National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

354. TAURIS   847

Yen-chou instead of the lu of Chien-tê just as he uses the common Su-chou instead of the lu of P'ing-chiang; in both cases, it is the common form which has survived until now.

I have said Polo uses the common Yen-chou, because I have no doubt that this is the origin of the delusive « Tanpigiu ». The word yen in Yen-chou began even in the 13th cent. with a real nasal guttural (ng-, ri-), and the final was still -m; Polo's transcription ought therefore to have been « *Gamgiu ». But we have here an exact parallel to Kan-chou, which ought to be « *Camgiu », though it appears in Polo's Mss. under the forms « Canpicion », etc. (see « Campçio »), the p, and afterwards the following i, having developed under the influence of the final -m of yen (ngäm) and kan (kam) respectively. I hold the equivalence of Yen-chou and « Campigiu » for certain, and think that Polo simply spoke of « *Gamgiu », which was altered to *Campgiu > Canpigiu > Tanpigiu by the copyists.

In Persian ,, Tabriz (the Arabic vocalization Tibriz of B. DE MEYNARD, Dict. hist., 132, is not supported by any foreign transcription, mediaeval or modern, except as a not very good notation e of ä in Täbriz), but the mediaeval pronunciation was certainly Tauriz or Tôriz, and Tauriz is the form of Aba-'l Fidâ (in spite of the use of u as u or y, Tavris in Pa, 59, is a wrong restoration). Tabriz, the capital of the ilkhan before the foundation of Sultâniyah, was well known in Latin countries, and Polo has used the form then usual among Western traders and travellers; his Mss. and the form he uses for the name of the inhabitants (cf. « Taurisin ») make Tauris more probable than Toris adopted in RR, 437, and B1, 448.

The Latin form is Thaurisium in Ricold and in Monte-Corvino, Taurisium in Hethum (var. Torisium) and in Jourdain Cathala; Torisium in BRATIANU, Actes des notaires génois, 257, 287. In French, HETHUM has only Toris (Hist. des Crois., Arm., ii, 118, 215, and cf. 268). Odoric writes Thons; the Catalan Map, Tauris and Tauriz; the Bianco Map, Toris; the Genoese Map, Taurix (x in value of z); Pegolotti, Torissi and Torizi; Fra Mauro, Thauris; Schiltberger, Thaures; Clavijo' Tauris and (by a misreading?) Tunis (never Tabreez as in HALLBERG). Cf. HALLBERG, 518-523; GoLusovicH, Bibl. bio-bibi., ii, 528.

A letter from Aryan to the Pope, dated 1285 and preserved in a bad Latin translation, was written in Toris (corrupted into Coris); cf. CHABOT, Hist. de Mar Jabalaha III, 190, 193). The Armenian form is Tavré (cf. Br, t, 171; PATKANOV, Istoriya Mongolov, II, 84).

Tabriz does not appear in Chinese texts at an early date. Chao Ju-kua does not mention it