As
equivalent to 18.24 fr., and under Philip IV. to 17.95. And lastly,
experiment at the British Museum, made by the kind intervention of my
friend, Mr. E. Thomas, F.R.S., gave the weights of the sols of St.
Lewis (1226-1270) and Philip IV. (1285-1314) respectively as 63 grains
and 61-1/2 grains of remarkably pure silver. These trials would give
the livres (20 sols) as equivalent to 18.14 fr. and 17.70 fr.
respectively.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCERNING THE GREAT CITY OF YASDI.
Yasdi also is properly in Persia; it is a good and noble city, and has a
great amount of trade. They weave there quantities of a certain silk
tissue known as Yasdi, which merchants carry into many quarters to
dispose of. The people are worshippers of Mahommet.[NOTE 1]
When you leave this city to travel further, you ride for seven days over
great plains, finding harbour to receive you at three places only. There
are many fine woods [producing dates] upon the way, such as one can easily
ride through; and in them there is great sport to be had in hunting and
hawking, there being partridges and quails and abundance of other game, so
that the merchants who pass that way have plenty of diversion. There are
also wild asses, handsome creatures. At the end of those seven marches
over the plain you come to a fine kingdom which is called Kerman.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - YEZD, an ancient city, supposed by D'Anville to be the
Isatichae of Ptolemy, is not called by Marco a kingdom, though having a
better title to the distinction than some which he classes as such. The
atabegs of Yezd dated from the middle of the 11th century, and their
Dynasty was permitted by the Mongols to continue till the end of the 13th,
when it was extinguished by Ghazan, and the administration made over to
the Mongol Diwan.
Yezd, in pre-Mahomedan times, was a great sanctuary of the Gueber worship,
though now it is a seat of fanatical Mahomedanism. It is, however, one of
the few places where the old religion lingers. In 1859 there were reckoned
850 families of Guebers in Yezd and fifteen adjoining villages, but they
diminish rapidly.
[Heyd (Com. du Levant, II. p. 109) says the inhabitants of Yezd wove the
finest silk of Taberistan. - H. C.] The silk manufactures still continue,
and, with other weaving, employ a large part of the population. The
Yazdi, which Polo mentions, finds a place in the Persian dictionaries,
and is spoken of by D'Herbelot as Kumash-i-Yezdi, "Yezd stuff." ["He
[Nadir Shah] bestowed upon the ambassador [Hakeem Ataleek, the prime
minister of Abulfiez Khan, King of Bokhara] a donation of a thousand
mohurs of Hindostan, twenty-five pieces of Yezdy brocade, a rich dress,
and a horse with silver harness...." (Memoirs of Khojah Abdulkurreem, a
Cashmerian of distinction ... transl. from the original Persian, by
Francis Gladwin ... Calcutta, 1788, 8vo, p. 36.) - H. C.]
Yezd is still a place of important trade, and carries on a thriving
commerce with India by Bandar Abbasi. A visitor in the end of 1865 says:
"The external trade appears to be very considerable, and the merchants of
Yezd are reputed to be amongst the most enterprising and respectable of
their class in Persia. Some of their agents have lately gone, not only to
Bombay, but to the Mauritius, Java, and China."
(Ilch. I. 67-68; Khanikoff, Mem. p. 202; Report by Major R. M.
Smith, R.E.)
Friar Odoric, who visited Yezd, calls it the third best city of the
Persian Emperor, and says (Cathay, I. p. 52): "There is very great store
of victuals and all other good things that you can mention; but especially
is found there great plenty of figs; and raisins also, green as grass and
very small, are found there in richer profusion than in any other part of
the world." [He also gives from the smaller version of Ramusio's an awful
description of the Sea of Sand, one day distant from Yezd. (Cf. Tavernier,
1679, I. p. 116.) - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - I believe Della Valle correctly generalises when he says of
Persian travelling that "you always travel in a plain, but you always have
mountains on either hand" (I. 462). [Compare Macgregor, I. 254: "I really
cannot describe the road. Every road in Persia as yet seems to me to be
exactly alike, so ... my readers will take it for granted that the road
went over a waste, with barren rugged hills in the distance, or near; no
water, no houses, no people passed." - H. C.] The distance from Yezd to
Kerman is, according to Khanikoff's survey, 314 kilometres, or about 195
miles. Ramusio makes the time eight days, which is probably the better
reading, giving a little over 24 miles a day. Westergaard in 1844, and
Khanikoff in 1859, took ten days; Colonel Goldsmid and Major Smith in
1865 twelve. ["The distance from Yezd to Kerman by the present high
road, 229 miles, is by caravans, generally made in nine stages; persons
travelling with all comforts do it in twelve stages; travellers whose time
is of some value do it easily in seven days." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c.
pp. 490-491.) - H. C.]
Khanikoff observes on this chapter: "This notice of woods easy to ride
through, covering the plain of Yezd, is very curious. Now you find it a
plain of great extent indeed from N.W. to S.E., but narrow and arid;
indeed I saw in it only thirteen inhabited spots, counting two
caravanserais. Water for the inhabitants is brought from a great distance
by subterraneous conduits, a practice which may have tended to desiccate
the soil, for every trace of wood has completely disappeared."
Abbott travelled from Yezd to Kerman in 1849, by a road through Bafk,
east of the usual road, which Khanikoff followed, and parallel to it;
and it is worthy of note that he found circumstances more accordant with
Marco's description.
