Now we will quit Tauris, and speak of the great country of Persia. [From Tauris to Persia is a journey of twelve days.] NOTE 1.—Abulfeda notices that TABRÍZ was vulgarly pronounced _Tauriz_, and this appears to have been adopted by the Franks. In Pegolotti the name is always _Torissi_. Tabriz is often reckoned to belong to Armenia, as by Hayton. Properly it is the chief city of _Azerbaiján_, which never was included in ’IRÁK. But it may be observed that Ibn Batuta generally calls the Mongol Ilkhan of Persia _Sáhib_ or _Malik ul-’Irák_, and as Tabriz was the capital of that sovereign, we can account for the mistake, whilst admitting it to be one. [The destruction of Baghdad by Hulaku made Tabriz the great commercial and political city of Asia, and diverted the route of Indian products from the Mediterranean to the Euxine. It was the route to the Persian Gulf by Kashan, Yezd, and Kermán, to the Mediterranean by Lajazzo, and later on by Aleppo,—and to the Euxine by Trebizond. The destruction of the Kingdom of Armenia closed to Europeans the route of Tauris.—H. C.] NOTE 2.—_Cremesor_, as Baldelli points out, is GARMSIR, meaning a hot region, a term which in Persia has acquired several specific applications, and especially indicates the coast-country on the N.E. side of the Persian Gulf, including Hormuz and the ports in that quarter. NOTE 3.—[Of the Italians established at Tabriz, the first whose name is mentioned is the Venetian Pietro Viglioni (Vioni); his will, dated 10th December, 1264, is still in existence. (_Archiv. Venet._ XXVI. pp. 161–165; _Heyd_, French Ed., II. p. 110.)—H. C.] At a later date (1341) the Genoese had a factory at Tabriz headed by a consul with a council of twenty-four merchants, and in 1320 there is evidence of a Venetian settlement there. (_Elie de la Prim_, 161; _Heyd_, II. 82.) Rashiduddin says of Tabriz that there were gathered there under the eyes of the Padishah of Islam “philosophers, astronomers, scholars, historians, of all religions, of all sects; people of Cathay, of Máchín, of India, of Kashmir, of Tibet, of the Uighúr and other Turkish nations, Arabs and Franks.” Ibn Batuta: “I traversed the bazaar of the jewellers, and my eyes were dazzled by the varieties of precious stones which I beheld. Handsome slaves, superbly dressed, and girdled with silk, offered their gems for sale to the Tartar ladies, who bought great numbers. [Odoric (ed. Cordier) speaks also of the great trade of Tabriz.] Tabriz maintained a large population and prosperity down to the 17th century, as may be seen in Chardin. It is now greatly fallen, though still a place of importance.” (_Quat. Rash._, p. 39; _I. B._ II. 130.) [Illustration: Ghazan Khan’s Mosque at Tabriz.—(From Fergusson.)]