Description of Armenia the Lesser, of the country of the Turks of Greater
Armenia, Zorzania, the kingdom of Mosul, of the cities of Bagdat and
Tauris, and account of a strange Miracle[1].
There are two Armenias, the Greater and the Lesser. In the Lesser Armenia
the king resides in a city called Sebaste; and in all this country justice
and good government are strictly enforced. This kingdom has many cities,
fortresses, and castles; the soil is fertile, and the country abounds with
game and wildfowl, and every necessary article of provisions, but the air
is not very good. Formerly the Armenian gentlemen were brave men and good
soldiers, but are now become effeminate, and addicted to drinking and
debauchery. The city of Giazza, on the Black Sea, has an excellent harbour,
to which merchants resort from divers countries, even from Venice and
Genoa, for several sorts of merchandize, especially for the different kinds
of spices, and various other valuable goods, which are brought here from
India, as this place is the settled market for the commodities of the east.
Turcomania is inhabited by three different nations, Turcomans, Greeks, and
Armenians. The Turcomans, who are Mahometans, are a rude, illiterate, and
savage people, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places, where they
can procure pasture, as they subsist only on the produce of their flocks
and herds. In their country there are excellent horses, called Turkish
horses, and their mules are in great estimation. The Greeks and Armenians
possess the cities and towns, and employ themselves in manufactures and
merchandize, making, especially, the best carpets in the world. Their chief
cities are Cogno or Iconium, Caesarea, and Sebaste, where St Basil suffered
martyrdom. This country is under subjection to one of the khans of the
Tartars.
The Greater Armenia is a large province, subject to the Tartars, which has
many cities and towns, the principal of which is Arsugia, in which the best
buckram in the world is made. In this neighbourhood there are excellent hot
springs, which are celebrated as salutary baths in many diseases. The
cities next in consequence are Argiron and Darziz. In the summer season
many Tartars resort to this country on account of the richness of the
pastures, and retire again in winter, because of the abundance of snow. The
ark of Noah rested on Arrarat, one of the mountains of Armenia.
This country has the province of Mosul and Meridin on the east, or
Diarbekir; and on the north is Zorzania[2], where there is a fountain that
discharges a liquid resembling oil; which, though it cannot be used as a
seasoning for meat, is yet useful for burning in lamps, and for many other
purposes; and it is found in sufficient quantities to load camels, and to
form a material object of commerce. In Zorzania is a prince named David
Melic or King David; one part of the province being subject to him, while
the other part pays tribute to a Tartar khan. The woods are mostly of
box-trees. Zorzania extends between the Euxine and Caspian seas; which
latter is likewise called the sea of Baccu, and is 2800 miles in
circumference: but is like a lake, as it has no communication with any
other sea. In it there are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which
are inhabited by the people who fled from the Tartars out of Persia.
The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with
others, and wear their hair short like the western clergy. There are many
cities, and the country abounds in silk, of which they make many fine
manufactures. Moxul or Mosul, is a province containing many sorts of
people; some are called Arahi, who are Mahometans; others are Christians of
various sects, as Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians; and they have a
patriarch stiled Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots,
whom he sends all over India, and to Cairo, and Bagdat, and wherever there
are Christians, in the same manner as is done by the pope of Rome. All the
stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are wrought in Moxul[3]. In the
mountains of this country of Diarbekir, dwelt the people called Curds, some
off whom are Nestorians or Jacobites, and other Mahometans. They are a
lawless people, who rob the merchants that travel through their country.
Near to them is another province called Mus, Meridin, or Mardin, higher up
the Tigris than Mosul, wherein grows great quantities of cotton, of which
they make buckrams[4] and other manufactures. This province is likewise
subject to the Tartars. Baldach, or Bagdat, is a great city in which the
supreme caliph formerly resided, who was pope of all the Saracens. From
this city it is counted seventeen days journey to the sea; but the river
Tigris runs past, on which people sail to Balsora, where the best dates in
the world grow, but in the passage between these; two cities there lies
another named Chisi. In Bagdat are many manufactures of gold and silk, and
damasks and velvets with figures of various creatures; in that city there
is a university, where the law of Mahoment, physic, astronomy, and geomancy
are taught; and from it come all the pearls in Christendom.
When the Tartars began to extend their conquests, there were four brothers
who possessed the chief rule; of whom Mangu, the eldest, reigned in
Sedia[5]. These brethren proposed to themselves to subdue the whole world,
for which purpose one went to the east, another to the north, a third to
the west, and Ulau or Houlagu went to the south in 1250, with an army of an
hundred thousand horse, besides foot. Employing stratagem, he hid a great
part of his force in ambush, and advancing with an inconsiderable number,
enticed the caliph to follow him by a pretended flight; by this means he
took the caliph prisoner, and made himself master of the city, in which he
found such infinite store of treasure, that he was quite amazed.
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