'History of the imâms and seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk, from A.D. 661-1856; translated from the original Arabic, and edited with notes, appendices, and an introduction, continuing the history down to 1870, by George Percy Badger, F.R.G.S., late chaplain in the Presidency of Bombay.' [‎410] (571/612)

410
postscript.
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... a;
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Europeans under the name of Kenn, and it is that which Yule
identifies as the Chi si of Marco Polo.
But was Polo's Chid an island? In his chapter on "Baldac,"
or Baghdad, he gives us some further intimations of its position :
" Baldac is a large city, once the residence of the Caliph of all
the Saracens of the world, just as Rome is the seat of the Pontiff
of all Christians. Through the city flows a large river, by which
one may go as far as the Indian Sea ; and thereby merchants go
and come with their goods. But you must know that the way
down to the Indian Sea by the river from Baldac is eighteen days
long. The merchants who go to India descend by that river to a
city called Chisi, and from thence they enter into the Indian Sea.
Upon that river, between Baldac and Chisi, there is a great city
called Basra." (Pasini's edition, p. 19.)
It seems to me tolerably clear from this passage that Polo, who
evidently regarded the Gulf as a continuation of the Tigris,
places his Chisi on the mainland. That inference is confirmed by
an incidental notice of its locality in his chapter on "Persia."
Speaking of the horses reared in the provinces, he goes on to say
that the people of those districts convey the horses " as far as
Chisi and Cormos, two cities near the shores of the Sea of India,
where the merchants are found who purchase them and transport
them to India." (Id., p. 2G). Here it should be borne in mind
that the Hormuz on the mainland was in existence in Polo's time,
and for at least thirty-seven years after, for Ibn-Batuta visited it
about a.d . 1330:—"From this place ['Oman] I went to Hormuz,
which is a city built on the sea-shore; opposite to which, but
within the sea, is New Hormuz." (Lee's Translation, p. 63).
Still, it is tolerably clear that in el-Kazwiny's time, a.d . 1268,
about twenty-five years before Marco Polo's visit to the Persian
Gulf, el-Kais was the island frequented by the China ships :—
" Kais [or Kis] is an island in the Persian Sea, four parasangs
in circumference, [that is, about fifteen miles ; its real circum
ference is twenty-one miles]. Its town is fair and pleasant to
look upon, having a wall and gates, gardens and buildings. It
is a haven for Indian and Persian ships, and a market of trade
and commerce to the Arabs and Persians. Water there is obtained
from wells, but the rich have tanks. All the islands around it
belong to the lord of Kais," [or Kis]. Kosmographie, WUsten-
feld's edition, vol. i, p. 161.