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I>30 BAGHDAD, 135
30.
BAGHDAD.
Pai-ta (f^j ji).
«The country of Pai-ta is the great metropolis (— ^ -^) of all the
5 countries of the Ta-shi». Travelling by land from Ma-lo-pa one comes to it
after about 130 days journey, passing on the way some fifty cities (j^).
This country is extremely powerful and large, and the number of its foot-
soldiers and cavalry armed and equipped is very greats
«The king is a direct successor of the Buddha Ma-hia-wu», and the
10 throne has, down to the present time, been transmitted through twenty-nine
generations (>f\j;), covering a period of from six to seven hundred years 2.
«The other lands of the Ta-shi have waged war against each other, but none
have dared to invade this country».
«When the king appears in public, a black umbrella is carried (over
15 him); its handle is of gold and on the top is a jade lion with a golden moon
on its back, shining like a star and visible from afar off» ^
«The towns and markets are cut by w^ell-made streets, and the people
live lavishly. There is great store of precious things and of satins». There is
little rice, fish and vegetables; the people «eat cakes, meat and su-lo * (^
20 f^ butter).
«The products of the country are gold and silver, engraved glassware
(liu-li) of the finest quality, white yiie-no cloth and liquid storax».
The inhabitants like to wear turbans and clothes of fine snow-white
cotton (gl ^)». Every seven days they cut their hair and nails, and five
25 times daily they pray to (or worship) Heaven (j|ffi ^ ^)^; they profess the
religion of the Ta-shi. As they (i. e., the Caliphs) are the descendants of the
Buddha (i. e., the Prophet), the people of other countries come thither to do
them honour.
Notes.
30 1) The phrases and parts of phrase in quotation marks in this chapter are from Ling-wai-
tai-ta, 3,3*. It is doubtful whether Po-ta (^A ig) of I'ang-shu, 221B, 24", is Baghdad, as in a
subsequent passage in the same chapter it is said that the king of Po-ta, Mo -ho-so-ssi received in A. D
747 th e title of a Chinese prince, together with five other petty kings, for Baghdad was only founded
six years later, in 753. In the Yiian period the name was written Pau-ta {^U -iS), Pa-ha-ta
35 (/\ 5A. ^J^ and Pa-ki-ta (/\ ^ :^). See Bretschneider, Med. geogr,,287, andMed.
travell., 67. Marco Polo must have taken his name for Baghdad — Baudas, from the Chinese.
Our author in another passage (supra, p. 124) gives the distance from Ma-lo-pa, i. e., Merbat
on the Hadramaut coast of Arabia, to Mecca as eighty days' travel, he consequently allowed fifty
days for the journey from Mecca to Baghdad. In another passage (infra, p. 138) he says that
.