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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XI.
THE NOBLE CITY OF TAURIS
75
crafts, for they weave many kinds of beautiful and valuable
stuffs of silk and gold. The city has such a good position
that merchandize is brought thither from India, Baudas,
CREMESOR,2 and many other regions ; and that attracts
many Latin merchants, especially Genoese, to buy goods
and transact other business there ; the more as it is also
a great market for precious stones. It is a city in fact
where merchants make large profits.3
The people of the place are themselves poor creatures ;
and are a great medley of different classes. There are
Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians,
and finally the natives of the city themselves, who are
worshippers of Mahommet. These last are a very evil
generation ; they are known as TAURIZI.4 The city
is all girt round with charming gardens, full of many
varieties of large and excellent fruits.5
Now we will quit Tauris, and speak of the great country
of Persia. [From Tauris to Persia is a journey of twelve
days.]
1
NOTE 1.—Abulfeda notices that TABRíz was vulgarly pronounced Tauriz, and this appears to have been adopted by the Franks. In Pegolotti the name is always Torissi.
Tabriz is often reckoned to belong to Armenia, as by Hayton. Properly it is the chief city of Azerbaiján, which never was included in 'IRAK. But it may be observed that Ibn Batuta generally calls the Mongol Ilkhan of Persia Sáhib or Malik ul-'Irák, and as Tabriz was the capital of that sovereign, we can account for the mistake, whilst admitting it to be one. [The destruction of Baghdad by Hulaku made Tabriz the great commercial and political city of Asia, and diverted the route of Indian products from the Mediterranean to the Euxine. It was the route to the Persian Gulf by Kashan, Yezd, and Kermán, to the Mediterranean by Lajazzo, and later on by Aleppo,—and to the Euxine by Trebizond. The destruction of the Kingdom of Armenia closed to Europeans the route of Tauris.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—Crenzesor, as Baldelli points out, is GARD4sIR, meaning a hot region, a term which in Persia has acquired several specific applications, and especially indicates the coast-country on the N.E. side of the Persian Gulf, including Hormuz and
the ports in that quarter.
NoTE 3.—[Of the Italians established at Tabriz, the first whose name is mentioned is the Venetian Pietro Viglioni (Vioni) ; his will, dated loth December, 1264, is still in existence. (Archiv. Vend. XXVI. pp. 161-165 ; Heyd, French Ed., II. p. Ho.) —H. C.] At a later date (1341) the Genoese had a factory at Tabriz headed by a consul
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