526 early Commerce of the Arabs. [[No. 151. 



Translation. 



" Fay. — This town is the centre of the commerce of Armenia, Azer- 

 bijan, Khoras3an, Khazar, and the country of Borjan. The sea mer- 

 chants sail from East to West, and again from West to East, and they 

 export brocade and a superior sort of beaver from the country of the 

 Franks to Ferma by sea, (from Ferma they go by land,) to the Red Sea 

 and take their wares by sea to China, from China they export cinna- 

 mon, mamyran, and all sorts of China goods. These they bring to 

 the town of Kolzom, whence they transport them by land to Ferma. 



11 The merchants of whom we are speaking are Jews, and are called 

 Rodhanians. They speak Persian, Rumisb, Arabic and Frankish, (i. e. 

 a dialect of German,) they come (by sea) to Antioch, thence they go to 

 Bagdad and thence to Obollah. 



11 The Sclavonian merchants deal in fox and beaver skins (fur,) which 

 they bring from their most distant countries to the Rumish sea, were 

 they pay custom to the Greek Emperor. Then they proceed by sea 

 to Samkush, who is a Jew, then they go (by land) to the country of the 

 Sclavonians ; then they sail on the Sclavonian sea till they come to the 

 Gulf of the Khazars, where they have to pay custom to the Khazar king. 

 Then they sail on the sea of Khorassan, and ply on the river which is 

 called the Sclavonian river; sometimes they go on shore in Jorjan and 

 sell off. All these wares come to Ray, which is the market of the 

 world."* 



* The latter part of this passage is very confused and corrupted, but it may 

 easily be corrected from the passage of Ibn Khordadbeh. 



Besides Ray, the town of Jyroft in Kerman, two days' journey from Sirjar and 

 four days from Hormuz, was a great place for commerce, in which the caravans of 

 Sijistan and Khorassan used to meet. (Ibn Haukal MS. of the Bodleyan Library.) 



( To be continued. ) 



