End of the Road


 * End of the Road
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 14 January 2002

From the Chronicles of Benjamin of Tudela, SE 254-56 [1026-1028 CE]:

... The island of Mindanao lies many days' sail from Aotearoa, at the end of a difficult journey -- across the ocean on the trade winds, past Irian, and through the Banda Sea and the Molucca Sea. On Mindanao are many tribes and petty kingdoms who war constantly against each other. Each of these peoples, with the exception of the black men who inhabit the mountains, claims to be descended from foreigners, and each tells stories of its arrival on the island. Some claim descent from China, others from the tribes of the Moluccas, and still others from Srivijayan princes who came in four great boats. This last legend may have some truth, as there is a town on Mindanao that bears the same name as the Srivijayan capital of Palembang.

The most numerous of the peoples of Mindanao are the Moro, who are divided into several kingdoms each ruled by its own chief. The Moro have a curious way of fighting, with a blade in one hand and a rattan stick in the other. So skilled are they in fighting with these sticks that they are as deadly with the stick as with the sword, and value the stick for its lightness and speed. They tell a story of how they learned to fight with sticks, remembering a time when they were subjugated by a foreign king who forbade them from carrying weapons. They obeyed this order to the letter, but practiced the art of stick fighting in secret until they were strong enough to overthrow him. FN1 Since that day, they have not been conquered...

... Mindanao is a place of beauty. In the interior are great forests and waterfalls, as well as streams that flow amid wildflowers. Near the southern shore, there are also hot springs where one may bathe away the rigors of a long journey...

... The largest town on Mindanao is Sambagan, or the place of the wildflowers, which lies on a peninsula at the western end of the island. FN2 The people of Sambagan are great potters, weavers and blacksmiths. Here, the Moro, the Subanons and the other tribes of Mindanao come to trade with merchants from China and Nippon. In recent times, Nipponese ships have brought settlers as well as merchants, fleeing from warfare or from the emperor's disfavor. Some of these dwell in the town of Sambagan, while others have taken service with the kings of the island...

... Hangzhou is the royal seat of Wuyue, the richest of the four kingdoms of China. FN3 As befits the capital of such a great kingdom, Hangzhou is a mighty city, with as many as three hundred thousand people within its walls.

The land of Wuyue, and the other kingdoms of China, were formerly ruled by great landed nobles. In recent years, however, the managers of their estates -- who were responsible for protecting them from chaos and war -- have taken hold of the land in their own right. They have made the land prosperous with the help of newcomers fleeing the warfare that formerly convulsed the north, who taught them to build terraces on their farms and to raise ducks and fish in the flooded rice fields.

The kings of Wuyue have also built great public works -- city walls and roads, and great walls to keep the sea from drowning the land. To support their rule, they have set officials over the people who are chosen by examination. Their generals are also chosen in this way, but most of the common soldiers are hired Turks from the lands along the Silk Road. It was not always thus, but the kings fear to rely upon their nobles to fight for them, lest the nobles attempt to seize royal power.

The kings have also built great monuments and palaces to commemorate their rule; Hangzhou is full of the pagodas and gardens that they have erected in their memory. They have also learned how to carve images on wooden blocks, and to print these images on paper so that all the people will know of their great deeds and just rulings...

... The Silk Road begins at Bianliang, also called Kaifeng. This is a city of a hundred fifty thousand souls which lies within the kingdom of the Liao, who rule all northern China. The Liao are descended from horsemen of the cold northern plains and retain their ancestral speech and dress, but have adopted the writing and royal ceremony of the people they have conquered. They have also adopted the Chinese system of government, selecting officials by examination to rule over the people.

The Liao have no capital. Instead, the Liao kings maintain a royal seat in the chief city of each province, and constantly travel in a grand processional from one to another. In each province, they rule with the aid of a council of nobles and senior officials, although they have another council that accompanies them on their processional.

Like the kings of Wuyue, the Liao do not draw their soldiers from the Chinese people they rule. Most of the regiments of the Liao army are made up of Liao horsemen, but they also hire Turkish troops to patrol the borders and garrison distant cities. The people are made to pay heavy taxes to support these soldiers...

... The merchants' colony in Bianliang contains traders of all nations. To my surprise, there were Jews there as well, both of the B'nei Mikra and the rabbinic sort; they are called the "Removers of Tendons" by their neighbors due to their method of preparing meat. At one time, there were a greater number of Jews living in Bianliang, but in recent years many of them have intermarried with their Chinese neighbors and forgotten their God. It is likely that before long, the Jews of Bianliang will be a memory... FN4

... The Silk Road is long, and its cities are many. Three months' journey to the west of Bianliang, one comes to the city of Turpan. This city lies in the midst of a desert, but its inhabitants have built great aqueducts to bring water down from the mountains. So much water flows through these aqueducts that the land has been made fertile, and its people grow crops for food and grapes to make wine.

The inhabitants of Turpan are Uighurs, who follow the Manichaean faith. FN5 This faith preaches that the world is engaged in a great struggle between darkness and light -- the latter force personified by its chief prophet -- in which the people must choose sides. They are divided into the Elect, a class of priests which practices celibacy and wears white robes that cover the entire body, and the Auditors, or common people. In Turpan, they have built great temples with illustrations of the sun and moon, and of the trees of life and death...

... Beyond Turpan, the road travels west along the edge of the desert and the foothills of the Tian Shan. Here, towns have grown up at the oases of Korla, Kucha and Aksu, and the great market of Kashgar. From Kashgar, the route climbs high into the Pamir mountains, past the lake of Karakul, where dwell horsemen who live in tents and follow their herds through the land. Three weeks' travel past Karakul is the great domed city of Samarkand...

... Traders have come to Samarkand from time immemorial, but the city has grown in importance since becoming the capital of the Khagan of the Oxus. The khagan has ordered the construction of many buildings and temples, paid for with the plunder of distant lands and the profits of trade. His palace and the public buildings of the city are inlaid with thousands of tiles set in intricate patterns, depicting the life of Christ and the deeds of the king.

West of Samarkand is the great Amu Darya and the desert of the Kara Kum. From there, the road leads south and west, to Persia and then to home...

... And so I returned to al-Iskandariyah in the month of Elul in the year 4788, the sixty-sixth year of my life...