国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

have here the name of the people of Mosul; perhaps they owed it to their commercial activities
abroad that they were widely known in the West, and that may be the reason why they are given
a special mention in the Papal documents.

290. MULECTE

melete LT mulecte F, L mulette FA, FB
milect F mulehet R muleze V
milicie TA¹, TA³ mulete P; G mulhee Z
mollete VA muleto, nulleto VB nilicie (?) TA³

Although, with the exception of « Horiat », I find no case in Polo's nomenclature when h is
used alone, and not in the combinations ch, gh, or th, the form « Mulehet » of R is so good that
I might well have adopted it. It is already in Y, I, 139, and is accepted in RR, 49 (the name has
been dropped accidentally from the Index). Prof. BENEDETTO (B¹, 445) writes « Muleete » and
adds « not identified; the conjectures proposed until now have no sufficient foundation ». «Muleete »
is not bad in itself, but I cannot understand the remark that follows. There is not the slightest
doubt that Polo's « Mulehet », as before him Rubrouck's « Mulihet » (so we must read in Wy, I,
210, 287, despite QUATREMÈRE and ROCKHILL) and King Hethum's « Mulhed » (Br, I, 171), and
even probably after him, Odoric's distorted « Millistorte » (Wy, I, 488), represent the name constantly
given to the Ismailians by Mussulman writers of the time, ملحد mulḥid, pl. ملاحدة mulāḥidah,
« heretic »; Benjamin of Tudela writes « Mōlahât » (Mém. Ac. des Inscr., IV [1818], 23); the Geor-
gians write « Mulid » (BROSSET, Hist. de la Géorgie, I, I, 511, 530); Kirakos gives in Armenian « Mela-
hid » (PATKANOV, Ist. Mongolov, II, 8, 113); the equivalence has already been proposed by QUA-
TREMÈRE (Hist. des Mong., 122), PAUTHIER (Pa, 97), YULE (Y, I, 141-142).

This name is the only one under which the Chinese texts know the Ismailians, although it is
written in different ways (they do not know « Asciscin », q. v.; see also « Viel de la montagne »);
and, like Polo, they make it the name of the country. The main texts are :

1° (Shêng-wu ch'in-chêng lu, ed. Wang Kouo-wei, 62) : In jên-wu (1222), « the Emperor
(= Chinghiz-khan) sent an envoy to instruct the fourth prince (= Tolui) to come back quickly;
as he had to pass through the kingdom of 木剌奚 Mu-la-hsi (Mulāḥidah), he devastated it greatly »
(cf. Br, I, 292, where « Mu-la-di » is a misprint for « Mu-la-hi »).

2° (YS, 1, 9 a) : In jên-wu (1222), the Imperial Prince Tolui, « on coming back passed through
the kingdom of 木剌夷 Mu-la-yi (Mulāḥidah) and devastated it greatly ».

3° (YS, 2, 1 a) : In the first year [of T'ai-tsung, Ögödäi] (1231), « the chief of the kingdom of
Yin-tu (India) and the chief of the kingdom of 木羅夷, Mu-lo-yi (Mulūḥidah) came and rendered
homage to the Court ».