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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

was the country of the King Ahasuerus. In this (city) they say the Dry Tree (arbor sicca) is in a
mosque, that is to say in a church of the Saracens. » John of Hildesheim, writing in 1364-1375,
also says that the Dry Tree stood in a temple of the Tartars (cf. KAMPERS, Vom Werdegange, 116);
but, in my opinion, it can hardly be doubted that he is here indebted to Odoric. At the beginning
of the next century, Clavijo too saw the Dry Tree at Tabriz (cf. CORDIER, Odoric de Pordenone,
24-25; SREZNEVKII, Klavikho, 170-171; LE STRANGE, Clavijo, 154-155 [not literal]) : « In the city,
near a square, a dry tree (un arbol seco) stands in a street, close to a house, and it is said that the
tree will become verdant [again], and that, at that time, a Christian bishop will go to that city with
a great many Christians; that he will raise up a Cross with his hand, and will convert those of the
said city to the faith in Jesus Christ. This, they say, is what a Moor Zayten, who was a sort of her-
mit, had said. They say that the people of the city were highly incensed about this and went to
fell that tree; they struck three blows with the axe on it, but those who struck had their arm broken.
The Moor who had said the [above] died a short time ago, and people say that he had said many
other things. They even say that when Tamurbec (= Tamerlane) was in the city, he sent for the
Moor, and that the Moor told him that and many other things. The said tree stands to-day there in
that street, and nobody dares approach it. » «Zayten» is supposed to represent santon, but this
would require collateral evidence. I do not see why YULE (Y², II, 103) says that « there is some hiatus »
in Clavijo's story. Clavijo's evidence, clearly independant from Odoric, corroborates the text of
the latter as to the location of the Dry Tree in Tabriz.
Of the three Dry Trees mentioned above, that of Mamre, in the Valley of Hebron, has no title
to be identified with the Dry Tree which was, so to say, at the limit of the world; it was a holy dry
tree, with much symbolism attached, but no more. In fact, the conflicting data are only those of
Odoric, who locates the Dry Tree at Tabriz, and of Polo, for whom it was somewhere in north-eastern
Ḫorasān. I think it is not impossible to account for the discrepancy.
We have seen that, according to Odoric, Tabriz was anciently called « Susis », and was the city
of the King Ahasuerus; this leaves no doubt that Odoric means Susa. « Suors » of the Acta Sancto-
rum is an erroneous reading. Jean Le Long's French translation gives « Faxis, autres dient Sussis »
(CORDIER, Odoric de Pordenone); the first form is also a mere misreading of the second, though it is
responsible for the « Faxis » => « Taxis » in Maundevile. Of course, the location of Susa at Tabriz
sounds absurd to us, but it was commonly accepted in the Middle Ages. In 1404, the author of
the Libellus de notitia orbis, who had spent part of his life in the East, speaks of « Thauris — que olim
Susis dicebatur, ubi Assuerus convivuum magnum fecit ut in libro Hester habetur » (cf. A. KERN,
in Arch. Fratr. Praedicat., VII, [1938], 117). Even Fra Mauro, whose map correctly mentions
« Susa » and « Susiana » near the Persian Gulf, has the following notice on Tabriz (cf. Zu, 46; HALL-
BERG, 521) : « Civitas magna Thauris (« Cuntas » in ZURLA and HALLBERG is a misreading of « Ciui-
tas »). questa e sul termine de persia e fo za granda tra armini de la qual teredatio (= Tiridates) ne
fo re. ma da poi presa per tamberlan (= Tamerlane) esso quanto ogni sua nobilitade. et e vulgo in
queste parte questa esser stada la citate de susi (« Fusi » in ZURLA and HALLBERG is a misreading)
dove se dixe alexandro tollese la bataia con dario. e al presente el fiol de charaisuf (= Qara-Yūsuf)
ne signor e questa e nel arminia granda ».
Apart from the identification of Tabriz with Susa, the remarkable passage in this notice is the