IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
I 'I
| 94 | MARCO POLO BOOK I. | ||||
| are several allusions of the same kind ; one, a quotation from Antar, recalls the ferru»z candidunz of Curtius : | |||||
| " Albi (gladii) Indici ineo in sanguine abluuntur." | |||||
| In the histories, even of the Mahomedan conquest of India, the Hindu infidels are sent toJilzannanz with " the well-watered blade of the Hindi sword " ; or the sword is personified as " a Hindu of good family." Coming down to later days, Chardin says of the steel of Persia : " They combine it with Indian steel, which is more tractable . . . . and is much more esteemed." Dupré, at the beginning of this century, tells us : " I used to believe . . . . that the steel for the famous Persian sabres came from certain mines in Khorasan. But according to all the information I have obtained, I can assert that no mine of steel exists in that province. What is used for these blades cornes in the shape of disks from Lahore." Pottinger names steel among the imports into Kermán from India. Elphinstone the Accurate, in his Caubul, confirms Dupré : " Indian Steel [in Afghanistan] is most prized for the material ; but the best swords are made in Persia and in Syria ; " and in his History of India, he repeats : " The steel of India was in request with the ancients ; it is celebrated in the oldest Persian poem, and is still the material of the scimitars of Khorasan and Damascus." Klaproth, in his Asia Polyglotta, gives Andun as the Ossetish and Andan as the Wotiak, for Steel. Possibly these are essentially the same with Hundwdníy and Alhinde, pointing to India as the original source of supply. [In the Sikandar e Bard (or " Book of Alexander the Great," written A.D. 1200) by Aba Muhammad bin Yusuf bin Mu, Ayyid-i-Nizámu-'d-Din), translated by Captain H. Wilberforce Clarke (Lond., 188r, large 8vo), steel is frequently mentioned : Canto xix. 257, p. 202 ; xx. 12, p. 211 ; xlv. 38, p. 567 ; lviii. 32, pp. 695, 42, pp. 697, 62, 66, pp. 699 ; lix. 28, p. 703.—H. C.] Avicenna, in his fifth book De Anirnd, according to Roger Bacon, distinguishes three very different species of iron : " ist. Iron which is good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by hammer and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and anvils are made, and this is what we commonly call Iron simply. 2nd. That which is purer, has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take an edge and to form cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. Steel. And the 3rd is that which is called ANDENA. This is less known among the Latin nations. Its special character is that like silver it is malleable and ductile under a very low degree of heat. In other properties it is intermediate between iron and steel." (Fr. R. Baconis Opera Inedita, 1859, pp. 382-383.) The same passage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, but with considerable differences. (See Speculum Naturale, VII. ch. lii. lx., and Specul. Doctrinale, XV. ch. lxiii.) The latter author writes Alidena, and I have not been able to refer to Avicenna, so that I am doubtful whether his Andena is the same term with the Andaine of Pauthier and our Ondanique. The popular view, at least in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded Steel as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily different ore, from iron ; and some such view is, I suspect, still common in the East. An old Indian officer told me of the reply of a native friend to whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron into steel—" What ! You would have me believe that if I put an ass into the furnace it will come forth a horse." And Indian Steel again seems to have been regarded as a distinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact* made by a peculiar but simple process, by which the iron is converted directly into cast-steel, without passing through any intermediate stage analogous to that of blister-steel. When specimens were first examined in England, chemists concluded that the steel was made direct from the ore. The Ondanique of Marco no doubt was a fine steel resembling the | |||||
| * In Richardson's Pers. Dict., by Johnson, we have a word Rohan, Rohina (and other forms). " The finest Indian steel, of which the most excellent swords are made ; also the swords made of that steel." | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.