[2] When the first edition was published, I was not aware of remarks to
like effect regarding names of this character by Sir H. Rawlinson in
the J. R. As. Soc. vol. xi. pp. 64 and 103.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE KINGDOM OF MAUSUL.
On the frontier of Armenia towards the south-east is the kingdom of
MAUSUL. It is a very great kingdom, and inhabited[NOTE 1] by several
different kinds of people whom we shall now describe.
First there is a kind of people called ARABI, and these worship Mahommet.
Then there is another description of people who are NESTORIAN and JACOBITE
Christians. These have a Patriarch, whom they call the JATOLIC, and this
Patriarch creates Archbishops, and Abbots, and Prelates of all other
degrees, and sends them into every quarter, as to India, to Baudas, or to
Cathay, just as the Pope of Rome does in the Latin countries. For you must
know that though there is a very great number of Christians in those
countries, they are all Jacobites and Nestorians; Christians indeed, but
not in the fashion enjoined by the Pope of Rome, for they come short in
several points of the Faith.[NOTE 2]
All the cloths of gold and silk that are called Mosolins are made in
this country; and those great Merchants called Mosolins, who carry for
sale such quantities of spicery and pearls and cloths of silk and gold,
are also from this kingdom.[NOTE 3]
There is yet another race of people who inhabit the mountains in that
quarter, and are called CURDS. Some of them are Christians, and some of
them are Saracens; but they are an evil generation, whose delight it is to
plunder merchants.[NOTE 4]
[Near this province is another called MUS and MERDIN, producing an immense
quantity of cotton, from which they make a great deal of buckram[NOTE 5]
and other cloth. The people are craftsmen and traders, and all are subject
to the Tartar King.]
NOTE 1. - Polo could scarcely have been justified in calling MOSUL a very
great kingdom. This is a bad habit of his, as we shall have to notice
again. Badruddin Lulu, the last Atabeg of Mosul of the race of Zenghi had
at the age of 96 taken sides with Hulaku, and stood high in his favour.
His son Malik Salih, having revolted, surrendered to the Mongols in 1261
on promise of life; which promise they kept in Mongol fashion by torturing
him to death. Since then the kingdom had ceased to exist as such. Coins of
Badruddin remain with the name and titles of Mangku Kaan on their reverse,
and some of his and of other atabegs exhibit curious imitations of Greek
art. (Quat. Rash. p. 389 Jour. As. IV. VI. 141.). - H. Y. and H. C.
[Mosul was pillaged by Timur at the end of the 14th century; during the
15th it fell into the hands of the Turkomans, and during the 16th, of
Ismail, Shah of Persia. - H. C.]
[The population of Mosul is to-day 61,000 inhabitants - (48,000 Musulmans,
10,000 Christians belonging to various churches, and 3000 Jews). - H. C.]
[Illustration: Coin of Badruddin of Mausul.]
NOTE 2. - The Nestorian Church was at this time and in the preceding
centuries diffused over Asia to an extent of which little conception is
generally entertained, having a chain of Bishops and Metropolitans from
Jerusalem to Peking. The Church derived its name from Nestorius, Patriarch
of Constantinople, who was deposed by the Council of Ephesus in 431. The
chief "point of the Faith" wherein it came short, was (at least in its
most tangible form) the doctrine that in Our Lord there were two Persons,
one of the Divine Word, the other of the Man Jesus; the former dwelling in
the latter as in a Temple, or uniting with the latter "as fire with iron."
Nestorin, the term used by Polo, is almost a literal transcript of the
Arab form Nasturi. A notice of the Metropolitan sees, with a map, will
be found in Cathay, p. ccxliv.
Jathalik, written in our text (from G. T.) Jatolic, by Fr. Burchard
and Ricold Jaselic, stands for [Greek: Katholikos]. No doubt it was
originally Gathalik, but altered in pronunciation by the Arabs. The term
was applied by Nestorians to their Patriarch; among the Jacobites to the
Mafrian or Metropolitan. The Nestorian Patriarch at this time resided at
Baghdad. (Assemani, vol. iii. pt. 2; Per. Quat. 91, 127.)
The Jacobites, or Jacobins, as they are called by writers of that age (Ar.
Ya'ubkiy), received their name from Jacob Baradaeus or James Zanzale,
Bishop of Edessa (so called, Mas'udi says, because he was a maker of
barda'at or saddle-cloths), who gave a great impulse to their doctrine
in the 6th century. [At some time between the years 541 and 578, he
separated from the Church and became a follower of the doctrine of
Eutyches. - H. C.] The Jacobites then formed an independent Church, which
at one time spread over the East at least as far as Sistan, where they had
a see under the Sassanian Kings. Their distinguishing tenet was
Monophysitism, viz., that Our Lord had but one Nature, the Divine. It
was in fact a rebound from Nestorian doctrine, but, as might be expected
in such a case, there was a vast number of shades of opinion among both
bodies. The chief locality of the Jacobites was in the districts of Mosul,
Tekrit, and Jazirah, and their Patriarch was at this time settled at the
Monastery of St. Matthew, near Mosul, but afterwards, and to the present
day, at or near Mardin. [They have at present two patriarchates: the
Monastery of Zapharan near Baghdad and Etchmiadzin. - H. C.] The Armenian,
Coptic, Abyssinian, and Malabar Churches all hold some shade of the
Jacobite doctrine, though the first two at least have Patriarchs apart.
(Assemani, vol. ii.; Le Quien, II. 1596; Mas'udi, II.
![The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa
- (See Elliot's Historians, II. p. 265.)
[2] When the first edition was published, I was not aware of remarks to - Page 129](../images/travel.jpg)
