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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
194. CURMOS 579
as far as Hormuz (cf. BROSSET, Hist. de la Siounie, I, 227; PATKANOV, Istoriya Mongolov, I, 33). But YULE ( Y, I, 121) already connected the transfer of Hormuz to the island with the great raid
of Qutluy-sâh's bands in 1299, in the course of which, according to Wassâf, Hormuz (-_ Old Hormuz) was besieged; the invaders were repelled by the king Bahâ-ud-Din Ayaz (Ha', n, 106). This king is evidently the same as TEIXEIRA's « Mir Bahadin Ayaz Seifin », and the chronological agreement is even greater than has been said hitherto. It is a matter of surprise that even SINCLAIR should have accepted and repeated in his own name TEIxEIRA's equivalence « A. H. 700 = 1302 A. D. », while it is 16 September 1300 — 5 September 1301 (L'art de vérifier les dates, I,
1783, 26-27). With such an agreement between Wassâf and the Chronicle, it seems safe to date the transfer towards the end of 1300, under the reign of Bahâ-ud-Din. Fahru-'d-Din, whom YULE adduced with caution, must have been then far from Persia (see « Caçan », « Cocacin », and « Rucnedin Acmat »).
It may even be that the Mongol inroads left a lasting trace in the designation which the new settlement on the läran Island adopted for the mainland; but I readily admit that I am here advancing on slippery ground. Ibn-Battûtah, who visited the island of Hormuz c. 1330, gives to the Persian coast opposite the island of Hormuz a name which the translators have read «Mûyostân », adding : « The name Mûyostân, or Moyistân, refers to the part of the province of Kirmân which borders on the Persian Gulf » (DEFRÉMERY, Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, II, 230, 455). As results from DEFRÉMERY's reference to TEIXEIRA, his transcription « Muyostan » was determined by the similar mention of « Mogostam » in TEIxEIRA's translation of the Chronicle (cf. SINCLAIR's transi., 156, 166, 173, 186) ; « Mogostam » also occurs in TEIxEIRA's extracts from Mirhônd (ibid., 197; I cannot trace the name in Mirhônd, and this is clearly a digression due to TEIXEIRA); the earlier Dominican abridged version of the Chronicle gives « Magostam » (ibid., 258). The alternative form « Mûyistân » has been adopted by LE STRANGE (LL, 319), « Mogistan » by SINCLAIR (p. 156), and « Mûghustân » by DAMES (Duarte Barbosa, I, 90) ; « Mughostân » has been adduced by HIRTH and ROCKHILL (HR, 14) as a possible original of Mo-lo in their unfortunate attempt at identifying this Mo-lo with Hormuz.
By interpreting the name as Mûyistân or Môyistân, the various authors clearly understood it as one compound name, which ought then to be written ~1~ ç. *Môyistan in one word, or *Moyistân if the first vowel be short. In both spellings it might mean « place of the Magi »; with the second, MENINSKI gives it with the sense, mentioned also by BARROS, of «palm garden», with a reference to KAEMPFER; cf. MENINSKI, Lex. Arab.-pers.-turc., 1780, iv, 640 : mughystân. p. n. s. Palmetum. Kcempf. amten. exot. ». But KAEMPFER, Amoenitates exoticae,
1712, 665, only says that the palm is called Mogh moy) in the Hormuz dialect, Moch (;û mo),)
in the neighbouring dialects. But Ibn Battûtah's form is different; Moy-âstân, some-
thing like «resting place of the Magi ». In the Portuguese transcriptions, -m is always used instead of -n; so the final makes no difficulty. But « Magostam » of the Dominican, « Mogostam » of TEIXEIRA prove that the second vowel was not -i-, but either -a- as in Ibn Battûtah, or -ô-(-u-); while on the other hand, a survival of the old form môyu of the name of the Magi is out of the question for the 14th cent. and later. Now, in several notices on his map, Fra Mauro gives to the Persian coast opposite the island of Hormuz the name of « Mogolistan » (cf. HALL-
37.
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