However Exaggerated Some Of
These May Be, There Can Be Little Doubt That It Was The Greatest City Then
Existing In The World.
[Illustration: Stone Chwang, or Umbrella Column, on site of "Brahma's
Temple," Hang-chau.]
[Illustration: South Part of KING-SZE, with the SUNG PALACE, from a
Chinese reprint of a Plan dated circa A.D. 1270]
Friar Odoric (in China about 1324-1327): - "Departing thence I came unto
the city of CANSAY, a name which signifieth the 'City of Heaven.' And
'tis the greatest city in the whole world, so great indeed that I should
scarcely venture to tell of it, but that I have met at Venice people in
plenty who have been there. It is a good hundred miles in compass, and
there is not in it a span of ground which is not well peopled. And many a
tenement is there which shall have 10 or 12 households comprised in it.
And there be also great suburbs which contain a greater population than
even the city itself.... This city is situated upon lagoons of standing
water, with canals like the city of Venice. And it hath more than 12,000
bridges, on each of which are stationed guards, guarding the city on
behalf of the Great Kaan. And at the side of this city there flows a river
near which it is built, like Ferrara by the Po, for it is longer than it
is broad," and so on, relating how his host took him to see a great
monastery of the idolaters, where there was a garden full of grottoes, and
therein many animals of divers kinds, which they believed to be inhabited
by the souls of gentlemen. "But if any one should desire to tell all the
vastness and great marvels of this city, a good quire of stationery would
not hold the matter, I trow. For 'tis the greatest and noblest city, and
the finest for merchandize that the whole world containeth." (Cathay,
113 seqq.)
The Archbishop of Soltania (circa 1330): - "And so vast is the number of
people that the soldiers alone who are posted to keep ward in the city of
Cambalec are 40,000 men by sure tale. And in the city of CASSAY there be
yet more, for its people is greater in number, seeing that it is a city of
very great trade. And to this city all the traders of the country come to
trade; and greatly it aboundeth in all manner of merchandize." (Ib.
244-245.)
John Marignolli (in China 1342-1347): - "Now Manzi is a country which has
countless cities and nations included in it, past all belief to one who
has not seen them.... And among the rest is that most famous city of
CAMPSAY, the finest, the biggest, the richest, the most populous, and
altogether the most marvellous city, the city of the greatest wealth and
luxury, of the most splendid buildings (especially idol-temples, in some
of which there are 1000 and 2000 monks dwelling together), that exists now
upon the face of the earth, or mayhap that ever did exist." (Ib. p.
354.) He also speaks, like Odoric, of the "cloister at Campsay, in that
most famous monastery where they keep so many monstrous animals, which
they believe to be the souls of the departed" (384). Perhaps this
monastery may yet be identified. Odoric calls it Thebe. [See A.
Vissiere, Bul. Soc. Geog. Com., 1901, pp. 112-113. - H.C.]
Turning now to Asiatic writers, we begin with Wassaf (A.D. 1300): -
"KHANZAI is the greatest city of the cities of Chin,
"'Stretching like Paradise through the breadth of Heaven.'
"Its shape is oblong, and the measurement of its perimeter is about 24
parasangs. Its streets are paved with burnt brick and with stone. The
public edifices and the houses are built of wood, and adorned with a
profusion of paintings of exquisite elegance. Between one end of the city
and the other there are three Yams (post-stations) established. The
length of the chief streets is three parasangs, and the city contains 64
quadrangles corresponding to one another in structure, and with parallel
ranges of columns. The salt excise brings in daily 700 balish in
paper-money. The number of craftsmen is so great that 32,000 are employed
at the dyer's art alone; from that fact you may estimate the rest. There
are in the city 70 tomans of soldiers and 70 tomans of rayats, whose
number is registered in the books of the Dewan. There are 700 churches
(Kalisia) resembling fortresses, and every one of them overflowing with
presbyters without faith, and monks without religion, besides other
officials, wardens, servants of the idols, and this, that, and the other,
to tell the names of which would surpass number and space. All these are
exempt from taxes of every kind. Four tomans of the garrison constitute
the night patrol.... Amid the city there are 360 bridges erected over
canals ample as the Tigris, which are ramifications of the great river of
Chin; and different kinds of vessels and ferry-boats, adapted to every
class, ply upon the waters in such numbers as to pass all powers of
enumeration.... The concourse of all kinds of foreigners from the four
quarters of the world, such as the calls of trade and travel bring together
in a kingdom like this, may easily be conceived." (Revised on Hammer's
Translation, pp. 42-43.)
The Persian work Nuzhat-al-Kulub: - "KHINZAI is the capital of the
country of Machin. If one may believe what some travellers say, there
exists no greater city on the face of the earth; but anyhow, all agree
that it is the greatest in all the countries in the East. Inside the place
is a lake which has a circuit of six parasangs, and all round which houses
are built.... The population is so numerous that the watchmen are some
10,000 in number." (Quat. Rash. p. lxxxviii.)
The Arabic work Masalak-al-Absar:
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