National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0510 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 510 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000042
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

             

23G   LETTERS AND REPORTS

priests. And guided by the teaching of the Holy Ghost I disputed with them in that same place before the mosque, on theology, and regarding their false Alchoran and its doctrine, for five-and-twenty days ; and in fact I was barely able once a-day to snatch a meal of bread and water.

But by the grace of God the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was disclosed and preached to them, and at last even they, in spite of their reluctance, had to admit its truth ; and, thanks be unto the Almighty God, I carried off the victory on all points, to the praise and honour of Jesus Christ and of Holy Mother Church. And then these children of the devil tried to tempt and pervert me with bribes, promising me wives and hand-maidens, gold and silver and lands, horses and cattle, and other delights of this world. But when in every way I rejected all their promises with scorn, then for two days together they pelted me with stones, besides putting fire to my face and my feet, plucking out my beard, and heaping upon me for a length of time all kinds of insult and abuse. The Blessed God, through whom poor I am able to rejoice and exult in the Lord Jesus Christ, knoweth that 'tis by his marvellous compassion alone I have been judged worthy to bear such things for his name.

And now I have been graciously brought to ARMALEC,l a

thereto he explains Talismani to occupy a certain degree among the learned in Mahomedan law. He borrows a passage, which compares the chief mufti to the pope, the chief cadis to archbishops, cadis to bishops, hoggias (khwajas ?) to presbyters, talismans to deacons, and dervishes to monks. (Corpus Byzant. Histor., xxiv, pp. 318, 414, etc.)

My friend Mr. Badger thinks that the title has probably been derived from Tailasccn, a kind of hood of goat's or camel's hair, " quale philosophi et religiosi, imprimis apud Persas, usurpare velut pro insigni soient," just as Cappuccino comes from Cappuccio." If this is not the origin, may it be a Frank corruption of talccmiz, scholars, students ?

1 Armalec, the Almd,lik of the Mahommedan writers, which again is the corruption of a Turkish name, and called by the Chinese Alimali, was the capital of the Khans of the family of Chagatai. It had been, however, the seat of a Turkish principality before the rise of the Mongols. (D' Ohs son, i, 111.) It stood on or near the Ili River; Klaproth says, "in the vicinity of the Kurgos of our day on the banks of the Alimatu, a tributary of the