Chapter VII.

A DESCRIPTION OF ARMENIA THE LESSER; OF THE COUNTRY OF THE TURKS; OF ARMENIA THE GREATER; OF THE PROVINCE OF ZORZANIA, THE KINGDOM OF MOSUL; OF THE CITY OF BALDACH OR BAGDAT; OF THE CITY OF TAURIS; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE EARTHQUAKE.

There are two Armenias, the Greater and the Less. In the Lesser Armenia the ting resides, in a city called Sebaste, and in all his country is observed justice and good government. The kingdom itself hath many cities, fortresses, and castles; the soil also is fertile, and the country abounds with everything necessary, nor is there any want of game or wild-fowl; the air indeed is not very good. The gentlemen of Armenia, in times past, were stout men and good soldiers, but are become now effeminate and nice, giving themselves up to drunkenness and riot. There is a certain city in this kingdom seated near the sea, which is called Giazza, having an excellent haven, whither merchants resort from divers countries, and even from Venice and Genoa, on account of several sorts of merchandise brought thither, especially spices of sundry kinds, and abundance of other valuable goods brought thither out of the east countries; for this place is, as it were, the settled mart of all the east.

In Turcomania are three sorts of nations, viz., the Turcomans or Turkmen, who observe the law of Mohammed. They are men illiterate, rude, and savage, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places, where they can find pastures; for they live only by their cattle. There are good horses in this country, which are called Turkish horses; mules are also in that country of great estimation. The other nations are Grecians and Armenians, who possess the cities and towns, and bestow their labour on merchandise and arts. They make the best carpets in the world, and they have many cities, the chief whereof are Cogno, Iconium, Cæsarea, and Sebaste, where St. Basil suffered martyrdom for Christ, and they acknowledged one of the Khans, kings of the Tartars, for their lord.

Armenia the Greater is a very large province, tributary to the Tartars, and hath many cities and towns, the chief city whereof is called Arzugia, and the best buckram in the world is made there. Most wholesome hot waters also spring there for the washing and curing of men’s bodies; and the other more famous cities next to the metropolis are Argiron and Darziz. In the summer time many Tartars resort there with their flocks and herds, drawn thither by the fatness of their pastures; and again in the winter depart for a certain time, by reason of the abundance of snow. The Ark of Noah remained in the mountains of this Armenia.

This country hath the province of Moxul and Meridin bordering on the east; but on the north is Zorzania, in the confines of which a fountain is found, from which a liquor like oil flows, and though unprofitable for the seasoning of meat, yet is very fit for the supplying of lamps, and to anoint other things; and this natural oil flows constantly, and that in plenty enough to lade camels. In Zorzania is a king called David Melic, or King David; one part of the province is subject unto him, the other pays tribute to a Khan of the Tartars. The woods there are of box-trees. The country extends to the two seas, Marmaggiore, or the Euxine, and that of Baccu, or the Caspian, which containeth in circuit two thousand eight hundred miles, and is like a lake having no communication with other seas. In it are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which are inhabited by those that fled from the Tartars out of Persia.

The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with other Christians. They keep their hair short like the western clergy; the inhabitants have many cities, and their country abounds with silk, of which they make very fine manufactures. Moxul is a province in which there are many sorts of people: some called Arabians, are Mohammedans, others are Christians, some Nestorians, others Jacobites, and others Armenians; and they have a patriarch called Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots, and sends them through all parts of India, and to Cairo and Baldach, or Bagdat, and wherever Christians dwell, as is done by the Pope of Rome; and all the stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are wrought in Moxul.

But in the mountains of this kingdom dwell the people called Curdi, of whom some are Nestorians, others Jacobites, and some followers of Mohammed; they are wicked men, and rob merchants. Near to them is another province called Mus, or Meridin, wherein grow great quantities of cotton, whereof they make buckrams, and other works; they are subject to the Tartars. Baldach, or Bagdat, is a great city, in which resided the great Khaliff, that is the Pope of all the Saracens; a river runs through it, from whence to the sea is accounted seventeen days’ journey. They sail by a city called Chisi; but before they reach the sea they come to Balsora, about which grow the best dates in the world. In Baldach, or Bagdat, are many manufactures of gold and silk. There are wrought damasks and velvets, with figures of various creatures: all the pearls in Christendom come from thence. In that city is an university, where is studied the law of Mohammed, physic, astronomy, and geomancy. It is the chief city in those parts.

When the Tartars began to extend their conquests there were four brethren, the eldest of which, Mangu, reigned in Sedia. These purposiug to subdue the world, went one to the east, another to the north, to the south a third, which was Ulan, and the other to the west. In the year of Our Lord 1250, Ulan, having a great army of one hundred thousand horse, besides foot, used policy, and having hid a great part of his men, brought, by pretending flight, the Khaliff into his ambuscade, and took him and the city, in which he found infinite store of treasure, insomuch that he was amazed. He sent for the Khaliff and reproved him, that in that war he had not provided himself with soldiers for defence, and commanded that he should be enclosed in that tower where his treasure was, without other sustenance.

This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ on him; for in the year 1225, seeking to convert the Christians to the Mohammedan religion, and taking advantage from that place of the Gospel, “That he which hath faith, as the grain of mustard-seed, shall be able to remove mountains,” he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and Jacobites, and propounded to them in ten days to remove a certain mountain, or turn Mohammedans, or be slain, as not having one man amongst them which had the least faith. They therefore continued eight days in prayer, after which a certain shoemaker, in consequence of a revelation made to a certain bishop, was fixed upon to perform it. This shoemaker, once tempted to lust by sight of a young woman in putting on her shoe, zealously had fulfilled that of the Gospel, and literally had put out his right eye. He now on the day appointed, with other Christians, followed the cross, and lifting his hands to heaven, prayed to God to have mercy on his people, and then with a loud voice commanded the mountain in the name of the Holy Trinity to remove; which presently, with great terror to the Khaliff and all his people, was effected, and that day is since kept holy by fasting, also on the evening before it.