Marco Polo in Central Asia: 32: The Province of Pein [1]


Updated on 22/02/25

Pein is a Province, 5 days' journey in length between northeast and east.  The people adore Mohammed, and are subject to the great Khan, and have a number of towns and castles.  The noblest city and capital is Kunar. Here is a river in which are found the stones named jasper and chalcedony [2] The people are very well supplied with necessaries.  They grow a good deal of silk.  They live by merchandise and art. They have a peculiar custom:  When a woman has a husband who has gone on journey, and is to be absent above twenty days, as soon as he has departed, she takes another partner, being fully allowed by usage to do so; while husband, in the place where he goes, takes another wife.[3]  All the provinces from Cascar to kunar and further on belong to Great Turkey.  Now, let us tell of a province named Ciarcian.

End of the Section 






1. Pein: Likely Kunar Province, one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.  It is located in the northeastern part of Afghanistan. The direction and distance given by Marcopolo is not correct.  It is a rugged region along Pakistan Afghanistan boarder. Asadabad is the capital of Kunar Province. Interestingly, there is a town called Kerala in Asadabad.

2. Jasper and Calcedony:  A kind of opaque impure silica, usually red, brown, yellow or green colour, and rarely blue. It is used decorating ornaments. It is used for making vases, seals and snuff boxes.

Chalcedony is a type of quartz. It has a fibrous texture and is often found in brown overlays. It is durable and used in jewellery. It may be in white, blue, red, green, yellow, orange, brown, pink etc.

3. This custom of taking another man by the wife and vice-versa was not unique to Kunar Province only. It is a form of seasonal polyandry or polygyny.  Similar customs have been documented in various cultures around world, particularly in societies where trade, travel and seasonal migrations were common. As a medieval European Marco Polo was steeped in a culture that placed a high value on chastity and virginity.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

( 16 )CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 16: I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE

Next morning, after breakfast, I entered on school life again.  I went, accompanied by Mr Wickfield to the scene of my future studies- a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that suited very well to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral tower to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass plot - and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong. Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urn that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of red brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles for Time to play at.  Doctor Strong was in his library, with his clothes not particularly well brushed, and his hair not particularly combed, his knee-small unbraced, his long black gaiters unbuttoned, and his shoes  yawning like two caverns on the hearth-rug.  Turning upon me a lustreless eye, t...
Read more

Sailing Around Erethraean Sea: Three

Updated 29/11/2024 Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on the shore after sailing about four thousand stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of Hunts, from which the hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of Ptolemies. This market town has true land to rtoise in small quantities; it is white and smaller in the shells. And here also is found a little ivory, like that of Adulis. But the place has no harbour, and is reached by small boats. 1. Calf-Eaters: Cattle rearing nomadic tribes. 2. Stadia is the plural of stadion. Ten  stadia= one mile. 3. Ptolemais of Hunts: Ptolemies Theron is the exact Greek term,  located at the Bay of Anfile or Amphila Bay on the coast of Eritrea. Facing the bay is Hando island. It is, in fact, a double bay, an inner bay within, between promontories M'edr and Lelisa. End of the Section 
Read more

Travels Of Marco Polo: Thirty

Now, let me tell of the beasts which his Majesty keeps for hunting.  Among these are Leopards and lynxes or stag-wolves well fitted for that purpose.  He has also many lions larger than those of Babylon of a beautiful hair and colour, striped length ways black red and white, and trained to catch stags, wild oxen, hogs, wild goats and asses; it is delightful to see one of these chases, where the hunters go out, carrying the lion in a cage, and with him a small dog.  They have likewise abundance of eagles, with which they capture hares, foxes and even wolves; those which are trained to catch these last are very large, and of great weight, so that no wolf can escape them. ____________________________________ 1. The lion here described by the author is manifestly the tiger. It is probable that tiger was unknown in Europe when Marco left, he might have viewed it as a variety of lion. 2. Lion and tigers are wild animals and cannot be domesticated. Still human societies used to ...
Read more