Page 7 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

74 .SOME EARLY TRAVELLERS IN PERST
From Qatif, Batuta went to Ha0a and thonco to Mecca, and passos
out of our area. His contemporary, Hamdullah Mustawfi QaBvini,
wrote in Persian the Niizhat-alrQulub, a description of the Mongol
kingdom of Iran (including at that time Mesopotamia), which shows
the condition of the country after the Mongol settlement. He also
wrote the Tarikh-i-Guzidah, which often contains geographical notes
of great importance. Both text and translation of the former work
have been published by the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund.* He
gives many picturesque details regarding the various towns and villages
of Southern Persia; of some places he writes that “ most of the people
are brigands, highwaymen, and footpads,” of others that “ they are silly
and stupid by nature," of other places, again, “ the population are
distinguished for piety and honesty.” The existence of these categories
suggests either a simplicity of mind, which the rest of the narrative
belies, or unpleasant personal experiences, though it does not seem
that the author travelled very extensively-
Hamdullah Mustawfi is followed by Hafiz Abru (a.d. 1417) and Ali
of.Yazd (1425), whose history of Timur is a classic. At this point
another European narrative is available, the first since that of Ben­
jamin of Tudela, written by Friar Odoric. I make no reference to
Marco Polo, as his stately peregrinations were confined mostly to
Northern Persia, and scarcely come into the region dealt with in this
paper. Lastly, for the settlement after the conquest of Timur, the
works of two Turkish authors have to be mentioned, one Hajji
Khaldun, who wrote the Jihan Numah, or universal geography
(a.d. 1600), and Abu’l Ghazi, the Khwarazm Prince, who wrote the
“ History of the Turks and Mongols ” (a.d. 1604).
At the end of the fifteenth century (1471-74), two Venetian mer-
chants, Josafa Barbaro and Ambrosio Contarini, visited the Gulf,f
passing through Adana, Urfa, Mardin, Sert, Vastan (six leagues south
of Van), Khoi, Tabriz, Sultaniyah, Gulpaigan, Isfahan, Yazd, and
Shiraz, to Ormuz. Of Shiraz, Barbaro writes: “ It hath a nombre of
excellent faire churches and good houses trymed with musaico and
other goodly ornaments ; and may conteigne ccml houses or p’adventure
ifcore. In which city is very sure dwelling wlhout any disturbance.”
Josafa Barbaro was sent with the Ambassador of Asim Beg, the
King of Persia, and virtually held the same rank himself; he was
joined later by Ambrosio Contarini, who went in 1873 as Venetian
Ambassador to Asim Beg’s successor, Uzun Hasan, and followed
a more northerly route through the Caucasus to Tabriz, Qum, Kashan,
and Isfahan. He likewise was favourably impressed with what he
saw, and says:
* grange’s Translation. Luzao and Co., 1919.
T Travels to Tana and Persia." Hakluyt Society, 1873.
AND THE PERSIAN GULF 75
“ There are fruit of all kinds, and of bettor quality than I have seen
or taBtod anywhere. . . . The Persians are well behaved and of gentle
manners, and by their conduct appear to like the Christians. While in
Persia wo did not suffer a single outrage. The Persian women are
drossed in a very becoming manner, and surpass the men both in their
dress and in their riding. Both women and men are handsome and
well made. The Persians dress well; they are good horsemen and
ride the best horses thqy have. They are a very pompous nation, and
their camels are so well caparisoned that it is a pleasure to look
at them.”
In the same year (1471) another Venetian, Caterino Zeno, visited the
Court of Uzun Hasan, and was despatched by the latter to Europe to
endeavour to enlist European sympathy and aid against the Turks, and
left on record a short account of his somewhat unsuccessful diplomatic
negotiations. He speaks very highly of the Persian soldiery, which he
describes as:
** all good soldiers, the flower of the Persian people, as the Kings of
Persia are not accustomed to give pay on the occasion of war but to a
standing force. Thus it is that Persian gentlemen, to be well brought
up, pay great attention to horsemanship, and when necessity calls, go
willingly to war and bring with them, according to their means, a
certain number of servants as well armed and mounted as themselves;
if Persian soldiery were paid, as is the Turkish, there is no doubt but
that it would be far superior to that of the Ottoman princes. This thing
has been observed by all those who have had anything to do with both
nations.”
It is convenient here to refer to a shorter historical sketch of King
Uzun Hasan by an Italian, Giovan Maria Angiolello, dated about 1520,
and to the brief narrative of Vincentio d’Alessandri (a.d. 1591) the last
of the Venetian Ambassadors to the Persian Court. The latter, too,
has little but good to report of Shah Ismail’s government and people.
Of the army he says :
“ They are generally men of fine aspect, robust, well made, of great
courage, and very warlike. . . . Their arms also are superior and
better tempered than those of any other nation. . . . The horses
are so well trained and are so good and handsome that there is now
no need to have them brought from other countries. . . . The rever­
ence and love of the people for the King . . . are incredible, as they
worship him not as a King, but as a god, on account of his descent
from the line of Ali, the great object of their veneration. . . . Not
only in the neighbouring cities can one observe these signs of reverence,
but also in the distant towns and places.”
The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama in
a.d. 1497 and the opening up of trade with India and the East by the
Portuguese thirty years later heralded a new era; the commercial pre­
eminence of Portugal in the sixteenth century is attested by the
appearance in our bibliography of a number of Portuguese narrations