Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume I.
complete book, e-book

Nové Literární doupě!

Literární doupě bylo modernizováno a přechází pod novou doménu literdo.com!.

Nový web LD vám přínáší ještě více knih s možností výhodného stahování většího množství e-knih podle vlastního výběru (tedy nejen jednotlivých knih nebo balíčků podle autorů) ve formátech ePub , PDF  a MOBI.

 Přejít na nový web Literární doupě

 

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OF A PROVINCE CALLED COTAN.

Cotan is a province lying between north-east and east, and is eight days' journey in length. The people are subject to the Great Kaan,[NOTE 1] and are all worshippers of Mahommet.[NOTE 2] There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of all, and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there in plenty, including abundance of cotton, [with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like]. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.—[The Buddhist Government of Khotan was destroyed by Boghra Khân (about 980-990); it was temporarily restored by the Buddhist Kutchluk Khân, chief of the Naimans, who came from the banks of the Ili, destroyed the Mahomedan dynasty of Boghra Khân (1209), but was in his turn subjugated by Chinghiz Khan.

The only Christian monument discovered in Khotan is a bronze cross brought back by Grenard (III. pp. 134-135); see also Devéria, Notes d'Epigraphie Mongole, p. 80.—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—"Aourent Mahommet". Though this is Marco's usual formula to define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it literally. But in other cases it was very literally interpreted. Thus in Baudouin de Sebourc, the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate lady who renounces her faith before Saladin, says:—

  "'Et je renoië Dieu, et le pooir qu'il a;
  Et Marie, sa Mere, qu'on dist qui le porta;
  Mahom voel aourer, aportez-le-moi cha!'
    * * * * Li Soudans commanda
  Qu'on aportast Mahom; et celle l'aoura." (I. p. 72.)

The same romance brings in the story of the Stone of Samarkand, adapted from ch. xxxiv., and accounts for its sanctity in Saracen eyes because it had long formed a pedestal for Mahound!

And this notion gave rise to the use of Mawmet for an idol in general; whilst from the Mahommerie or place of Islamite worship the name of mummery came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both very unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in Richard Coeur de Lion:

  "Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe,
  And her Mawmettes lete downe drawe." (Weber, II. 228.)

So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship of Calicut, "an image of Mahomed" (372). Don Quixote too, who ought to have known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in carrying off, in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.

NOTE 3.—800 li (160 miles) east of Chokiuka or Yarkand, Hiuen Tsang comes to Kiustanna (Kustána) or KHOTAN. "The country chiefly consists of plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder, however, is favourable to agriculture, and produces everything abundantly. From this country are got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black jade." Chinese authors of the 10th (...)

(......)