IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
To CATHAY.
5 75
Law ; and inspired by Him who has said, It shall be given you in that hour what ye shall say, he maintained the truth of the Christian religion by such apt reasoning that the others were quite silenced and defeated. The Prince constantly fixed his attention on our brother, expressing approval of everything that he said,. and finally pronounced his conclusion that Christians were really Misermans, or True Believers, adding that his own ancestors had been professors of their faith.' After the discussion was over, Benedict was entertained at a sumptuous supper and desired to spend the night at the palace. And it was late next day before he was allowed to leave, so that Isaac quite despaired of his return. Indeed Benedict found him weeping grievously, for the long delay had fully convinced him of his master's death.
In this city they halted three whole months, for the chief
1 This is a curious trace of the ancient Christianity of several of the Mongolian and Turkish tribes.
2 Ritter in one place suggests that Cialis of Goës may be Karashahr, but in another he will have it to be Yulduz, a place lying among the mountains of the Thian-Shan, celebrated for its beauty, its springs, meadows, and fine breezes, which was the encamping ground of Timur after his campaign of extermination against the Jats. Ritter had also previously identified Yulduz with the Cailac of Rubruquis.
The notion that Yulduz was Cialis seems to have been originated by Petis de la Croix in his translation of Sharifuddin's Life of Timur. D'Anville also has identified Cialis with the Cailac of Rubruquis; both identifications seem to me to be wrong.
Yulduz lies in the mountains, a long way to the left of the great route along the foot of the Thian Shan, which the caravan followed. Shah Rukh's ambassadors indeed pass Yulduz, on their way to Turfan and Kamul. But it is clear that from Tashkand they took a route north of the Thian Shan, and were passing from the north to the south of the mountains when they touched at Yulduz.
The real position of Cialis must be either identical with Karashahr, as D'Anville thought, or close to it. The chief places noted in nearly all the routes and maps of this line of country are Aksu, Kucha, Karashahr, Turfan, Pijan, and Kamul. All these are mentioned by Goes except Karashahr, and where Karashahr should come, he gives us Cialis. D'An-ville, indeed, observes that Scialik would mean, in Persian, the same as Karashahr, or Black Town (?). But the name seems to be not Siyalis, or
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