The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 155

"Sheep of this character have acquired among our writers the name of Cape Sheep, from the fact that they are the species chiefly affected by our settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. They are common in Africa and throughout the East, being found not only in Arabia, but in Persia, Syria, Affghanistan, Egypt, Barbary, and even Asia Minor. A recent traveller, writing from Smyrna, says: 'The sheep of the country are the Cape sheep, having a kind of ap.r.o.n tail, entirely of rich marrowy fat, extending to the width of their hind quarters, and frequently trailing on the ground; the weight of the tail is often more than six or eight pounds' (FELLOWS'S _Asia Minor_, p. 10). Leo Africa.n.u.s, writing in the 15th century, regards the broad tail as the great difference between the sheep of Africa and that of Europe. He declares that one which _he had seen_ in Egypt weighed 80 lbs. He also mentions the use of trucks which is still common in North Africa."

XVIII., p. 98. "Camadi.--Reobarles.--In this plain there are a number of villages and towns which have lofty walls of mud, made as a defence against the banditti, who are very numerous, and are called CARAONAS. This name is given them because they are the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers."

Mirza Hadar writes (_Tarikh-i-Ras.h.i.+di_, p. 148): "The learned Mirza Ulugh Beg has written a history which he has called _Ulus Arbaa_. One of the 'four hordes' is that of the Moghul, who are divided into two branches, the Moghul and the Chaghatai. But these two branches, on account of their mutual enmity, used to call each other by a special name, by way of depreciation. Thus the Chaghatai called the Moghul _Jatah_, while the Moghul called the Chaghatai _Karawanas_."

Cf. Ney ELIAS, l.c., pp. 76-77, and App. B, pp. 491-2, containing an inquiry made in Khorasan by Mr. Maula Bakhsh, Attache at the Meshed Consulate General, of the families of Karnas, he has heard or seen; he says: "These people speak Turki now, and are considered part of the Goklan Turkomans. They, however, say they are Chingiz-Khani Moghuls, and are no doubt the descendants of the same Karnas, or Karavanas, who took such a prominent part in the victories in Persia.

"The word Karnas, I was told by a learned Goklan Mullah, means _Tirandaz_, or _s.h.i.+kari_ (i.e. Archer or Hunter), and was applied to this tribe of Moghuls on account of their professional skill in shooting, which apparently secured them an important place in the army. In Turki the word Karnas means _s.h.i.+kamparast_--literally, 'belly wors.h.i.+ppers,' which implies avarice. This term is in use at present, and I was told, by a Kazi of Bujnurd, that it is sometimes used by way of reproach.... The Karnas people in Mana and Gurgan say it is the name of their tribe, and they can give no other explanation."

XVIII., pp. 98, 102, 165. "The King of these scoundrels is called NOG.o.dAR."

Sir Aurel Stein has the following regarding the route taken by this Chief in _Serindia_, I., pp. 11-12:--

"To revert to an earlier period it is noteworthy that the route in Marco Polo's account, by which the Mongol partisan leader Nigudar, 'with a great body of hors.e.m.e.n, cruel unscrupulous fellows,' made his way from Badakhshan 'through another province called PASHAI-DIR, and then through another called ARIORA-KESHEMUR' to India, must have led down the Bashgol Valley. The name of _Pashai_ clearly refers to the Kafirs among whom this tribal designation exists to this day, while the mention of Dir indicates the direction which this remarkable inroad had taken. That its further progress must have lain through Swat is made probable by the name which, in Marco Polo's account, precedes that of 'Keshemur' or Kashmir; for in the hitherto unexplained _Ariora_ can be recognized, I believe, the present Agror, the name of the well-known hill-tract on the Hazara border which faces Buner from the left bank of the Indus. It is easy to see from any accurate map of these regions, that for a mobile column of hors.e.m.e.n forcing its way from Badakhshan to Kashmir, the route leading through the Bashgol Valley, Dir, Talash, Swat, Buner, Agror, and up the Jhelam Valley, would form at the present day, too, the most direct and practicable line of invasion."

In a paper on _Marco Polo's Account of a Mongol inroad into Kashmir_ (_Geog. Jour._, August, 1919), Sir Aurel Stein reverts again to the same subject. "These [Mongol] inroads appear to have commenced from about 1260 A.D., and to have continued right through the reign of Ghiasuddin, Sultan of Delhi (1266-1286), whose ident.i.ty with Marco's _Asedin Soldan_ is certain. It appears very probable that Marco's story of NoG.o.dar, the nephew of Chaghatai, relates to one of the earliest of these incursions which was recent history when the Poli pa.s.sed through Persia about 1272-73 A.D."

Stein thinks, with Marsden and Yule, that _Dilivar_ (pp. 99, 105) is really a misunderstanding of "_Citta_ di Livar" for _Lahawar_ or Lah.o.r.e.

_Dir_ has been dealt with by Yule and Pauthier, and we know that it is "the mountain tract at the head of the western branch of the Panjkora River, through which leads the most frequented route from Peshawar and the lower Swat valley to Chitral" (Stein, l.c.). Now with regard to the situation of _Pashai_ (p. 104):

"It is clear that a safe identification of the territory intended cannot be based upon such characteristics of its people as Marco Polo's account here notes obviously from hearsay, but must reckon in the first place with the plainly stated bearing and distance. And Sir Henry Yule's difficulty arose just from the fact that what the information accessible to him seemed to show about the location of the name _Pashai_ could not be satisfactorily reconciled with those plain topographical data. Marco's great commentator, thoroughly familiar as he was with whatever was known in his time about the geography of the western Hindukush and the regions between Oxus and Indus, could not fail to recognize the obvious connection between our _Pashai_ and the tribal name _Pashai_ borne by Muhammanized Kafirs who are repeatedly mentioned in mediaeval and modern accounts of Kabul territory. But all these accounts seemed to place the Pashais in the vicinity of the great Panjs.h.i.+r valley, north-east of Kabul, through which pa.s.ses one of the best-known routes from the Afghan capital to the Hindukush watershed and thence to the Middle Oxus. Panjs.h.i.+r, like Kabul itself, lies to the _south-west_ of Badakshan, and it is just this discrepancy of bearing together with one in the distance reckoned to Kashmir which caused Sir Henry Yule to give expression to doubts when summing up his views about NoG.o.dar's route."

From Sir George Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_ we learn that to the south of the range of the Hindukush "the languages spoken from Kashmir in the east to Kafiristan in the west are neither of Indian nor of Iranian origin, but form a third branch of the Aryan stock of the great Indo-European language family. Among the languages of this branch, now rightly designated as 'Dardic,' the Kafir group holds a very prominent place. In the Kafir group again we find the _Pashai_ language spoken over a very considerable area. The map accompanying Sir George Grierson's monograph on 'The Pisaca Languages of North-Western India' [Asiatic Society Monographs, VIII., 1906], shows _Pashai_ as the language spoken along the right bank of the Kunar river as far as the Asmar tract as well as in the side valleys which from the north descend towards it and the Kabul river further west. This important fact makes it certain that the tribal designation of Pashai, to which this Kafir language owes its name, has to this day an application extending much further east than was indicated by the references which travellers, mediaeval and modern, along the Panjs.h.i.+r route have made to the Pashais and from which alone this ethnic name was previously known."

Stein comes to the conclusion that "the Mongols' route led across the Mandal Pa.s.s into the great Kafir valley of Bashgol and thus down to Arnawai on the Kunar. Thence Dir could be gained directly across the Zakhanna Pa.s.s, a single day's march. There were alternative routes, too, available to the same destination either by ascending the Kunar to Ashreth and taking the present 'Chitral Road' across the Lowarai, or descending the river to Asmar and crossing the Bins.h.i.+ Pa.s.s."

From Dir towards Kashmir for a large body of hors.e.m.e.n "the easiest and in matter of time nearest route must have led them as now down the Panjkora Valley and beyond through the open tracts of Lower Swat and Buner to the Indus about Amb. From there it was easy through the open northern part of the present Hazara District (the ancient Urasa) to gain the valley of the Jhelam River at its sharp bend near Muzzaffarabad."

The name of _Agror_ (the direct phonetic derivative of the Sanskrit _Atyugrapura_) = _Ariora_; it is the name of the hill-tract on the Hazara border which faces Buner on the east from across the left bank of the Indus.

XVIII., p. 101.

Line 17, Note 4. _Korano_ of the Indo-Scythic Coins is to be read _Kosano_. (PELLIOT.)

XVIII., p. 102.

On the Mongols of Afghanistan, see RAMSTEDT, _Mogholica_, in _Journ. de la Soc. Finno-Ougrienne_, XXIII., 1905. (PELLIOT.)

XIX., p. 107. "The King is called RUOMEDAN AHOMET."

About 1060, Mohammed I. Dirhem Kub, from Yemen, became master of Hormuz, but his successors remained in the dependency of the sovereigns of Kerman until 1249, when Rokn ed-Din Mahmud III. Kalhaty (1242-1277) became independent. His successors in Polo's time were Sef ed-Din Nusrat (1277-1290), Mas'ud (1290-1293), Beha ed-Din Ayaz Seyfin (1293-1311).

XIX., p. 115.

HORMOS.

The Travels of Pedro Teixeira, a Portuguese traveller, probably of Jewish origin, certainly not a Jesuit, have been published by the Hakluyt Society:

The Travels of Pedro Teixeira; with his "Kings of Harmuz," and extracts from his "King of Persia." Translated and annotated by William F.

Sinclair, Bombay Civil Service (Rtd.); With further Notes and an Introduction by Donald Ferguson, London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, MDCCCCII, 8 vo. pp. cvii-292.

See Appendix A. A Short Narrative of the Origin of the Kingdom of Harmusz, and of its Kings, down to its Conquest by the Portuguese; extracted from its History, written by Torunxa, King of the Same, pp. 153-195. App. D.

Relation of the Chronicle of the Kings of Ormuz, taken from a Chronicle composed by a King of the same Kingdom, named Pachaturunza, written in Arabic, and summarily translated into the Portuguese language by a friar of the order of Saint Dominick, who founded in the island of Ormuz a house of his order, pp. 256-267.

See Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, s.v. _Ormus_.

Mr. Donald Ferguson, in a note, p. 155, says: "No dates are given in connection with the first eleven rulers of Hormuz; but a.s.suming as correct the date (1278) given for the death of the twelfth, and allowing to each of his predecessors an average reign of thirteen years, the foundation of the kingdom of Hormuz would fall in A.D. 1100. Yule places the founding somewhat earlier; and Valentyn, on what authority I know not, gives A.D.

700 as the date of the founder Muhammad."

XIX., I., p. 116; II., p. 444.

DIET OF THE GULF PEOPLE.

Prof. E.H. Parker says that the T'ang History, in treating of the Arab conquests of Fuh-lin [or Frank] territory, alludes to the "date and dry fish diet of the Gulf people." The exact Chinese words are: "They feed their horses on dried fish, and themselves subsist on the _hu-mang_, or Persian date, as Bretschneider has explained." (_Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 134.)

Bretschneider, in _Med. Researches_, II., p. 134, n. 873, with regard to the dates writes: "_Wan nien tsao_, 'ten thousand years' jujubes'; called also _Po-sze tao_, or 'Persian jujubes.' These names and others were applied since the time of the T'ang dynasty to the dates brought from Persia. The author of the _Pen ts'ao kang mu_ (end of the sixteenth century) states that this fruit is called _k'u-lu-ma_ in Persia. The Persian name of the date is _khurma_."

Cf. CHAU JU-KWA, p. 210.

XXII., p. 128 n.

TUN-O-KAIN.

Major Sykes had adopted Sir Henry Yule's theory of the route from Kuh-benan to Tun. He has since altered his opinion in the _Geographical Journal_, October, 1905, p. 465: "I was under the impression that a route ran direct from Kubunan to Tabas, but when visiting this latter town a few months ago I made careful inquiries on the subject, which elicited the fact that this was not the case, and that the route invariably followed by Kubunan-Tabas caravans joined the Kerman-Ravar-Naiband route at Chah-Kuru, 12 miles south of Darbana. It follows this track as far as Naiband, whence the route to Tabas branches off; but the main caravan route runs via Zenagan and Duhuk to Tun. This new information, I would urge, makes it almost certain that Ser Marco travelled to Tun, as Tabas falls to the west of the main route. Another point is that the district of Tabas only grows four months' supplies, and is, in consequence, generally avoided by caravans owing to its dearness.

"In 1893 I travelled from Tun to the south across the Lut as far as Chah Kuru by this very route, and can testify to the general accuracy of Ser Marco's description,[1] although there are now villages at various points on the way. Finally, as our traveller especially mentions Tonocain, or Tun va Kain, one is inclined to accept this as evidence of first-rate importance, especially as it is now corroborated by the information I gained at Tabas. The whole question, once again, furnishes an example of how very difficult it is to make satisfactory inquiries, except on the spot."

It was also the opinion (1882) of Colonel C.E. Stewart, who says: "I was much interested in hearing of Kuh Banan, as it is one of the places mentioned by Marco Polo as on his route. Kuh Banan is described as a group of villages about 26 miles from the town of Rawar, in the Karman district.

I cannot help thinking the road travelled by Marco Polo from Karman to Kain is the one by Naiband. Marco Polo speaks of Tun-o-Cain, which, Colonel Yule has pointed out, undoubtedly means Tun and Kain. At present Tun does not belong to the Kain district, but to the Tabbas district, and is always spoken of as Tun-o-Tabbas; and if it belonged, as I believe it formerly did, to the Kain district, it would be spoken of as Tun-o-Kain, exactly as Marco Polo does. Through Naiband is the shortest and best road to either Tun or Kain." (_Proc. Royal Geog. Soc._, VIII., 1886, p. 144.)

Support to Yule's theory has been brought by Sven Hedin, who devotes a chapter to Marco Polo in his _Overland to India_, II., 1910, Chap. XL., and discusses our traveller's route between Kuh-benan and Tabbas, pp. 71 seq.:

"As even Sykes, who travelled during several years through Persia in all directions, cannot decide with full certainty whether Marco Polo travelled by the western route through Tebbes or the eastern through Naibend, it is easy to see how difficult it is to choose between the two roads. I cannot cite the reasons Sir Henry Yule brings forward in favour of the western route--it would take us too far. I will, instead, set forth the grounds of my own conviction that Marco Polo used the direct caravan road between Kuh-benan and Tebbes.

"The circ.u.mstance that the main road runs through Naibend is no proof, for we find that Marco Polo, not only in Persia but also in Central Asia, exhibited a sovereign contempt for all routes that might be called convenient and secure.

"The distance between Kerman and Kuh-benan in a direct line amounts to 103 miles. Marco Polo travelled over this stretch in seven days, or barely 15 miles a day. From Kuh-benan to Tebbes the distance is 150 miles, or fully 18 miles a day for eight days. From Kuh-benan via Naibend to Tun, the distance is, on the other hand, 205 miles, or more than 25 miles a day. In either case we can perceive from the forced marches that after leaving Kuh-benan he came out into a country where the distances between the wells became much greater.

"If he travelled by the eastern route he must have made much longer day's journeys than on the western. On the eastern route the distances between the wells were greater. Major Sykes has himself travelled this way, and from his detailed description we get the impression that it presented particular difficulties. With a horse it is no great feat to ride 25 miles a day for eight days, but it cannot be done with camels. That I rode 42-1/2 miles a day between Hauz-i-Haji-Ramazan and Sadfe was because of the danger from rain in the Kevir, and to continue such a forced march for more than two days is scarcely conceivable. Undoubtedly Marco Polo used camels on his long journeys in Eastern Persia, and even if he had been able to cover 205 miles in eight days, he would not be obliged to do so, for on the main road through Naibend and Duhuk to Tun there are abundant opportunities of procuring water. Had he travelled through Naibend, he would in any case have had no need to hurry on so fast. He would probably keep to the same pace as on the way from Kerman to Kuh-benan, and this length he accomplished in seven days. Why should he have made the journey from Kuh-benan to Tun, which is exactly double as far, in only eight days instead of fourteen, when there was no necessity? And that he actually travelled between Kuh-benan and Tunocain in eight days is evident, because he mentions this number twice.

"He also says explicitly that during these eight days neither fruits nor trees are to be seen, and that you have to carry both food and water. This description is not true of the Naibend route, for in Naibend there are excellent water, fine dates, and other fruits. Then there is Duhuk, which, according to Sykes, is a very important village with an old fort and about 200 houses. After leaving Duhuk for the south, Sykes says: 'We continued our journey, and were delighted to hear that at the next stage, too, there was a village, proving that this section of the Lut is really quite thickly populated.' [_Ten Thousand Miles in Persia_, p. 35.] This does not agree at all with Marco Polo's description.

"I therefore consider it more probable that Marco Polo, as Sir Henry Yule supposes, travelled either direct to Tebbes, or perhaps made a trifling detour to the west, through the moderate-sized village Bahabad, for from this village a direct caravan road runs to Tebbes, entirely through desert. Marco Polo would then travel 150 miles in eight days compared with 103 miles in seven days between Kerman and Kuh-benan. He therefore increased his speed by only 4 miles a day, and that is all necessary on the route in question.

"Bahabad lies at a distance of 36 miles from Kubenan--all in a straight line. And not till beyond Bahabad does the real desert begin.

"To show that a caravan road actually connects Tebbes with Bahabad, I have inserted in the first and second columns of the following table the data I obtained in Tebbes and Fahanunch, and in the third the names marked on the 'Map of Persia (in six sheets) compiled in the Simla Drawing Office of the Survey of India, 1897.'