IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD THE DEATH OF THE CALIF
to show thee how well thou hast judged, ä this treasure so much loved by thee I will give VB
it thee to eat, as being thy very own. Then he made them take the calif and made FB
them put him in the tower in the midst of the treasure and commands that nothing y
may be given him to eat [yid] nor to drink. And immediately the commandment of the lord v
was done ; the calif was put in the tower as the lord had ordered. And then he says to him,
Calif, now eat of the treasure as much as thou wilt, since it pleases thee so much,
for thou must certainly know that never shalt thou eat or drink anything else than this VA VA
treasure. After this he is left there in the tower where seeing too late his mistake & VB
being unable to have any sustenance from his treasure he died of hunger•like a slave at the LT FB
end of four days. And so it would be better worth for the calif to have given
& divided his treasure to the men of arms to defend him ( his land and his people FB FB FB
that his land should be safe with his treasure, than that he should be taken, as he was, & v FB
dead with all his people & disinherited. I judge that our Lord Jesus Christ wished to VB
avenge his Christians who were so much hated by the calif . And from this calif onward
there was no more calif of Saracens • neither in Baudac nor elsewhere, • but it is under VA FB LT
the rule of the Tartars. And let this be enough about Baudac. Now let us leave Baudac[&] TA
we will tell you of Tauris. And yet it is true that I could well have told you
more of the inhabitants, of their doings and of their customs, but because it would z
be too long a matter I have shortened you my tale. And for this reason we shall
tell you other great and wonderful things so as you will be able to hear.'
.2
5
1 It seems to be clear that the summary account of the capture of Baghdad given by F and the majority of texts, saying that the city was taken "by force", misrepresents the full account which is preserved by R and, in part, by Z; which may be translated as follows:—
Z: "Ulau took the city and the calif his brother by a feigned plan and by fraud."
R: "At the time that the lords of the Tartars began to rule there were four brothers, the elder of whom named Mongu reigned in the throne. And having at that time subjected Catai to their rule by their great power, and other countries round about, not content with these but wishing to have much more, they proposed to subdue all the whole world. And therefore they divided it into four parts; that is that one should go to the direction of the East, another to the side of the South, to obtain lands, and the others to the other two regions. The region of the South fell by lot to one of them named Ulau. He first of all, having collected together an immense army, began vigorously to conquer those provinces and among them came to the city of Baudac in 125o. And knowing its great strength, through the great multitude of people which was there, he thought to take it by artifice rather than by force. And since he had from a hundred thousand horse without the footsoldiers, in order that they might appear to be few to the calif and to his people who were inside the city, before he came near to the city he secretly placed part of his people on one side of it and another part among the woods on the other side, and with the rest he went galloping up to
the
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