
it is recorded that his grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai
Khan, accompanied _Bu-lo no-yen_ on his mission to the country of
_Ha-rh-ma-sz_. This latter name may be intended for Hormuz. I do
not think that by the Noyen _Bulo_, M. Polo could be meant, for the
title Noyen would hardly have been applied to him. But Rashid-eddin
mentions a distinguished Mongol, by name _Pulad_, with whom he was
acquainted in Persia, and who furnished him with much information
regarding the history of the Mongols. This may be the _Bu-lo
no-yen_ of the Yüan History.” (Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ II. p.
132.)—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran,
Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by
Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kämpfer, who says it was in
his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic; the rich
added _Radix Chinae_, ambergris, and aromatic spices; the poor,
liquorice and Persian absinth. (_Sir B. Frere_; _Amoen. Exot._ 750;
_Macd. Kinneir_, 220.)
[“The _date_ wine with spices is not now made at Bender ’Abbás.
Date arrack, however, is occasionally found. At Kermán a sort of
wine or arrack is made with spices and alcohol, distilled from
sugar; it is called Má-ul-Háyát (water of life), and is recommended
as an aphrodisiac. Grain in the Shamíl plain is harvested in April,
dates are gathered in August.” (_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ p. 496.)
See “Remarks on the Use of Wine and Distilled Liquors among the
Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia,” pp. 315–330 of _Narrative of a
Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia_.... By
the Rev. Horatio Southgate,... London, 1840, vol. ii.—H. C.]
[Sir H. Yule quotes, in a MS. note, these lines from Moore’s _Light
of the Harem_:
“Wine, too, of every clime and hue,
Around their liquid lustre threw
_Amber Rosolli_[3]—the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green Sea gushing.”] See above, p. 114.
[Illustration: The Double or Latin Rudder, as shown in the
Navicella of Giotto. (From Eastlake.)]
The date and dry-fish diet of the Gulf people is noticed by most
travellers, and P. della Valle repeats the opinion about its being
the only wholesome one. Ibn Batuta says the people of Hormuz had
a saying, “_Khormá wa máhí lút-i-Pádshahi_,” _i.e._ “Dates and fish
make an Emperor’s dish!” A fish, exactly like the tunny of the
Mediterranean in general appearance and habits, is one of the
great objects of fishery off the Sind and Mekran coasts. It comes
in pursuit of shoals of anchovies, very much like the Mediterranean
fish also. (_I. B._ II. 231; _Sir B. Frere_.)
[Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, I. pp. 55–56) says: “And there you find
(before arriving at Hormuz) people who live almost entirely on
dates, and you get forty-two pounds of dates for less than a groat;
and so of many other things.”]
NOTE 3.—The stitched vessels of Kermán (πλοιάρια ῥαπτὰ) are noticed
in the _Periplus_. Similar accounts to those of our text are given
of the ships of the Gulf and of Western India by Jordanus and John
of Montecorvino. (_Jord._ p. 53; _Cathay_, p. 217.) “Stitched
vessels,” Sir B. Frere writes, “are still used. I have seen them
of 200 tons burden; but they are being driven out by iron-fastened
vessels, as iron gets cheaper, except where (as on the Malabar and
Coromandel coasts) the pliancy of a stitched boat is useful in a
surf. Till the last few years, when steamers have begun to take all
the best horses, the Arab horses bound to Bombay almost all came
in the way Marco Polo describes.” Some of them do still, standing
over a date cargo, and the result of this combination gives rise to
an extraordinary traffic in the Bombay bazaar. From what Colonel
Pelly tells me, the stitched build in the Gulf is _now_ confined to
fishing-boats, and is disused for sea-going craft.
[Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, I. p. 57) mentioned these vessels: “In
this country men make use of a kind of vessel which they call
_Jase_, which is fastened only with stitching of twine. On one of
these vessels I embarked, and I could find no iron at all therein.”
_Jase_ is for the Arabic _Djehaz_.—H. C.]
The fish-oil used to rub the ships was whale-oil. The old Arab
voyagers of the 9th century describe the fishermen of Siraf in the
Gulf as cutting up the whale-blubber and drawing the oil from it,
which was mixed with other stuff, and used to rub the joints of
ships’ planking. (_Reinaud_, I. 146.)
Both Montecorvino and Polo, in this passage, specify _one rudder_,
as if it was a peculiarity of these ships worth noting. The fact
is that, in the Mediterranean at least, the double rudders of the
ancients kept their place to a great extent through the Middle
Ages. A Marseilles MS. of the 13th century, quoted in Ducange,
says: “A ship requires three rudders, two in place, and one to
spare.” Another: “Every two-ruddered bark shall pay a groat each
voyage; every one-ruddered bark shall,” etc. (See Duc. under
_Timonus_ and _Temo_.) Numerous proofs of the use of two rudders in
the 13th century will be found in “_Documenti inediti riguardanti
le due Crociate di S. Ludovico IX., Re di Francia_, etc., da _L. T.
Belgrano_, Genova, 1859.” Thus in a specification of ships to be
built at Genoa for the king (p. 7), each is to have “_Timones duo_,
affaiticos, grossitudinis palmorum viiii et dimidiae, longitudinis
cubitorum xxiiii.” Extracts given by Capmany, regarding the
equipment of galleys, show the same thing, for he is probably
mistaken in saying that one of the _dos timones_ specified was a
spare one. Joinville (p. 205) gives incidental evidence of the
same: “Those Marseilles ships have each two rudders, with each a
tiller (? _tison_) attached to it in such an ingenious way that
you can turn the ship right or left as fast as you would turn a
horse. So on the Friday the king was sitting upon one of these
tillers, when he called me and said to me,” etc.[4] Francesco da
Barberino, a poet of the 13th century, in the 7th part of his
_Documenti d’Amore_ (printed at Rome in 1640), which instructs the
lover to whose lot it may fall to escort his lady on a sea-voyage
(instructions carried so far as to provide even for the case of her
death at sea!), alludes more than once to these plural rudders.
Thus—
“———— se vedessi avenire
Che vento ti rompesse
_Timoni_ ...
In luogo di timoni
Fa spere[5] e in aqua poni.” (P. 272–273.)
And again, when about to enter a port, it is needful to be on
the alert and ready to run in case of a hostile reception, so the
galley should enter stern foremost—a movement which he reminds his
lover involves the reversal of the ordinary use of the two rudders:—
“_L’un timon leva suso
L’altro leggier tien giuso_,
Ma convien levar mano
Non mica com soleàno,
Ma per contraro, e face
Cosi ’l guidar verace.” (P. 275.)
[Illustration:
12th Century Illumination. (After Pertz.)
Seal of Winchelsea.
12th Century Illumination (After Pertz.)
From Leaning Tower. (After Jal.)
After Spinello Aretini at Siena.
From Monument of St. Peter Martyr.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DOUBLE RUDDER OF THE MIDDLE AGES.]
A representation of a vessel over the door of the Leaning Tower
at Pisa shows this arrangement, which is also discernible in the
frescoes of galley-fights by Spinello Aretini, in the Municipal
Palace at Siena.
[Godinho de Eredia (1613), describing the smaller vessels of
Malacca which he calls _bâlos_ in ch. 13, _De Embarcaçôes_, says:
“At the poop they have two rudders, one on each side to steer
with.” E por poupa dos bâllos, tem 2 lêmes, hum en cada lado pera o
governo. (_Malacca, l’ Inde mérid. et le Cathay_, Bruxelles, 1882,
4to, f. 26.)—H. C.]
The midship rudder seems to have been the more usual in the western
seas, and the double quarter-rudders in the Mediterranean. The
former are sometimes styled _Navarresques_ and the latter _Latins_.
Yet early seals of some of the Cinque Ports show vessels with the
double rudder; one of which (that of Winchelsea) is given in the
cut.
In the Mediterranean the latter was still in occasional use late in
the 16th century. Captain Pantero Pantera in his book, _L’ Armata
Navale_ (Rome, 1614, p. 44), says that the Galeasses, or great
galleys, had the helm _alla Navarresca_, but also a great oar on
each side of it to assist in turning the ship. And I observe that
the great galeasses which precede the Christian line of battle at
Lepanto, in one of the frescoes by Vasari in the Royal Hall leading
to the Sistine Chapel, have the quarter-rudder very distinctly.
The Chinese appear occasionally to employ it, as seems to be
indicated in a woodcut of a vessel of war which I have traced from
a Chinese book in the National Library at Paris. (See above, p.
37.) [For the Chinese words for _rudder_, see p. 126 of J. Edkins’
article on _Chinese Names for Boats and Boat Gear, Jour. N. China
Br. R. As. Soc._ N.S. XI. 1876.—H. C.] It is also used by certain
craft of the Indian Archipelago, as appears from Mr. Wallace’s
description of the Prau in which he sailed from Macassar to the
Aru Islands. And on the Caspian, it is stated in Smith’s “Dict. of
Antiquities” (art. _Gubernaculum_), the practice remained in force
till late times. A modern traveller was nearly wrecked on that sea,
because the two rudders were in the hands of two pilots who spoke
different languages, and did not understand each other!
(Besides the works quoted see _Jal, Archéologie Navale_, II.
437–438, and _Capmany, Memorias_, III. 61.)
[Major Sykes remarks (_Persia_, ch. xxiii.): “Some unrecorded
event, probably the sight of the unseaworthy craft, which had not
an ounce of iron in their composition, made our travellers decide
that the risks of the sea were too great, so that we have the
pleasure of accompanying them back to Kermán and thence northwards
to Khorasán.”—H. C.]
NOTE 4.—So also at Bander Abbási Tavernier says it was so unhealthy
that foreigners could not stop there beyond March; everybody left
it in April. Not a hundredth part of the population, says Kämpfer,
remained in the city. Not a beggar would stop for any reward! The
rich went to the towns of the interior or to the cool recesses
of the mountains, the poor took refuge in the palm-groves at the
distance of a day or two from the city. A place called ’Ishin, some
12 miles north of the city, was a favourite resort of the European
and Hindu merchants. Here were fine gardens, spacious baths, and a
rivulet of fresh and limpid water.
The custom of lying in water is mentioned also by Sir John
Maundevile, and it was adopted by the Portuguese when they occupied
Insular Hormuz, as P. della Valle and Linschoten relate. The custom
is still common during great heats, in Sind and Mekran (Sir B. F.).
An anonymous ancient geography (_Liber Junioris Philosophi_) speaks
of a people in India who live in the Terrestrial Paradise, and
lead the life of the Golden Age.... The sun is so hot _that they
remain all day in the river!_
The heat in the Straits of Hormuz drove Abdurrazzak into an
anticipation of a verse familiar to English schoolboys: “Even the
bird of rapid flight was burnt up in the heights of heaven, as
well as the fish in the depths of the sea!” (_Tavern._ Bk. V. ch.
xxiii.; _Am. Exot._ 716, 762; _Müller, Geog. Gr. Min._ II. 514;
_India in XV. Cent._ p. 49.)
NOTE 5.—A like description of the effect of the _Simúm_ on the
human body is given by Ibn Batuta, Chardin, A. Hamilton, Tavernier,
Thévenot, etc.; and the first of these travellers speaks specially
of its prevalence in the desert near Hormuz, and of the many graves
of its victims; but I have met with no reasonable account of its
poisonous action. I will quote Chardin, already quoted at greater
length by Marsden, as the most complete parallel to the text: “The
most surprising effect of the wind is not the mere fact of its
causing death, but its operation on the bodies of those who are
killed by it. It seems as if they became decomposed without losing
shape, so that you would think them to be merely asleep, when they
are not merely dead, but in such a state that if you take hold of
any part of the body it comes away in your hand. And the finger
penetrates such a body as if it were so much dust.” (III. 286.)
Burton, on his journey to Medina, says: “The people assured me
that this wind never killed a man in their Allah-favoured land. I
doubt the fact. At Bir Abbas the body of an Arnaut was brought in
swollen, and decomposed rapidly, the true diagnosis of death by
the poison-wind.” Khanikoff is very distinct as to the immediate
fatality of the desert wind at Khabis, near Kermán, but does not
speak of the effect on the body after death. This Major St. John
does, describing a case that occurred in June, 1871, when he was
halting, during intense heat, at the post-house of Pasangan, a few
miles south of Kom. The bodies were brought in of two poor men, who
had tried to start some hours before sunset, and were struck down
by the poisonous blast within half-a-mile of the post-house. “It
was found impossible to wash them before burial.... Directly the
limbs were touched they separated from the trunk.” (_Oc. Highways,
ut. sup._) About 1790, when Timúr Sháh of Kabul sent an army under
the Sirdár-i-Sirdárán to put down a revolt in Meshed, this force
on its return was struck by Simúm in the Plain of Farrah, and the
Sirdár perished, with a great number of his men. (_Ferrier, H. of
the Afghans_, 102; _J. R. G. S._ XXVI. 217; _Khan. Mém._ 210.)
NOTE 6.—The History of Hormuz is very imperfectly known. What
I have met with on the subject consists of—(1) An abstract by
Teixeira of a chronicle of Hormuz, written by Thurán Sháh, who
was himself sovereign of Hormuz, and died in 1377; (2) some
contemporary notices by Wassáf, which are extracted by Hammer in
his History of the Ilkhans; (3) some notices from Persian sources
in the 2nd Decade of De Barros (ch. ii.). The last do not go
further back than Gordun Sháh, the father of Thurán Sháh, to whom
they erroneously ascribe the first migration to the Island.
One of Teixeira’s Princes is called _Ruknuddin Mahmud_, and with
him Marsden and Pauthier have identified Polo’s Ruomedam Acomet,
or as he is called on another occasion in the Geog. Text, _Maimodi
Acomet_. This, however, is out of the question, for the death of
Ruknuddin is assigned to A.H. 675 (A.D. 1277), whilst there can, I
think, be no doubt that Marco’s account refers to the period of his
return from China, viz. 1293 or thereabouts.
We find in Teixeira that the ruler who succeeded in 1290 was _Amir
Masa’úd_, who obtained the Government by the murder of his brother
Saifuddin Nazrat. Masa’úd was cruel and oppressive; most of the
influential people withdrew to Baháuddin Ayaz, whom Saifuddin had
made Wazir of Kalhát on the Arabian coast. This Wazir assembled a
force and drove out Masa’úd after he had reigned three years. He
fled to Kermán and died there some years afterwards.
Baháuddin, who had originally been a slave of Saifuddin Nazrat’s,
succeeded in establishing his authority. But about 1300 great
bodies of Turks (_i.e._ Tartars) issuing from Turkestan ravaged
many provinces of Persia, including Kermán and Hormuz. The people,
unable to bear the frequency of such visitations, retired first
to the island of Kishm, and then to that of Jerún, on which
last was built the city of New Hormuz, afterwards so famous.
This is Teixeira’s account from Thurán Sháh, so far as we are
concerned with it. As regards the transfer of the city it agrees
substantially with Abulfeda’s, which we have already quoted
(_supra_, note 1).
Hammer’s account from Wassáf is frightfully confused, chiefly I
should suppose from Hammer’s own fault; for among other things he
assumes that Hormuz was always on an island, and he distinguishes
between the Island of Hormuz and the Island of Jerún! We gather,
however, that Hormuz before the Mongol time formed a government
subordinate to the Salghur Atabegs of Fars (see note 1, ch. xv.),
and when the power of that Dynasty was falling, the governor
Mahmúd Kalháti, established himself as Prince of Hormuz, and
became the founder of a petty dynasty, being evidently identical
with Teixeira’s Ruknuddin Mahmud above-named, who is represented
as reigning from 1246 to 1277. In Wassáf we find, as in Teixeira,
Mahmúd’s son Masa’úd killing his brother Nazrat, and Baháuddin
expelling Masa’úd. It is true that Hammer’s surprising muddle makes
Nazrat kill Masa’úd; however, as a few lines lower we find Masa’úd
alive and Nazrat dead, we may safely venture on this correction.
But we find also that Masa’úd appears as _Ruknuddin_ Masa’úd, and
that Baháuddin does not assume the princely authority himself,
but proclaims that of _Fakhruddin Ahmed_ Ben Ibrahim At-Thaibi, a
personage who does not appear in Teixeira at all. A MS. history,
quoted by Ouseley, _does_ mention Fakhruddin, and ascribes to him
the transfer to Jerún. Wassáf seems to allude to Baháuddin as a
sort of Sea Rover, occupying the islands of Larek and Jerún, whilst
Fakhruddin reigned at Hormuz. It is difficult to understand the
relation between the two.
It is _possible_ that Polo’s memory made some confusion between the
names of RUKNUDDIN Masa’úd and Fakhruddin AHMED, but I incline to
think the latter is his RUOMEDAN AHMED. For Teixeira tells us that
Masa’úd took refuge at the court of Kermán, and Wassáf represents
him as supported in his claims by the Atabeg of that province,
whilst we see that Polo seems to represent Ruomedan Acomat as in
hostility with that prince. To add to the imbroglio I find in a
passage of Wassáf Malik Fakhruddin Ahmed at-Thaibi sent by Ghazan
Khan in 1297 as ambassador to Khanbalig, staying there some years,
and dying off the Coromandel coast on his return in 1305. (Elliot,
iii. pp. 45–47.)
Masa’úd’s seeking help from Kermán to reinstate him is not the
first case of the same kind that occurs in Teixeira’s chronicle, so
there may have been some kind of colour for Marco’s representation
of the Prince of Hormuz as the vassal of the Atabeg of Kermán
(“_l’homme de cest roy de Creman;_” see _Prologue_, ch. xiv.
note 2). M. Khanikoff denies the _possibility_ of the existence
of any _royal dynasty_ at Hormuz at this period. That there
_was_ a dynasty of _Maliks_ of Hormuz, however, at this period
we must believe on the concurring testimony of Marco, of Wassáf,
and of Thurán Sháh. There was also, it would seem, another
_quasi_-independent principality in the Island of Kais. (_Hammer’s
Ilch._ II. 50, 51; _Teixeira, Relacion de los Reyes de Hormuz;
Khan. Notice_, p. 34.)
The ravages of the Tartars which drove the people of Hormuz from
their city may have begun with the incursions of the Nigudaris and
Karaunahs, but they probably came to a climax in the great raid in
1299 of the Chaghataian Prince Kotlogh Shah, son of Dua Khan, a
part of whose bands besieged the city itself, though they are said
to have been repulsed by Baháuddin Ayas.
[The Dynasty of Hormuz was founded about 1060 by a Yemen chief
Mohammed Dirhem Ko, and remained subject to Kermán till 1249,
when Rokn ed-din Mahmúd III. Kalháti (1242–1277) made himself
independent. The immediate successors of Rokn ed-din were Saif
ed-din Nazrat (1277–1290), Masa’úd (1290–1293), Bahad ed-din Ayaz
Sayfin (1293–1311). Hormuz was captured by the Portuguese in 1510
and by the Persians in 1622.—H. C.]
NOTE 7.—The indications of this alternative route to Kermán are
very vague, but it may probably have been that through Finn,
Tárum, and the Sírján district, passing out of the plain of Hormuz
by the eastern flank of the Ginao mountain. This road would pass
near the hot springs at the base of the said mountain, Sarga,
Khurkhu, and Ginao, which are described by Kämpfer. Being more or
less sulphureous they are likely to be useful in skin-diseases:
indeed, Hamilton speaks of their efficacy in these. (I. 95.) The
salt-streams are numerous on this line, and dates are abundant. The
bitterness of the bread was, however, more probably due to another
cause, as Major Smith has kindly pointed out to me: “Throughout
the mountains in the south of Persia, which are generally covered
with dwarf oak, the people are in the habit of making bread of the
acorns, or of the acorns mixed with wheat or barley. It is dark in
colour, and very hard, bitter, and unpalatable.”
Major St. John also noticed the bitterness of the bread in Kermán,
but his servants attributed it to the presence in the wheat-fields
of a bitter leguminous plant, with a yellowish white flower, which
the Kermánis were too lazy to separate, so that much remained in
the thrashing, and imparted its bitter flavour to the grain (surely
the _Tare_ of our Lord’s Parable!).
[General Houtum-Schindler says (_l.c._ p. 496): “Marco Polo’s
return journey was, I am inclined to think, _viâ_ Urzú and Báft,
the shortest and most direct road. The road _viâ_ Tárum and Sírján
is very seldom taken by travellers intending to go to Kermán; it
is only frequented by the caravans going between Bender ’Abbás
and Bahrámábád, three stages west of Kermán. Hot springs, ‘curing
itch,’ I noticed at two places on the Urzú-Báft road. There
were some near Qal’ah Asgher and others near Dashtáb; they were
frequented by people suffering from skin-diseases, and were highly
sulphureous; the water of those near Dashtáb turned a silver ring
black after two hours’ immersion. Another reason of my advocating
the Urzú road is that the bitter bread spoken of by Marco Polo
is only found on it, viz. at Báft and in Bardshír. In Sírján, to
the west, and on the roads to the east, the bread is sweet. The
bitter taste is from the Khúr, a bitter leguminous plant, which
grows among the wheat, and whose grains the people are too lazy
to pick out. There is not a single oak between Bender ’Abbás and
Kermán; none of the inhabitants seemed to know what an acorn was.
A person at Báft, who had once gone to Kerbelá _viâ_ Kermánsháh
and Baghdád, recognised my sketch of tree and fruit immediately,
having seen oak and acorn between Kermánsháh and Qasr-i-Shírín on
the Baghdád road.” Major Sykes writes (ch. xxiii.): “The above
description undoubtedly refers to the main winter route, which
runs _viâ_ Sírján. This is demonstrated by the fact that under
the Kuh-i-Ginao, the summer station of Bandar Abbás, there is a
magnificent sulphur spring, which, welling from an orifice 4 feet
in diameter, forms a stream some 30 yards wide. Its temperature
at the source is 113 degrees, and its therapeutic properties are
highly appreciated. As to the bitterness of the bread, it is
suggested in the notes that it was caused by being mixed with
acorns, but, to-day at any rate, there are no oak forests in this
part of Persia, and I would urge that it is better to accept our
traveller’s statement, that it was due to the bitterness of the
water.”—However, I prefer Gen. Houtum-Schindler’s theory.—H. C.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] It is but fair to say that scholars so eminent as Professors
Sprenger and Blochmann have considered the original suggestion
lawful and probable. Indeed, Mr. Blochmann says in a letter: “After
studying a language for years, one acquires a natural feeling for
anything un-idiomatic; but I must confess I see nothing un-Persian
in _rúdbár-i-duzd_, nor in _rúdbár-i-lass_.... How common _lass_
is, you may see from one fact, that it occurs in children’s
reading-books.” We must not take _Reobarles_ in Marco’s French
as rhyming to (French) _Charles_; every syllable sounds. It is
remarkable that _Lăs_, as the name of a small State near our Sind
frontier, is said to mean, “in the language of the country,” _a
level plain_. (_J. A. S. B._ VIII. 195.) It is not clear what is
meant by the language of the country. The chief is a Brahui, the
people are Lumri or Numri Bilúchis, who are, according to Tod, of
Jat descent.
[2] Sir Henry Rawlinson objects to this identification (which is the
same that Dr. Karl Müller adopts), saying that _Organa_ is more
probably “Angan, formerly Argan.” To this I cannot assent. Nearchus
sails 300 stadia from the mouth of Anamis to Oaracta, and _on his
way_ passes Organa. Taking 600 stadia to the degree (Dr. Müller’s
value), I make it just 300 stadia from the mouth of the Hormuz
creek to the eastern point of Kishm. Organa must have been either
Jerún or Lárek; Angan (_Hanjám_ of Mas’udi) is out of the question.
And as a straight run must have passed quite close to Jerún, not to
Lárek, I find the former most probable. Nearchus next day proceeds
200 stadia along Oaracta, and anchors in sight of another island
(Neptune’s) which was separated by 40 stadia from Oaracta. _This_
was Angan; no other island answers, and for this the distances
answer with singular precision.
[3] Moore refers to _Persian Tales_.
[4] This _tison_ can be seen in the cuts from the tomb of St. Peter
Martyr and the seal of Winchelsea.
[5] _Spere_, bundles of spars, etc., dragged overboard.