The soil of the whole province is most fertile, producing great crops of wheat. There are abundant fruit trees also with rich vineyards: the livestock is magnificent, beasts and poultry all of a fine breed. The sheep are famous for having fat tails that weigh each some twenty pounds, in fact as much as a man can readily hold in the hand: and of these sheep the flocks are so abundant that even when Timur is in camp here with his armies, a couple can be had in the market for the price of a ducat. Baked bread is plentiful and rice can be had cheap in any quantity.
The wonderful abundance of this great capital is why it bears the name of Samarkand: this name would be more exactly written Semiz-kent, two words which signify ‘Rich-Town’, for Semiz in Turkish is fat or rich and Kent means city. This land is also rich in manufactures, with factories of silk, also crapes, taffetas and the stuffs we call Tercenals in Spain, which are all produced in great numbers. Further they make special fur linings for silk garments, and manufacture stuffs in gold and blue with other colours of diverse dyes.
This trade has been fostered by Timur with the view of making his capital the noblest of cities: and during his conquests he carried off the best men of the population to people his capital. From Damascus he took weavers who work the silk looms; bow-makers who produce those famous crossbows; armourers; and craftsmen in glass and porcelain. From Turkey he brought gunsmiths who make the arquebus, silversmiths and masons. He also brought artillery men, both engineers and bombardiers, and those who make the ropes by which these engines work.
Here are to be seen Turks, Arabs and Moors of diverse sects, as well as Christians, both Greeks and Armenians, Catholics, Jacobites and Nestorians, besides those Indian folk who baptize with fire in the forehead, who are Christians of a faith peculiar to their nation. The markets further are stored with merchandise from distant and foreign countries. From Russia and Tartary [the steppes] come leathers and linens, from Cathay [northern China] silk stuffs that are the finest in the whole world. Thence too is brought musk which is unique to Cathay, with balas rubies and diamonds, also pearls, as well as rhubarb with many other spices. The goods imported from Cathay are the most precious of all those brought from foreign parts, for the craftsmen of Cathay are far more skilful than those of any other nation; and it is said that they alone have two eyes, while the Franks may have one, whereas the Muslims are blind.
From India come nutmegs, cloves and mace with cinnamon both in the flower and as bark, with ginger and manna; none of these are to be found in the markets of Alexandria. Throughout the city there are squares where meat ready-cooked – roasted or in stews – is sold, with fowls and game prepared for eating, also bread and fruit. All these are set out in a decent cleanly manner, in all those squares, and their traffic goes on all day and even through the night.
On the one part of Samarkand stands the castle which is protected by deep ravines on all its sides: and through these water flows which makes it impregnable. Here his Highness keeps his treasure, and none from the city without may enter save the governor of the castle and his men. Within its walls however Timur holds in captivity upwards of a thousand workmen; these labour at making plate-armour and helms, with bows and arrows.
1500 EMPEROR BABUR
As a descendant of Timur from Uzbekistan, Babur (1483–1530) conquered Samarkand in 1497 but was driven out a few years later. He moved to Kabul in Afghanistan, and then India, where he founded the Mughal Empire in 1520. A cultured man as well as a great soldier, he was particularly interested in architecture and gardens, especially those of his Timurid predecessor in Samarkand, Ulugh Beg Mirza (1394–1449).
Few towns in the world are so pleasant as Samarkand. Alexander the Great must have founded Samarkand, and it must have become Muslim in the time of the Commander of the Faithful, Uthman. Kusam ibn ‘Abbas, one of the Companions of Muhammad, went there: his burial place is outside the Iron Gate. Samarkandis are all orthodox, pure in the Faith, law-abiding and religious. Timur made it his capital; no ruler so great ever made it a capital before. I ordered people to pace round the ramparts of the walled town; the distance measured 10,000 steps.…
In the citadel, Timur Beg erected the great four-storeyed kiosk, known as the Kok Sarai. In the walled town, near the Iron Gate, he built a Friday Mosque of stone using the labour of many stone-cutters brought from Hindustan [India]. Round its frontal arch is inscribed in letters large enough to be read two miles away, the verse, Wa az yerfa’ Ibrahim al Qawa’id al akhara [‘And Abraham and Ismail raised the foundations of this house’]. He also laid out two gardens, on the east of the town. From Dilkusha to the Turquoise Gate, he planted an avenue of white poplar, and in the garden itself erected a great kiosk, painted inside with pictures of his battles in Hindustan. He made another garden on the bank of the Kohik [Zeravshan River]; it had gone to ruin when I saw it.… His own tomb and those of his descendants who have ruled in Samarkand are in a madrasa, built at the exit from the walled town.
Among Ulugh Beg Mirza’s buildings inside the town are a college and a monastery. The dome of the monastery is vast; few so large can be seen anywhere in the world. Near these, he constructed an excellent hot bath known as the Mirza’s Bath, with mosaic pavements; no other such bath is known in Samarkand or in all of Khurasan [now north-east Iran, Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan]. To the south of the college is his mosque, known as the Carved Mosque because its ceiling and its walls are all covered with carved ornamentation and ‘Chinese’ pictures formed of segments of wood.…
Another of Ulugh Beg Mirza’s fine buildings is an observatory, that is, a building with instruments for writing astronomical tables. This stands three storeys high, on the edge of the Kohik upland.
Samarkand is a wonderfully beautified town. One of its specialities, perhaps found in few other places, is that the different trades are not mixed up together in it. Each has its own bazar, which makes a lot of sense. Its bakers and its cooks are good. The best paper in the world is made there; the water for the paper mortars all comes from Kan-i-gil, a meadow on the banks of the Kara-su (Blackwater) or Ab-i-rahmat (Water of Mercy). Another article of Samarkand trade, exported everywhere, is red velvet.
SAN FRANCISCO
Founded by the Spanish in the 18th century, San Francisco was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War, and became a boom town with the gold rush of the same year, the population growing twenty-five times in eighteen months. Many of the immigrants were Chinese, making it one of the most Chinese-influenced cities in North America. A major earthquake and subsequent fire in 1906 led to the rebuilding of the city; the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937.
In the 1960s the city became the epicentre of American counter-culture, and in the 21st century the nearby Silicon Valley attracted digital expertise from across the world.
1849 JOHN AUDUBON
American John W. Audubon (1812–1862), the son of ornithologist John James Audubon, travelled from New York to California in 1849 with a group of miners, intending to profit from the Gold Rush; when they arrived in San Francisco late in 1849, they realized they were too late. They moved on to Sacramento, but returned to New York shortly afterwards.
We reached San Francisco on Saturday night 21st December, and stayed in our blankets on the floor of the steamer until morning when we went off, on what is called ‘the long dock’ into mud half-leg deep. We paid fifty cents for a cup of coffee and a bit of bread, and I went for my letters, but found none, so went off to hunt up my men, found them all right, and returned to Henry Mallory, who having received letters was able to set my anxieties about my family at rest; but I alone of all the company had no home news. I sat on the deck of the steamer, the most quiet place I could find, re-read my old letters, and went about my business with a heavy heart.
25 December Christmas Day! Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Not that here, to me at any rate, in this pandemonium of a city. Not a lady to be seen, and the women, poor things, sad and silent, except when drunk or
excited. The place full of gamblers, hundreds of them, and men of the lowest types, more blasphemous, and with less regard for God and his commands than all I have ever seen on the Mississippi, in New Orleans or Texas, which give us the same class to some extent, it is true; but instead of a few dozen, or a hundred, gaming at a time, here, there are thousands, and one house alone pays one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum for the rent of the ‘Monte’ tables.
Sunday makes no difference, certainly not Christmas, except for a little more drunkenness, and a little extra effort on the part of the hotel keepers to take in more money.…
26 December I was not made more cheerful by finding that our agents had so conducted our affairs that instead of finding all our provisions and implements nicely stored, and in good order, waiting for us, I discovered that all that was most useful to us had been sold, and the balance lay about in the wet and mud, or was rotting, half dry for want of the requisite cover. The expenses had eaten up the money procured by the sales, or so we were told, and I found myself with forty men to take care of and in debt. I was on the point of breaking up the company, and letting every man shift for himself, but felt that it was neither brave nor honorable, so decided to make one more effort. I drew on my brother for one thousand dollars, borrowed all I could from the boys who had brought their own mules on with them, and concluded to take all who were not mechanics with me to the mines; the mechanics had, without exception, found work instantly at exorbitant prices. They were to keep half they made, and pay in the other half to the company. I have been offered thirty-five dollars a day to draw plans for houses, stores, etc., but though I never intended to go to the mines myself, I feel now for the sake of the men who stood by me, that I must stay by them.
1873 KUME KUNITAKE
Kume Kunitake (1839–1931) was a Japanese historian who in 1871–73 took part in a fact-finding mission to the West organized by the Japanese emperor to support Japan’s modernization after the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Westerners think trade is the most important business in life, and this is why Asians call their countries mercantile. Yet in fact a majority of their population are engaged in agriculture, the rest chiefly in industry, and only five or six out of one hundred in trade. It is simply inconceivable for the people of the East that not only merchants but also farmers and manufacturers are interested in the exchange of goods, and that big cities are eager to have merchants and trading vessels visit their ports. There are businesses that are indispensable to trade and taken for granted at commercial centres such as docks, markets, banking and exchange facilities, and chambers of commerce. These simply do not exist in the Orient…. In Japan there is, in contrast, general lack of interest in trade and ignorance of the fact that the essence of trade is to mediate between buying and selling and to transport goods to places which value them highly.
Possibilities for the further development of San Francisco seem limitless. It is a matter of fact that whenever one place flourishes in trade it brings forth prosperity in a corresponding place. London has been prosperous along with Paris, and these two cities have in turn brought forth the prosperity of New York and Philadelphia. Now geographically the ports that correspond to San Francisco in the East are Yokohama, Shanghai and Hong Kong…. But while San Francisco on the eastern shores of the Pacific has been thriving, what can we say of the situation at the Japanese and Chinese ports on the western shores? We Japanese must certainly reflect on these matters. San Francisco has taken advantage of its favourable location and safe conditions of the bay. At the same time, it should be noted that its land is vast and its population sparse, with the result that the demand for manpower is enormous, both in industry and agriculture. The cost of labour is exorbitant. As a result the manufacturing industry in San Francisco has been underdeveloped, and it has been very costly to process timber, wool, leather, gold and other kinds of metal. Glassware, chinaware, blankets, hats, shoes, silver and copper trinkets, leather instruments, lumber and even salted fish are so expensive that they have had to be imported from New York, Boston and Philadelphia. These goods are shipped through the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama. It is obviously much more inconvenient to ship goods across such distances than to send them from Japan. Now it happens that Japan as well as other countries of the Orient are endowed with natural resources, where the population is large and labour cheap, in other words a situation the exact opposite of San Francisco.
1886 ELLEN G. HODGES
Ellen Hodges was a young woman from Boston when she undertook a journey around the United States in 1886. Her letters display a lively interest in the land and its people; in San Francisco she became involved with Christian missionaries working with the Chinese.
18 May, Palace Hotel, San Francisco We have driven about the city, and it is wonderful to see what has been made from the sand hills on which the city is built. Most of the best houses are built of wood. Mr Flood has one of stone, which is said to be magnificent in the interior. Driving out to the Cliff House, we passed the Golden Gate Park, which is still being enlarged and cultivated. A beautiful greenhouse stands in the park, with superb tropical plants and flowers growing profusely. The gardens around are prettily laid out….
The markets here are fascinating. The fruits, especially the cherries, are large, juicy and delicious. We are enjoying everything thus far, but we do object to the dust which sweeps the streets every afternoon. People who live in San Francisco seldom go out after one o’clock as it is so disagreeable after the wind comes up. I am looking forward to my visit to Chinatown where we are hoping to go in a day or two.
19 May There is so much to see and do here that I cannot keep quiet, and feel that I must be on the go the whole time.
A large party was made to visit Chinatown and one evening we set forth; when we reached a certain corner we were suddenly joined by a Chinaman. He was a fine-looking fellow, taller than most of them, and had a long pig-tail hanging almost to his heels with red silk braided in his hair. He had a very intelligent countenance and a lovely smile would spread over his face when we asked him questions. Of course he wore the usual costume of his country.…
Our large party created quite an excitement; men peered out of doors and windows to see who and what we were, and we were glad to get out into the street again. We went to the theatre and were shown seats in the gallery.… The theatre was packed with these Mongolians, all with their hats on and all smoking. In a room full of Chinese you may imagine that the air was dreadful….
After spending twenty minutes here we were glad to get away from the pandemonium.…
Next we visited a restaurant which was really beautiful; the walls of the rooms were panelled with carved teak wood; the table and stools were also carved and inlaid with marble. We were served tea and sweetmeats in true Celestial style.
A Chinaman waiter, clothed in spotless white, brought each of us a large teacup on a carved wooden stand, with a saucer covering it. He also brought a smaller cup without a saucer. The larger cup was filled with dry tea leaves; then the boiling hot water was poured over them. This was allowed to stand for a few seconds, then he dexterously poured the liquid off into the smaller cup, and it was ready for drinking. No milk or sugar is used….
We lingered at the restaurant a long time; then we wanted to visit the opium dens and were much disappointed when we were told there were too many of us. Very naturally Chin Jun did not want to expose his countrymen who probably would not have let him off easily for bringing us down to see them. We didn’t blame him for not wanting to take us but we could not help being disappointed for we especially wanted to see these dens. But as it could not be done we said goodbye to our escorts and returned to the hotel where we had a late supper.
23 May The Chinese can live on six cents a day, and the company which imports them is responsible and has to look out that they don’t starve; the consequence is that there are many idly lounging about the streets. There is no drunkenness among the Chinese
as a rule, and but two men have been arrested for a long time for this cause; and these men learned the habit from miners with whom they had worked.
As you walk through the streets of Chinatown you would hardly realize yourself in America. The houses and shops are decorated with many coloured signs; lanterns hang from the balconies, which are painted Pompeian red, and it really looks quite Oriental.…
It is said that the wife of Confucius had club feet and always had to be carried; it was she, being of high rank, who set the fashion for small feet. There are but three women here with small feet. I happened to see a little girl who was going through the street; she was laughing and chattering and seemed very happy with two companions who were supporting her as they walked along. There are so few women in Chinatown, and these are smuggled in, that they take great care in bringing up the girls.
1906 ENRICO CARUSO
The world-famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) was performing in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake of April 1906, which reached 7.8 on the Richter scale and led to a devastating fire; four-fifths of the city was destroyed. Caruso vowed never to visit the city again.
You ask me to say what I saw and what I did during the terrible days which witnessed the destruction of San Francisco?…I was stopping at the Palace Hotel, where many of my fellow-artists were staying, and very comfortable it was. I had a room on the fifth floor, and on Tuesday evening, the night before the great catastrophe, I went to bed feeling very contented. I had sung in Carmen that night, and the opera had one with fine éclat. We were all pleased, and, as I said before, I went to bed that night feeling happy and contented.
Great Cities Through Travelers' Eyes Page 31