The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55 by William Woodville Rockhill

Author:William Woodville Rockhill [Rockhill, William Woodville]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781317026587
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Notes

1 Ecclesiasticus, xxxix, 5. The Vulgate has: “In terram alienigenarum gentium pertransiet: bona enim et mala in hominibus tentabit,” whereas our monk has: “In terram alienarum gentium transiet, bona et mala in omnibus temptabit.” I fancy he quotes here from memory, as he does (391) in another passage of the Bible, which he also misquotes.

1 The name Pontus, or Pontus Euxinus, was used by all classical authors to designate the Black Sea, and is also found in the early Mohammedan writers (Masudi and Edrisi). The earliest use of the name “Black Sea” would seem to be in Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De administrando, 152); he there refers to it as Σκοτεινή θαλάσση., though throughout the rest of the work he invariably uses the name “Pontic Sea” (Ποντική θαλάσση), or Pontus (Πόντος). Friar Jordanus (53) uses the name Mare Nigrum. His Mare Maurum seems to designate the eastern part of the Euxine. Some of the early Arab geographers use the name “Sea of Nitoch,” and “Sea of the Khazars.”

2 This is greatly in excess of the truth. Hakluyt has “1008 miles in length.” The classical writers had very erroneous ideas about the size of the Black Sea (see Pliny, iv, 24, and Tchihatcheff, Asie Mineure, i, 34, et seq.). The greatest length of the Black Sea is about 550 geographical miles, its greatest width about 325 (Rawlinson, Herodotus, iii, 65).

3 Sinopolis, or Sinope, was captured by the Turks in 1215 (Hammer, Hist., i, 34). Strabo (xii, 3, 467) says it was a colony of the Milesians. The city stood on a rocky peninsula, and had two ports. It was noted from early times for its powerful fleet and its tunny-fish (Πηλαμυδει̂α) fisheries (see also Ibn Batuta, ii, 348, and Heyd, i, 298, 551). The Seldjuk kingdom of Rum, with its capital at Iconium, comprised most of Asia Minor. It was formed from the Seldjuk empire in 1084, and lasted to 1300 (Hammer, op. cit., i, 11, et seq.). Pian de Carpine (680) speaks of “the soldan of Urum,” but nowhere uses the word Turkia.

1 This name was given to the Crimea, probably in the eighth century, on account of the Khazars who then occupied it as part of their domain, which extended from north of the Caucasus to the Don. This nation, which seems to have been of Turkish stock, though some writers say of Finnish, is first mentioned by Priscus in A.D. 626. He writes their name Ἀκατζίροι and Ἀκατίοοι. Menander calls them Κ ατζίροι, and Jornandes uses the form Agazirri. The form Χαζάροι is also used. Rashideddin says that when the descendants of Oguz entered Persia, one of their tribes, having fixed its residence amidst forests, received the name of Agacheris. Quatremère (53) identifies the Khazars with the Agacheris, or “Men of the Woods,” but the latter name would seem to have been applied to many Turkish tribes. Pian de Carpine (674) refers to the Khazars as Gazari, and Friar Jordanus (54) speaks of “the empire of Osbet (Uzbeg), which is called Gatzaria.

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