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0147 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 147 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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99. CALA ATAPERISTAN   131

  1. CAISERIE

caserie FA, FB   cayssaria R   chayseria Z

casserie F, LT, L   cesare VA   isirie S

cassorie P, P'   chasana, chaseta V

The « Kaisariye » of our maps, the ancient Caesareia of Cappadocia. In view of Z and R, I think that «Caiserie » is more likely to be Polo's form than the « Casaria » adopted in B', 440. Les Gestes des Ciprois speak of «Sezaire la grant, que l'on apele Caiserie» (Hist. des Crois., Arm., II, 843). Simon de Saint-Quentin (in Vincent de Beauvais, xxxi, 147) writes « Gasaria ». Pegolotti's «Casena» is probably a corruption of «Caseria», as proposed by EVANS, 389.

  1. CALA ATAPERISTAN

cala ataperiscam FA, Z cala-ataperistam FB cala ataperistan F, L

chala atepetischan V chalasata TA3 chalasata periston TA3

cholasata per istranee VA ghalasacha TA' talasata LT

Pers. Qal'ah-i Atägparastàn, « Castle of the Fire-worshippers ». It is difficult to admit that Polo,

who at least knew Persian, dropped the   of ata. ; perhaps he had simply written «*Cala
Atasperistan », and the group -sp- has been altered in the archetype of all our mss., as it was altered in most of them when « Ispaan » became « Istanit ».

The « village » of « Cala Ataperistan » was, according to Polo, three days distant from Savah. YULE, supposing that the information was acquired on the homeward journey, sought for the place «between Sâvah and Abher » ( Y, I, 82); but that was because YULE believed that, on the outward journey, Polo had gone to Ormuz via Bagdad. I agree with the view that, on the contrary, Polo never visited Bagdad (see « Baudac »), and probably passed through Savah on both journeys. In such a case, the normal trend of the narrative is that Polo reached « Cala Ataperistan» on the outward journey three days after leaving Savah. This points in the direction of Kagan, where W. Jackson has proposed to place « Cala Ataperistan » (cf. Y, III, 18). But this also seems most improbable, now that we have a Kâsân in Polo himself, in such circumstances that make it unlikely that Polo should have used both names for one and the same place (see « Caxan »). «Cala Ataperistan » was probably a fortified village in the vicinity of Kâsân, but distinct from that city.

The legend which Polo (or his father Nicoib according to Z) heard at « Cala Ataperistan » has almost a Manichean flavour, with Jesus who is at the same time God, king and physician (cf. JA, 1911, II, 586; and W. BANG, Manich. Hymnen, in Museon, xxxviii, 48); but the same symbolism has been attached to gold, incense and myrrh in Christian tradition. As to the stone thrown into the well, an Uighur Nestorian version of the same tradition has been published in F. W. K. MÜLLER,

9.