Yetgeul › Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) › Complete in one volume
The Country of Daebullim (Greater Byzantium)大拂臨國
Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) Complete in one volume The travel record of Hyecho, a monk of Silla, who at about twenty walked forty countries of India and the Western Regions and set down what he saw. It was lost for more than a thousand years and was found again in 1908 in the caves of Dunhuang, as a damaged scroll. Five poems in five-word lines, longing for home, are carried in it.
1The country the Arabs could not take
又小拂臨國。傍海西北。即是大拂臨國。此王兵馬強多。不屬餘國。大𥦽數迴討擊不得。突厥侵亦不得。土地足寶物。甚足駝騾羊馬疊布等物。衣著與波斯大𥦽相似。言音各別不同。
Again, from the country of Sobullim along the sea to the northwest is the country of Daebullim (大拂臨國), that is Greater Byzantium, the land of Eastern Rome. This king's troops are strong and many, and he is not under any other country. The Arabs attacked it several times but could not take it, and the Turks invaded but could not take it either.
The land has treasures in plenty, and camels, mules, sheep, horses, wool cloth and the like are very plentiful. Their dress is like that of Persia and of the Arabs, but their speech is quite their own and is not the same.
Interlinear notes 2
⿱穴是
This is the character written with 是 beneath 穴.
⿱穴是
This is the character written with 是 beneath 穴.