CHAPTER XXXIII

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(1.) “Thaures.”—Tabreez, founded by Zobeide the wife of Haroun-al-Rashid, was long distinguished for the extent of its commercial relations, in which the Genoese and Venetians took part. Although frequently pillaged at the hands of enemies, notably by Janibek in 1357, and by Toktamish in 1387, Tabreez soon recovered from its misfortunes. This capital even became the principal depôt for merchandise from India and China, after the destruction of the cities of Ourjenj and Astrahan by Timour, who established a commodious route between Tabreez and Samarkand by way of Kashin and Soultanyà. Schiltberger’s statement as to the custom’s revenue at Tabreez, will not seem exaggerated in presence of the fact, that in 1460 it amounted to 60,000 ducats. Ramusio observes that Tabreez, the great depôt, rivalled Paris in its magnificence, and in the number of its inhabitants.—BRUUN.

(1A.) Writing in 1868, Abbott (_Persian Azerbaijan_, MS.) says that Tabreez was the principal seat of commerce in all Persia, and the mart from which nearly all the northern and midland countries were supplied with the produce and manufactures of Europe, conveyed to it chiefly by land transport from the Black Sea; the yearly value was estimated at £1,750,000, the value of goods imported from England being probably three-fourths of that sum. The city contained about 3100 shops of all descriptions; thirty karavansaraïs, occupied by merchants and traders; and about forty others devoted to the accommodation of muleteers and their cattle. Abbott adds, that the commerce of Tabreez had made great advances since 1830, having increased eight-fold in 1860.—ED.

(2.) “Rei.”—After passing Teheran, upon the occasion of his journey from Soultanyà to Samarkand, Clavijo perceived, at a distance of two leagues, a great city in ruins ... “but there appeared towers and mosques, and the name of the place was Xahariprey”—Shehri-Rei, the city of Rei, “at one time the largest city in all the land”, says Khanikoff, “though it is now uninhabited”. But Rey did not remain long thus unpeopled, because the Russian merchant Nikitin (who visited India thirty years before Vasco de Gama), though leaving Teheran unnoticed, as does Schiltberger, speaks of his stay at Rey, where he witnessed the celebration of the famous Persian festival, instituted in commemoration of the death of Hussein, the son of Ali and grandson of the prophet. (_Poln. Sobr._, etc., vi, 332.)—BRUUN.

(2A.) To the above might be added the evidence of Ibn Haukal, that there was not in the eastern regions any city more flourishing. Rey was celebrated for its gates, for its many remarkable quarters and streets, its numerous bazaars, karavansaraïs, and market-places. The fine linen, camelot, and cotton manufactured at Rey, was sent to all parts of the world. Late travellers have found its site marked by hollows and mounds; mouldering towers, tombs, and wells, constructed of burnt and sun-dried materials (Ker Porter, _Travels in Georgia, Persia_, etc., 1822; Mounsey, _Journey through the Caucasus_, etc., 1872). In the 3rd century of Mahomedanism, Rey was specially noted for its wealth, and was styled, The First of Cities—The Spouse of the World—The Market of the Universe. (Chardin, _Langlès edition_, ii, 411.)—ED.

(3.) “Raphak.”—If Schiltberger’s companions, when on his journey to Rey or Rhe, were Sunnites, they probably looked upon the people of that city as apostates from the faith; for “Raphak”, therefore, we should read Raphadzhy—abjurer—a term applied to renegades. These disciples admit themselves to be Shey—partisans—whence the term Shyites, and in the present instance they were evidently called by the opprobrious name of Raphadzy, as being apostates, by those of a different sect. Ibn Batouta met at Kotaïf (Katiff of Benjamin of Tudela), on the Persian Gulf, some Arabs of the Rafiza sect, who were most enthusiastic, publishing their sentiments everywhere, and fearing no one.

There are Shyite Tatars in Transcaucasia, chiefly in the valley of the Araxes, also in the richly cultivated province of Ouroumyeh, the seat of the Christian Nestorians, where they people eight villages. These Shyites call themselves Ali Allahy—Worshippers of Ali—and are not averse to drinking wine.—ED.

(4.) “Nachson.”—Clavijo (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 80) sojourned for a time in a city which he calls Calmarin, and attributes its foundation to a son of Noah. This place was probably Sourmalou on the Araxes, taken by Timour in 1385. Tutan, the Turkoman who resided here, might have been the “Tetani, Emperor of Tartary”, who, according to Clavijo, had conquered the place, though only a viceroy. There was a Titanus, Vicarius Canlucorum, of the Genoese, in 1449; the Tautaun, Taudoun, of the Avares and Khozars. Two days before reaching Calmarin, Clavijo passed the night in a town called Naujua, where there were many Armenians, which must have been the “Nachson” of Schiltberger, now known as Nahitchevan.—BRUUN.

(5.) “Maragara.”—There are numerous remains of ancient fortifications on the heights around Meragha. In a westerly direction, at a distance of thirteen miles to the south-west of Tabreez, are the foundations of a round tower, believed to have been the celebrated observatory of Khodja Nazr uddin—defensor fidei—the friend of Houlakon, who transferred his residence to Meragha after the capture of Baghdad in 1258. To this day is shown his tomb,[1] and that of his wife Dogous or Dokouz Khatoun, the protectress of Christians, but especially of Nestorians, in whose doctrines she had great faith (Hammer, _Gesch. der Ilchane_, etc., i, 82). Shortly after her death, the patriarch, Iabellasa, agreed to recognise the supremacy of the Pope, the act having been presented to Benedict II. by a Dominican friar named Jacob. Mosheim (_Hist. Tartarorum Eccles._, 92) pronounces against the authenticity of this document, an opinion shared by Heyd (_Die Colon. der Römisch. Kirche_, etc., 322), on the grounds that it was signed at Meragha. It may, however, be contended that the patriarch might have resided for a time at Meragha, after the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols, considering that his successors had no fixed residence to 1559, in which year the patriarch Elias definitively established the seat at Mosoul; and that a tradition is preserved amongst the Nestorians or Chaldæans of Kourdistan, to the effect that their ancestors, who had resisted Timour, were domiciled between the lakes Van and Ouroumyeh.

In the early part of the 14th century, another brother preacher, Jordanus Catalani, recorded in his _Mirabilia_ (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 9), that those schismatics had adopted the Catholic faith in several cities of Persia, to wit, at Tabreez, Soultanyà, and at “Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant about two days from Tabriz”. Heyd says that this Ur cannot be Orfa, a town in central Mesopotamia, which has been identified with the Ur-Khasdim of the Arabians (Ritter, _Die Erdkunde_ etc., x, 333); but is more probably the ancient city of Maranda, not far from the lake Ouroumyeh and fifty miles only from Tabreez. But Meragha was, in like manner, at no great distance from the said lake, and only twenty-four miles, or, according to Hadjy Khalpha, seven farsangs from Tabreez; we are, therefore, justified in concluding, that it was this place the friar designated as Ur of the Chaldees, especially as it was a large city and a bishop’s see in 1320 (Galanus, _Concil. Eccl. Arm. cum Rom._, i, 508; quoted by Heyd, 324). The same cannot be said of Maranda.

Bartholomew of Bologna has given evidence of his zeal, in the fact that many of the Armenian clergy went over to the Church of Rome, and with the view of cementing this union, a new Order, “Fratres prædicatores Uniti”, was founded and affiliated to the Dominicans, whose head-centre was at Meragha. But the theory propounded by Bishop Aïvazoffsky is worthy of consideration, viz., that Ur is no other than Urmi or Ormi, a town of some size, hitherto largely inhabited by Nestorian Chaldæans, and that has given its name to the lake Ourmiah, Ormi, or Ouroumyeh. It is believed to be the birth-place of Zoroaster, who might have been mistaken for Abraham as easily as he has been for Moses.—BRUUN.

[1] Abbott says (_Persian Azerbaijan_, MS.) that the tomb of Houlakou, or its reputed site, is pointed out near the town of Meragha.—ED.

(6.) “Gelat.”—Khelat was taken in 1229 by the sultan, Jalaluddin, after a three days’ siege. Aboulfeda quotes Abou Said, who says that it rivalled Damascus. Bakui (_Not. et Extr._, ii, 513) extols Khelat for its good water, fruit, and the fish taken from the lake, especially the tamrin, possibly the dorakine found in the Kour, as related by Ystachry (_Mordtmann edition_, 1845). The numerous ruins in the neighbourhood are of the time when Akhlat was the residence of the Shahy Armen—kings of Armenia; they include those of a superb palace, of gorgeous tombs, artificial grottoes, and of a fortress on the shore of Lake Van. Khelat is now a miserable hamlet occupied by Kurds.—BRUUN.

(6A.) Khelat, Ghelath, Ashlath, was long the residence of a suffragan bishop of the Armenian Church.—ED.

(7.) “Kirna.”—On the Gharny-tchaï, a tributary of the Zenga, east of Erivan, is Gharny or Bash Gharny, now an insignificant village, but at one time a place of considerable importance. According to the old Armenian chroniclers, Kharny was founded 2000 B.C. by a prince Keghamè, who named it after himself; but the name was afterwards changed by Kharnig, the grandson of Keghamè, to Kharny. It was here that Tiridates, 286–314, constructed for his favourite sister a superb residence, to which Moses Chorensis (_Whiston edition_, 1736), the Armenian chronicler of the 5th century, thus refers: “Per id tempus Tiridates castelli Garnii ædificationem absolvit, quod quadratis et cæsis lapidibus, ferro et plumbo coagmentatis construxit, atque ibi umbraculum statuit et monumentum mirifica arte cælatum, pro sorore sua Chosroiduchta, in eoque memoriam sui græcis literis inscripsit.” This remarkable edifice is alluded to by Kiracos of Gantzac, also an Armenian chronicler, of the 13th century, as “the marvellous throne of Tiridates”, in front of the cemetery of Kharny (_Hist. d’Arménie_ trans. by M. Brosset, St. Petersburg, 1870). It is now a heap of ruins, known to the natives as Takht Dertad—Throne of Tiridates.

At a short distance above Gharny, also on the Gharny-tchaï in the Goktcha valley, is the venerable monastery of Aïrits vank, Ghergarr or Keghart, noted for its memorial inscriptions of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries (_The Crimea and Transc._, i, 211, 221).—ED.

(8.) “the priests are of the Order of Preachers, and sing in the Armenian tongue.”—What Schiltberger says with regard to “Meya”—Magou—is confirmed by Clavijo (_Hakluyt Soc. Publ._, 83). “On Sunday, the first of June, at the hour of vespers, they came to a castle called Maca, belonging to a Catholic Christian called Noradin, and the people who lived in it were Catholic Christians, though they were by birth and language Armenians, and they also knew the Tartar and Persian tongues. In this place there was a monastery of Dominican friars. The castle was in a valley, at the foot of a very high rock, and there was a village on a hill above, and on the top of the hill there was a wall of stone and mortar, with towers, and against the wall there were houses. There was also another wall with towers, and the entrance to it was by a great tower, built to guard it, along steps cut in the rocks. Near the second wall there were houses cut in the rock, and in the centre were some towers and houses, where the lord lived, and here all the people in the village kept their provisions. The rock was very high, and rose above the walls and houses; and from the rocks an overhanging part stretched out, which covers the castle, walls, and houses, like the heaven that is above them.”—BRUUN.

(8A.) Tradition asserts that Makou, Makouyeh, in the Armenian province of Artazo-Tasht, to the east of Ararat and south of the Araxes, is built over the place where St. Thaddeus suffered martyrdom. The fortress is situated in a gorge above the village (J. Saint Martin, _Mém. sur l’Arménie_, i, 135).—ED.

(9.) “Ress.”—Resht, the chief town of Ghilan, a place of great commercial importance in Schiltberger’s time, is distant six miles from the Caspian Sea. The Genoese and Venetians secured the rich produce of this province, especially the silken stuffs made there or imported from Yezd and Kashan. Marco Polo (Yule, i, 54) speaks of silk called Ghellè, after the name of the country on the Sea of Ghel or Ghelan—the Caspian.—BRUUN.

(10.) “Strawba.”—Schiltberger changes Astrabad to “Strawba”, just as his Italian contemporaries have called the place Strava, Strevi, and Istarba. Its commerce was not considerable, but Astrabad was of some importance as being the depôt for merchandise in transit across the Caspian, from India and Bokhara.—BRUUN.

(11.) “Antioch.”—Several cities of Asia were in ancient times called Antiochia. Stephen of Byzantium knew of eight, two of which, Edessa and Nisibis, were in Migdonia; and as each, in its turn, had become the foremost bulwark of Christianity, their possession was frequently disputed by the Infidels. Allusion is made in the text to Nisibis, with its ramparts of brick, rather than to Edessa, which was encircled by whitewashed walls.—BRUUN.

(12.) “Aluitza.”—If the author here alludes to the same fortress (Alindsha?) as is mentioned in