The Name Of REOBARLES, Which Marco Applies To The Plain Intermediate
Between The Two Descents, Has Given Rise To Many Conjectures.
Marsden
pointed to Rudbar, a name frequently applied in Persia to a district on
a river, or intersected by streams - a suggestion all the happier that he
was not aware of the fact that there is a district of RUDBAR exactly in
the required position.
The last syllable still requires explanation.
I ventured formerly to suggest that it was the Arabic Lass, or, as Marco
would certainly have written it, Les, a robber. Reobarles would then be
RUDBAR-I-LASS, "Robber's River District." The appropriateness of the name
Marco has amply illustrated; and it appeared to me to survive in that of
one of the rivers of the plain, which is mentioned by both Abbott and
Smith under the title of Rudkhanah-i-Duzdi, or Robbery River, a name
also applied to a village and old fort on the banks of the stream. This
etymology was, however, condemned as an inadmissible combination of
Persian and Arabic by two very high authorities both as travellers and
scholars - Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Khanikoff. The Les, therefore, has
still to be explained.[1]
[Major Sykes (Geog. Journal, 1902, p. 130) heard of robbers, some five
miles from Minab, and he adds: "However, nothing happened, and after
crossing the Gardan-i-Pichal, we camped at Birinti, which is situated just
above the junction of Rudkhana Duzdi, or 'River of Theft,' and forms part
of the district of Rudan, in Fars."
"The Jiruft and Rudbar plains belong to the germsir (hot region), dates,
pistachios, and konars (apples of Paradise) abound in them. Reobarles is
Rudbar or Ruedbaris." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. 1881, p. 495.) - H. C.]
We have referred to Marco's expressions regarding the great cold
experienced on the pass which formed the first descent; and it is worthy
of note that the title of "The Cold Mountains" is applied by Edrisi to
these very mountains. Mr. Abbott's MS. Report also mentions in this
direction, Sardu, said to be a cold country (as its name seems to
express [see above, - H. C.]), which its population (Iliyats) abandon in
winter for the lower plains. It is but recently that the importance of
this range of mountains has become known to us. Indeed the existence of
the chain, as extending continuously from near Kashan, was first indicated
by Khanikoff in 1862. More recently Major St. John has shown the magnitude
of this range, which rises into summits of 15,000 feet in altitude, and
after a course of 550 miles terminates in a group of volcanic hills some
50 miles S.E. of Bamm. Yet practically this chain is ignored on all our
maps!
Marco's description of the "Plain of Formosa" does not apply, now at
least, to the whole plain, for towards Bander Abbasi it is barren. But
to the eastward, about Minao, and therefore about Old Hormuz, it has not
fallen off.
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