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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XXVII.
THE CITY OF BALC
ISI
CHAPTER XXVII.
OF THE CITY OF BALC.
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BALC is a noble city and a great, though it was much
greater in former days. But the Tartars and other
nations have greatly ravaged and destroyed it. There
were formerly many fine palaces and buildings of marble,
and the ruins of them still remain. The people of the
city tell that it was here that Alexander took to wife
the daughter of Darius.
Here, you should be told, is the end of the empire
of the Tartar Lord of the Levant. And this city is also
the limit of Persia in the direction between east and
north-east.' •
Now, let us quit this city, and I will tell you of
another country called DOGANA.2
When you have quitted the city of which I have
been speaking, you ride some I2 days between north-
east and east, without finding any human habitation, for
the people have all taken refuge in fastnesses among the
mountains, on account of the Banditti and armies that
harassed them. There is plenty of water on the road,
and abundance of game ; there are lions too. You can
get no provisions on the road, and must carry with you
all that you require for these i 2 days.3
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NOTE I.-BALKH, " the mother of cities," suffered mercilessly from Chinghiz. Though the city had yielded without resistance, the whole population was marched by companies into the plain, on the usual Mongol pretext of counting them, and then brutally massacred. The city and its gardens were fired, and all buildings capable of defence were levelled. The province long continued to be harried by the Chaghataian inroads. Ibn Batuta, sixty years after Marco's visit, describes the city as still in ruins, and as uninhabited : " The remains of its mosques and colleges," he says, " are still to be seen, and the painted walls traced with azure." It is no doubt the Vaeq ( Valq) of Clavijo, " very large, and surrounded by a broad earthen wall, thirty paces across, but breached in many parts." He describes a large portion of
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