There are two Armenias, the Greater and the Lesser. In the Lesser Armenia the king resides in a city called Sebaste; and in all this country justice and good government are strictly enforced. This kingdom has many cities, fortresses, and castles; the soil is fertile, and the country abounds with game and wildfowl, and every necessary article of provisions, but the air is not very good. Formerly the Armenian gentlemen were brave men and good soldiers, but are now become effeminate, and addicted to drinking and debauchery. The city of Giazza, on the Black Sea, has an excellent harbour, to which merchants resort from divers countries, even from Venice and Genoa, for several sorts of merchandize, especially for the different kinds of spices, and various other valuable goods, which are brought here from India, as this place is the settled market for the commodities of the east.

Turcomania is inhabited by three different nations, Turcomans, Greeks, and Armenians. The Turcomans, who are Mahometans, are a rude, illiterate, and savage people, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places, where they can procure pasture, as they subsist only on the produce of their flocks and herds. In their country there are excellent horses, called Turkish horses, and their mules are in great estimation. The Greeks and Armenians possess the cities and towns, and employ themselves in manufactures and merchandize, making, especially, the best carpets in the world. Their chief cities are Cogno or Iconium, Caesarea, and Sebaste, where St Basil suffered martyrdom. This country is under subjection to one of the khans of the Tartars.

The Greater Armenia is a large province, subject to the Tartars, which has many cities and towns, the principal of which is Arsugia, in which the best buckram in the world is made. In this neighbourhood there are excellent hot springs, which are celebrated as salutary baths in many diseases. The cities next in consequence are Argiron and Darziz. In the summer season many Tartars resort to this country on account of the richness of the pastures, and retire again in winter, because of the abundance of snow. The ark of Noah rested on Arrarat, one of the mountains of Armenia.

This country has the province of Mosul and Meridin on the east, or Diarbekir; and on the north is Zorzania355, where there is a fountain that discharges a liquid resembling oil; which, though it cannot be used as a seasoning for meat, is yet useful for burning in lamps, and for many other purposes; and it is found in sufficient quantities to load camels, and to form a material object of commerce. In Zorzania is a prince named David Melic or King David; one part of the province being subject to him, while the other part pays tribute to a Tartar khan. The woods are mostly of box-trees. Zorzania extends between the Euxine and Caspian seas; which latter is likewise called the sea of Baccu, and is 2800 miles in circumference: but is like a lake, as it has no communication with any other sea. In it there are many islands, cities, and castles, some of which are inhabited by the people who fled from the Tartars out of Persia.

The people of Zorzania are Christians, observing the same rites with others, and wear their hair short like the western clergy. There are many cities, and the country abounds in silk, of which they make many fine manufactures. Moxul or Mosul, is a province containing many sorts of people; some are called Arahi, who are Mahometans; others are Christians of various sects, as Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians; and they have a patriarch stiled Jacolet, who ordains archbishops, bishops, and abbots, whom he sends all over India, and to Cairo, and Bagdat, and wherever there are Christians, in the same manner as is done by the pope of Rome. All the stuffs of gold and silk, called musleims, are wrought in Moxul356. In the mountains of this country of Diarbekir, dwelt the people called Curds, some off whom are Nestorians or Jacobites, and other Mahometans. They are a lawless people, who rob the merchants that travel through their country. Near to them is another province called Mus, Meridin, or Mardin, higher up the Tigris than Mosul, wherein grows great quantities of cotton, of which they make buckrams357 and other manufactures. This province is likewise subject to the Tartars. Baldach, or Bagdat, is a great city in which the supreme caliph formerly resided, who was pope of all the Saracens. From this city it is counted seventeen days journey to the sea; but the river Tigris runs past, on which people sail to Balsora, where the best dates in the world grow, but in the passage between these; two cities there lies another named Chisi. In Bagdat are many manufactures of gold and silk, and damasks and velvets with figures of various creatures; in that city there is a university, where the law of Mahoment, physic, astronomy, and geomancy are taught; and from it come all the pearls in Christendom.

When the Tartars began to extend their conquests, there were four brothers who possessed the chief rule; of whom Mangu, the eldest, reigned in Sedia358. These brethren proposed to themselves to subdue the whole world, for which purpose one went to the east, another to the north, a third to the west, and Ulau or Houlagu went to the south in 1250, with an army of an hundred thousand horse, besides foot. Employing stratagem, he hid a great part of his force in ambush, and advancing with an inconsiderable number, enticed the caliph to follow him by a pretended flight; by this means he took the caliph prisoner, and made himself master of the city, in which he found such infinite store of treasure, that he was quite amazed. Sending for the caliph into his presence, he sharply reproved him, that, possessing such riches, he had not employed them in providing soldiers to defend his dominions; and commanded him to be shut up in the tower where his treasure was placed, without any sustenance.

This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ upon the caliph; for, in the year 1225, seeking to convert the Christians to the Mahometan superstition, and taking advantage of that passage in the gospel which says, "He that hath faith as a grain of mustard seed, shall be able to remove mountains," he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and Jacobites, and gave them their choice, "In ten days to remove a certain mountain, to turn Mahometans or to be slain;" alleging that there was not one among them who had the least grain of faith. The astonished and dismayed Christians continued ten days in prayer; when, by a revelation to a certain bishop, a certain shoemaker was chosen to perform this compulsatory miracle. This shoemaker was once tempted to lust in fitting a shoe to a young woman, and had literally and zealously performed the injunction of the gospel by putting out his right eye. On the day appointed by the caliph, he and all the Christians of the city followed the cross towards the mountain; then, lifting up his hands, he prayed to God to have mercy on his afflicted people, and, in a loud voice, commanded the mountain, in the name of the holy and ever blessed Trinity to remove: which it presently did, to the great astonishment and terror of the caliph and all his people, The anniversary of this day, and the evening before, is ever since kept holy by fasting and prayer359.

Tauris is a great city in the province of Hircania360, and is a very populous place. The inhabitants live by the exercise of manufacture and trade, fabricating, especially, stuffs of silk and gold. The foreign merchants who reside there make very great gains, but the inhabitants are generally poor. They are a mixed people, of Nestorians, Armenians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and Mahometans. These last are perfidious and treacherous people, who think all well got which they can filch or steal from those of other religions; and this wickedness of the Saracens has induced many of the Tartars to join their religion; and if a Saracen be killed by a Christian, even while engaged in the act of robbery, he is esteemed to have died a martyr. It is twelve days journey from Tauris to Persia361. In the confines stands the monastery of St Barasam, of which the monks resemble Carmelites: they make girdles, which they lay on the altars and give to their friends, who esteem them as holy. Persia is divided into eight kingdoms, viz. Casbin, Curdistan362, Laristan, Susistan or Chorassan, Spahan, Ispahan or Fars, Shiras363, Soncara364, and lastly Timochaim, which is near Arboreseco, towards the north365. Persia breeds excellent horses, which are sold to the Indies; also very good asses, which are sold for a higher price than the horses, because they eat little, carry much, and travel far. They have camels also, which, though not swift, are necessary in these countries, which, sometimes for a long way, yield no grass or water.