Classics Retold

Now, I am to tell you of a great miracle, which happened between Baldach and Mosul in the year 1225.  A Caliph in Baldach very much hated Christians, as it is natural to all Saracens.  He thought day and night how he could compel all his subjects to convert into his faith.  Many others concurred in that wicked purpose and they agreed upon his plan.  They found in the gospel a text saying that if a Christian had as much faith as a grain of mustard seed and made his prayer to God, he would be able to join two mountains together.  On finding this text, they felt great joy, thinking they had thus either a means of converting them or a pretext for killing them.  He therefore sent for all the Jacobite and Nestorian believers in his country, who were very numerous; and when they came before him, he showed them this gospel, and made them read it, and asked them if it were true.  They replied that it was so.  Then continued the Caliph, since so many Christ...

Toris [*]is a great city, in a province called Yarc, containing many towns and castles; but as this is the chief I will tell you about it. The men live by merchandise, and by fabricating fine clothes of silk and gold. The place is so well situated that the merchants proceed from here to Hind, Baldach, Mosul Cremosor and many other places.[1] The Latin traffickers come to those of strange countries, from whom they purchase precious pearls and other valuable articles.  The men are of indifferent character and very mixed origin - Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians and Mohammedans.  The inhabitants of the city are called Taurisians.  Around it are very fine gardens full of fruits and vegetables. The Saracens are most wicked and disloyal.  They maintain that whatever is robbed or plundered from men of a different creed is justly acquired; while they regard as martyrs those of their own sect who die by the hands of Christians.  If, therefore they we...

At this place dwelt Caliph, the chief prelate of Saracens in the world, as the Pope is at Rome. Through the middle of it flows a very large river, by which you can proceed to the sea of Hind, where merchants go and come with their goods.  From Baldach [1] to the ocean by the stream is a voyage of eighteen days.  The merchants going to Hind sail down that river to a place named Chisi [2] and then enter the sea of Hind. [3] Between Baldach and Chisi is a great city named Basera.[4]  The woods around that city yield the finest dates.  In Basera we get fine clothes of silk and gold with pictures of birds and beasts. It is the great and noble city in the region.  The Caliph is found to possess abundant treasure in gold, silver, and precious stones, that ever was in the possession of man; and I will tell you how it happened.  In the year of our Lord, 1255, the great sire of the Tartars, named Alau, brother to the great sire that now reigns, assembled a very large...

Mosul is a great kingdom on the eastern boarder of Armenia, and inhabited by various denominations of men, whom I will now describe. There is a race called Arabic, who adore Mohammed; also another, who hold the Christian law; but not as the church of Rome commands; they err in many things.  They are denominated Nestorian and Jacobite and have patriarch named Jatolior, who makes Archbishops, bishops, abbots, and other clergy, and send them to all parts of Baghdad, India, and Cathay, as pope does from Rome.  All the christians in those parts are of this sect; and all the cloths of silk and gold, which are called mouslin, are made there.  The great merchants who are called mouslin, and bring the largest quantity of all costly spices, are of this kingdom.  Among its mountains are people called kurds, who are Nestorians, and Jacobite christians, but some are Saracens, and respect Mohammed.  They are overbearing and wicked people, ever ready to rob the merchants....

In Georgia a king is always called David Melik, meaning David the king. He is subject to the Tartars; all the monarchs of this province were born with the mark of an eagle on their left shoulders.  They are handsome people, good archers, and valiant in battle.  They are Christians of Greek church, and wear their hair close shaven in the manner of clergy.  This is the province which Alexander could not pass through on account of the narrowness of the path, because on one side is the sea, and on the other very high mountains, over which it is impossible to ride, and this strait continues above four leagues,[1] a few men might hold out against the whole world.  This was the reason why he could not pass; but he built a very strong tower, that no one might come upon him from the other side, and it is called Iron Gate.  This is the place mentioned in the book of Alexander, where he enclosed the Tartars within their mountains.  Though the Tartars did not exist at ...

Armenia greater is a large country, and at the centre of it is Arzinga [1] in which is made the best buckram in the world.  There are several baths of warm spring water, the best and beautiful anywhere to be found.  There are many castles, and cities among which the noblest is Arzinga, the seat of an archbishop, and the metropolis of the whole district.  There are also Argiron, and Darzizi [3] Arzinga is very large, and during the summer all Tartars of Levent live here, with their flocks and herds live here on account of rich pastures; but in winter they cannot remain because of the severe cold and snow.  Now, in this Armenia is the ark of Noah, on a great mountain.  The circuit of its base cannot be traversed in less than two days, and the ascent is rendered impracticable by the snow on its summit, which never dissolves, but is increased by each successive falls.  On the lower declivities, the melted snows cause abundance of vegetation, and afford rich pas...

In Turcomania, there are people of three distinct ethnic origins.  The Turcomans adore Mohammad and are simple people, speaking a very rude language.  They live amid mountains and valleys, where there is good pastures for cattle by which they subsist. They rear excellent horses and mules of great value.  Two other peoples are Armenians and Greeks, who dwell mingled in cities, and subsist by merchandise and manufactures.  They work carpets and crimson silk, richest and most beautiful in the whole world.  They have many towns of which, the principal are Como, Casserie and Sevasto.  They are subject to the eastern Tartars.  Now, let us leave them and speak of Armenia the Greater. Note:- The exact location of the towns mentioned are not known. However, when we look at Google Maps, we see Como as a province in Italy and Sevastopol in Ukraine. End of 2