IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. II. LESSEP. IìEl(ME\'IA--TURCOMANIA
43
NOTE 4.—The phrase twice used in this passage for the Interior is Era terre, an Italianism (Fra terra, or, as it stands in the Geog. Latin, " infra Ierran Orierztis "), which, however, Murray and Pauthier have read as an allusion to the Euphrates, an error based apparently on a marginal gloss in the published edition of the Soc. de Géographie. It is true that the province of Comagene under the Greek Empire got the name of Euphratesia, or in Arabic Furátiÿah, but that was not in question here. The great trade of Ayas was with Tabriz, vice Sivas, Erzingan, and Erzrum, as we see in Pegolotti. Elsewhere, too, in Polo we find the phrase fra terre used, where Euphrates could possibly have no concern, as in relation to India and Oman. (See Bk. III. chs. xxix. and xxxviii. , and notes in each case.)
With regard to the phrase spicery here and elsewhere, it should be noted that the Italian spezerie included a vast deal more than ginger and other things " hot i' the mouth." In one of Pegolotti's lists of spezerie we find drugs, dye-stuffs, metals, wax, cotton, etc.
CHAPTER II.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF TURCOMANIA.
E
IN Turcomania there are three classes of people. First,
there are the Turcomans ; these are worshippers of Ma-
hommet, a rude people with an uncouth language of their
own.1 They dwell among mountains and downs where
they find good pasture, for their occupation is cattle-
keeping. Excellent horses, known as Turgztans, are
reared in their country, and also very valuable mules.
The other two classes are the Armenians and the
Greeks, who live mixt with the former in the towns
and villages, occupying themselves with trade and handi-
crafts. They weave the finest and handsomest carpets
in the world, and also a great quantity of fine and rich
silks of cramoisy and other colours, and plenty of other
stuffs. Their chief cities are CONIA, SAVAST [where the
glorious Messer Saint Blaise suffered martyrdom], and
CASARIA, besides many other towns and bishops' sees,
of which we shall not speak at present, for it would be
too long a matter. These people are subject to the
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