IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
•
4
CHAP. XXIX. THE RUBIES OF BADASHAN
I61
horns being the emblem of strength. "— H. C.] The term appears in Chaucer ( Trod. and Cress. III. 93 I) in the sense of non plus :—
" I am, till God me better minde send, At dulcarnon, right at my wittes end."
And it is said to have still colloquial existence in that sense in some corners of England. This use is said to have arisen from the Arabic application of the term (Bicorne) to the 47th Proposition of Euclid. (Baber, 13; N. et E. XIV. 490 ; N. An. des V. xxvi. 296 ; Burnes, III. 186 seyy. ; Wood, 155, 244 ;J. A. S. B. XXII. 300 ; Ayeen Akbery, II. 185 ; see N. and Q. 1st Series, vol. v.)
4
NOTE 2.-I have adopted in the text for the name of the country that one of the several forms in the G. Text which comes nearest to the correct name, viz. Badascian. But Balacian also appears both in that and in Pauthier's text. This represents Badakhshán, a form also sometimes used in the East. Hayton has Balaxcen, Clavijo Balaxia, the Catalan Map Baldassia. From the form Balakhsh the Balas Ruby got its name. As Ibn Batuta says : " The Mountains of Badakhshan have given their name to the Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly called Al Balaksh." Albertus Magnus says the Bala' ius is the female of the Carbuncle or Ruby Proper, " and some say it is his house, and hath thereby got the name, quasi Palatiu1n Carbunculi ! " The Balais or Balas Ruby is, like the Spinel, a kind inferior to the real Ruby of Ava. The author of the Masalak al Abseil- says the finest Balas ever seen in the Arab countries was one presented to Malek 'Adil Ketboga, at Damascus ; it was of a triangular form and weighed 50 drachms. The prices of Balasci in Europe in that age may be found in Pegolotti, but the needful problems are hard to solve.
" No sapphire in Inde, no Rubie rich of price,
There lacked than, nor Emeraud so grene,
Baas, Turkés, ne thing to my device."
( Chaucer, "Court of Love.')
" L'altra letizia, the m'era già nota,
Preclara cosa mi si fece in vista,
Qual fin balascio in the lo Sol percuoto."
(Paradiso, ix. 67.)
Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found in J As. sér. V. tom. xi. I09.
(I. B. III. 59, 394 ; Alb. 11Iaä de Mineralibus ; Pei; ol. p. 307 ; N. et E. X I I I. i. 246.)
E" The Mohammedan authors of the Mongol period mention Badakh:-han several times in connection with the political and military events of that period. Guchluk, the `gurkhan of Karakhitai,' was slain in Badakhshan in 1218 (d' Olzsson, I. 272). In 1221, the Mongols invaded the country (l.c. I. 272). On the same page, d'Ohsson translates a short account of Badakhshan by Yakut ( + 1229), stating that this mountainous country is famed for its precious stones, and especially rubies, called Balakhsh." (Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 66. )—H. C.]
The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, etc., has continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kunduz conquered Badakhshan some forty years ago, in disgust at the small produce of the mines, he abandoned working them, and sold nearly all the population of the place into slavery ! They continue still unworked, unless clandestinely. In 1866 the reigning Mír had one of them opened at the request of Pandit Manphul, but without much result.
The locality of the mines is on the right bank of the Oxus, in the district of Ish Káshm and on the borders of SHIGNAN, the Syç-hinan of the text. (P. 1llanplz. ;
Wood, 206 ; N. Ann. des. V xxvi. 300. )
The ruby mines are really in the Gháran country, which extends along both banks
VOL. I. L
1_
lk~ •
:le•
r.
ti
~
~
,*
~
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.