CHAPTER XI.
OF THE NOBLE CITY OF TAURIS.
Tauris is a great and noble city, situated in a great province called
YRAC, in which are many other towns and villages. But as Tauris is the
most noble I will tell you about it.{1}
The men of Tauris get their living by trade and handicrafts, for they
weave many kinds of beautiful and valuable stuffs of silk and gold.
The city has such a good position that merchandize is brought thither
from India, Baudas, CREMESOR,{2} and many other regions; and that
attracts many Latin merchants, especially Genoese, to buy goods and
transact other business there; the more as it is also a great market
for precious stones. It is a city in fact where merchants make large
profits.{3}
The people of the place are themselves poor creatures; and are a
great medley of different classes. There are Armenians, Nestorians,
Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and finally the natives of the city
themselves, who are worshippers of Mahommet. These last are a very evil
generation; they are known as TAURIZI.{4} The city is all girt round
with charming gardens, full of many varieties of large and excellent
fruits.{5}
Now we will quit Tauris, and speak of the great country of Persia.
[From Tauris to Persia is a journey of twelve days.]
NOTE 1.—Abulfeda notices that TABRÍZ was vulgarly pronounced
_Tauriz_, and this appears to have been adopted by the Franks. In
Pegolotti the name is always _Torissi_.
Tabriz is often reckoned to belong to Armenia, as by Hayton.
Properly it is the chief city of _Azerbaiján_, which never was
included in ’IRÁK. But it may be observed that Ibn Batuta generally
calls the Mongol Ilkhan of Persia _Sáhib_ or _Malik ul-’Irák_, and
as Tabriz was the capital of that sovereign, we can account for
the mistake, whilst admitting it to be one. [The destruction of
Baghdad by Hulaku made Tabriz the great commercial and political
city of Asia, and diverted the route of Indian products from the
Mediterranean to the Euxine. It was the route to the Persian Gulf
by Kashan, Yezd, and Kermán, to the Mediterranean by Lajazzo, and
later on by Aleppo,—and to the Euxine by Trebizond. The destruction
of the Kingdom of Armenia closed to Europeans the route of
Tauris.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—_Cremesor_, as Baldelli points out, is GARMSIR, meaning a
hot region, a term which in Persia has acquired several specific
applications, and especially indicates the coast-country on the
N.E. side of the Persian Gulf, including Hormuz and the ports in
that quarter.
NOTE 3.—[Of the Italians established at Tabriz, the first whose
name is mentioned is the Venetian Pietro Viglioni (Vioni); his
will, dated 10th December, 1264, is still in existence. (_Archiv.
Venet._ XXVI. pp. 161–165; _Heyd_, French Ed., II. p. 110.)—H. C.]
At a later date (1341) the Genoese had a factory at Tabriz headed
by a consul with a council of twenty-four merchants, and in 1320
there is evidence of a Venetian settlement there. (_Elie de la
Prim_, 161; _Heyd_, II. 82.)
Rashiduddin says of Tabriz that there were gathered there under the
eyes of the Padishah of Islam “philosophers, astronomers, scholars,
historians, of all religions, of all sects; people of Cathay, of
Máchín, of India, of Kashmir, of Tibet, of the Uighúr and other
Turkish nations, Arabs and Franks.” Ibn Batuta: “I traversed the
bazaar of the jewellers, and my eyes were dazzled by the varieties
of precious stones which I beheld. Handsome slaves, superbly
dressed, and girdled with silk, offered their gems for sale to the
Tartar ladies, who bought great numbers. [Odoric (ed. Cordier)
speaks also of the great trade of Tabriz.] Tabriz maintained a
large population and prosperity down to the 17th century, as may be
seen in Chardin. It is now greatly fallen, though still a place of
importance.” (_Quat. Rash._, p. 39; _I. B._ II. 130.)
[Illustration: Ghazan Khan’s Mosque at Tabriz.—(From Fergusson.)]
NOTE 4.—In Pauthier’s text this is _Touzi_, a mere clerical error,
I doubt not for _Torizi_, in accordance with the G. Text (“_le
peuple de la cité que sunt apelés_ Tauriz”), with the Latin, and
with Ramusio. All that he means to say is that the people are
called _Tabrízís_. Not recondite information, but ’tis his way.
Just so he tells us in ch. iii. that the people of Hermenia are
called Hermins, and elsewhere that the people of Tebet are called
Tebet. So Hayton thinks it not inappropriate to say that the people
of Catay are called Cataini, that the people of Corasmia are called
Corasmins, and that the people of the cities of Persia are called
Persians.
NOTE 5.—Hamd Allah Mastaufi, the Geographer, not long after Polo’s
time, gives an account of Tabriz, quoted in Barbier de Meynard’s
_Dict. de la Perse_, p. 132. This also notices the extensive
gardens round the city, the great abundance and cheapness of
fruits, the vanity, insolence, and faithlessness of the Tabrízís,
etc. (p. 132 _seqq._). Our cut shows a relic of the Mongol Dynasty
at Tabriz.