Their Chief
Cities Are Cogno Or Iconium, Caesarea, And Sebaste, Where St Basil Suffered
Martyrdom.
This country is under subjection to one of the khans of the
Tartars.
The Greater Armenia is a large province, subject to the Tartars, which has
many cities and towns, the principal of which is Arsugia, in which the best
buckram in the world is made. In this neighbourhood there are excellent hot
springs, which are celebrated as salutary baths in many diseases. The
cities next in consequence are Argiron and Darziz. In the summer season
many Tartars resort to this country on account of the richness of the
pastures, and retire again in winter, because of the abundance of snow. The
ark of Noah rested on Arrarat, one of the mountains of Armenia.
This country has the province of Mosul and Meridin on the east, or
Diarbekir; and on the north is Zorzania[2], where there is a fountain that
discharges a liquid resembling oil; which, though it cannot be used as a
seasoning for meat, is yet useful for burning in lamps, and for many other
purposes; and it is found in sufficient quantities to load camels, and to
form a material object of commerce. In Zorzania is a prince named David
Melic or King David; one part of the province being subject to him, while
the other part pays tribute to a Tartar khan. The woods are mostly of
box-trees. Zorzania extends between the Euxine and Caspian seas; which
latter is likewise called the sea of Baccu, and is 2800 miles in
circumference: but is like a lake, as it has no communication with any
other sea. In it there are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which
are inhabited by the people who fled from the Tartars out of Persia.
The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with
others, and wear their hair short like the western clergy. There are many
cities, and the country abounds in silk, of which they make many fine
manufactures. Moxul or Mosul, is a province containing many sorts of
people; some are called Arahi, who are Mahometans; others are Christians of
various sects, as Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians; and they have a
patriarch stiled Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots,
whom he sends all over India, and to Cairo, and Bagdat, and wherever there
are Christians, in the same manner as is done by the pope of Rome. All the
stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are wrought in Moxul[3]. In the
mountains of this country of Diarbekir, dwelt the people called Curds, some
off whom are Nestorians or Jacobites, and other Mahometans. They are a
lawless people, who rob the merchants that travel through their country.
Near to them is another province called Mus, Meridin, or Mardin, higher up
the Tigris than Mosul, wherein grows great quantities of cotton, of which
they make buckrams[4] and other manufactures. This province is likewise
subject to the Tartars.
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