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Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 |
261. IUGURISTAN 753
of Persia, knows the city of « Spahan »; Schiltberger writes « Hispahan » (cf. HALLBERG, 266-267). In view of R's « Spaan », one might think that Fra Mauro owed his « Spahan » to the prototype of Z; but since « Spahen » occurs in Hethum (Hist. des Crois., Arm., II, 127, 266), and since both Hethum and Fra Mauro mention here the Phison, it is more probable that Fra Mauro is indebted to Hethum in the present case.
The « Isfaan » adopted in RR, 424, and BL, 444, is an arbitrary correction introduced from Y, I, 85, into B, 25; but not a single Western source then shows the form in -f-, which, moreover, even in Arabic, is not always used by mediaeval Oriental writers; cf. the notice all Ispahân
(ISbahân) of Ya'güt in BARBIER DE MEYNARD, Dict. hist. 40-48; LS, 202-207; Mi, 131; the Persian form, which is the one we should expect in Polo, is Ispahân.
In 1225, Chao Ju-kua writes g ie2P Ya-ssû-pao-hsien (read Ya-ssû-pa[ ]-hsien) and
Ya-pa[ E ]-hsien (read Ya-ssû-pa-hsien), which, in the dialect of his transcriptions, must represent *Aspahan (HR, 116, 121, 202) ; this is in agreement, for the initial a-, with the pronunciation Aspahan also indicated by Ya'qût, who even gives it as the most popular in his time.
The case of the city called t g A *IJ I-ssû-pa-la-na, cited for 1229 A. D. in Br, II, 113,
from YS, 2, 1 a, is not so certain, but the probability is that it also represents Ispahân, in a corrupt form. The Chinese map of circa 1330 and the corresponding list in YS, 63, 16 b, mention j]; , I-ssû-fa-hang, *Isfahang (= Ispahân), which renders the Arabic form (for final -ng, due to the nasalization of the last -a-, cf. « Caxan », « Badascian »). From 1416 to 1438, the name appears several times in the form ;IF El, 4, ' I-ssû-fu-han, *Isfuhan, which again renders the Arabic pronunciation (cf. Ming shih, 332, 9 a; China Review, y, 170; Br, II, 291). But I-ssû-pu-han also occurs once, c. 1400 (Br, II, 145), and I-ssû-pa[e]-han in Ming shih, 332, 9 a, for 1431.
261. IUGURISTAN jvguristam Z
« Icoguristam » in the Milan copy is an error of the copyist who read -v- as -co-.
The name of the country is regularly, in Persian, 312,.,) ,'I Oiyuristân, « Country of the Uiyur » (cf. Bl, II, 85, 86), and the name of the people is spelt )41 Uiyur in 1076 by Kâsyari, and later ;1J Uiyûr by Juwaini and by Rasidu-'d-Din; all these forms agree with the original Turkish name, Uiyur, occurring in Turkish « runic » inscriptions of the 8th-9th cents.
But, already in the 11th or at least in the early 12th cent., we find in Arabic a form, Yuyur (cf. MINORSKY, in Comptes rendus de l'Ac. des Inscr., 1937, 320), which is also represented in Syriac by the ethnic Yugûrayé (cf. ABBELOOS and LAMY, Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiast., III, 451-452). This metathetic form is the one used by Polo; in the same way, Rubrouck always writes « Iugures » (Wy, 227, etc.), and Hethum uses « Iougour » or « Iogur » (Hist. des Crois., Arm.,
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