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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
118. CARACOROM 165
French mss., which all lack that chapter. But the Catalan Map has on that part of Centrai Asia many pieces of information of later date than Polo's travels; the name of « Carachoiant» may be one of them.
| 118. CARACOROM carachoran, carchoran R caracoran Ft, Z caracoron F, Fr, FA, FB, L, VB, Z carathoron FAt carocaton, tartaron LT | caroccoran, chorochoram VA carocoram P cathocora, cathogora, catochora VL chara (?), characholan, chara- choron V | characom TA' characoron VB characharom TA3 charocharon TA', TA3 |
The «Caracoron» of F, Z, etc., is probably a misreading of *Caracorô = Caracorom, Qaraqorum. The first Western writer to name the place is Plan Carpine, who stayed in 1246 at Sira-ordu, half a day from « Caracaron» (Wy, 30; but « Contracuram» in the Wolfenbüttel ms., Wy, III, 805; «Cracurim» in Vincent de Beauvais's abridgment, Spécul. histor., xxxii, 3; perhaps all < « *Caracorom »). In 1254, Rubrouck spent many days in Qara-qorum. Although the manuscripts of his relation most often give « Caracarum », readings like « Carachorum » and « Caracorum » also occur (Wy, 230, 236) ; I consider them to be the only correct ones. The Catalan Map has « Carachora» (BucxoN, in Not. et Extr., XIV, II, 141; HALLBERG, 112). The name is repeated twice by Fra Mauro, in different inks, as « Charocharà» (= « Charocharam ») and as « Characoracur » (such are the actual readings on the map, sometimes misread in the sources of HALLBERG, 113). Kirakos writes «yarayorum» (with the ancient velar l passed to y; cf. BROSSET, Deux historiens arméniens, I, 115; PATKANOV, Istoriya Mongolov, II, 12); the Georgian chronicle gives « Qaraqurum », according to BROSSET (Hist. de la Géorgie, I, 485). Persian writers, beginning with Juwaini and Rasidu-'d-Din, give forms ranging from ri, Qara-görûm to 0),;1,; Qarà-görûm. The form Qara-qorum occurs in the Secret History (§ 273) and, abridged as Qorum, in a Mongol inscription of 1346 (translated in fact from the Chinese; cf. JA, 1925, I, 374). The Yüan shih (YS, 2, 2 b) mentions the place for the first time as p 4 Ho-lin (not «Ha-la-ho-lin», as is said in Br, I, 122) in 1235, when Ögödäi ordered it to be walled; later, Ho-lin recurs repeatedly in the official history as well as in other works. The complete form ►~~; IJ fi i # Ha-la-ho-lin, Qara-qorum, occurs only once ( YS, 58, 18 a), as the name of a river from which the city of Ho-lin, Qorum, derived its name. In 1312, the administrative name was
altered to the lu of p Ho-ning, which, while retaining something of the original sounds,
meant in Chinese « Harmonious peace ». The older transcription Ho-lin (then pronounced Ho-iiln) was due to the fact that, the Chinese never having had an r-, Middle Chinese also lacked all -um or -om endings.
The history of the name Qara-qorum is not clear; yet the form is certain beyond all doubt.
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