R. As. Soc., Jan.
1898, p. 43, gives an abstract of Dr. Houtsma's (of Utrecht) memoir, Zur
Geschichte der Saljuqen von Kerman, and comes to the conclusion that
"from these statements we can safely identify Marco Polo's Camadi with the
suburb Qumadin, or, as I would read it, Qamadin, of the city of Jiruft." -
(Cf. Major Sykes' Persia, chap. xxiii.: "Camadi was sacked for the first
time, after the death of Toghrul Shah of Kerman, when his four sons
reduced the province to a condition of anarchy.")
Major P. Molesworth Sykes, Recent Journeys in Persia (Geog. Journal,
X. 1897, p. 589), says: "Upon arrival in Rudbar, we turned north wards
and left the Farman Farma, in order to explore the site of Marco Polo's
'Camadi.'... We came upon a huge area littered with yellow bricks eight
inches square, while not even a broken wall is left to mark the site of
what was formerly a great city, under the name of the Sher-i-Jiruft." - H.
C.] The actual distance from Bamm to the City of Dakianus is, by Abbott's
Journal, about 66 miles.
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.
