CHAPTER XVIII.
OF THE CITY OF CAMADI AND ITS RUINS; ALSO TOUCHING THE
CARAUNA ROBBERS.
After you have ridden down hill those two days, you find yourself in a
vast plain, and at the beginning thereof there is a city called CAMADI,
which formerly was a great and noble place, but now is of little
consequence, for the Tartars in their incursions have several times
ravaged it. The plain whereof I speak is a very hot region; and the
province that we now enter is called REOBARLES.
The fruits of the country are dates, pistachioes, and apples of
Paradise, with others of the like not found in our cold climate. [There
are vast numbers of turtledoves, attracted by the abundance of fruits,
but the Saracens never take them, for they hold them in abomination.]
And on this plain there is a kind of bird called francolin, but
different from the francolin of other countries, for their colour is
a mixture of black and white, and the feet and beak are vermilion
colour.{1}
The beasts also are peculiar; and first I will tell you of their oxen.
These are very large, and all over white as snow; the hair is very
short and smooth, which is owing to the heat of the country. The horns
are short and thick, not sharp in the point; and between the shoulders
they have a round hump some two palms high. There are no handsomer
creatures in the world. And when they have to be loaded, they kneel
like the camel; once the load is adjusted, they rise. Their load is a
heavy one, for they are very strong animals. Then there are sheep here
as big as asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail
shall weigh some 30 lbs. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital
mutton.{2}
In this plain there are a number of villages and towns which have
lofty walls of mud, made as a defence against the banditti,{3} who are
very numerous, and are called CARAONAS. This name is given them because
they are the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers. And you must
know that when these Caraonas wish to make a plundering incursion, they
have certain devilish enchantments whereby they do bring darkness over
the face of day, insomuch that you can scarcely discern your comrade
riding beside you; and this darkness they will cause to extend over a
space of seven days’ journey. They know the country thoroughly, and
ride abreast, keeping near one another, sometimes to the number of
10,000, at other times more or fewer. In this way they extend across
the whole plain that they are going to harry, and catch every living
thing that is found outside of the towns and villages; man, woman, or
beast, nothing can escape them! The old men whom they take in this way
they butcher; the young men and the women they sell for slaves in other
countries; thus the whole land is ruined, and has become well-nigh a
desert.
The King of these scoundrels is called NOGODAR. This Nogodar had gone
to the Court of Chagatai, who was own brother to the Great Kaan, with
some 10,000 horsemen of his, and abode with him; for Chagatai was
his uncle. And whilst there this Nogodar devised a most audacious
enterprise, and I will tell you what it was. He left his uncle who
was then in Greater Armenia, and fled with a great body of horsemen,
cruel unscrupulous fellows, first through BADASHAN, and then through
another province called PASHAI-DIR, and then through another called
ARIORA-KESHEMUR. There he lost a great number of his people and of
his horses, for the roads were very narrow and perilous. And when he
had conquered all those provinces, he entered India at the extremity
of a province called DALIVAR. He established himself in that city and
government, which he took from the King of the country, ASEDIN SOLDAN
by name, a man of great power and wealth. And there abideth Nogodar
with his army, afraid of nobody, and waging war with all the Tartars in
his neighbourhood.{4}
Now that I have told you of those scoundrels and their history, I
must add the fact that Messer Marco himself was all but caught by
their bands in such a darkness as that I have told you of; but, as it
pleased God, he got off and threw himself into a village that was hard
by, called CONOSALMI. Howbeit he lost his whole company except seven
persons who escaped along with him. The rest were caught, and some of
them sold, some put to death.{5}
NOTE 1.—Ramusio has “Adam’s apple” for apples of Paradise. This was
some kind of _Citrus_, though Lindley thinks it impossible to say
precisely what. According to Jacques de Vitry it was a beautiful
fruit of the Citron kind, in which the bite of human teeth was
plainly discernible. (Note to _Vulgar Errors_, II. 211; _Bongars_,
I. 1099.) Mr. Abbott speaks of this tract as “the districts (of
Kermán) lying towards the South, which are termed the Ghermseer
or Hot Region, where the temperature of winter resembles that of
a charming spring, and where the palm, orange, and lemon-tree
flourish.” (_MS. Report_; see also _J. R. G. S._ XXV. 56.)
[“Marco Polo’s apples of Paradise are more probably the fruits of
the Konár tree. There are no plantains in that part of the country.
Turtle doves, now as then, are plentiful, and as they are seldom
shot, and are said by the people to be unwholesome food, we can
understand Marco Polo’s saying that the people do not eat them.”
(_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ pp. 492–493.)—H. C.]
The Francolin here spoken of is, as Major Smith tells me, the
_Darráj_ of the Persians, the _Black Partridge_ of English
sportsmen, sometimes called the Red-legged Francolin. The Darráj
is found in some parts of Egypt, where its peculiar call is
interpreted by the peasantry into certain Arabic words, meaning
“Sweet are the corn-ears! Praised be the Lord!” In India, Baber
tells us, the call of the Black Partridge was (less piously)
rendered “_Shír dáram shakrak_,” “I’ve got milk and sugar!” The
bird seems to be the ἀτταγὰς of Athenaeus, a fowl “speckled like
the partridge, but larger,” found in Egypt and Lydia. The Greek
version of its cry is the best of all: “τρìς τοῖς κακούργοις κακά”
(“Threefold ills to the ill-doers!”). This is really like the
call of the black partridge in India as I recollect it. [_Tetrao
francolinus_.—H. C.]
(_Chrestomathie Arabe_, II. 295; _Baber_, 320; _Yonge’s Atken._ IX.
39.)
NOTE 2.—Abbott mentions the humped (though small) oxen in this part
of Persia, and that in some of the neighbouring districts they are
taught to kneel to receive the load, an accomplishment which seems
to have struck Mas’udi (III. 27), who says he saw it exhibited by
oxen at Rai (near modern Tehran). The Aín Akbari also ascribes it
to a very fine breed in Bengal. The whimsical name _Zebu_, given to
the humped or Indian ox in books of Zoology, was taken by Buffon
from the exhibitors of such a beast at a French Fair, who probably
invented it. That the humped breeds of oxen existed in this part of
Asia in ancient times is shown by sculptures at Kouyunjik. (See cut
below.)
A letter from Agassiz, printed in the Proc. As. Soc. Bengal (1865),
refers to wild “zebus,” and calls the species a small one. There is
no wild “zebu,” and some of the breeds are of enormous size.
[“White oxen, with short thick horns and a round hump between the
shoulders, are now very rare between Kermán and Bender ’Abbás. They
are, however, still to be found towards Belúchistán and Mekrán,
and they kneel to be loaded like camels. The sheep which I saw had
fine large tails; I did not, however, hear of any having so high a
weight as thirty pounds.” (_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ p. 493.)—H. C.]
The fat-tailed sheep is well known in many parts of Asia and part
of Africa. It is mentioned by Ctesias, and by Ælian, who says
the shepherds used to extract the tallow from the live animal,
sewing up the tail again; exactly the same story is told by the
Chinese Pliny, Ma Twan-lin. Marco’s statements as to size do not
surpass those of the admirable Kämpfer: “In size they so much
surpass the common sheep that it is not unusual to see them as
tall as a donkey, whilst all are much more than three feet; and
as to the tail I shall not exceed the truth, though I may exceed
belief, if I say that it sometimes reaches 40 lbs. in weight.”
Captain Hutton was assured by an Afghan sheep-master that tails
had occurred in his flocks weighing 12 Tabriz _mans_, upwards of
76 lbs.! The Afghans use the fat as an aperient, swallowing a
dose of 4 to 6 lbs! Captain Hutton’s friend testified that trucks
to bear the sheep-tails were sometimes used among the Taimúnis
(north of Herat). This may help to locate that ancient and slippery
story. Josafat Barbaro says he had seen the thing, but is vague
as to place. (_Ælian Nat. An._ III. 3, IV. 32; _Amoen. Exoticae;
Ferrier_, H. of Afghans, p. 294; _J. A. S._ B. XV. 160.)
[Illustration: Humped Oxen from the Assyrian Sculptures at
Koyunjik.]
[Rabelais says (Bk. I. ch. xvi.): “Si de ce vous efmerveillez,
efmerveillez vous d’advantage de la queue des béliers de la
Scythie, qui pesait plus de trente livres; et des moutons de Surie,
esquels fault (si Tenaud, dict vray) affuster une charrette au cul,
pour la porter tant qu’elle est longue et pesante.” (See G. Capus,
_A travers le roy. de Tamerlan_, pp. 21–23, on the fat sheep.)—H. C.]
NOTE 3.—The word rendered _banditti_ is in Pauthier _Carans_, in G.
Text _Caraunes_, in the Latin “_a_ scaranis _et malandrinis_.” The
last is no doubt correct, standing for the old Italian _Scherani_,
bandits. (See _Cathay_, p. 287, note.)
NOTE 4.—This is a knotty subject, and needs a long note.
The ḲARAUNAHS are mentioned often in the histories of the Mongol
regime in Persia, first as a Mongol tribe forming a _Tuman_, _i.e._
a division or corps of 10,000 in the Mongol army (and I suspect it
was the phrase the _Tuman of the Ḳaraunahs_ in Marco’s mind that
suggested his repeated use of the number 10,000 in speaking of
them); and afterwards as daring and savage freebooters, scouring
the Persian provinces, and having their headquarters on the Eastern
frontiers of Persia. They are described as having had their
original seats on the mountains north of the Chinese wall near
_Ḳaraún Jidun_ or _Khidun_; and their special accomplishment in war
was the use of Naphtha Fire. Rashiduddin mentions the _Ḳaránut_ as
a branch of the great Mongol tribe of the Kunguráts, who certainly
had their seat in the vicinity named, so these may possibly be
connected with the Ḳaraunahs. The same author says that the Tuman
of the Ḳaraunahs formed the _Injú_ or _peculium_ of Arghún Khan.
Wassáf calls them “a kind of goblins rather than human beings, the
most daring of all the Mongols”; and Mirkhond speaks in like terms.
Dr. Bird of Bombay, in discussing some of the Indo-Scythic coins
which bear the word _Korano_ attached to the prince’s name,
asserts this to stand for the name of the Ḳaraunah, “who were
a Græco-Indo-Scythic tribe of robbers in the Punjab, who are
mentioned by Marco Polo,” a somewhat hasty conclusion which
Pauthier adopts. There is, Quatremère observes, no mention of the
Ḳaraunahs before the Mongol invasion, and this he regards as the
great obstacle to any supposition of their having been a people
previously settled in Persia. Reiske, indeed, with no reference
to the present subject, quotes a passage from Hamza of Ispahan, a
writer of the 10th century, in which mention is made of certain
troops called _Ḳaráunahs_. But it seems certain that in this and
other like cases the real reading was _Kazáwinah_, people of
Kazvin. (See _Reiske’s Constant. Porphyrog._ Bonn. ed. II. 674;
_Gottwaldt’s Hamza Ispahanensis_, p. 161; and _Quatremère_ in _J.
A._ sér. V. tom. xv. 173.) Ibn Batuta only once mentions the name,
saying that Tughlak Sháh of Dehli was “one of those Turks called
_Ḳaráunas_ who dwell in the mountains between Sind and Turkestan.”
Hammer has suggested the derivation of the word _Carbine_ from
_Karáwinah_ (as he writes), and a link in such an etymology is
perhaps furnished by the fact that in the 16th century the word
_Carbine_ was used for some kind of irregular horseman.
(_Gold. Horde_, 214; _Ilch._ I. 17, 344, etc.; _Erdmann_, 168,
199, etc.; _J. A. S._ B. X. 96; _Q. R._ 130; _Not. et Ext._ XIV.
282; _I. B._ III. 201; _Ed. Webbe, his Travailes_, p. 17, 1590.
Reprinted 1868.)
As regards the account given by Marco of the origin of the
Caraonas, it seems almost necessarily a mistaken one. As Khanikoff
remarks, he might have confounded them with the Biluchis, whose
Turanian aspect (at least as regards the Brahuis) shows a strong
infusion of Turki blood, and who might be rudely described as
a cross between Tartars and Indians. It is indeed an odd fact
that the word _Karáni_ (vulgo _Cranny_) is commonly applied in
India at this day to the mixed race sprung from European fathers
and Native mothers, and this might be cited in corroboration of
Marsden’s reference to the Sanskrit _Karana_, but I suspect the
coincidence arises in another way. _Karana_ is the name applied
to a particular class of mixt blood, whose special occupation was
writing and accounts. But the prior sense of the word seems to have
been “clever, skilled,” and hence a writer or scribe. In this sense
we find _Karáni_ applied in Ibn Batuta’s day to a ship’s clerk,
and it is used in the same sense in the _Aín Akbari_. Clerkship is
also the predominant occupation of the East-Indians, and hence the
term Karáni is applied to them from their business, and not from
their mixt blood. We shall see hereafter that there is a Tartar
term _Arghún_, applied to fair children born of a Mongol mother
and _white_ father; it is possible that there may have been a
correlative word like _Ḳaráun_ (from _Ḳará_, black) applied to dark
children born of Mongol father and black mother, and that this led
Marco to a false theory.
[Major Sykes (_Persia_) devotes a chapter (xxiv.) to _The Karwán
Expedition_ in which he says: “Is it not possible that the Karwánis
are the Caraonas of Marco Polo? They are distinct from the
surrounding Baluchis, and pay no tribute.”—H. C.]
[Illustration: Portrait of a Hazára.]
Let us turn now to the name of Nogodar. Contemporaneously with the
Ḳaraunahs we have frequent mention of predatory bands known as
_Nigúdaris_, who seem to be distinguished from the Ḳaraunahs, but
had a like character for truculence. Their headquarters were about
Sijistán, and Quatremère seems disposed to look upon them as a
tribe indigenous in that quarter. Hammer says they were originally
the troops of Prince Nigudar, grandson of Chaghatai, and that they
were a rabble of all sorts, Mongols, Turkmans, Kurds, Shúls, and
what not. We hear of their revolts and disorders down to 1319,
under which date Mirkhond says that there had been one-and-twenty
fights with them in four years. Again we hear of them in 1336 about
Herat, whilst in Baber’s time they turn up as _Nukdari_, fairly
established as tribes in the mountainous tracts of Karnúd and Ghúr,
west of Kabul, and coupled with the Hazáras, who still survive
both in name and character. “Among both,” says Baber, “there are
some who speak the Mongol language.” Hazáras and _Takdaris_ (read
_Nukdaris_) again occur coupled in the _History of Sind_. (See
_Elliot_, I. 303–304.) [On the struggle against Timur of Toumen,
veteran chief of the Nikoudrians (1383–84), see Major David Price’s
_Mahommedan History_, London, 1821, vol. iii. pp. 47–49, H. C.]
In maps of the 17th century, as of Hondius and Blaeuw, we find
the mountains north of Kabul termed _Nochdarizari_, in which we
cannot miss the combination Nigudar-Hazárah, whencesoever it was
got. The Hazáras are eminently Mongol in feature to this day,
and it is very probable that they or some part of them are the
descendants of the Ḳaráunahs or the Nigudaris, or of both, and that
the origination of the bands so called, from the scum of the Mongol
inundation, is thus in degree confirmed. The Hazáras generally are
said to speak an old dialect of Persian. But one tribe in Western
Afghanistan retains both the name of Mongols and a language of
which six-sevenths (judging from a vocabulary published by Major
Leech) appear to be Mongol. Leech says, too, that the Hazáras
generally are termed _Moghals_ by the Ghilzais. It is worthy of
notice that Abu’l Fázl, who also mentions the Nukdaris among the
nomad tribes of Kabul, says the Hazáras were the remains of the
Chaghataian army which Mangu Kaan sent to the aid of Hulaku, under
the command of Nigudar Oghlan. (_Not. et Ext._ XIV. 284; _Ilch._ I.
284, 309, etc,; _Baber_, 134, 136, 140; _J. As._ sér. IV. tom. iv.
98; _Ayeen Akbery_, II. 192–193.)
So far, excepting as to the doubtful point of the relation between
Ḳaráunahs and Nigudaris, and as to the origin of the former, we
have a general accordance with Polo’s representations. But it
is not very easy to identify with certainty the inroad on India
to which he alludes, or the person intended by Nogodar, nephew
of Chaghatai. It seems as if two persons of that name had each
contributed something to Marco’s history.
We find in Hammer and D’Ohsson that one of the causes which led
to the war between Barka Khan and Hulaku in 1262 (see above,
_Prologue_, ch. ii.) was the violent end that had befallen three
princes of the House of Juji, who had accompanied Hulaku to Persia
in command of the contingent of that House. When war actually
broke out, the contingent made their escape from Persia. One party
gained Kipchak by way of Derbend; another, in greater force, led
by NIGUDAR and Onguja, escaped to Khorasan, pursued by the troops
of Hulaku, and thence eastward, where they seized upon Ghazni and
other districts bordering on India.
But again: Nigudar Aghul, or Oghlan, son of (the younger) Juji, son
of _Chaghatai_, was the leader of the Chaghataian contingent in
Hulaku’s expedition, and was still attached to the Mongol-Persian
army in 1269, when Borrak Khan, of the House of Chaghatai, was
meditating war against his kinsman, Abaka of Persia. Borrak sent to
the latter an ambassador, who was the bearer of a secret message to
Prince Nigudar, begging him not to serve against the head of his
own House. Nigudar, upon this, made a pretext of retiring to his
own headquarters in _Georgia_, hoping to reach Borrak’s camp by
way of Derbend. He was, however, intercepted, and lost many of his
people. With 1000 horse he took refuge in Georgia, but was refused
an asylum, and was eventually captured by Abaka’s commander on that
frontier. His officers were executed, his troops dispersed among
Abaka’s army, and his own life spared under surveillance. I find
no more about him. In 1278 Hammer speaks of him as dead, and of
the Nigudarian bands as having been formed out of his troops. But
authority is not given.
The second Nigudar is evidently the one to whom Abu’l Fázl alludes.
Khanikoff assumes that the Nigudar who went off towards India
about 1260 (he puts the date earlier) was Nigudar, the grandson of
Chaghatai, but he takes no notice of the second story just quoted.
In the former story we have bands under _Nigudar_ going off by
Ghazni, _and conquering country on the Indian frontier_. In the
latter we have _Nigudar, a descendant of Chaghatai_, trying to
escape from his camp _on the frontier of Great Armenia_. Supposing
the Persian historians to be correct, it looks as if Marco had
rolled two stories into one.
Some other passages may be cited before quitting this part of
the subject. A chronicle of Herat, translated by Barbier de
Meynard, says, under 1298: “The King Fakhruddin (of Herat) had the
imprudence to authorise _the Amir Nigudar_ to establish himself
in a quarter of the city, with 300 adventurers from ’Irák. This
little troop made frequent raids in Kuhistan, Sijistan, Farrah,
etc., spreading terror. Khodabanda, at the request of his brother
Ghazan Khan, came from Mazanderan to demand the immediate surrender
of these brigands,” etc. And in the account of the tremendous
foray of the Chaghataian Prince Kotlogh Shah, on the east and south
of Persia in 1299, we find one of his captains called _Nigudar_
Bahadur. (_Gold. Horde_, 146, 157, 164; _D’Ohsson_, IV. 378 _seqq._,
433 _seqq._, 513 _seqq._; _Ilch._ I. 216, 261, 284; II. 104; _J. A._
sér. V. tom. xvii. 455–456, 507; _Khan. Notice_, 31.)
As regards the route taken by Prince Nogodar in his incursion into
India, we have no difficulty with BADAKHSHAN. PASHAI-DIR is a
copulate name; the former part, as we shall see reason to believe
hereafter, representing the country between the Hindu Kush and
the Kabul River (see _infra_, ch. xxx.); the latter (as Pauthier
already has pointed out), DIR, the chief town of Panjkora, in the
hill country north of Peshawar. In _Ariora-Keshemur_ the first
portion only is perplexing. I will mention the most probable of
the solutions that have occurred to me, and a second, due to
that eminent archæologist, General A. Cunningham. (1) _Ariora_
may be some corrupt or Mongol form of _Aryavartta_, a sacred
name applied to the Holy Lands of Indian Buddhism, of which
Kashmir was eminently one to the Northern Buddhists. _Oron_, in
Mongol, is a Region or Realm, and may have taken the place of
_Vartta_, giving _Aryoron_ or Ariora. (2) “_Ariora_,” General
Cunningham writes, “I take to be the _Harhaura_ of Sanscrit—_i.e._
the Western Panjáb. Harhaura was the North-Western Division of
the _Nava-Khanda_, or Nine Divisions of Ancient India. It is
mentioned between _Sindhu-Sauvira_ in the west (_i.e._ Sind), and
_Madra_ in the north (_i.e._the Eastern Panjáb, which is still
called _Madar-Des_). The name of Harhaura is, I think, preserved
in the Haro River. Now, the Sind-Sagor Doab formed a portion
of the kingdom of Kashmir, and the joint names, like those of
Sindhu-Sauvira, describe only one State.” The names of the Nine
Divisions in question are given by the celebrated astronomer,
Varaha Mihira, who lived in the beginning of the 6th century, and
are repeated by Al Biruni. (See _Reinaud, Mém. sur l’Inde_, p.
116.) The only objection to this happy solution seems to lie in
Al Biruni’s remark, that the names in question were in general no
longer used even in his time (A.D. 1030).
There can be no doubt that _Asidin Soldan_ is, as Khanikoff has
said, Ghaiassuddin Balban, Sultan of Delhi from 1266 to 1286, and
for years before that a man of great power in India, and especially
in the Panjáb, of which he had in the reign of Ruknuddin (1236)
held independent possession.
Firishta records several inroads of Mongols in the Panjáb during
the reign of Ghaiassuddin, in withstanding one of which that
King’s eldest son was slain; and there are constant indications of
their presence in Sind till the end of the century. But we find
in that historian no hint of the chief circumstances of this part
of the story, viz., the conquest of Kashmir and the occupation of
_Dalivar_ or _Dilivar_ (G. T.), evidently (whatever its identity)
in the plains of India. I do find, however, in the history of
Kashmir, as given by Lassen (III. 1138), that in the end of
1259, Lakshamana Deva, King of Kashmir, was killed in a campaign
against the _Turushka_ (Turks or Tartars), and that their leader,
who is called Kajjala, got hold of the country and held it till
1287.[1] It is difficult not to connect this both with Polo’s story
and with the escapade of Nigudar about 1260, noting also that
this occupation of Kashmir extended through the whole reign of
Ghaiassuddin.
We seem to have a memory of Polo’s story preserved in one of
Elliot’s extracts from Wassáf, which states that in 708 (A.D.
1308), after a great defeat of a Mongol inroad which had passed the
Ganges, Sultan Ala’uddin Khilji ordered a pillar of Mongol heads to
be raised before the Badáun gate, “_as was done with the_ Nigudari
_Moghuls_” (III. 48).
We still have to account for the occupation and locality of
_Dalivar_; Marsden supposed it to be _Lahore_; Khanikoff considers
it to be _Diráwal_, the ancient desert capital of the Bhattis,
properly (according to Tod) _Deoráwal_, but by a transposition
common in India, as it is in Italy, sometimes called _Diláwar_,
in the modern State of Bháwalpúr. But General Cunningham
suggests a more probable locality in DILÁWAR on the west bank
of the Jelam, close to Dárápúr, and opposite to Mung. These two
sites, Diláwar-Dárápúr on the west bank, and Mung on the east,
are identified by General Cunningham (I believe justly) with
Alexander’s Bucephala and Nicaea. The spot, which is just opposite
the battlefield of Chiliánwála, was visited (15th December, 1868)
at my request, by my friend Colonel R. Maclagan, R.E. He writes:
“The present village of Diláwar stands a little above the town of
Dárápúr (I mean on higher ground), looking down on Dárápúr and on
the river, and on the cultivated and wooded plain along the river
bank. The remains of the Old Diláwar, in the form of quantities
of large bricks, cover the low round-backed spurs and knolls of
the broken rocky hills around the present village, but principally
on the land side. They cover a large area of very irregular
character, and may clearly be held to represent a very considerable
town. There are no indications of the form of buildings, ... but
simply large quantities of large bricks, which for a long time
have been carried away and used for modern buildings.... After
rain coins are found on the surface.... There can be no doubt of
a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and uninviting
character, having been covered at some time with buildings. The
position on the Jelam would answer well for the Diláwar which the
Mongol invaders took and held.... The strange thing is that the
name should not be mentioned (I believe it is not) by any of the
well-known Mahomedan historians of India. So much for Diláwar....
The people have no traditions. But there are the remains; and
there is the name, borne by the existing village on part of the
old site.” I had come to the conclusion that this was almost
certainly Polo’s Dalivar, and had mapped it as such, before I
read certain passages in the _History of Zíyáuddín Barni_, which
have been translated by Professor Dowson for the third volume of
Elliot’s _India_. When the comrades of Ghaiassuddin Balban urged
him to conquests, the Sultan pointed to the constant danger from
the Mongols,[2] saying: “These accursed wretches have heard of
the wealth and condition of Hindustan, and have set their hearts
upon conquering and plundering it. _They have taken and plundered
Lahor within my territories, and no year passes that they do not
come here and plunder the villages_.... They even talk about the
conquest and sack of Delhi.” And under a later date the historian
says: “The Sultan ... marched to Lahor, and ordered the rebuilding
of the fort which the Mughals had destroyed in the reigns of the
sons of Shamsuddin. The towns and villages of Lahor which the
Mughals had devastated and laid waste he repeopled.” Considering
these passages, and the fact that Polo had no personal knowledge of
Upper India, I now think it probable that Marsden was right, and
that _Dilivar_ is really a misunderstanding of “_Città_ di Livar”
for _Lahàwar_ or Lahore.
The _Magical darkness_ which Marco ascribes to the evil arts of
the Karaunas is explained by Khanikoff from the phenomenon of _Dry
Fog_, which he has often experienced in Khorasan, combined with the
_Dust Storm_ with which we are familiar in Upper India. In Sind
these phenomena often produce a great degree of darkness. During a
battle fought between the armies of Sindh and Kachh in 1762, such a
fog came on, obscuring the light of day for some six hours, during
which the armies were intermixed with one another and fighting
desperately. When the darkness dispersed they separated, and the
consternation of both parties was so great at the events of the day
that both made a precipitate retreat. In 1844 this battle was still
spoken of with wonder. (_J. Bomb. Br. R. A. S._ I. 423.)
Major St. John has given a note on his own experience of these
curious Kermán fogs (see _Ocean Highways_, 1872, p. 286): “Not a
breath of air was stirring, and the whole effect was most curious,
and utterly unlike any other fog I have seen. No deposit of
dust followed, and the feeling of the air was decidedly damp. I
unfortunately could not get my hygrometer till the fog had cleared
away.”
[_General Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ p. 493, writes: “The magical
darkness might, as Colonel Yule supposes, be explained by
the curious dry fogs or dust storms, often occurring in the
neighbourhood of Kermán, but it must be remarked that Marco Polo
was caught in one of these storms down in Jíruft, where, according
to the people I questioned, such storms now never occur. On the
29th of September, 1879, at Kermán, a high wind began to blow from
S.S.W. at about 5 P.M. First there came thick heavy clouds of dust
with a few drops of rain. The heavy dust then settled down, the
lighter particles remained in the air, forming a dry fog of such
density that large objects, like houses, trees, etc., could not
even faintly be distinguished at a distance of a hundred paces. The
barometers suffered no change, the three I had with me remained
in _statu quo_.” “The heat is over by the middle of September,
and after the autumnal equinox, there are a few days of what is
best described as a dense dry fog. This was undoubtedly the haze
referred to by Marco Polo.” (_Major Sykes_, ch. iv.)—H. C.]
Richthofen’s remarkable exposition of the phenomena of the _löss_
in North China, and of the sub-aerial deposits of the steppes and
of Central Asia throws some light on this. But this hardly applies
to St John’s experience of “no deposit of dust.” (See Richthofen,
_China_, pp. 96–97 s. _MS. Note_, H. Y.)
The belief that such opportune phenomena were produced by
enchantment was a thoroughly Tartar one. D’Herbelot relates (art.
_Giagathai_) that in an action with a rebel called Mahomed Tarabi,
the Mongols were encompassed by a dust storm which they attributed
to enchantment on the part of the enemy, and it so discouraged them
that they took to flight.
NOTE 5.—The specification that only _seven_ were saved from Marco’s
company is peculiar to Pauthier’s Text, not appearing in the G. T.
Several names compounded of _Salm_ or _Salmi_ occur on the dry
lands on the borders of Kermán. Edrisi, however (I. p. 428), names
a place called ḲANÁT-UL-SHÁM as the first march in going from
Jíruft to Walashjird. Walashjird is, I imagine, represented by
_Galashkird_, Major R. Smith’s third march from Jíruft (see my Map
of Routes from Kermán to Hormuz); and as such an indication agrees
with the view taken below of Polo’s route, I am strongly disposed
to identify Ḳanát-ul-Shám with his _castello_ or walled village of
_Canosalmi_.
[“Marco Polo’s Conosalmi, where he was attacked by robbers and lost
the greater part of his men, is perhaps the ruined town or village
Kamasal (Kahn-i-asal = the honey canal), near Kahnúj-i-pancheh
and Vakílábád in Jíruft. It lies on the direct road between
Shehr-i-Daqíánús (Camadi) and the Nevergún Pass. The road goes in
an almost due southerly direction. The Nevergún Pass accords with
Marco Polo’s description of it; it is very difficult, on account
of the many great blocks of sandstone scattered upon it. Its
proximity to the Bashakird mountains and Mekrán easily accounts for
the prevalence of robbers, who infested the place in Marco Polo’s
time. At the end of the Pass lies the large village Shamíl, with
an old fort; the distance thence to the site of Hormúz or Bender
’Abbás (lying more to the west) is 52 miles, two days’ march. The
climate of Bender ’Abbás is very bad, strangers speedily fall sick,
two of my men died there, all the others were seriously ill.”
(_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ pp. 495–496.) Major Sykes (ch. xxiii.)
says: “Two marches from Camadi was Kahn-i-Panchur, and a stage
beyond it lay the ruins of Fariáb or Pariáb, which was once a great
city, and was destroyed by a flood, according to local legend.
It may have been Alexander’s Salmous, as it is about the right
distance from the coast, and if so, could not have been Marco’s
_Cono Salmi_. Continuing on, Galashkird mentioned by Edrisi, is the
next stage.”—H. C.]
The raids of the Mekranis and Biluchis long preceded those of the
Karaunas, for they were notable even in the time of Mahmud of
Ghazni, and they have continued to our own day to be prosecuted
nearly on the same stage and in the same manner. About 1721, 4000
horsemen of this description plundered the town of Bander Abbási,
whilst Captain Alex. Hamilton was in the port; and Abbott, in 1850,
found the dread of Bilúch robbers to extend almost to the gates
of Ispahan. A striking account of the Bilúch robbers and their
characteristics is given by General Ferrier. (See _Hamilton_, I.
109; _J. R. G. S._ XXV.; _Khanikoff’s Mémoire; Macd. Kinneir_, 196;
_Caravan Journeys_, p. 437 seq.)
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[1] _Khajlak_ is mentioned as a leader of the Mongol raids in India by
the poet Amir Khusrú (A.D. 1289; see _Elliot_ III. 527).
[2] Professor Cowell compares the Mongol inroads in the latter part
of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century, in their incessant
recurrence, to the incursions of the Danes in England. A passage
in Wassáf (_Elliot_, III. 38) shows that the Mongols were, _circa_
1254–55, already in occupation of Sodra on the Chenab, and districts
adjoining.