The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
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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. In the
valley of Nishapur, again (we quote Arthur Conolly): "'This is Persia!'
was the vain exclamation of those who were alive to the beauty of the
scene; 'this is Persia!' _Bah! Bah!_ What grass, what grain, what water!
_Bah! Bah!_
['If there be a Paradise on the face of the Earth,
This is it! This is it! This is it!'"]--(I. 209.)
(See _Fraser_, 405, 432-433, 434, 436.)
With reference to the dried melons of Shibrgan, Quatremere cites a history
of Herat, which speaks of them almost in Polo's words. Ibn Batuta gives a
like account of the melons of Kharizm: "The surprising thing about these
melons is the way the people have of slicing them, drying them in the sun,
and then packing them in baskets, just as Malaga figs are treated in our
part of the world. In this state they are sent to the remotest parts of
India and China. There is no dried fruit so delicious, and all the while I
lived at Delhi, when the travelling dealers came in, I never missed
sending for these dried strips of melon." (_Q. R._ 169; _I. B._ III. 15.)
Here, in the 14th century, we seem to recognise the Afghan dealers
arriving in the cities of Hindustan with their annual camel-loads of dried
fruits, just as we have seen them in our own day.
[1] The oldest form of the name is _Asapuragan_, which Rawlinson thinks
traceable to its being an ancient seat of the _Asa_ or _Asagartii_.
(_J. R. A. S._ XI. 63.)
CHAPTER XXVII.
OF THE CITY OF BALC.
Balc is a noble city and a great, though it was much greater in former
days. But the Tartars and other nations have greatly ravaged and destroyed
it. There were formerly many fine palaces and buildings of marble, and the
ruins of them still remain. The people of the city tell that it was here
that Alexander took to wife the daughter of Darius.
Here, you should be told, is the end of the empire of the Tartar Lord of
the Levant. And this city is also the limit of Persia in the direction
between east and north-east.[NOTE 1]
Now, let us quit this city, and I will tell you of another country called
DOGANA.[NOTE 2]
When you have quitted the city of which I have been speaking, you ride
some 12 days between north-east and east, without finding any human
habitation, for the people have all taken refuge in fastnesses among the
mountains, on account of the Banditti and armies that harassed them. There
is plenty of water on the road, and abundance of game; there are lions
too. You can get no provisions on the road, and must carry with you all
that you require for these 12 days.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1.--BALKH, "the mother of cities," suffered mercilessly from
Chinghiz. Though the city had yielded without resistance, the whole
population was marched by companies into the plain, on the usual Mongol
pretext of counting them, and then brutally massacred. The city and its
gardens were fired, and all buildings capable of defence were levelled.
The province long continued to be harried by the Chaghataian inroads. Ibn
Batuta, sixty years after Marco's visit, describes the city as still in
ruins, and as uninhabited: "The remains of its mosques and colleges," he
says, "are still to be seen, and the painted walls traced with azure." It
is no doubt the Vaeq (Valq) of Clavijo, "very large, and surrounded by a
broad earthen wall, thirty paces across, but breached in many parts." He
describes a large portion of the area within as sown with cotton. The
account of its modern state in Burnes and Ferrier is much the same as Ibn
Batuta's, except that they found some population; two separate towns
within the walls according to the latter. Burnes estimates the circuit of
the ruins at 20 miles. The bulk of the population has been moved since
1858 to Takhtapul, 8 miles east of Balkh, where the Afghan Government is
placed.
(_Erdmann_, 404-405; _I. B._ III. 59; _Clavijo_, p. 117; _Burnes_, II.
204-206; _Ferrier_, 206-207.)
According to the legendary history of Alexander, the beautiful Roxana was
the daughter of Darius, and her father in a dying interview with Alexander
requested the latter to make her his wife:--
"Une fille ai mult bele; se prendre le voles.
Vus en seres de l'mont tout li mius maries," etc.
(_Lambert Le Court_, p. 256.)
NOTE 2.--The country called _Dogana_ in the G. Text is a puzzle. In the
former edition I suggested _Juzgana_, a name which till our author's time
was applied to a part of the adjoining territory, though not to that
traversed in quitting Balkh for the east. Sir H. Rawlinson is inclined to
refer the name to _Dehgan_, or "villager," a term applied in Bactria, and
in Kabul, to Tajik peasantry[1]. I may also refer to certain passages in
Baber's "Memoirs," in which he speaks of a place, and apparently a
district, called _Dehanah_, which seems from the context to have lain in
the vicinity of the Ghori, or Aksarai River. There is still a village in
the Ghori territory, called _Dehanah_. Though this is worth mentioning,
where the true solution is so uncertain, I acknowledge the difficulty of
applying it. I may add also that Baber calls the River of Ghori or
Aksarai, the _Dogh_-abah. (_Sprenger, P. und R. Routen_, p. 39 and Map;
_Anderson_ in _J. A. S. B._ XXII. 161; _Ilch._ II. 93; _Baber_, pp. 132,
134, 168, 200, also 146.)
NOTE 3.--Though Burnes speaks of the part of the road that we suppose
necessarily to have been here followed from Balkh towards Taican, as
barren and dreary, he adds that the ruins of _aqueducts_ and houses proved
that the land had at one time been peopled, though now destitute of water,
and consequently of inhabitants. The country would seem to have reverted
at the time of Burnes' journey, from like causes, nearly to the state in
which Marco found it after the Mongol devastations.
_Lions_ seem to mean here the real king of beasts, and not tigers, as
hereafter in the book. Tigers, though found on the S. and W. shores of the
Caspian, do not seem to exist in the Oxus valley. On the other hand,
Rashiduddin tells us that, when Hulaku was reviewing his army after the
passage of the river, several lions were started, and two were killed. The
lions are also mentioned by Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, further down
the valley towards Hazarasp: "We were obliged to fight with the lions day
and night, and no man dared to go alone for water." Moorcroft says of the
plain between Kunduz and the Oxus: "Deer, foxes, wolves, hogs, and _lions_
are numerous, the latter resembling those in the vicinity of Hariana" (in
Upper India). Wood also mentions lions in Kulab, and at Kila'chap on the
Oxus. Q. Curtius tells how Alexander killed a great lion in the country
north of the Oxus towards Samarkand. [A similar story is told of Timur in
_The Mulfuzat Timury_, translated by Major Charles Stewart, 1830 (p. 69):
"During the march '(near Balkh)' two lions made their appearance, one of
them a male, the other a female. I (Timur) resolved to kill them myself,
and having shot them both with arrows, I considered this circumstance as a
lucky omen."--H. C.] (_Burnes_, II. 200; _Q. R._ 155; _Ilch._ I. 90; _J.
As._ IX. 217; _Moorcroft_, II. 430; _Wood_, ed. 1872, pp. 259,260; _Q. C._
VII. 2.)
[1] It may be observed that the careful Elphinstone distinguishes from
this general application of Dehgan or Dehkan, the name _Deggan_
applied to a tribe "once spread over the north-east of Afghanistan,
but now as a separate people only in Kunar and Laghman."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
OF TAICAN, AND THE MOUNTAINS OF SALT. ALSO OF THE PROVINCE OF CASEM.
After those twelve days' journey you come to a fortified place called
TAICAN, where there is a great corn market.[NOTE 1] It is a fine place,
and the mountains that you see towards the south are all composed of salt.
People from all the countries round, to some thirty days' journey, come to
fetch this salt, which is the best in the world, and is so hard that it
can only be broken with iron picks. 'Tis in such abundance that it would
supply the whole world to the end of time. [Other mountains there grow
almonds and pistachioes, which are exceedingly cheap.][NOTE 2]
When you leave this town and ride three days further between north-east
and east, you meet with many fine tracts full of vines and other fruits,
and with a goodly number of habitations, and everything to be had very
cheap. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, and are an evil and a
murderous generation, whose great delight is in the wine shop; for they
have good wine (albeit it be boiled), and are great topers; in truth, they
are constantly getting drunk. They wear nothing on the head but a cord
some ten palms long twisted round it. They are excellent huntsmen, and
take a great deal of game; in fact they wear nothing but the skins of the
beasts they have taken in the chase, for they make of them both coats and
shoes. Indeed, all of them are acquainted with the art of dressing skins
for these purposes.[NOTE 3]
When you have ridden those three days, you find a town called CASEM,[NOTE
4] which is subject to a count. His other towns and villages are on the
hills, but through this town there flows a river of some size. There are a
great many porcupines hereabouts, and very large ones too. When hunted
with dogs, several of them will get together and huddle close, shooting
their quills at the dogs, which get many a serious wound thereby.[NOTE 5]
This town of Casem is at the head of a very great province, which is also
called Casem. The people have a peculiar language. The peasants who keep
cattle abide in the mountains, and have their dwellings in caves, which
form fine and spacious houses for them, and are made with ease, as the
hills are composed of earth.[NOTE 6]
After leaving the town of Casem, you ride for three days without finding
a single habitation, or anything to eat or drink, so that you have to
carry with you everything that you require. At the end of those three days
you reach a province called Badashan, about which we shall now tell
you.[NOTE 7]
NOTE 1.--The _Taican_ of Polo is the still existing TALIKAN in the
province of Kataghan or Kunduz, but it bears the former name (_Thaikan_)
in the old Arab geographies. Both names are used by Baber, who says it lay
in the _Ulugh Bagh_, or Great Garden, a name perhaps acquired by the
Plains of Talikan in happier days, but illustrating what Polo says of the
next three days' march. The Castle of Talikan resisted Chinghiz for seven
months, and met with the usual fate (1221). [In the Travels of Sidi Ali,
son of Housain (_Jour. Asiat._, October, 1826, p. 203), "Talikan, in the
country of Badakhschan" is mentioned.--H. C.] Wood speaks of Talikan in
1838 as a poor place of some 300 or 400 houses, mere hovels; a recent
account gives it 500 families. Market days are not usual in Upper India or
Kabul, but are universal in Badakhshan and the Oxus provinces. The bazaars
are only open on those days, and the people from the surrounding country
then assemble to exchange goods, generally by barter. Wood chances to
note: "A market was held at Talikan.... The thronged state of the roads
leading into it soon apprised us that the day was no ordinary one."
(_Abulf._ in _Buesching_, V. 352; _Sprenger_, p. 50; _P. de la Croix_, I.
63; _Baber_, 38, 130; _Burnes_, III. 8; _Wood_, 156; _Pandit Manphul's
Report_.)
The distance of Talikan from Balkh is about 170 miles, which gives very
short marches, if twelve days be the correct reading. Ramusio has _two_
days, which is certainly wrong. XII. is easily miswritten for VII., which
would be a just number.
NOTE 2.--In our day, as I learn from Pandit Manphul, the mines of rock
salt are at Ak Bulak, near the Lataband Pass, and at Daruna, near the
Kokcha, and these supply the whole of Badakhshan, as well as Kunduz and
Chitral. These sites are due _east_ of Talikan, and are in Badakhshan. But
there is a mine at _Chal_, S.E. or S.S.E. of Talikan and within the same
province. There are also mines of rock-salt near the famous "stone bridge"
in Kulab, north of the Oxus, and again on the south of the Alai steppe.
(Papers by _Manphul_ and by _Faiz Baksh_; also _Notes_ by _Feachenko_.)
Both pistachioes and wild almonds are mentioned by Pandit Manphul; and see
_Wood_ (p. 252) on the beauty and profusion of the latter.
NOTE 3.--Wood thinks that the Tajik inhabitants of Badakhshan and the
adjoining districts are substantially of the same race as the Kafir tribes
of Hindu Kush. At the time of Polo's visit it would seem that their
conversion to Islam was imperfect. They were probably in that transition
state which obtains in our own day for some of the Hill Mahomedans
adjoining the Kafirs on the south side of the mountains the reproachful
title of _Nimchah Musulman_, or Half-and-halfs. Thus they would seem to
have retained sundry Kafir characteristics; among others that love of wine
which is so strong among the Kafirs. The boiling of the wine is noted by
Baber (a connoisseur) as the custom of Nijrao, adjoining, if not then
included in, Kafir-land; and Elphinstone implies the continuance of the
custom when he speaks of the Kafirs as having wine of _the consistence of
jelly_, and very strong. The wine of _Kapishi_, the Greek Kapisa,
immediately south of Hindu Kush, was famous as early as the time of the
Hindu grammarian Panini, say three centuries B.C. The cord twisted round
the head was probably also a relic of Kafir costume: "Few of the Kafirs
cover the head, and when they do, it is with a narrow band or fillet of
goat's hair ... about a yard or a yard and a half in length, wound round
the head." This style of head-dress seems to be very ancient in India, and
in the Sanchi sculptures is that of the supposed Dasyas. Something very
similar, i.e. a scanty turban cloth twisted into a mere cord, and wound
two or three times round the head, is often seen in the Panjab to this
day.
The _Postin_ or sheepskin coat is almost universal on both sides of the
Hindu Kush; and Wood notes: "The shoes in use resemble half-boots, made of
goatskin, and mostly of home manufacture." (_Baber_, 145; _J. A. S. B._
XXVIII. 348, 364; _Elphinst._ II. 384; _Ind. Antiquary_, I. 22; _Wood_,
174, 220; _J. R. A. S._ XIX. 2.)
NOTE 4.--Marsden was right in identifying _Scassem_ or _Casem_ with the
_Kechem_ of D'Anville's Map, but wrong in confounding the latter with the
_Kishmabad_ of Elphinstone--properly, I believe, _Kishnabad_--in the
Anderab Valley. Kashm, or Keshm, found its way into maps through Petis de
la Croix, from whom probably D'Anville adopted it; but as it was ignored
by Elphinstone (or by Macartney, who constructed his map), and by Burnes,
it dropped out of our geography. Indeed, Wood does not notice it except as
giving name to a high hill called the Hill of Kishm, and the position even
of that he omits to indicate. The frequent mention of Kishm in the
histories of Timur and Humayun (e.g. _P. de la Croix_, I. 167; _N. et E._
XIV. 223, 491; _Erskine's Baber and Humayun_, II. 330, 355, etc.) had
enabled me to determine its position within tolerably narrow limits; but
desiring to fix it definitely, application was made through Colonel
Maclagan to Pandit Manphul, C.S.I., a very intelligent Hindu gentleman,
who resided for some time in Badakhshan as agent of the Panjab Government,
and from him arrived a special note and sketch, and afterwards a MS. copy
of a Report,[1] which set the position of Kishm at rest.
KISHM is the _Kilissemo_, i.e. Karisma or Krishma, of Hinen Tsang; and Sir
H. Rawlinson has identified the Hill of Kishm with the Mount Kharesem of
the Zend-Avesta, on which Jamshid placed the most sacred of all the fires.
It is now a small town or large village on the right bank of the Varsach
river, a tributary of the Kokcha. It was in 1866 the seat of a district
ruler under the Mir of Badakhshan, who was styled the Mir of Kishm, and is
the modern counterpart of Marco's _Quens_ or Count. The modern
caravan-road between Kunduz and Badakhshan does not pass through Kishm,
which is left some five miles to the right, but through the town of
Mashhad, which stands on the same river. Kishm is the warmest district of
Badakhshan. Its fruits are abundant, and ripen a month earlier than those
at Faizabad, the capital of that country. The Varsach or Mashhad river is
Marco's "_Flum auques grant_." Wood (247) calls it "the largest stream we
had yet forded in Badakhshan."
It is very notable that in Ramusio, in Pipino, and in one passage of the
G. Text, the name is written _Scasem_, which has led some to suppose the
_Ish-Kashm_ of Wood to be meant. That place is much too far east--in fact,
beyond the city which forms the subject of the next chapter. The apparent
hesitation, however, between the forms _Casem_ and _Scasem_ suggests that
the Kishm of our note may formerly have been termed S'kashm or Ish-Kashm,
a form frequent in the Oxus Valley, e.g. _Ish-Kimish, Ish-Kashm, Ishtrakh,
Ishpingao_. General Cunningham judiciously suggests (_Ladak_, 34) that
this form is merely a vocal corruption of the initial _S_ before a
consonant, a combination which always troubles the Musulman in India, and
converts every Mr. Smith or Mr. Sparks into Ismit or Ispak Sahib.
[There does not seem to me any difficulty about this note: "Shibarkhan
(Afghan Turkistan), Balkh, Kunduz, Khanabad, Talikan, Kishm, Badakhshan."
I am tempted to look for Dogana at Khanabad.--H. C.]
NOTE 5.--The belief that the porcupine _projected_ its quills at its
assailants was an ancient and persistent one--"_cum intendit cutem
missiles_," says Pliny (VIII. 35, and see also _Aelian. de Nat. An._ I.
31), and is held by the Chinese as it was held by the ancients, but is
universally rejected by modern zoologists. The huddling and coiling
appears to be a true characteristic, for the porcupine always tries to
shield its head.
NOTE 6.--The description of Kishm as a "very great" province is an example
of a bad habit of Marco's, which recurs in the next chapter. What he says
of the cave-dwellings may be illustrated by Burnes's account of the
excavations at Bamian, in a neighbouring district. These "still form the
residence of the greater part of the population.... The hills at Bamian
are formed of indurated clay and pebbles, which renders this excavation a
matter of little difficulty." Similar occupied excavations are noticed by
Moorcroft at Heibak and other places towards Khulm.
Curiously, Pandit Manphul says of the districts about the Kokcha: "Both
their hills and plains are productive, the former _being mostly composed
of earth, having very little of rocky substance_."
NOTE 7.--The capital of Badakhshan is now Faizabad, on the right bank of
the Kokcha, founded, according to Manphul, by Yarbeg, the first Mir of the
present dynasty. When this family was displaced for a time, by Murad Beg
of Kunduz, about 1829, the place was abandoned for years, but is now
re-occupied. The ancient capital of Badakhshan stood in the Dasht (or
Plain) of Baharak, one of the most extensive pieces of level in Badakhshan,
in which the rivers Vardoj, Zardeo, and Sarghalan unite with the Kokcha,
and was apparently termed _Jauzgun_. This was probably the city called
Badakhshan by our traveller.[2] As far as I can estimate, by the help of
Wood and the map I have compiled, this will be from 100 to 110 miles
distant from Talikan, and will therefore suit fairly with the six marches
that Marco lays down.
Wood, in 1838, found the whole country between Talikan and Faizabad nearly
as depopulated as Marco found that between Kishm and Badakhshan. The
modern depopulation was due--in part, at least--to the recent oppressions
and _razzias_ of the Uzbeks of Kunduz. On their decline, between 1840 and
1850, the family of the native Mirs was reinstated, and these now rule at
Faizabad, under an acknowledgment, since 1859, of Afghan supremacy.
[1] Since published in _J. K. G. S._ vol. xlii.
[2] Wilford, in the end of the 18th century, speaks of Faizabad as "the
new capital of Badakhshan, built near the site of the old one." The
Chinese map (vide _J. R. G. S._ vol. xlii.) represents the city of
_Badakhshan_ to the east of Faizabad. Faiz Bakhsh, in an unpublished
paper, mentions a tradition that the Lady Zobeidah, dear to English
children, the daughter of Al-Mansur and wife of Ar-Rashid, delighted
to pass the spring at Jauzgun, and built a palace there, "the ruins of
which are still visible."
CHAPTER XXIX.
OF THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN.
Badashan is a Province inhabited by people who worship Mahommet, and have
a peculiar language. It forms a very great kingdom, and the royalty is
hereditary. All those of the royal blood are descended from King Alexander
and the daughter of King Darius, who was Lord of the vast Empire of
Persia. And all these kings call themselves in the Saracen tongue
ZULCARNIAIN, which is as much as to say _Alexander_; and this out of
regard for Alexander the Great.[NOTE 1]
It is in this province that those fine and valuable gems the Balas Rubies
are found. They are got in certain rocks among the mountains, and in the
search for them the people dig great caves underground, just as is done by
miners for silver. There is but one special mountain that produces them,
and it is called SYGHINAN. The stones are dug on the king's account, and
no one else dares dig in that mountain on pain of forfeiture of life as
well as goods; nor may any one carry the stones out of the kingdom. But
the king amasses them all, and sends them to other kings when he has
tribute to render, or when he desires to offer a friendly present; and
such only as he pleases he causes to be sold. Thus he acts in order to
keep the Balas at a high value; for if he were to allow everybody to dig,
they would extract so many that the world would be glutted with them, and
they would cease to bear any value. Hence it is that he allows so few to
be taken out, and is so strict in the matter.[NOTE 2]
There is also in the same country another mountain, in which azure is
found; 'tis the finest in the world, and is got in a vein like silver.
There are also other mountains which contain a great amount of silver ore,
so that the country is a very rich one; but it is also (it must be said) a
very cold one.[NOTE 3] It produces numbers of excellent horses, remarkable
for their speed. They are not shod at all, although constantly used in
mountainous country, and on very bad roads. [They go at a great pace even
down steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could do the
like. And Messer Marco was told that not long ago they possessed in that
province a breed of horses from the strain of Alexander's horse
Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a particular mark on the
forehead. This breed was entirely in the hands of an uncle of the king's;
and in consequence of his refusing to let the king have any of them, the
latter put him to death. The widow then, in despite, destroyed the whole
breed, and it is now extinct.[NOTE 4]]
The mountains of this country also supply Saker falcons of excellent
flight, and plenty of Lanners likewise. Beasts and birds for the chase
there are in great abundance. Good wheat is grown, and also barley without
husk. They have no olive oil, but make oil from sesame, and also from
walnuts.[NOTE 5]
[In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep--400, 500, or 600 in a
single flock, and all of them wild; and though many of them are taken,
they never seem to get aught the scarcer.[NOTE 6]
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