Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T23:47:16.581Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ART. VII.—Marco Polo's Camadi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

In my “Notes on Marco Polo's Itinerary in Southern Persia” (Journal R.A.S. 1881, p. 495) 1 expressed the opinion that the city of Camadi, where Marco Polo rested on his march from Kermān to Hormuz, was a caravanserai or village close to the city of Jīruft, and that the name might be explained as “Kahn i Muhammadī,” or “Kanemadi,” as it is pronounced in Jīruft, meaning Canal of Muhammad. Lately, while collecting some historical notes on Kermān, I found that the first part of my supposition was correct, but that my explanation of the name was wrong.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1898

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 43 note 1 This work, a history of Kermān from A.H. 443 (A.D. 1051–2) to the beginning of the seventh century of the Hijrah, is by Muḥammad B. Ibrahīm, and was written in the beginning of the seventeenth century. It frequently quotes the “Mir'āt ul Janain” of Jāf'ī, the “Tārīkh i Shāhī” of Shihāb al dīn Abū Sa'īd (also quoted by Khvājah Nāṣir al dīn Munshī Kermāuī in his “Simṭ al 'ula lil ḥaḍrat al 'ulia”: cf. British Museum Catalogue, 849a), the “Anvār al basātīn fī akhbār al salāṭīn,” and the “Tārīkh i badāyi'al azmfān fī vaqāyi'i Kermān,” by Afdal al dīn Aḥmad B. Hāmid, also known as Afḍal Kermānī. The last-mentioned author has also written the “'Iqd al 'ula lil muvaqqif ul ā'la,” which is commonly known as the “Tārīkh i Kūbenānī,” and was lithographed in Teheran A.H. 1293 (1876) from a MS. dated A.H. 649 (1251–2). The editor of the lithographed edition makes the error of ascribing to the work the year 649 as the date of its compilation, but the author states twice in the text that he wrote it at Kūbenān A.H. 584 (1188–9) for Malik Dīnār, who “had then been ruler of Kermān for eight months.”

page 44 note 1 Toghrul Shāh B. Muhammad Shāh Seljūq, King of Kermān, died at Jīruft A H. 565 (1169–70), and left four sons, Tūrān Shah, Bahrām Shah, Arslān Shāh, and Turkān Shāh, who immediately after their father's death fought with one another for the throne. Turān and Bahrām had the same mother, Khutun Ruknī, a Seljuq princess, who died A H. 577 (1181). Tūran was killed in 579 (1183), in Kermān, by Zānr Muhammad, one of Atābeg Qutb al dīn Muhammad's (d. 22nd November, 1186) officers; Bahrām died A H. 570 (1174–5), of dropsy, and Arslān met his death A.H. 572 (1176–7) in an engagement against the Turkish Amīr Aibek. Turkān was killed by his brother Bahrām in 565 (1170). The last of the Kermān Seljūqs was Bahrām Shah's son Muhammad Shah, who succeeded to the throne in 1183, and fled to the Ghurīs in 1187 on the arrival of Malik Dīnār.

Atabeg Qutb al dīn Muhammad, who is mentioned in connection with Tūrān Shah's death, was one of those powerful Mamluks who were always ready to fight for any pretendei to the throne who paid them He was the son of Atabeg 'Aid al dīn Bozgūsh, and on entering Bahram's service was appointed Governoi of Bardsīr, a district in Northern Kermān He left Bahrām Shah soon afterwaids, and took service with Arslān Shāh, who appointed him his Atābeg. In 569 (1173–4) he again went over to Bahrām, and helped him to put Arslān to flight. He then served Atābeg Zangī of Fārs, and after that ruler's death in 571 remained some time with Tuqlah the son of Zangi, until he was forced to leave Fārs and went to Nishāpūr, where Tughān Shah B Muayyid protected him In 578 (1182) he was called to Kermān by Turān Shāh, and restored order in the capital and provinces, but in the following year, during his absence from the capital, his lieutenant Zāfir Muhammad having killed Tūrān Shāh, probably at his command, he placed Muhammad Shah, the son of Bahiam, on the throne, and remained in the service of that king until his death, which took place in Bardsīr on November 22, 1186 (8th Ramadan, 582).

page 44 note 2 Malik Muayyid, also called Al Muayyid Aibek, was a Mamlūk in the service of the Seljūqs. In 1159 he drove the Ghozz out of Khurasan, and then settled at Nishapūr, where he built the suburb Shahr i Muayyidī. For some years he was Governor-General of all Khurasān, nominally for the Seljuqs, but in reality he was serving Atabeg Ildegez, of Azarbaījān (d. A H. 568 = 1172). In 1174 he was killed by Takash Khān Khvārazm Shāh, and was succeeded by his son Tughān Shāh.

page 45 note 1 Sābiq al dīn 'Ali Sabl was Governor of Bamm until 1190, when, on the approach of Malik Dīnār the Ghozz prince, he fled to Sīstān. Malik Dīnār, a chief of the Ghozz Turkomans, took part in the engagement against Sulṭān Sanjār (b. April 17, 1086; d. February 12, 1157) in the year 1153, which led to Sanjār's capture, and resided in the Marv district until 568 (1172–3), when he was driven out of it by Sulṭān Shāh Khvārazm Shāh. He reached Nishāpūr soon afterwards, and placed himself under the protection of Tughān Shāh, the son of Malik Muayyid, to whom he handed over Sarakhs, the last of his possessions. After Sulṭān Shāh had taken Sarakhs, Tughān Shāh was no longer able to protect Malik Dīnār, and advised him to leave. After some wanderings in the districts between Nishāpūr and Kermān, Malik Dīnār reached Kermān territory (17th December, 1185), was soon after joined by Sābiq al dīn 'Ali Sahl and others, put Muḥammad Shāh, the last of the Seljtūqs of Kermān, to flight, took possession of the capital (11th September, 1187), and ruled over all Kermān until his death (16th October, 1195). His son Ferrukh Shāh succeeded him, and died the following year. After that Kermān fell into the hands of the Khvārazm Shāhs.

page 45 note 2 This means that since a.h. 565 (1170), in consequence of the disorders in Jīruft and the districts north of Hormūz, the great trading caravans from 'Irāq (i.e. Baghdād) and the West had ceased to proceed to Hormūz, and went to the port of Tīz, further east on the Makrān coast, probably taking the road Shīrāz-Kermān-Bamm-Bampūr; and that in 1190, when Malik Dīnār had restored order in the districts, the caravans again took the old road to Hormūz. The of the text, which Dr. Houtsma was unable to read, is , “thaghar i tīz,” the usual appellation of the city or port of Tīz, where thaghar stands for “frontier” or “narrow pass or gap” in hills; and as Tīz was situated in a narrow gap, I would prefer the reading “the gap of Tīz.” (Cf. Holdich's, Colonel T. H.Notes on Ancient and Mediaeval Makrān,” Journal R.G.S., 04, 1896Google Scholar:—“Tīz, the great Arab port on the Makrān coast, now a well-known coast village. …a few miles from Charbar point. …coarse conglomerate hills, which conceal among them a narrow valley, containing all that is left of the ancient port of Tīz. …little Persian fort perched on the rocks and absolutely blocking the entrance to the valley. …the valley ia narrow and close, and the ruins of Tīz are packed close together. …the rocky cliffs on either side of the valley. …the rocky declivities which hedge in this remarkable site.”) Tīz, also Tīs and Tīzh, is Ptolemy's Τεῖσα. The ruins of the ancient city are situated about 1½ mile inland from Tīz point and the modern village of Tīz, and from the ruins to Chāhbār point is a distance of 4½ miles. Chāhbār, which figures in older maps as Shāhbār and in modern Persian works as Chāh i bahār (Charbar is a rank cockneyism), has been identified as the Τάλμενα of Arrian (Ind., 29), where Nearchos “found a harbour with good anchorage,” and Tomaschek, (“Küstenfahrt Nearch's,” p. 34Google Scholar; Wien, 1890) proposes the reading [εῖσ]α λ[ɩ]μένα, “the port of Tīz,” instead of Talmena. According to Tabari, Tīz was taken by the Arabs a.h. 23 (624). The Tārīkh i Kūbenānī describes Tīz as follows:—“Another notable place in the kingdom of Kermān is the Thaghar i Tīz, whence the King's treasury derives a great revenue from tenths on merchandize and tolls on shipping. It is the emporium of the merchants from India, Abyssinia, Southern Africa, Egypt, and the Arab country from 'Omān to Baḥrain. All those merchants pay tolls there, and all the musk, ambergris, indigo, logwood, Indian aromatics, slaves from India and Africa, fine velvets, shawls, and sashes, and like rarities which the world produces, have their market at this port. Contiguous to Tīz is the country of Makrān, producing much sugar and sugar-candy, which is exported thence to all the lands of the unbelievers and Islām.” The modern Persians took possession of Tīz in 1865, and some years afterwards built there the little fort which Colonel Holdich mentions as commanding the entrance of the valley or gap. (Cf. my “Persian Balūchistān”: J.R.A.S. 1877, p. 153.)

page 46 note 1 Of sixteen MSS. of Marco Polo's work in French, Latin, and Italian, fifteen have ‘a’ in the first syllable of the word; only one has ‘o.’ It is difficult to say what the meaning of Qumādīn or Qamādīn may be. Arabic lexica have qumud, qumudd, qamadd, “strong, hard, of a large body or weight.” Yule asked, “May Camadi represent some vague appellation of ancient ruined cities?” Ferrier asked the name of some great mounds and ruins on the lower Hilmand, and was told that they were the remains of the old city of Homedin. H. D. Seymour, editor of Ferrier's work, refers to Firdūsi's Khamdan (Ferrier, J. P., “Caravan Journeys,” p. 411Google Scholar; London, 1857).