- Ricold of Montecroce, a contemporary of Polo, calls the Turkmans
homines bestiales. In our day Ainsworth notes of a Turkman village: "The
dogs were very ferocious;... the people only a little better." (J. R. G.
S. X. 292.) The ill report of the people of this region did not begin
with the Turkmans, for the Emperor Constantine Porphyrog. quotes a Greek
proverb to the disparagement of the three kappas, Cappadocia, Crete, and
Cilicia. (In Bandurit I. 6.)
NOTE 2. - In Turcomania Marco perhaps embraces a great part of Asia Minor,
but he especially means the territory of the decaying Seljukian monarchy,
usually then called by Asiatics Rum, as the Ottoman Empire is now, and
the capital of which was Iconium, KUNIYAH, the Conia of the text, and
Coyne of Joinville. Ibn Batuta calls the whole country Turkey
(Al-Turkiyah), and the people Turkman; exactly likewise does Ricold
(Thurchia and Thurchimanni). Hayton's account of the various classes
of inhabitants is quite the same in substance as Polo's. [The Turkmans
emigrated from Turkestan to Asia Minor before the arrival of the Seljukid
Turks. "Their villages," says Cuinet, Turquie d'Asie, II. p. 767, "are
distinguished by the peculiarity of the houses being built of sun-baked
bricks, whereas it is the general habit in the country to build them of
earth or a kind of plaster, called djes" - H. C.] The migratory and
pastoral Turkmans still exist in this region, but the Kurds of like habits
have taken their place to a large extent. The fine carpets and silk
fabrics appear to be no longer produced here, any more than the excellent
horses of which Polo speaks, which must have been the remains of the
famous old breed of Cappadocia. [It appears, however (Vital Cuinet's
Turquie d'Asie, I. p. 224), that fine carpets are still manufactured at
Koniah, also a kind of striped cotton cloth, called Aladja. - H. C.]
A grant of privileges to the Genoese by Leon II., King of Lesser Armenia,
dated 23rd December, 1288, alludes to the export of horses and mules,
etc., from Ayas, and specifies the duties upon them. The horses now of
repute in Asia as Turkman come from the east of the Caspian. And Asia
Minor generally, once the mother of so many breeds of high repute, is now
poorer in horses than any province of the Ottoman empire.
(Pereg. Quat. p. 114; I.B. II. 255 seqq.; Hayton, ch. xiii.; Liber
Jurium Reip. Januensis, II. 184; Tchihatcheff, As. Min., 2'de partie,
631.)
[The Seljukian Sultanate of Iconium or Rum, was founded at the expense of
the Byzantines by Suleiman (1074-1081); the last three sovereigns of the
dynasty contemporaneous with Marco Polo are Ghiath ed-din Kaikhosru III.
(1267-1283), Ghiath ed-din Mas'ud II. (1283-1294), Ala ed-din Kaikobad
III. (1294-1308), when this kingdom was destroyed by the Mongols of
Persia. Privileges had been granted to Venice by Ghiath ed-din Kaikhosru
I. (+ 1211), and his sons Izz ed-din Kaikaua (1211-1220), and Ala ed-din
Kaikobad I. (1220-1237); the diploma of 1220 is unfortunately the only one
of the three known to be preserved. (Cf. Heyd, I. p. 302.) - H. C.]
Though the authors quoted above seem to make no distinction between Turks
and Turkmans, that which we still understand does appear to have been made
in the 12th century: "That there may be some distinction, at least in
name, between those who made themselves a king, and thus achieved such
glory, and those who still abide in their primitive barbarism and adhere
to their old way of life, the former are nowadays termed Turks, the
latter by their old name of Turkomans." (William of Tyre, i. 7.)
Casaria is KAISARIYA, the ancient Caesareia of Cappadocia, close to the
foot of the great Mount Argaeus. Savast is the Armenian form (Sevasd)
of Sebaste, the modern SIVAS. The three cities, Iconium, Caesareia, and
Sebaste, were metropolitan sees under the Catholicos of Sis.
[The ruins of Sebaste are situated at about 6 miles to the east of modern
Sivas, near the village of Gavraz, on the Kizil Irmak. In the 11th
century, the King of Armenia, Senecherim, made his capital of Sebaste. It
belonged after to the Seljukid Turks, and was conquered in 1397 by Bayezid
Ilderim with Tokat, Castambol and Sinope. (Cf. Vital Cuinet.)
One of the oldest churches in Sivas is St. George (Sourp-Kevork),
occupied by the Greeks, but claimed by the Armenians; it is situated near
the centre of the town, in what is called the "Black Earth," the spot
where Timur is said to have massacred the garrison. A few steps north of
St. George is the Church of St. Blasius, occupied by the Roman Catholic
Armenians. The tomb of St. Blasius, however, is shown in another part of
the town, near the citadel mount, and the ruins of a very beautiful
Seljukian Medresseh. (From a MS. Note by Sir H. Yule. The information had
been supplied by the American Missionaries to General Sir C. Wilson, and
forwarded by him to Sir H. Yule.)
It must be remembered that at the time of the Seljuk Turks, there were
four Medressehs at Sivas, and a university as famous as that of Amassia.
Children to the number of 1000, each a bearer of a copy of the Koran, were
crushed to death under the feet of the horses of Timur, and buried in the
"Black Earth"; the garrison of 4000 soldiers were buried alive.
St. Blasius, Bishop of Sebaste, was martyred in 316 by order of Agricola,
Governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, during the reign of Licinius.
His feast is celebrated by the Latin Church on the 3rd of February, and by
the Greek Church on the 11th of February. He is the patron of the Republic
of Ragusa in Dalmatia, and in France of wool-carders.