Now I Will Tell You Of A Great Miracle That Befell At Baudas, Wrought By
God On Behalf Of The Christians.
NOTE 1.
- This form of the Mediaeval Frank name of BAGHDAD, Baudas [the
Chinese traveller, Ch'ang Te, Si Shi Ki, XIII. cent., says, "the kingdom
of Bao-da," H. C.], is curiously like that used by the Chinese
historians, Paota (Pauthier; Gaubil), and both are probably due to the
Mongol habit of slurring gutturals. (See Prologue, ch. ii. note 3.)
[Baghdad was taken on the 5th of February, 1258, and the Khalif
surrendered to Hulaku on the 10th of February. - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - Polo is here either speaking without personal knowledge, or is so
brief as to convey an erroneous impression that the Tigris flows to Kisi,
whereas three-fourths of the length of the Persian Gulf intervene between
the river mouth and Kisi. The latter is the island and city of KISH or
KAIS, about 200 miles from the mouth of the Gulf, and for a long time one
of the chief ports of trade with India and the East. The island, the
Cataea of Arrian, now called Ghes or Kenn, is singular among the islands
of the Gulf as being wooded and well supplied with fresh water. The ruins
of a city [called Harira, according to Lord Curzon,] exist on the north
side. According to Wassaf, the island derived its name from one Kais, the
son of a poor widow of Siraf (then a great port of Indian trade on the
northern shore of the Gulf), who on a voyage to India, about the 10th
century, made a fortune precisely as Dick Whittington did. The proceeds of
the cat were invested in an establishment on this island. Modern attempts
to nationalise Whittington may surely be given up! It is one of the tales
which, like Tell's shot, the dog Gellert, and many others, are common to
many regions. (Hammer's Ilch. I. 239; Ouseley's Travels, I. 170;
Notes and Queries, 2nd s. XI. 372.)
Mr. Badger, in a postscript to his translation of the History of Oman
(Hak. Soc. 1871), maintains that Kish or Kais was at this time a city on
the mainland, and identical from Siraf. He refers to Ibn Batuta (II. 244),
who certainly does speak of visiting "the city of Kais, called also
Siraf." And Polo, neither here nor in Bk. III. ch. xl., speaks of Kisi as
an island. I am inclined, however, to think that this was from not having
visited it. Ibn Batuta says nothing of Siraf as a seat of trade; but the
historian Wassaf, who had been in the service of Jamaluddin al-Thaibi, the
Lord of Kais, in speaking of the export of horses thence to India, calls
it "the Island of Kais." (Elliot, III. 34.) Compare allusions to this
horse trade in ch. xv. and in Bk. III. ch. xvii. Wassaf was precisely a
contemporary of Polo.
NOTE 3. - The name is Bascra in the MSS., but this is almost certainly
the common error of c for t. BASRA is still noted for its vast
date-groves. "The whole country from the confluence of the Euphrates and
Tigris to the sea, a distance of 30 leagues, is covered with these trees."
(Tav. Bk. II. ch. iii.)
NOTE 4. - From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e. Baghdad, certain of these rich silk
and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English Baudekins.
From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries,
the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural.
[Baldekino, baldacchino, was at first entirely made of silk, but
afterwards silk was mixed (sericum mixtum) with cotton or thread. When
Hulaku conquered Baghdad part of the tribute was to be paid with that kind
of stuff. Later on, says Heyd (II. p. 697), it was also manufactured in
the province of Ahwaz, at Damas and at Cyprus; it was carried as far as
France and England. Among the articles sent from Baghdad to Okkodai Khan,
mentioned in the Yuean ch'ao pi shi (made in the 14th century), quoted by
Bretschneider (Med. Res. II. p. 124), we note: Nakhut (a kind of gold
brocade), Nachidut (a silk stuff interwoven with gold), Dardas (a
stuff embroidered in gold). Bretschneider (p. 125) adds: "With respect to
nakhut and nachidut, I may observe that these words represent the
Mongol plural form of nakh and nachetti.... I may finally mention that
in the Yuean shi, ch. lxxviii. (on official dresses), a stuff, na-shi-
shi, is repeatedly named, and the term is explained there by kin kin
(gold brocade)." - H. C.] The stuffs called Nasich and Nac are again
mentioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.). We only know that they were
of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who
mentions Nakh several times and Nasij once. The latter is also
mentioned by Rubruquis (Nasic) as a present made to him at the Kaan's
court. And Pegolotti speaks of both nacchi and nacchetti of silk and
gold, the latter apparently answering to Nasich. Nac, Nacques, Nachiz,
Naciz, Nasis, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century,
French and English. (See Dictionnaire des Tissus, II. 199, and Douet d'
Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France, etc., 334.) We find no
mention of Nakh or Nasij among the stuffs detailed in the Ain
Akbari, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. [Cf. Heyd,
Com. du Levant, II. p. 698; Nacco, nachetto, comes from the Arabic
nakh (nekh); nassit (nasith) from the Arabic necidj. - H. C.]
Quermesis or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar.
Kirmiz) found on Quercus coccifera, now supplanted by cochineal. The
stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but
apparently, like the mediaeval Purpura, if not identical with it, it
came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes
velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and
pourpres of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with
pourpre blanche.
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