The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 319 _ great city called Mux, peopled by Turkish Armenians and a few Kurds. From there, another day’s journey in the same direction, there is a fine monastery of Armenian monks, and it is said that it contains the head of the blessed St John the Baptist. It has a great wall like a fortress, with many small houses inside it to shelter the people who go on pilgrimage there every year on his St John’s day. They are very numerous, and many deaf, blind and lame people come back from there cured. In order to avoid quarrels and disturbances, the justice and subbaxi of the Turk always goes there on that day from the city of Mux. This wall and fortification were built by the Armenians with the permission which the Turk conceded to them when once he went that way against Shah Tahmasp; for they had told him that in that land there were many Kurdish thieves, who often attacked, robbed and maltreated them, and they could not live with them. They requested him to concede them this permission so that they could fortify themselves in such a way that they the Kurdish thieves could do them no harm. As a result, they did the whole of this work. From this monastery, about two days’ joumey to the north, there are very large high, ranges of mountains called Mingal in Turkish, and this means “thousand lakes”.

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