Starting From
Kerman, The Stages Would Be As Follows:
- I. Jupar (small town); 2.
Bahramjird (large village); 3.
Gudar (village); 4. Rain (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 Jiruft near Kerimabad. The name of the city is
now apparently lost." It is, however, known to the natives as the City of
Dakianus, 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 Rud, 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 Qumadin, or, as I would read it, Qamadin, of the city of Jiruft." -
(Cf. Major Sykes' Persia, chap. xxiii.: "Camadi was sacked for the first
time, after the death of Toghrul Shah of Kerman, 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 north wards
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 Rudbar, 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 Lass, or, as Marco
would certainly have written it, Les, a robber. Reobarles would then be
RUDBAR-I-LASS, "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 Rudkhanah-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 Minab, 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 Rudkhana Duzdi, or 'River of Theft,' and forms part
of the district of Rudan, in Fars."
"The Jiruft and Rudbar plains belong to the germsir (hot region), dates,
pistachios, and konars (apples of Paradise) abound in them. Reobarles is
Rudbar or Ruedbaris." (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 (Iliyats) 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 Kashan, 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 Abbasi it is barren. But
to the eastward, about Minao, and therefore about Old Hormuz, it has not
fallen off.
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