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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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MARCO POLO BooK I.
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literature ; Abubakr was the patron of Saadi. From about 1262, though a Salghurian princess, married to a son of Hulaku, had the nominal title of Atabeg, the province of Fars was under Mongol administration. (Ilch. passim.)
' VII. SHAWÁNKÁRA or Shabánkára. The G. T. has Soucara, but the Crusca
gives the true reading Soncara. It is the country of the Shawánkárs, a people coupled with the Shills and Lúrs in mediaeval Persian history, and like them of Kurd affinities. Their princes, of a family Faslúyah, are spoken of as influential before the Mahomedan conquest, but the name of the people comes prominently forward only during the Mongol era of Persian history. [Shabánkára was taken in 1056 from the Buyid Dynasty, who ruled from the loth century over a great part of Persia, by Fazl ibn Hassan (Fazluïeh-Hasunïeh). Under the last sovereign, Ardeshir, Shabánkára was taken in 1355 by the Modhafferians, who reigned in Irak, Fars, and Kermán, one of the Dynasties established at the expense of the Mongol Ilkhans after the death of Abu Saki (1335), and were themselves subjugated by Timur in 1392.—II. C.] Their country lay to the south of the great salt lake east of Shíráz, and included Niriz and Darábjird, Fassa, Forg, and Tárum. Their capital was I 1g or I'j, called also Irej, about 20 miles north-west of Daráb, with a great mountain fortress ; it was taken by Hulaku in 1259. The son of the prince was continued in nominal authority, with Mongol administrators. In consequence of a rebellion in 1311 the Dynasty seems to have been extinguished. A descendant attempted to revive their authority about the middle of the same century. The latest historical mention of the name that I have found is in Abdurrazzák's History of Shah Rukh, under the year H. 807 (1404). (See jour. As. 3d. s. vol. ii. 355.) But a note by Colonel Pelly informs me that the name Shabánkára is still applied (I) to the district round the towns of Runiz and Gauristan near Bandar Abbas ; (2) to a village near Maiman, in the old country of the tribe ; (3) to a tribe and district of Dashtistan, 38 farsakhs west of Shíráz.
With reference to the form in the text, Soncara, I may notice that in two passages of the Masálak-ul-Absár, translated by Quatremére, the name occurs as Shankárah. (Q. R. pp. 38o, 44o seqq. ; N. et E. XIII. ; Iich. I. 71 and passi;u ; Ouseley's Travels, II. 158 segq. )
VIII. TÚN-O-KÁIN, the eastern Kuhistán or Hill country of Persia, of which Tún and Káin are chief cities. The practice of indicating a locality by combining two names in this way is common in the East. Elsewhere in this book we find ArioraKeshemur and Kes-macoran (Kij-Makrán). Upper Sind is often called in India by the Sepoys Rori-Bakkar, from two adjoining places on the Indus ; whilst in former days, Lower Sind was often called Diul-Sind. Karra-Mánikj5úr, Uch-Multán, Kunduz-Baghlán are other examples.
The exact expression T ;i-o-Káin for the province here in question is used by Baber, and evidently also by some of Hammer's authorities. (Baber, pp. 201) 204 ; see Ilch. H. 19o; I. 95, 104, and Hist. de l' Ordre des Assassins, p. 245.) -
[We learn from (Sir) C. Macgregor's (1875) Journey through Khorasan (I. p. 127) that the same territory including Gháín or Kaïn is now called by the analogous name of Tabas-o-Tun. Tún and Kahl (Gháín) are both described in their modern state, by Macgregor. (Ibid. pp. 147 and 161.)—H. C.]
Note that the identification of Suolstan is due to Quatremére (see N. et E. XIII. i. circa p. 332) ; that of Soncara to Defréméry (j. As. sér. IV. tom. xi.p. 441) ; and that of Tunocain to Malte-Brun. (N. Ann. des V. xviii. p. 261.) I may add that the Lúrs, the Nails, and the Shabánkáras are the subjects of three successive sections in the Masdlak-al-Absdr of Shihábuddin Dimishki, a work which reflects much of Polo's geography. (See N. et E. XIII. i. 330-333 ; Curzon, Persia, II. pp. 248 and 251.)
NOTE 2.—The horses exported to India, of which we shall hear more hereafter, were probably the same class of " Gulf Arabs " that are now carried thither. But the Turkman horses of Persia are also very valuable, especially for endurance. Kinneir speaks of one accomplishing 90o miles in eleven days, and Ferrier states a still more extraordinary feat from his own knowledge. In that case one of those horses went
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