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:
