by Robin Brown
Extraordinary preparations dictated by the need to ensure the safety of the Princess were then made for the journey, which the Polos decided could only be made by sea. Fourteen large ships were fitted out. The ships were specially rigged with four masts and nine sails and four or five of them had between two hundred and fifty and two hundred and sixty crewmen each. They provisioned the ships for two years. Aboard were the Princess, a number of ambassadors, the two brothers and Marco. Before taking leave of them the Grand Khan presented the Venetians with many rubies and other handsome jewels of great value.
The initial stage of the voyage, to Java, took about three months. The Polos witnessed much of great interest, which will be revealed in Marco’s text to follow. A further eighteen months were spent upon Indian seas where they also observed many amazing things, which will soon be described.
But the voyage was so demanding some six hundred crewmen were lost. Of the ambassadors on board only one survived. Fortunately only one of the Princess’s ladies-in-waiting and female attendants was lost. Moreover, when finally this severely depleted expedition reached the port of Ormuz in the Persian Gulf they learnt that King Argon had died the year before. The government of the country was being administered on behalf of Argon’s young son by a regent, Ki-akato. What to do with the Princess?
Ki-akato said that they should present the lady to Prince Karsan, another of Argon’s sons, who was then resident in Khorasan on the borders of Persia near a famous impregnable mountain pass known as the Arbor Secco where an army of sixty thousand men was billeted to deter foreign incursions.
The Polos delivered the Princess as instructed then returned to the residence of Ki-akato which was on their route home. When they took their leave of the Regent he gave them four gold tablets each a cubit in length and weighing between 20 and 30 ounces. They bore an inscription which invoked the blessing of the Almighty on the Grand Khan (showing that Ki-akato still recognised the sovereignty of Kublai) and guaranteed the Polos safe passage, escorts and all necessary provisions – on pain of death!
This proved very necessary, and through many places the Polos were often escorted by as many as two hundred men. Ki-akato, so it turned out, was very unpopular in the country and the people committed outrages and were openly insulting of him, which they would never have dared do under their proper sovereign.
And it turned out that the brothers had left China in the nick of time. Kublai Khan died in 1294, aged eighty, while they were still making their way home.
Over the next several months, the Polos worked their way up to the city of Trebizond on the Euxine, then Constantinople, then Negropont and finally, in 1295, to Venice. They were exhausted but in good health – and enormously rich! They offered up their thanks to God for seeing them safely home.
The purpose of this chapter has been to make the reader familiar with the opportunities and the circumstances in which the Polos acquired the knowledge of the things Marco Polo will now describe.
Book One
THE JOURNEY OUT
I began my journey in Asia, in Lesser Armenia (Armenia is divided into Lesser and Greater.) The King here lives in Sebastos and is noted for his fairness and justice. Towns, forts and castles are numerous and there is an abundance of the luxuries of life as well as the necessities. Game, both birds and beasts, is numerous. But the air of this country is not particularly healthy and while in former times the people were regarded as good soldiers today they are, frankly, worthless.
On the coast is the busy port of Laiassus, frequented by merchants from Venice, Genoa and many other places. The trade here is in spices and medicinal plants of various sorts and they manufacture silk, wool and other quality cloths. People who intend to travel into the interior usually go via Laiassus.
Lesser Armenia is bordered to the south by what is called the ‘Land of Promise’ (now occupied by the Saracens), to the north by Karamania, a territory of Turkomans, and to the north-east by Kaisariah, Sevasta and a number of other cities all subjects of the Tartars. On the western side is the sea, all the way back to Christendom.
The inhabitants of Turkomania fall into three classes: Turkomans who worship Mahomet and are rather primitive and dull, dwelling in mountain places difficult to get to where there is good pasture for the cattle upon which they are dependent. There is an excellent breed of horse here, called Turki, and fine mules which are highly valued. Then you have the Greeks and Armenians who reside in the cities and fortified towns and earn their livings by manufacturing and commerce. Cities like Kogni, Kaisariah and Sevasta (where the late St Blaise achieved his martyrdom) make the best and most handsome carpets in the world, also silks of crimson and other exotic colours.
All pay homage to the Grand Khan, Kublai, Emperor of the Oriental Tartars who rules here through governors. I now want to move on to Greater Armenia, also known as Armenia Major, an extensive province entered via the city of Arzigan where they make a very fine cloth called bombazine and other curious fabrics. It is also the seat of an archbishop. Arzigan has the most excellent thermal baths to be found anywhere hereabouts. The other cities of any consequence are Argiron and Draziz.
The country is under the domination of the Tartars and in summer on account of the good cattle pasture, part of the army of the Eastern Tartars is billeted here. Then in winter, when the snow is too deep for horses to graze, the whole garrison decamps south.
There is a rich silver mine guarded by a castle called Paipurth on the road from Tresibond to Touris.
In the heart of Armenia stands an exceptionally large, high mountain upon which Noah’s Ark is said to have finally rested and so is named ‘The Mountain of the Ark’. It takes two days to walk round the base of the mountain and it is unscaleable as the snow leading to the summit never melts, indeed increases with each successive fall.
In the valleys, however, melting snow waters the ground and produces such lush grass that cattle from all around find rich grazing here.
Bordering on Armenia Major to the south are the districts of Mosul and Maredin, of which more later. To the north you have Zorzania bordering the Caspian where there is a fountain of oil that gushes so prolifically as to provide loads for many camels. It is used to treat skin conditions both in humans and animals rather than as a food and it is also good for burning. People come from miles around for the oil and everyone uses it in their lamps.
Zorzania (Georgia) is ruled by a king called David Melik which in our language means David the King. One part of the country is subject to the Tartars, the other, thanks to strong fortresses, has remained in the possession of local princes. It is located between two seas, the Euxine and, to the east, the Abaku (Caspian.) The Abaku, 2,800 miles in circumference, is landlocked. The sea boasts several islands graced with handsome towns and castles some of which are inhabited by refugees from the conquests of the Grand Tartar when he laid waste Persia. Others are not even cultivated. There are also refugees sheltering in the mountains.
The Abaku produces an abundance of fish, particularly salmon and sturgeon at the mouths of rivers as well as other large fish. The wood hereabouts is box.
I was told that in ancient times the kings of this country were born with the mark of the eagle on their right shoulder, suggesting perhaps that they were a branch of the imperial family of Constantinople who have the Roman eagle among their insignia.
The people are sturdy, bold sailors, expert archers and make fairly good soldiers. They are Christians, followers of the Greek Church and they wear their hair short like Western priests.
There is a famous narrow pass here which is said to have put paid to Alexander the Great’s northern advances. Along the full 4 miles of its length it is washed by the sea on one side and flanked by high mountains and forests on the other. Just a few men could defend it against the whole world. Angered by his failure, Alexander built a great wall at the entrance to the pass and fortified it with towers to prevent people on the other side from molesting him. So strong is this fortification that the p
ass is known as the Gate of Iron, and it is commonly held that Alexander was thus able to enclose the Tartars between two mountains. This is incorrect. There were no Tartars here then, just a race called the Cumani who came later under Tartar dominance, and a mixture of other tribes.
In this province today there are many towns and castles and the people live well. The country produces great quantities of silk and they also manufacture silk cloth interwoven with gold.
There are huge vultures here of a species called avigi.
In the main the people here earn their living by trade and working on the land and the mountainous nature of the country with its narrow, strong valleys has prevented the Tartars from conquering it completely.
A miraculous event is said to occur annually at the convent of monks dedicated to St Lunardo. On the border where the church is situated there is a large salt water lake, Lake Geluchalat, where the fish never make an appearance until the first day of Lent! From then until Easter eve they swarm in great abundance whereupon they disappear completely for the rest of the year.
Into the aforementioned Sea of Abaku, which is surrounded by mountains, four great rivers, the Herdil, the Geimon, the Kur and the Araz as well as many others discharge. Genoese merchants have recently begun to navigate the Abaku, bringing out with them a handsome kind of silk called ghellie.
Zorzania has a fine, well-fortified city, Teflis, home to both Armenians and Christians as well as a few Mahometans and Jews. The manufacture of silks and many other articles goes on here. I have described only a few of the principal cities in this part of the world, indeed only those where something special goes on. There are many more, but I want to move on to the less well-known countries of the south and east.
The large province of Mosul, on the western banks of the River Tigris is home to Mahometans who are called Arabians and Nestorian, Jacobite and Armenian Christians. They have their own patriarch, Jacolit, who consecrates his own archbishops, bishops and abbots. Nestorian missionaries are sent from here to India, Cairo, Baghdad, and to all the haunts of Christianity in the same way as the Pope of the Church of Rome spreads his faith.
Cloths of gold and silk called muslin are produced in Mosul and the merchants are called ‘Mossuline’. They also trade large quantities of spices and medicinal herbs from here to other countries.
In the mountain areas there is a race of people called Kurds some of whom are Mahometans others Nestorian and Jacobite Christians. They are an unprincipled people who make a living robbing merchants. Cotton is grown in great abundance in the towns of Mus and Maredin from which they prepare a cloth called boccasini as well as many other fabrics. Everyone here is subject to the rule of the Tartars.
Baghdad [Baldach] is a huge place formerly the residence of the Caliph of all the Saracens, just as the Pope is to the Christians. A great river, the Tigris, runs through it and is used by the merchants to transport goods inland from the Sea of India also known as the Persian Gulf. The voyage can take up to seventeen days, the river being so windy.
Ships bound from Baghdad to the port of Kisi, from where they go to sea, pass the city of Basrah on the south-east side of the Shat al Arab about halfway between the point where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers converge at the Persian Gulf.
They grow the best dates in the world around here.
Baghdad is famous for its silks wrought with gold, damask, and carpets ornamented with the figures of birds and beasts. Almost all the pearls we get in Europe are first brought here for the process of boring. It’s also a centre for the study of Islamic law, magic, physics, astronomy, geomancy and physiognomy.
Baghdad is certainly the largest and noblest city in this part of the world.
The Caliph of Baghdad, who is rumoured to have stored away greater treasures than any other king, came to a very sticky and miserable end.
This was the time when the Tartar princes were starting to push outwards from their Mongol homelands. Four brothers, of whom the eldest, Mangu, reigned, were competing in this territorial expansion.
First they subdued Cathay and the districts around it, but this nowhere near satisfied them, indeed they dreamed of a universal empire – of dividing the world between the four of them!
It was agreed that one of the brothers, Ulua, should go south, another east and that the other two would take on anyone remaining.
Ulua assembled a huge army that swept all before it until, in 1255, it fell upon Baghdad. Baghdad was, however, a strong city with a prodigious population and Ulua elected to take the place by cunning strategy rather than by siege.
His army consisted of one hundred thousand Tartar horsemen as well as infantry, but to deceive the enemy Ulua split them, posting one division behind Baghdad, the other in a wood while he advanced boldly with the third to within a short distance of the city gates.
The strategy worked. The Caliph made light of the force he saw ranged before him and, trusting in what he thought was Islamic superiority, marched out of the city with his guard, convinced he could destroy the enemy.
Ulua pretended to retreat drawing the Caliph’s forces into the wood where his second division was concealed. The third division then closed from the rear. The army of the Caliph was surrounded and broken, he himself made prisoner, and the city surrendered.
Ulua entered the city where, to his amazement he found a tower brim full of gold. He called the Caliph before him, accused him of avarice and of jeopardising Baghdad by not spending the gold on an effective army, and locked him up in the tower. But he was given nothing to eat or drink. And so, surrounded by his gold, the Caliph’s miserable existence was soon over.
Which was little more than this Caliph deserved. Since his accession in 1225 he had worked tirelessly and brutally to convert the Christians in his territory to Islam, killing those who refused to disavow their faith. He continually mocked the Christian scriptures until one day his learned men pointed out a claim they had found in these gospels, the one which says ‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain: Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall move’. Gleefully the Caliph latched on to what he saw as a ludicrous boast that a Christian’s faith could move mountains, and he called a meeting of the numerous Jacobite and Nestorian Christians of Baghdad (Nestorians are a branch of the Mother Church which does not believe in the divinity of Jesus). There he insisted that they confess on pain of death that they believed this scriptural claim.
They did so, of course.
‘So be it,’ said the Caliph. ‘Prove it. And if you can’t find anyone in the land who possesses so small a portion of faith as to be equal to a grain of mustard and can’t move this mountain, I shall be justified in regarding you as wicked reprobates and a people without a worthwhile faith.’ Then he gave them ten days in which either to move the mountain or to embrace Islam. Otherwise they could expect the cruellest deaths imaginable.
The Christians well knew the Caliph’s ruthless disposition (and that he had his eyes on their property) and they quite rightly feared for their lives. But confident of divine intervention, they embarked upon a regime of intensive, endless prayer. Every individual, young and old, prostrated themselves night and day and tearfully begged the Lord to save them.
After eight days relief came in the form of a very mysterious divine revelation. A Christian bishop, known for his exemplary life, had a dream in which he was told to seek out a certain one-eyed shoemaker. This shoemaker would, by divine grace, be able to move the mountain.
When they found the shoemaker he at first didn’t want to know, claiming he had not lived a life that could command that much divine grace. But eventually, when he realised how desperate the Christians were, he agreed to try.
As it turned out, this shoemaker was in fact a very pious fellow who regularly attended Christian mass and the other divine offices, observed the fasts, and did much charitable work. He was also well known for an incident involving a beautiful young woman in his shop. The voluptuous creature was being fi
tted for a pair of shoes when she accidentally exposed a part of her leg causing the shoemaker an instant hard-on!
Appalled at himself, the shoemaker dismissed the beauty from his shop and castigated himself with the Lord’s words: ‘If thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee; for it is better to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.’ And he took his cobbler’s knife and gouged out his right eye. Now that’s piety for you!
When the Caliph’s deadline ran out the Christians held a service first thing in the morning then trudged in sober procession, headed by a cross, to the plain on which the mountain stood. The Caliph was there too, attended by a large number of his guard who knew they would soon be putting the Christians to death if they failed to move the mountain.
The Christians brought out the pious cobbler who knelt before the cross, prayed hard, and cried out in a loud voice: ‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I command thee, Oh Mountain, to remove thyself.’
And it did! Moreover, the countryside all around trembled in a most alarming manner frightening the wits out of the Caliph and his cronies, indeed they were stupefied. It’s said that thereafter the Caliph secretly embraced Christianity, wearing a cross beneath his garments. It was found on him after his death and as a result he was not buried in the tomb of his predecessors.
And from that day on, Baghdad’s Christians have continued to celebrate the anniversary of the day when the mountain moved.
Let us now move on to the country of Iraq and the large and noble city of Tauris which, of the many cities and forts in the province, is the most densely populated.
The people of Tauris support themselves by commerce and manufacturing and the various kinds of silk produced here, some of them interwoven with gold, fetch high prices. Tauris is well placed for trade with India, Baghdad, Mosul and Cremessor (Hormuz), and merchants from these places as well as Europe come here to trade. You can get all the precious stones and pearls you want here.
