GLOBAL THEMES AND SOURCES

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (c. 1300), Bar Sāwmā

This passage illustrates the realities of travel for Bar Sāwmā and his travel companion, Markōs, in the late thirteenth century. Setting out from the Mongol capital Khan-balik, they enter the territory of Mar Denha (or Mar Catholicus), the patriarch of the Nestorian Church, who, after greeting them warmly, sends them on their way to visit holy sites. Just in this one passage, we can see the territory these pilgrims covered, starting in Khan-balik, arriving at Maraghah (in the territory of modern Azerbaijan), continuing on to Baghdad, and then into Armenia and Georgia. Many of the interactions and travel issues they describe resonate with those of the Spanish nun Egeria. (Titles of sites have been set in all capitals as in the original translation.)

• What are some of the practical travel issues Bar Sāwmā and his travel companion face?
• How do Bar Sāwmā and his companion interact with people and places on their travels?
• How do those travel issues and interactions compare with those of the Spanish nun Egeria, 900 years earlier?

And having enjoyed the conversation of those brethren they set out to go to ADHÔRBÎJÂN . . . so that they might travel from there to BAGHDÂD, to MÂR DENHÂ, the Catholicus. . . . Now it happened that Mâr Catholicus had come to MÂRÂGHÂH [a town of ADHÔRBÎJÂN, the capital of HÛLÂGÛ KHÂN], and they met him there. And at the sight of him their joy grew great, and their gladness was increased. . . . And when [Mar Catholicus] asked them, “Whence [come] ye?” they replied, “From the countries of the East, from KHÂN BÂLÎK, the city of the King of Kings [KÛBLÂI] KHÂN. We have come to be blessed by you, and by the Fathers (i.e. Bishops), and the monks, and the holy men of this quarter of the world. And if a road [openeth] to us, and God hath mercy upon us, we shall go to JERUSALEM.”

. . . [Catholicus] comforted them and said unto them, “Assuredly, O my sons, the Angel of Providence shall protect you on this difficult journey, and he shall be a guide unto you until the completion of your quest.” . . .

[After a few days, Bar Sāwmā and his companion] request [of Mar Catholicus]: “If we have found mercy (i.e., favour) in the eyes of Mâr our Father, let him permit us to go to BAGHDÂD, in order that we may receive a blessing from the holy sepulchers (or relics?) of MÂR MÂRÊ, . . . the Apostle, the teacher of the East, and those of the Fathers that are there. And from there we would go to the monasteries that are in the country of BÊTH GARMAI and in NISIBIS that we may be blessed there also, and demand assistance.”

And when the Catholicus saw the beauty of their object, and the innocence of their minds, and the honesty of their thoughts, he said unto them, “Go ye, my sons, and may Christ, the Lord of the Universe, grant unto you your petition.” . . . And he wrote for them a pêthîkhâ (i.e. a letter of introduction) to these countries so that they might be honourably entreated whithersoever they went; and he sent with them a man to show them the way, and to act as a guide along the roads.

And they arrived in Baghdad, and thence they went to the Great Church of KÔKÊ [at Ctesiphon]. . . . And they went to the monastery of MÂR MÂRÎ, the Apostle, and received a blessing from the sepulchers (or relics?) of that country. And from there they turned back and came to the country of BÊTH GARMAI, and they received blessings from the shrine (or tomb) of MÂR EZEKIEL [the prophet, near Dâḳôḳ], which was full of helps and healings. And from there they went to ARBÎL, and thence to MÂWSIL (i.e. Môṣul on the Tigris). And they went [to] SHÎGAR (SINJÂR), and NISIBIS, and MERDÂ (MARDÎN); and were blessed by the shrine [containing] the bones of MÂR AWGÎN, the second CHRIST. And thence they went to GÂZARTÂ of BÊTH ZABHDAI, and they were blessed by all the shrines and monasteries, and the religious houses, and monks, and the Fathers (i.e. Bishops) in their dioceses. . . .

And when they arrived at the city of Animto [i.e. ANÎ, the ancient capital of Christian ARMENIA, situated on an affluent of the river Araxes], and saw the monasteries and the churches therein, they marvelled at the great extent of the buildings and at their magnificence. And thence they went towards BÊTH GÛRGÂYÊ (i.e. the country of Georgia), so that they might travel by a clear (or safe?) road, but when they arrived there they heard from the inhabitants of the country that the road was cut because of the murders and robberies which had taken place along it.

Chapter 4. And the two monks turned back and came to Mâr Catholicus, who rejoiced [at the sight of] them, and said unto them, “This is not the time for a journey to JERUSALEM. The roads are a disturbed state, and the ways are cut. Now behold, ye have received blessings from all the Houses of God, and the shrines (or relics?) which are in them, and it is my opinion that when a man visits them with a pure heart, the service thus paid to them is in no way less than that of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.”

Source: Rabban Bar Sāwmā. The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China, or The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sāwmā, translated by E. A. Wallis Budge (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928), pp. 140–43, 145–46.

The Mongol Capital at Kanbalu (Khan-balik) (c. 1300), Marco Polo

In the last quarter of the thirteenth century, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, together with his father and uncle, undertook a magnificent trek eastward on the Silk Roads. They ultimately arrived at Khan-balik, the capital of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (and the place from which Bar Sāwmā set out, in the previous passage). There, they encountered Kublai Khan. Long after his journey was completed, Marco Polo offered this thorough description of the city, which would ultimately become Beijing. While some scholars have questioned the veracity of Polo’s travels, arguing that he may never have made it all the way to China, the detail offered in this passage suggests firsthand experience.

• What does Marco Polo emphasize in his description of Kanbalu (Khan-balik)?
• What different groups of people live in greater Khan-balik? How are they organized and distributed?
• Why do you think Marco Polo focuses on the issues that he describes?

The city of Kanbalu is situated near a large river in the province of Cathay, and was in ancient times eminently magnificent and royal. The name itself implies “the city of the sovereign”; but his majesty having imbibed an opinion from the astrologers, that it was destined to become rebellious to his authority, resolved upon the measure of building another capital, upon the opposite side of the river, where stand the palaces just described: so that the new and the old cities are separated from each other only by the stream that runs between them. The new-built city received the name of Tai-du, and all the Cathaians, that is, all those of the inhabitants who were natives of the province of Cathay, were compelled to evacuate the ancient city, and to take up their abode in the new. Some of the inhabitants, however, of whose loyalty he did not entertain suspicion, were suffered to remain, especially because the latter, although of the dimensions that shall presently be described, was not capable of containing the same number as the former, which was of vast extent.

This new city is of a form perfectly square, and twenty-four miles in extent, each of its sides being neither more nor less than six miles. It is enclosed with walls of earth, that at the base are about ten paces thick, but gradually diminish to the top, where the thickness is not more than three paces. In all parts the battlements are white. The whole plan of the city was regularly laid out by line, and the streets in general are consequently so straight, that when a person ascends the wall over one of the gates, and looks right forward, he can see the gate opposite to him on the other side of the city. In the public streets there are, on each side, booths and shops of every description. All the allotments of ground upon which the habitations throughout the city were constructed are square, and exactly on a line with each other; each allotment being sufficiently spacious for handsome buildings, with corresponding courts and gardens. One of these was assigned to each head of a family; that is to say, such a person of such a tribe had one square allotted to him, and so of the rest. Afterwards the property passed from hand to hand. In this manner the whole interior of the city is disposed in squares, so as to resemble a chessboard, and planned out with a degree of precision and beauty impossible to describe. The wall of the city has twelve gates, three on each side of the square, and over each gate and compartment of the wall there is a handsome building; so that on each side of the square there are five such buildings, containing large rooms, in which are disposed the arms of those who form the garrison of the city, every gate being guarded by a thousand men. It is not to be understood that such a force is stationed there in consequence of the apprehension of danger from any hostile power whatever, but as a guard suitable to the honour and dignity of the sovereign. Yet it must be allowed that the declaration of the astrologers has excited in his mind a degree of suspicion with regard to the Cathaians. . . .

Outside of each of the gates is a suburb so wide that it reaches to and unites with those of the other nearest gates on both sides, and in length extends to the distance of three or four miles, so that the number of inhabitants in these suburbs exceeds that of the city itself. Within each suburb there are, at intervals, as far perhaps as a mile from the city, many hotels, or caravanserais, in which the merchants arriving from various parts take up their abode; and to each description of people a separate building is assigned, as we should say, one to the Lombards, another to the Germans, and a third to the French. . . .

Guards, in parties of thirty or forty, continually patrol the streets during the course of the night, and make diligent search for persons who may be from their homes at an unseasonable hour, that is, after the third stroke of the great bell. When any are met with under such circumstances, they immediately apprehend and confine them, and take them in the morning for examination before officers appointed for that purpose, who, upon the proof of any delinquency, sentence them, according to the nature of the offence, to a severer or lighter infliction of the bastinade beating with a cudgel, usually on the soles of the feet, which sometimes, however, occasions their death. It is in this manner that crimes are usually punished amongst these people, from a disinclination to the shedding of blood, which their baksis or learned astrologers instruct them to avoid.

Source: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian, edited by Thomas Wright (London: George Bell and Sons, 1904), pp. 181–86.

The Holy Sites of Jerusalem (c. 1360), Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta’s travels dwarf those of any other world traveler in this period. What began as a hajj became a journey of tens of thousands of miles. Traveling for more than a quarter century, Ibn Battuta was particularly interested in the role and practice of Islam in each place he visited. While he was sometimes called into action to serve as a learned Muslim qadi (judge) in the places he visited, his travels often took the form of engaged and devoted religious tourism, as when he visited Jerusalem, described in the passage here.

• What do you make of Ibn Battuta’s itinerary? What sites does he visit? What, and how, does he learn about the history of each site?
• How does Ibn Battuta describe mosques? Churches? What do you think accounts for the differences in his descriptions?
• How do Ibn Battuta’s descriptions of holy sites compare with those in Bar Sāwmā’s account?

From Gaza I travelled to the city of Abraham [Hebron], the mosque of which is of elegant, but substantial, construction, imposing and lofty, and built of squared stones. At one angle of it there is a stone, one of whose faces measures twenty-seven spans. It is said that Solomon commanded the jinn to build it. Inside it is the sacred cave containing the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, opposite which are three graves, which are those of their wives. I questioned the imám, a man of great piety and learning, on the authenticity of these graves, and he replied: “All the scholars whom I have met hold these graves to be the very graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. No one questions this except introducers of false doctrines; it is a tradition which has passed from father to son for generations and admits of no doubt.”. . .

On the way from Hebron to Jerusalem, I visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. The site is covered by a large building; the Christians regard it with intense veneration and hospitably entertain all who alight at it.

We then reached Jerusalem (may God ennoble her!), third in excellence after the two holy shrines of Mecca and Medína, and the place whence the Prophet was caught up into heaven. Its walls were destroyed by the illustrious King Saladin and his successors, for fear lest the Christians should seize it and fortify themselves in it. The sacred mosque is a most beautiful building, and is said to be the largest mosque in the world. Its length from east to west is put at 752 “royal” cubits and its breadth at 435. On three sides it has many entrances, but on the south side I know of one only, which is that by which the imám enters. The entire mosque is an open court and unroofed, except the mosque al-Aqsá, which has a roof of most excellent workmanship, embellished with gold and brilliant colours. Some other parts of the mosque are roofed as well. The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape. It stands on an elevation in the centre of the mosque and is reached by a flight of marble steps. It has four doors. The space round it is also paved with marble, excellently done, and the interior likewise. Both outside and inside the decoration is so magnificent and the workmanship so surpassing as to defy description. The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its brilliance, now glowing like a mass of light, now flashing like lightning. In the centre of the Dome is the blessed rock from which the Prophet ascended to heaven, a great rock projecting about a man’s height, and underneath it there is a cave the size of a small room, also of a man’s height, with steps leading down to it. Encircling the rock are two railings of excellent workmanship, the one nearer the rock being artistically constructed in iron, and the other of wood.

Among the grace-bestowing sanctuaries of Jerusalem is a building, situated on the farther side of the valley called the valley of Jahannam [Gehenna] to the east of the town, on a high hill. This building is said to mark the place whence Jesus ascended to heaven. In the bottom of the same valley is a church venerated by the Christians, who say that it contains the grave of Mary. In the same place there is another church which the Christians venerate and to which they come on pilgrimage. This is the church of which they are falsely persuaded to believe that it contains the grave of Jesus. All who come on pilgrimage to visit it pay a stipulated tax to the Muslims, and suffer very unwillingly various humiliations. Thereabouts also is the place of the cradle of Jesus, which is visited in order to obtain blessing.

Source: Ibn Battúta, Ibn Battúta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354, translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1929), pp. 55–57.

The Hajj of Mansa Musa (1324–1325), al-Umari

Al-Umari was a historian who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. While his personal life reflected the vicissitudes of court politics in Mamluk-controlled Syria (complete with a period of imprisonment when he fell out of favor), his well-researched history was much appreciated by his contemporaries. The passage included here, in which al-Umari describes the famed hajj of Mansa Musa, shows that al-Umari himself traveled to Cairo to gather information from local informants about Mansa Musa’s sojourn in the city.

• What are the layers of reporting in this passage? How does the traveling historian al-Umari come by his information on Mansa Musa?
• How does Mansa Musa’s hajj influence the peoples with whom he and his retinue come into contact?
• How typical was Mansa Musa’s hajj? Even if it was atypical, what can you generalize about the role of hajj in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds based on Mansa Musa’s and Ibn Battuta’s experiences?

The emir Abū’l-Hasan ‘Alī b. Amīr Hājib told me that he was often in the company of sultan Mūsā the king of this country when he came to Egypt on the Pilgrimage. He was staying in [the] Qarāfa [district of Cairo] and Ibn Amīr Hājib was governor of Old Cairo and Qarāfa at that time. A friendship grew up between them and this sultan Mūsā told him a great deal about himself and his country and the people of the Sūdān who were his neighbours. One of the things which he told him was that his country was very extensive and contiguous with the Ocean. By his sword and his armies he had conquered 24 cities each with its surrounding district with villages and estates. It is a country rich in livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, horses, mules—and different kinds of poultry—geese, doves, chickens. The inhabitants of his country are numerous, a vast concourse, but compared with the peoples of the Sūdān who are their neighbours and penetrate far to the south they are like a white birth-mark on a black cow. He has a truce with the gold-plant people, who pay him tribute.

Ibn Amīr Hājib said that he asked him about the gold-plant, and he said: “It is found in two forms. One is found in the spring and blossoms after the rains in open country (sahrā’). It has leaves like the najīl grass and its roots are gold (tibr). The other kind is found all the year round at known sites on the banks of the Nīl and is dug up.” . . .

Sultan Mūsā told Ibn Amīr Hājib that gold was his prerogative and he collected the crop as a tribute except for what the people of that country took by theft.

“This sultan Mūsā, during his stay in Egypt both before and after his journey to the Noble Hājib, maintained a uniform attitude of worship and turning towards God. It was as though he were standing before Him because of His continual presence in his mind. He and all those with him behaved in the same manner and were well-dressed, grave, and dignified. He was noble and generous and performed many acts of charity and kindness. He had left his country with 100 loads of gold which he spent during his Pilgrimage on the tribes who lay along his route from his country to Egypt, while he was in Egypt, and again from Egypt to the Noble Hijāz and back.”

From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Mūsā on his Pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seen of the Africans’ prodigal spending. . . .

This man flooded Cairo with his benefactions. He left no court emir (amīr muqarrab) nor holder of a royal office without the gift of a load of gold. The Cairenes made incalculable profits out of him and his suite in buying and selling and giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall. . . .

Merchants of Misr and Cairo have told me of the profits which they made from the Africans, saying that one of them might buy a shirt or cloak (thawb) or robe (izār) or other garment for five dinars when it was not worth one. Such was their simplicity and trustfulness that it was possible to practice any deception on them. They greeted anything that was said to them with credulous acceptance. But later they formed the very poorest opinion of the Egyptians because of the obvious falseness of everything they said to them and their outrageous behaviour in fixing the prices of the provisions and other goods which were sold to them. . . .

Muhanna’ b. ‘Abd al-Bāqī al-‘Ujrumī the guide informed me that he accompanied sultan Mūsā when he made the Pilgrimage and that the sultan was very open-handed towards the pilgrims and the inhabitants of the Holy Places. He and his companions maintained great pomp and dressed magnificently during the journey. He gave away much wealth in alms. “About 200 mithqals of gold fell to me” said Muhanna’ “and he gave other sums to my companions.” Muhanna’ waxed eloquent in describing the sultan’s generosity, magnanimity, and opulence.

Gold was at a high price in Egypt until they came in that year. The mithqal did not go below 25 dirhams and was generally above, but from that time its value fell and it cheapened in price and has remained cheap till now. The mithqal does not exceed 22 dirhams or less. This has been the state of affairs for about twelve years until this day by reason of the large amount of gold which they brought into Egypt and spent there.

Source: al-Umari, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, translated by J. F. P Hopkins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 267, 269–71.

The Galle Trilingual Stone Inscription (1411), Zheng He

No discussion of world travelers in this increasingly connected Afro-Eurasian world would be complete without evidence from Zheng He’s travels, although he lived in a slightly later period than the other travelers discussed here (namely, during the Ming dynasty, which took the mandate of heaven from the Mongol Yuan dynasty of China in the aftermath of the Black Death; see Chapter 11). The seven far-reaching naval expeditions undertaken by Zheng He from 1405 to 1433 illustrate Ming patronage of voyages of exploration that demonstrated their might. This trilingual inscription (in Chinese, Persian, and Tamil), set up in 1411 by Zheng He and his companions at Sri Lanka (called Ceylon in the source), demonstrates the pragmatic religious devotion of those voyaging for nonreligious aims.

• What range of goods does Zheng He’s embassy offer? Why are these specific commodities offered?
• Why do Zheng He, who was born and raised a Muslim, and his companions make offerings to Buddha?
• How do Zheng He’s reasons for travel and what he does at this holy site compare with the reasons and actions of the other travelers in this section?

His Majesty, the Emperor of the Great Ming dynasty has despatched the eunuchs Ching-Ho [Zheng He], Wang Ch’ing-Lien, and others to set forth his utterance before Buddha, the World Honoured one, as follows:

“Deeply do we reverence you, Merciful and Honoured One, whose bright perfection is wide-embracing, and whose way of virtue passes all understanding, whose law enters into all human relations, and the years of whose great Kalpa (period) are like the sand of the river in number, you whose controlling influence ennobles and converts, whose kindness quickens, and whose strength discerns, whose mysterious efficacy is beyond compare! Whereas Ceylon’s mountainous isle lies in the south of the ocean, and its Buddhist temples are sanctuaries of your gospel, where your miraculous responsive power imbues and enlightens. Of late, we have dispatched missions to announce our mandate to foreign nations, and during their journey over the ocean they have been favoured with the blessing of your beneficent protection. They escaped disaster or misfortune and journeyed in safety to and fro. In everlasting recognition of your supreme virtue, we, therefore, bestow offerings in recompense, and do now reverently present before Buddha, the Honoured One, oblations of gold and silver, gold embroidered jewelled banners of variegated silk, incense burners, and flower vases, silks of many colours in lining and exterior, lamps and candles with other gifts, in order to manifest the high honour of our worship. Do you, Lord Buddha, bestow on them, your regard!”

List of Alms bestowed at the shrine of the Buddhist temple in the Mountain of Ceylon as offerings:

1000 pieces of gold; 5000 pieces of silver; fifty rolls of embroidered silk in many colours; fifty rolls of silk taffeta in many colours; four pairs of jewelled banners, gold embroidered, and of variegated silk; two pairs of the same picked in red; one pair of the same in yellow; one pair in black; five antique brass incense burners; five pairs of antique brass flower vases picked in gold on lacquer, with gold stands; five pairs of yellow brass candle-sticks, picked in gold on lacquer, with gold stand; five yellow brass lamps picked in gold on lacquer, with gold stands; five incense vessels in vermilion red, lacquered gold picked on lacquer, with gold stands; six pairs of golden lotus flowers; 2500 catties of scented oil; ten pairs of wax candles; ten sticks of fragrant incense.

The date being the seventh year of Yung-Lo (1410 a.d.) marked Chi ch’ou in the sixty years’ cycle, on the Chia Hsu day of the sixty days cycle in the second moon, being the first day of the month. A reverent oblation.

Source: “Appendix I. Translation of the Chinese Inscription,” translated by Edmund Backhouse, in “The Galle Trilingual Stone,” Spolia Zeylanica 8 (Issued from the Colombo Museum; Ceylon: H. M. Richards, Acting Government Printer, 1913), pp. 125–26. Bracketed notes added by the author.