(Tavern. Bk. III. ch. iii.; J. R. G. S. X. 897; Pereg. Quat. p. 179;
Khanikoff, 15; Moorcroft, II. 382; J. R. G. S. III. 40 seqq.)
Ramusio has: "In this province there is a fine city called TIFLIS, and
round about it are many castles and walled villages. It is inhabited by
Christians, Armenians, Georgians, and some Saracens and Jews, but not
many."
NOTE 7. - The name assigned by Marco to the Caspian, "Mer de Gheluchelan"
or "Ghelachelan," has puzzled commentators. I have no doubt that the
interpretation adopted above is the correct one. I suppose that Marco said
that the sea was called "La Mer de Ghel ou (de) Ghelan," a name taken from
the districts of the ancient Gelae on its south-western shores, called
indifferently Gil or Gilan, just as many other regions of Asia have
like duplicate titles (singular and plural), arising, I suppose, from the
change of a gentile into a local name. Such are Lar, Laran, Khutl,
Khutlan, etc., a class to which Badakhshan, Wakhan, Shaghnan, Mungan,
Chag-hanian, possibly Bamian, and many others have formerly belonged, as
the adjectives in some cases surviving, Badakhshi, Shaghni, Wakhi, etc.,
show[2] The change exemplified in the induration of these gentile
plurals into local singulars is everywhere traced in the passage from
earlier to later geography. The old Indian geographical lists, such as are
preserved in the Puranas, and in Pliny's extracts from Megasthenes, are,
in the main, lists of peoples, not of provinces, and even where the real
name seems to be local a gentile form is often given. So also Tochari
and Sogdi are replaced by Tokharistan and Sughd; the Veneti and
Taurini by Venice and Turin; the Remi and the Parisii, by Rheims and
Paris; East-Saxons and South-Saxons by Essex and Sussex; not to
mention the countless -ings that mark the tribal settlement of the
Saxons in Britain.
Abulfeda, speaking of this territory, uses exactly Polo's phrase, saying
that the districts in question are properly called Kil-o-Kilan, but by
the Arabs Jil-o-Jilan. Teixeira gives the Persian name of the sea as
Darya Ghilani. (See Abulf. in Buesching, v. 329.)
[The province of Gil (Gilan), which is situated between the mountains and
the Caspian Sea, and between the provinces of Azerbaijan and Mazanderan
(H. C.)], gave name to the silk for which it was and is still famous,
mentioned as Ghelle (Gili) at the end of this chapter. This Seta
Ghella is mentioned also by Pegolotti (pp. 212, 238, 301), and by Uzzano,
with an odd transposition, as Seta Leggi, along with Seta Masandroni,
i.e. from the adjoining province of Mazanderan (p. 192). May not the
Spanish Geliz, "a silk-dealer," which seems to have been a puzzle to
etymologists, be connected with this? (See Dosy and Engelmann, 2nd ed.
p. 275.) [Prof. F. de Filippi (Viaggo in Persia nel 1862,... Milan,
1865, 8vo) speaks of the silk industry of Ghilan (pp. 295-296) as the
principal product of the entire province. - H. C]
The dimensions assigned to the Caspian in the text would be very correct
if length were meant, but the Geog. Text with the same figure specifies
circuit (zire). Ramusio again has "a circuit of 2800 miles." Possibly
the original reading was 2700; but this would be in excess.
NOTE 8. - The Caspian is termed by Vincent of Beauvais Mare Seruanicum,
the Sea of Shirwan, another of its numerous Oriental names, rendered by
Marino Sanuto as Mare Salvanicum. (III. xi. ch. ix.) But it was
generally known to the Franks in the Middle Ages as the SEA OF BACU. Thus
Berni: -
"Fuor del deserto la diritta strada
Lungo il Mar di Bacu miglior pareva."
(Orl. Innam. xvii. 60.)
And in the Sfera of Lionardo Dati (circa 1390): -
"Da Tramontana di quest' Asia Grande
Tartari son sotto la fredda Zona,
Gente bestial di bestie e vivande,
Fin dove l'Onda di Baccu risuona," etc. (p. 10.)
This name is introduced in Ramusio, but probably by interpolation, as well
as the correction of the statement regarding Euphrates, which is perhaps a
branch of the notion alluded to in Prologue, ch. ii. note 5. In a later
chapter Marco calls it the Sea of Sarai, a title also given in the Carta
Catalana. [Odorico calls it Sea of Bacuc (Cathay) and Sea of Bascon
(Cordier). The latter name is a corruption of Abeskun, a small town and
island in the S.E. corner of the Caspian Sea, not far from Ashurada. - H.
C.]
We have little information as to the Genoese navigation of the Caspian,
but the great number of names exhibited along its shores in the map just
named (1375) shows how familiar such navigation had become by that date.
See also Cathay, p. 50, where an account is given of a remarkable
enterprise by Genoese buccaneers on the Caspian about that time. Mas'udi
relates an earlier history of how about the beginning of the 9th century a
fleet of 500 Russian vessels came out of the Volga, and ravaged all the
populous southern and western shores of the Caspian. The unhappy
population was struck with astonishment and horror at this unlooked-for
visitation from a sea that had hitherto been only frequented by peaceful
traders or fishermen. (II. 18-24.)
NOTE 9. - [The enormous quantity of fish found in the Caspian Sea is
ascribed to the mass of vegetable food to be found in the shallower waters
of the North and the mouth of the Volga. According to Reclus, the Caspian
fisheries bring in fish to the annual value of between three and four
millions sterling. - H. C.]
[1] See Letter of Frederic to the Roman Senate, of 20th June, 1241, in
Breholles. Mahommedan writers, contemporary with the Mongol
invasions, regarded these as a manifest sign of the approaching end of
the world.
