Sending
For The Caliph Into His Presence, He Sharply Reproved Him, That, Possessing
Such Riches, He Had Not Employed Them In Providing Soldiers To Defend His
Dominions; And Commanded Him To Be Shut Up In The Tower Where His Treasure
Was Placed, Without Any Sustenance.
This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ upon the caliph;
for, in the year 1225, seeking
To convert the Christians to the Mahometan
superstition, and taking advantage of that passage in the gospel which
says, "He that hath faith as a grain of mustard seed, shall be able to
remove mountains," he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and
Jacobites, and gave them their choice, "In ten days to remove a certain
mountain, to turn Mahometans or to be slain;" alleging that there was not
one among them who had the least grain of faith. The astonished and
dismayed Christians continued ten days in prayer; when, by a revelation to
a certain bishop, a certain shoemaker was chosen to perform this
compulsatory miracle. This shoemaker was once tempted to lust in fitting a
shoe to a young woman, and had literally and zealously performed the
injunction of the gospel by putting out his right eye. On the day appointed
by the caliph, he and all the Christians of the city followed the cross
towards the mountain; then, lifting up his hands, he prayed to God to have
mercy on his afflicted people, and, in a loud voice, commanded the
mountain, in the name of the holy and ever blessed Trinity to remove: which
it presently did, to the great astonishment and terror of the caliph and
all his people, The anniversary of this day, and the evening before, is
ever since kept holy by fasting and prayer[6].
[1] Marco Polo having spent much the largest portion of his life
among the Tartars, necessarily used their names for the countries, places,
and people which he described, and these names have been subsequently much
disfigured in transcription. This has occasioned great perplexity to
commentators in endeavouring to explain his geography conformably with
modern maps, and which even is often impossible to be done with any
tolerable certainty. The arrangement, likewise, of his descriptions is
altogether arbitrary, so that the sequence does not serve to remove the
difficulty; and the sections appear to have been drawn up in a desultory
manner just as they occurred to his recollection, or as circumstances in
the conversation or inquiry of others occasioned him to commit his
knowledge to paper. - E.
[2] Gurgistan, usually called Georgia. - E.
[3] This manufacture from Mosul or Moxul, on the Tigris, must be carefully
distinguished from the muslins of India, which need not be
described. - E
[4] These buckrams seem to have been some coarse species of cotton cloth,
in ordinary wear among the eastern nations. The word occurs
frequently, in these early travels in Tartary, but its proper meaning
is unknown - E.
[5] This word is inexplicable, unless by supposing it some corruption of
Syra Horda, the golden court or imperial residence, which was
usually in Tangut or Mongalia, on the Orchen or Onguin. But in the
days of Marco, the khans had betaken themselves to the luxurious ease
of fixed residences and he might have misunderstood the information he
received of the residence of Mangu. - E.
[6] Marco Polo is no more answerable for the truth of this ridiculous
legend of the 13th century, than the archbishop of Paris of the 19th
is for many, equally absurd, that are narrated in the French national
Catechism. Both were good catholics, and rehearsed what they had
heard, and what neither of them pretended to have seen. - E.
SECTION III
Of the Country of Persia, the Cities of Jasdi, Cermam and Camandu, and the
Province of Reobarle.
Tauris is a great city in the province of Hircania[1], and is a very
populous place. The inhabitants live by the exercise of manufacture and
trade, fabricating, especially, stuffs of silk and gold. The foreign
merchants who reside there make very great gains, but the inhabitants are
generally poor. They are a mixed people, of Nestorians, Armenians,
Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and Mahometans. These last are perfidious
and treacherous people, who think all well got which they can filch or
steal from those of other religions; and this wickedness of the Saracens
has induced many of the Tartars to join their religion; and if a Saracen be
killed by a Christian, even while engaged in the act of robbery, he is
esteemed to have died a martyr. It is twelve days journey from Tauris to
Persia[2]. In the confines stands the monastery of St Barasam, of which the
monks resemble Carmelites: they make girdles, which they lay on the altars
and give to their friends, who esteem them as holy. Persia is divided into
eight kingdoms, viz. Casbin, Curdistan[3], Laristan, Susistan or
Chorassan, Spahan, Ispahan or Fars, Shiras[4], Soncara[5], and lastly
Timochaim, which is near Arboreseco, towards the north[6]. Persia breeds
excellent horses, which are sold to the Indies; also very good asses, which
are sold for a higher price than the horses, because they eat little, carry
much, and travel far. They have camels also, which, though not swift, are
necessary in these countries, which, sometimes for a long way, yield no
grass or water.
The people in these countries are very wicked and covetous, thieves and
murderers, killing the merchants unless they travel in caravans, yet they
profess to follow the law of Mahomet. In the cities there are excellent
artificers in gold, silk, and embroidery; and the country abounds with
silk-worms, wheat, barley, millet, and other kinds of grain, with plenty of
fruits and wine; and though wine is forbidden by the Mahometan law, they
have a gloss to correct or corrupt the text, saying, that when boiled, it
changes its taste and name, and may be then drank.
Jasdi is a great city on the confines of Persia, which carries on a great
trade, and has many manufactures of silk.
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