Marco Polo in Central Asia: 13:

At the bottom of this descent is a very extensive plain, at the commencement of which is city named Camandu, [1] once wonderfully great and noble, but now much declined, because the Tartars have repeatedly plundered it. It is a place of extreme heat.  The province is called Reobarle.[2] Its fruits are dates, pistachio nuts, apples of paradise, and others which do not grow in our country. Here are a species of birds called francolin, which are different from those of other lands, their colour being a mixture of black and white, while the beak and feet are red.  The oxen are very large, and white as snow, and their hair very smooth in consequence of heat.  Between their shoulders is a hump, two palms high, and their appearance is the most beautiful of any in the world.  When the owner wishes to load them, they bend down as camels do, and after receiving their burden, rise and bear it well.  There are sheep as large as asses, and with the tails so thick and broad as to weigh full thirty pounds.  
They are also fat and make excellent food.  The people have castles and cities surrounded by walls of earth, in order to defend themselves against the Caraunas, a mixed race of Indians and Tartars.  When these people wish to overrun a country and rob it, they by their enchantments and diabolical agency cause the day become darker, so that you can see a little or no distance, and this darkness they make to last seven days.  They know the places so well, that they can ride during the thickest of it, and they are sometimes ten thousand in number, so that nothing found on the plain, man, beast, or anything can escape.  They kill the old persons, and carry off the young to sell them as slaves. Their king is called Nogodar [2] and he went to the court of Ciagatai, who was the brother of great Khan, with 10000 men, and remained with him, because his uncle was  very powerful.  During this day, Nagodar committed a great wickedness, and I will tell you what it is.  He departed from his uncle Ciagatai, who was in Great Armenia, and took with him 10000 men, who were very cruel, and marched by Badasian, [4 ]and through a province called Pasciai and another called Chesciemur, losing many of his people and beasts, because the roads were very narrow and bad, and when they had passed all these provinces, they entered into India on the boarders of Dilivar. [5] They came to the city of the same name, and took it from a king called Asidiu Sultan, who was very great and rich.  There Nagodar, with his people, continues to rule and makes war with all other Tartars, who dwell in the surrounding country.  Having told you of this plain, and of the people who produced darkness in order to rob, I must also mention that Messer Marco himself was taken by them amid the gloom, but though a number of his companions were captured, and either killed or sold as slaves, he himself escaped to a castle named Canosalmi. [6]

Notes:-
1. Camandu: Modern city of Bam in Kerman province, Iran.  Bam was famous for its textiles and clothes. Ibn Hawqal an Arab traveller and geographer of 10th century wrote about its long lasting cotton clothes which were sold in Khorasan, Iraq and Egypt.
2. The province Reobarle is  Rafsanjan, one of the largest producers of Pistachio nuts.
3. King Nogodar: Must have been a chief of the mixed race.
4. Probably Badakshan, one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
5. Deylaman is a city of Deylaman district of Iran.
6. Khansar is a city in Isfahan province of Iran.

End of the Section 

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