The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 58

(See _Reinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde_, 171; also _Sprenger P. and R. R._ 77.) According to Khanikoff it is 5535 feet above the sea.

Kerman, on the fall of the Beni Buya Dynasty, in the middle of the 11th century, came into the hands of a branch of the Seljukian Turks, who retained it till the conquests of the Kings of Khwarizm, which just preceded the Mongol invasion. In 1226 the Amir Borak, a Kara Khitaian, who was governor on behalf of Jalaluddin of Khwarizm, became independent under the t.i.tle of Kutlugh Sultan. [He died in 1234.] The Mongols allowed this family to retain the immediate authority, and at the time when Polo returned from China the representative of the house was a lady known as the _Padishah Khatun_ [who reigned from 1291], the wife successively of the Ilkhans Abaka and Kaikhatu; an ambitious, clever, and masterful woman, who put her own brother Siyurgutmish to death as a rival, and was herself, after the decease of Kaikhatu, put to death by her brother's widow and daughter [1294]. The Dynasty continued, nominally at least, to the reign of the Ilkhan Khodabanda (1304-13), when it was extinguished. [See Major Sykes' _Persia_, chaps, v. and xxiii.]

Kerman was a Nestorian see, under the Metropolitan of Fars. (_Ilch.

pa.s.sim; Weil_, III. 454; _Lequien_, II. 1256.)

["There is some confusion with regard to the names of Kerman both as a town and as a province or kingdom. We have the names Kerman, Kuwashir, Bardshir. I should say the original name of the whole country was Kerman, the ancient Karamania. A province of this was called Kureh-i-Ardeshir, which, being contracted, became Kuwashir, and is spoken of as the province in which Ardeshir Babekan, the first Sa.s.sanian monarch, resided. A part of Kureh-i-Ardeshir was called Bardshir, or Bard-i-Ardeshir, now occasionally Bardsir, and the present city of Kerman was situated at its north-eastern corner. This town, during the Middle Ages, was called Bardshir. On a coin of Qara Arslan Beg, King of Kerman, of A.H. 462, Mr. Stanley Lane Poole reads Yazdashir instead of Bardshir. Of Al Idrisi's Yazdashir I see no mention in histories; Bardshir was the capital and the place where most of the coins were struck. Yazdashir, if such a place existed, can only have been a place of small importance. It is, perhaps, a clerical error for Bardshir; without diacritical points, both words are written alike. Later, the name of the city became Kerman, the name Bardshir reverting to the district lying south-west of it, with its princ.i.p.al place Mashiz. In a similar manner Mashiz was often, and is so now, called Bardshir. Another old town sometimes confused with Bardshir was Sirjan or Shirjan, once more important than Bardshir; it is spoken of as the capital of Kerman, of Bardshir, and of Sardsir. Its name now exists only as that of a district, with princ.i.p.al place S'aidabad. The history of Kerman, 'Agd-ul-'Ola, plainly says Bardshir is the capital of Kerman, and from the description of Bardshir there is no doubt of its having been the present town Kerman.

It is strange that Marco Polo does not give the name of the city. In a.s.semanni's _Bibliotheca Orientalis_ Kuwashir and Bardashir are mentioned as separate cities, the latter being probably the old Mashiz, which as early as A.H. 582 (A.D. 1186) is spoken of in the _History of Kerman_ as an important town. The Nestorian bishop of the province Kerman, who stood under the Metropolitan of Fars, resided at Hormuz." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. pp. 491-492.)

There does not seem any doubt as to the ident.i.ty of Bardashir with the present city of Kerman. (See _The Cities of Kirman in the time of Hamd-Allah Mustawfi and Marco Polo_, by Guy le Strange, _Jour. R. As. Soc._ April, 1901, pp. 281, 290.) Hamd-Allah is the author of the Cosmography known as the _Nuzhat-al-Kulub_ or "Heart's Delight." (Cf. Major Sykes'

_Persia_, chap. xvi., and the _Geographical Journal_ for February, 1902, p.

166.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--A MS. treatise on precious stones cited by Ouseley mentions _Shebavek_ in Kerman as the site of a Turquoise mine. This is probably _Shahr-i-Babek_, about 100 miles west of the city of Kerman, and not far from _Parez_, where Abbott tells us there is a mine of these stones, now abandoned. Goebel, one of Khanikoff's party, found a deposit of turquoises at Taft, near Yezd. (_Ouseley's Travels_, I. 211; _J. R. G. S._ XXVI.

63-65; _Khan. Mem._ 203.)

["The province Kerman is still rich in turquoises. The mines of Pariz or Parez are at Chemen-i-mo-aspan, 16 miles from Pariz on the road to Bahramabad (princ.i.p.al place of Rafsinjan), and opposite the village or garden called G.o.d-i-Ahmer. These mines were worked up to a few years ago; the turquoises were of a pale blue. Other turquoises are found in the present Bardshir plain, and not far from Mashiz, on the slopes of the Chehel tan mountain, opposite a hill called the Bear Hill (tal-i-Khers).

The Shehr-i-Babek turquoise mines are at the small village Karik, a mile from Medvar-i-Bala, 10 miles north of Shehr-i-Babek. They have two shafts, one of which has lately been closed by an earthquake, and were worked up to about twenty years ago. At another place, 12 miles from Shehr-i-Babek, are seven old shafts now not worked for a long period. The stones of these mines are also of a very pale blue, and have no great value."

(_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. 1881, p. 491.)

The finest turquoises came from Khorasan; the mines were near Maaden, about 48 miles to the north of Nishapur. (Heyd, _Com. du Levant_, II. p.

653; Ritter, _Erdk._ pp. 325-330.)

It is noticeable that Polo does not mention indigo at Kerman.--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--Edrisi says that excellent iron was produced in the "cold mountains" N.W. of Jiruft, i.e. somewhere south of the capital; and _Jihan Numa_, or Great Turkish Geography, that the steel mines of Niriz, on the borders of Kerman, were famous. These are also spoken of by Teixeira.

Major St. John enables me to indicate their position, in the hills east of Niriz. (_Edrisi_, vol. i. p. 430; _Hammer, Mem. lur la Perse_, p. 275; _Teixeira, Relaciones_, p. 378; and see Map of Itineraries, No. II.)

["Marco Polo's steel mines are probably the Parpa iron mines on the road from Kerman to Shiraz, called even to-day M'aden-i-fulad (steel mine); they are not worked now. Old Kerman weapons, daggers, swords, old stirrups, etc., made of steel, are really beautiful, and justify Marco Polo's praise of them" (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. p. 491)--H. C.]

_Ondanique_ of the Geog. Text, _Andaine_ of Pauthier's, _Andanic.u.m_ of the Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since Ramusio's time. The latter often asked the Persian merchants who visited Venice, and they all agreed in stating that it was a sort of steel of such surpa.s.sing value and excellence, that in the days of yore a man who possessed a mirror, or sword, of _Andanic_ regarded it as he would some precious jewel. This seems to me excellent evidence, and to give the true clue to the meaning of _Ondanique_. I have retained the latter form because it points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real word, viz.

_Hundwaniy_, "Indian Steel."[1] (See _Johnson's Pers. Dict._ and _De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe_, II. 148.) In the _Vocabulista Arabico_, of about A.D. 1200 (Florence, 1871, p. 211), _Hunduwan_ is explained by _Ensis_. Vullers explains _Hundwan_ as "anything peculiar to India, especially swords," and quotes from Firdusi, "_Khanjar-i-Hundwan_," a hanger of Indian steel.

The like expression appears in the quotation from Edrisi below as _Hindiah_, and found its way into Spanish in the shapes of _Alhinde, Alfinde, Alinde_, first with the meaning of _steel_, then a.s.suming, that of _steel mirror_, and finally that of metallic foil of a gla.s.s mirror.

(See _Dozy_ and _Engelmann_, 2d ed. pp. 144-145.) _Hint_ or _Al-hint_ is used in Berber also for steel. (See _J. R. A. S._ IX. 255.)

The sword-blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times.

Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the king of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the _ferrum candidum_ of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent a 100 talents weight as a present to Alexander.[2] Indian Iron and Steel ([Greek: sidaeros Indiks ka stomoma]) are mentioned in the _Periplus_ as imports into the Abyssinian ports. _Ferrum Indic.u.m_ appears (at least according to one reading) among the Oriental _species_ subject to duty in the Law of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus on that matter. Salmasius notes that among surviving Greek chemical treatises there was one [Greek: per baphaes Indikou sidaerou], "On the Tempering of Indian Steel." Edrisi says on this subject: "The Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparation of those ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of soft Iron which is usually styled _Indian Steel_ (HINDIAH).[3] They also have workshops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world.... It is impossible to find anything to surpa.s.s the edge that you get from Indian Steel (_al-hadid al-Hindi_)."

Allusions to the famous sword-blades of India would seem to be frequent in Arabic literature. Several will be found in Hamasa's collection of ancient Arabic poems translated by Freytag. The old commentator on one of these pa.s.sages says: "_Ut optimos gladios significet_ ... Indicos _esse dixit_,"

and here the word used in the original is _Hundwaniyah_. In Manger's version of Arabshah's _Life of Timur_ are several allusions of the same kind; one, a quotation from _Antar_, recalls the _ferrum candidum_ of Curtius:

"Albi (gladii) Indici _meo in sanguine abluuntur_."

In the histories, even of the Mahomedan conquest of India, the Hindu infidels are sent to _Jihannam_ with "the well-watered blade of the Hindi sword"; or the sword is personified as "a Hindu of good family." Coming down to later days, Chardin says of the steel of Persia: "They combine it with Indian steel, which is more tractable ... and is much more esteemed."

Dupre, at the beginning of this century, tells us: "I used to believe ...

that the steel for the famous Persian sabres came from certain mines in Khorasan. But according to all the information I have obtained, I can a.s.sert that no mine of steel exists in that province. What is used for these blades comes in the shape of disks from Lah.o.r.e." Pottinger names _steel_ among the imports into Kerman from India. Elphinstone the Accurate, in his _Caubul_, confirms Dupre: "Indian Steel [in Afghanistan]

is most prized for the material; but the best swords are made in Persia and in Syria;" and in his _History of India_, he repeats: "The steel of India was in request with the ancients; it is celebrated in the oldest Persian poem, and is still the material of the scimitars of Khorasan and Damascus."[4]

Klaproth, in his _Asia Polyglotta_, gives _Andun_ as the Ossetish and _Andan_ as the Wotiak, for Steel. Possibly these are essentially the same with _Hundwaniy_ and _Alhinde_, pointing to India as the original source of supply. [In the _Sikandar Nama, e Bara_ (or "Book of Alexander the Great," written A.D. 1200, by Abu Muhammad bin Yusuf bin Mu, Ayyid-i-Nizamu-'d-Din), translated by Captain H. Wilberforce Clarke (Lond., 1881, large 8vo), steel is frequently mentioned: Canto xix. 257, p. 202; xx. 12, p. 211; xlv. 38, p. 567; lviii. 32, pp. 695, 42, pp. 697, 62, 66, pp. 699; lix. 28, p. 703.--H. C.]

Avicenna, in his fifth book _De Anima_, according to Roger Bacon, distinguishes three very different species of iron: "1st. Iron which is good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by hammer and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and anvils are made, and this is what we commonly call _Iron_ simply. 2nd. That which is purer, has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take an edge and to form cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. _Steel_. And the 3rd is that which is called ANDENA. This is less known among the Latin nations. Its special character is that like silver it is malleable and ductile under a very low degree of heat. In other properties it is intermediate between iron and steel." (_Fr. R. Baconis Opera Inedita_, 1859, pp. 382-383.) The same pa.s.sage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, but with considerable differences. (See _Speculum Naturale_, VII. ch. lii.

lx., and _Specul. Doctrinale_, XV. ch. lxiii.) The latter author writes _Alidena_, and I have not been able to refer to Avicenna, so that I am doubtful whether his _Andena_ is the same term with the _Andaine_ of Pauthier and our _Ondanique_.

The popular view, at least in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded _Steel_ as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily different _ore_, from iron; and some such view is, I suspect, still common in the East. An old Indian officer told me of the reply of a native friend to whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron into steel--"What!

You would have me believe that if I put an a.s.s into the furnace it will come forth a horse." And Indian Steel again seems to have been regarded as a distinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact made by a peculiar but simple process, by which the iron is converted _directly_ into cast-steel, without pa.s.sing through any intermediate stage a.n.a.logous to that of _blister-steel_. When specimens were first examined in England, chemists concluded that the steel was made direct from the _ore_. The _Ondanique_ of Marco no doubt was a fine steel resembling the Indian article. (_Muller's Ctesias_, p. 80; _Curtius_, IX. 24; _Muller's Geog.

Gr. Min._ I. 262; _Digest. Novum_, Lugd. 1551, Lib. x.x.xIX. t.i.t. 4; _Salmas. Ex. Plinian._ II. 763; _Edrisi_, I. 65-66; _J. R. S. A._ A. 387 seqq.; _Hamasae Carmina_, I. 526; _Elliot_, II. 209, 394; _Reynolds's Utbi_, p. 216.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Texture, with Animals, etc., from a Cashmere Scarf in the Indian Museum.

"De deverses maineres labores a bestes et ausiaus mout richement."]

NOTE 4.--Paulus Jovius in the 16th century says, I know not on what authority, that Kerman was then celebrated for the fine temper of its steel in scimitars and lance-points. These were eagerly bought at high prices by the Turks, and their quality was such that one blow of a Kerman sabre would cleave an European helmet without turning the edge. And I see that the phrase, "Kermani blade" is used in poetry by Marco's contemporary Amir Khusru of Delhi. (_P. Jov. Hist. of his own Time_, Bk. XIV.; _Elliot_, III. 537.)

There is, or was in Pottinger's time, still a great manufacture of _matchlocks_ at Kerman; but rose-water, shawls, and carpets are the staples of the place now. Polo says nothing that points to shawl-making, but it would seem from Edrisi that some such manufacture already existed in the adjoining district of Bamm. It is possible that the "hangings"

spoken of by Polo may refer to the carpets. I have seen a genuine Kerman carpet in the house of my friend, Sir Bartle Frere. It is of very short pile, very even and dense; the design, a combination of vases, birds, and floral tracery, closely resembling the illuminated frontispiece of some Persian MSS.

The shawls are inferior to those of Kashmir in exquisite softness, but scarcely in delicacy of texture and beauty of design. In 1850, their highest quality did not exceed 30 _tomans_ (14_l._) in price. About 2200 looms were employed on the fabric. A good deal of Kerman wool called _Kurk_, goes via Bandar Abbasi and Karachi to Amritsar, where it is mixed with the genuine Tibetan wool in the shawl manufacture. Several of the articles named in the text, including _pardahs_ ("cortines") are woven in shawl-fabric. I scarcely think, however, that Marco would have confounded woven shawl with needle embroidery. And Mr. Khanikoff states that the silk embroidery, of which Marco speaks, is still performed with great skill and beauty at Kerman. Our cut ill.u.s.trates the textures figured with animals, already noticed at p. 66.

The Guebers were numerous here at the end of last century, but they are rapidly disappearing now. The Musulman of Kerman is, according to Khanikoff, an epicurean gentleman, and even in regard to wine, which is strong and plentiful, his divines are liberal. "In other parts of Persia you find the scribblings on the walls of Serais to consist of philosophical axioms, texts from the Koran, or abuse of local authorities.

From Kerman to Yezd you find only rhymes in praise of fair ladies or good wine."

(_Pottinger's Travels_; _Khanik. Mem._ 186 seqq., and _Notice_, p. 21; _Major Smith's Report_; _Abbott's MS. Report_ in F. O.; _Notes by Major O.

St. John_, R.E.)

NOTE 5.--Parez is famous for its falcons still, and so are the districts of Aktur and Sirjan. Both Mr. Abbott and Major Smith were entertained with hawking by Persian hosts in this neighbourhood. The late Sir O. St. John identifies the bird described as the _Shahin_ (Falco _Peregrinator_), one variety of which, the _Farsi_, is abundant in the higher mountains of S.

Persia. It is now little used in that region, the _Terlan_ or goshawk being most valued, but a few are caught and sent for sale to the Arabs of Oman. (_J. R. G. S._ XXV. 50, 63, and _Major St. John's Notes_.)

["The fine falcons, 'with red b.r.e.a.s.t.s and swift of flight,' come from Pariz. They are, however, very scarce, two or three only being caught every year. A well-trained Pariz falcon costs from 30 to 50 tomans (12_l._ to 20_l._), as much as a good horse." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. p. 491.) Major Sykes, _Persia_, ch. xxiii., writes: "Marco Polo was evidently a keen sportsman, and his description of the _Shahin_, as it is termed, cannot be improved upon." Major Sykes has a list given him by a Khan of seven hawks of the province, all black and white, except the _Shahin_, which has yellow eyes, and is the third in the order of size.--H. C.]

NOTE 6.--We defer geographical remarks till the traveller reaches Hormuz.

[1] A learned friend objects to Johnson's _Hundwaniy_ = "Indian Steel," as too absolute; some word for _steel_ being wanted. Even if it be so, I observe that in three places where Polo uses _Ondanique_ (here, ch.

xxi., and ch. xlii.), the phrase is always "_steel and ondanique_."

This looks as if his mental expression were _Pulad-i-Hundwani_, rendered by an idiom like Virgil's _pocula et aurum_.

[2] Kenrick suggests that the "bright iron" mentioned by Ezekiel among the wares of Tyre (ch. xxvii. 19) can hardly have been anything else than Indian Steel, because named with ca.s.sia and _calamus_.

[3] Literally rendered by Mr. Redhouse: "The Indians do well the combining of mixtures of the chemicals with which they (smelt and) cast the soft iron, and it becomes _Indian_ (steel), being referred to India (in this expression)."

[4] In _Richardson's Pers. Dict._, by Johnson, we have a word _Rohan, Rohina_ (and other forms). "The finest Indian steel, of which the most excellent swords are made; also the swords made of that steel."

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE CITY OF CAMADI AND ITS RUINS; ALSO TOUCHING THE CARAUNA ROBBERS.