Quotes A Greek
Proverb To The Disparagement Of The Three Kappas, Cappadocia, Crete, And
Cilicia.
(In Bandurit I. 6.)
NOTE 2. - In Turcomania Marco perhaps embraces a great part of Asia Minor,
but he especially means the territory of the decaying Seljukian monarchy,
usually then called by Asiatics Rum, as the Ottoman Empire is now, and
the capital of which was Iconium, KUNIYAH, the Conia of the text, and
Coyne of Joinville. Ibn Batuta calls the whole country Turkey
(Al-Turkiyah), and the people Turkman; exactly likewise does Ricold
(Thurchia and Thurchimanni). Hayton's account of the various classes
of inhabitants is quite the same in substance as Polo's. [The Turkmans
emigrated from Turkestan to Asia Minor before the arrival of the Seljukid
Turks. "Their villages," says Cuinet, Turquie d'Asie, II. p. 767, "are
distinguished by the peculiarity of the houses being built of sun-baked
bricks, whereas it is the general habit in the country to build them of
earth or a kind of plaster, called djes" - H. C.] The migratory and
pastoral Turkmans still exist in this region, but the Kurds of like habits
have taken their place to a large extent. The fine carpets and silk
fabrics appear to be no longer produced here, any more than the excellent
horses of which Polo speaks, which must have been the remains of the
famous old breed of Cappadocia. [It appears, however (Vital Cuinet's
Turquie d'Asie, I. p. 224), that fine carpets are still manufactured at
Koniah, also a kind of striped cotton cloth, called Aladja.
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