In Any
Case, I See No Reason To Suppose That Polo Visited Alamut, Which Would
Have Been Quite Out Of The Road That He Is Following.
It is possible that "the Castle," to which he alludes at the beginning of
next chapter, and which set
Him off upon this digression, was
Girdkuh.[1] It has not, as far as I know, been identified by modern
travellers, but it stood within 10 or 12 miles of Damghan (to the west or
north-west). It is probably the Tigado of Hayton, of which he thus
speaks: "The Assassins had an impregnable castle called Tigado, which was
furnished with all necessaries, and was so strong that it had no fear of
attack on any side. Howbeit, Halooen commanded a certain captain of his
that he should take 10,000 Tartars who had been left in garrison in
Persia, and with them lay siege to the said castle, and not leave it till
he had taken it. Wherefore the said Tartars continued besieging it for
seven whole years, winter and summer, without being able to take it. At
last the Assassins surrendered, from sheer want of clothing, but not of
victuals or other necessaries." So Ramusio; other copies read "27 years."
In any case it corroborates the fact that Girdkuh was said to have held
out for an extraordinary length of time. If Rashiduddin is right in naming
1270 as the date of surrender, this would be quite a recent event when the
Polo party passed, and draw special attention to the spot. (J. As. ser.
IV. tom. xiii. 48; Ilch. I. 93, 104, 274; Q. R. p. 278; Ritter,
VIII. 336.) A note which I have from Djihan Numa (I. 259) connects
Girdkuh with a district called Chinar. This may be a clue to the term
Arbre Sec; but there are difficulties.
[1] [Ghirdkuh means "round mountain"; it was in the district of Kumis,
three parasangs west of Damghan. Under the year 1257, the Yuean shi
mentions the taking of the fortress of Ghi-rh-du-kie by
K'ie-di-bu-hua. (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 122;
II. 110.) - H. C.]
CHAPTER XXVI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF SAPURGAN.
On leaving the Castle, you ride over fine plains and beautiful valleys,
and pretty hill-sides producing excellent grass pasture, and abundance of
fruits, and all other products. Armies are glad to take up their quarters
here on account of the plenty that exists. This kind of country extends
for six days' journey, with a goodly number of towns and villages, in
which the people are worshippers of Mahommet. Sometimes also you meet with
a tract of desert extending for 50 or 60 miles, or somewhat less, and in
these deserts you find no water, but have to carry it along with you. The
beasts do without drink until you have got across the desert tract and
come to watering places.
So after travelling for six days as I have told you, you come to a city
called SAPURGAN. It has great plenty of everything, but especially of the
very best melons in the world. They preserve them by paring them round and
round into strips, and drying them in the sun. When dry they are sweeter
than honey, and are carried off for sale all over the country. There is
also abundance of game here, both of birds and beasts.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - SAPURGAN may closely express the pronunciation of the name of the
city which the old Arabic writers call Saburkan and Shaburkan, now
called Shibrgan, lying some 90 miles west of Balkh; containing now some
12,000 inhabitants, and situated in a plain still richly cultivated,
though on the verge of the desert.[1] But I have seen no satisfactory
solution of the difficulties as to the time assigned. This in the G. T.
and in Ramusio is clearly six days. The point of departure is indeed
uncertain, but even if we were to place that at Sharakhs on the extreme
verge of cultivated Khorasan, which would be quite inconsistent with other
data, it would have taken the travellers something like double the time to
reach Shibrgan. Where I have followed the G. T. in its reading "quant
l'en a chevauches six jornee tel che je vos ai contes, adunc treuve l'en
une cite," etc., Pauthier's text has "Et quant l'en a chevauchie les vi
cites, si treuve l'en une cite qui a nom Sapurgan," and to this that
editor adheres. But I suspect that cites is a mere lapsus for journees
as in the reading in one of his three MSS. What could be meant by
"chevauchier les vi cites"?
Whether the true route be, as I suppose, by Nishapur and Meshid, or, as
Khanikoff supposes, by Herat and Badghis, it is strange that no one of
those famous cities is mentioned. And we feel constrained to assume that
something has been misunderstood in the dictation, or has dropt out of it.
As a probable conjecture I should apply the six days to the extent of
pleasing country described in the first lines of the chapter, and identify
it with the tract between Sabzawur and the cessation of fertile country
beyond Meshid. The distance would agree well, and a comparison with Fraser
or Ferrier will show that even now the description, allowing for the
compression of an old recollection, would be well founded; e.g. on the
first march beyond Nishapur: "Fine villages, with plentiful gardens full
of trees, that bear fruit of the highest flavour, may be seen all along
the foot of the hills, and in the little recesses formed by the ravines
whence issues the water that irrigates them. It was a rich and pleasing
scene, and out of question by far the most populous and cultivated tract
that I had seen in Persia.... Next morning we quitted Derrood ... by a
very indifferent but interesting road, the glen being finely wooded with
walnut, mulberry, poplar, and willow-trees, and fruit-tree gardens rising
one above the other upon the mountain-side, watered by little rills....
These gardens extended for several miles up the glen; beyond them the bank
of the stream continued to be fringed with white sycamore, willow, ash,
mulberry, poplar, and woods that love a moist situation," and so on,
describing a style of scenery not common in Persia, and expressing
diffusely (as it seems to me) the same picture as Polo's two lines.
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