Death of Mostas’im

According to Al-Fakhri, translated by E. Amar (Archives marocaines, XVI., p. 579), Mostas’im was put to death with his two eldest sons on the 4th of safar, 656 (3rd February, 1258).

XI., p. 75. “The [the men of Tauris] weave many kinds of beautiful and valuable stuffs of silk and gold.”

Francisque-Michel (I., p. 316) remarks: “De ce que Marco Polo se borne à nommer Tauris comme la ville de Perse où il se fabriquait maints draps d’or et de soie, il ne faudrait pas en conclure que cette industrie n’existât pas sur d’autres points du même royaume. Pour n’en citer qu’un seul, la ville d’Arsacie, ancienne capitale des Parthes, connue aujourd’hui sous le nom de Caswin, possédait vraisemblablement déjà cette industrie des beaux draps d’or et de soie qui existait encore au temps de Huet, c’est-à-dire au XVIIe siècle.”

XIII., p. 78. “Messer Marco Polo found a village there which goes by the name of Cala Ataperistan, which is as much as to say, ‘The Castle of the Fire-worshippers.’”

With regard to Kal’ah-i Atashparastān, Prof. A. V. W. Jackson writes (Persia, 1906, p. 413): “And the name is rightly applied, for the people there do worship fire. In an article entitled The Magi in Marco Polo (Journ. Am. Or. Soc., 26, 79–83) I have given various reasons for identifying the so-called ‘Castle of the Fire-Worshippers’ with Kashan, which Odoric mentions or a village in its vicinity, the only rival to the claim being the town of Naïn, whose Gabar Castle has already been mentioned above.”

XIV., p. 78.