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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. VI. TEXTURES OF BAUDAS
65
Wassáf, the island derived its name from one Kais, the son of a poor widow of Stráf (then a great port of Indian trade on the northern shore of the Gulf), who on a voyage to India, about the loth century, made a fortune precisely as Dick Whittington did. The proceeds of the cat were invested in an establishment on this island. Modern attempts to nationalise Whittington may surely be given up ! It is one of the tales which, like Tell's shot, the dog Gellert, and many others, are common to many regions. (Hammer's Ilch. I. 239 ; Ouseley's Travels, I. 17o ; Notes and Queries, 2nd s. XI. 372.)
Mr Badger, in a postscript to his translation of the History of Omán (Hak. Soc. 1871), maintains that Kish or Kais was at this time a city on the mainland, and identical from Síráf. He refers to Ibn Batuta (II. 244), who certainly does speak of visiting " the city of Kais, called also Síráf. " And Polo, neither here nor in Bk. III. ch. xl., speaks of Kisi as an island. I am inclined, however, to think that this was from not having visited it. Ibn Batuta says nothing of Síráf as a seat of trade ; but the historian Wassáf, who had been in the service of Jamáluddín al-Thaibi, the Lord of Kais, in speaking of the export of horses thence to India, calls it " the island of Kais." (Elliot, III. 34.) Compare allusions to this horse trade in eh. xv. and in Bk. III. eh. xvii. Wassáf was precisely a contemporary of Polo.
NOTE 3.—The name is Basera in the MSS., but this is almost certainly the common error of c for t. BASRA is still noted for its vast date-groves. " 'I he whole country from the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris to the sea, a distance of 3o leagues, is covered with these trees." (Tay. Bk. II. eh. iii.)
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NOTE 4.—From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e. Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English Baudekins. From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural. [Baîdekino, baldacchino, was at fit st entirely made of silk, but afterwards silk was mixed (sericum mixtunz) with cotton or thread. When Hulaku conquered Baghdad part of the tribute was to be paid with that kind of stuff. Later on, says Heyd (IL p. 697), it was also manufactured in the province of Ahwaz, at Damas and at Cyprus ; it was carried as fat as France and England. Among the articles sent from Baghdad to Okkodai Khan, mentioned ill the Yzian ch'ao pi shi (made in the 14th century), quoted by Bretschneider (Med. Res. II. p. 124), we note : Nakhzzt (a kind of gold brocade), Nachidut (a silk stuff interwoven with gold), Dardas (a stuff embroidered in gold). Bretschneider (p. 125) adds : " With respect to nakhut and nachidut, I may observe that these words represent the Mongol plural form of nakk and nachetti. . . . I may finally mention that in the Yuan shi, eh. lxxviii. (on official dresses), a stuff, na-shi-shi, is repeatedly named, and the term is explained there by kin kin (gold brocade)." --H. C.] The stuffs called iVasich and Nac are again mentioned by our traveller below (eh. lix.). We only know that they were of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who mentions Nakh several times and Nasíj once. The latter is also mentioned by Rubruquis (Nasic) as a present made to him at the Kaan's court. And Pegolotti speaks of both nacchi and nacclzetti of silk and gold, the latter apparently answering to Nasich. Nac, Nacques, Nachiz, A acíz, Nasís, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century, French and English. (See Dictionnaire des Tissus, II. 199, and Douet d'Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France, etc., 334.) We find no mention of Nakli or Nasíj among the stuffs detailed in the Aín Akbari,so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. [Cf. Heyd, Coni. du Levant, II. p. 698 ; Nacco, nachetto, comes from the Arabic nakh (nekh) ; nassit (nasitlz) from the Arabic nécidj.—H. C.] Quernzesis or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar. Kiiwi z) found on Quercus coccifera, now supplanted by cochineal. The stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but apparently, like the medizval Puzpura, if not identical with it, it came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of
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