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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. III. BAIBURT
49
Theodosius the Great ; the present name was given by the Seljukid Turks, and it means " Roman Country " ; it was taken by Chinghiz Khan and Timur, but neither kept it long. Odorico (Cathay, I. p. 46), speaking of this city, says it " is mighty cold." (See also on the low temperature of the place, Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, II. PP• 258-259.) Arzizi, A1JISH, in the vilayet of Van, was destroyed in the middle of the 19th century ; it was situated on the road from Van to Erzrum. Arjish Kalá was one of the ancient capitals of the Kingdom of Armenia ; it was conquered by Toghrul I., who made it his residence. (Cf. Vital Cuinet, Turquie d'Asie, II. p. 710). —H. C.]
Arjish is the ancient Arsissa, which gave the Lake Van one of its names. It is now little more than a decayed castle, with a village inside.
Notices of Kuniyah, Kaisariya, Sivas, Arzan-ar-Rumi, Arzangan, and Arjish, will be found in Polo's contemporary Abuifeda. (See Biisclzing, IV. 303-311.)
NOTE 3.—Paipurth, or Baiburt, on the high road between Trebizond and Erzrum, was, according to Neumann, an Armenian fortress in the first century, and, according to Ritter, the castle Baiberdon was fortified by Justinian. It stands on a peninsular hill, encircled by the windings of the R. Charok. [According to Ramusio's version Baiburt was the third relay from Trebizund to Tauris, and travellers on their way from one of these cities to the other passed under this stronghold.—H. C.] The Russians, in retiring from it in 1829, blew up the greater part of the defences. The nearest silver mines of which we find modern notice, are those of Gunzislz-Khánah (" Silverhouse "), about 35 miles N.W. of Baiburt ; they are more correctly mines of lead rich in silver, and were once largely worked. But the Masálak-al-absár (14th century), besides these, speaks of two others in the same province, one of which was near Bajert. This Quatremére reasonably would read Babert or Baiburt. (Not. et Extraits, XIII. i. 337 ; Texier, Ar;uénie, I. 59.)
NOTE 4. —Josephus alludes to the belief that Noah's Ark still existed, and that pieces of the pitch were used as amulets. (Ant. I. 3. 6.)
Ararat (16,953 feet) was ascended, first by Prof. Parrot, September 1829 ; by Spasski Aotonomoff, August 1834 ; by Behrens, 1835 ; by Abich, 1845 ; by Seymour in 1848 ; by Khodzko, Khanikoff, and others, for trigonometrical and other scientific purposes, in August 1850. It is characteristic of the account from which I take these notes (Longrizzzoff, in Bull. Soc. Géog. Paris, sér. IV. tom. i. p. 54), that whilst the writer's countrymen, Spasski and Behrens, were " moved by a noble curiosity," the Englishman is only admitted to have " gratified a tourist's whim "
NoTE 5.—Though Mr. Khanikoff points out that springs of naphtha are abundant in the vicinity of Tiflis, the mention of ship-loads (in Ramusio indeed altered, but probably by the Editor, to camel-loads), and the vast quantities spoken of, point to the naphtha-wells of the Baku Peninsula on the Caspian. Ricold speaks of their supplying the whole country as far as Baghdad, and Barbaro alludes to the practice of anointing camels with the oil. The quantity collected from the springs about Baku was in 1819 estimated at 241,000 goods (nearly 4000 tons), the greater part of which went to Persia. (Pereg. Quat. p. 122 ; Ramusio, II. 109 ; El. de Laprim. 276 ; V. du Chev. Gamba, I. 298.)
[The phenomenal rise in the production of the Baku oil-fields between 18901900, may be seen at a glance from the Official Statistics where the total output for 1900 is given as 6oi,000,000 poods, about 9,500,000 tons. (Cf. Petroleum, No. 42, vol. ii. p. 13.)
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