The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello of

That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here.

Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:39 am

CHAPTER XXI. CONCERNING THE LAND OF DARKNESS.

Still further north, and a long way beyond that kingdom of which I have spoken, there is a region which bears the name of DARKNESS, because neither sun nor moon nor stars appear, but it is always as dark as with us in the twilight. The people have no king of their own, nor are they subject to any foreigner, and live like beasts. [They are dull of understanding, like half-witted persons.[NOTE 1]]

The Tartars however sometimes visit the country, and they do it in this way. They enter the region riding mares that have foals, and these foals they leave behind. After taking all the plunder that they can get they find their way back by help of the mares, which are all eager to get back to their foals, and find the way much better than their riders could do. [NOTE 2]

Those people have vast quantities of valuable peltry; thus they have those costly Sables of which I spoke, and they have the Ermine, the Arculin, the Vair, the Black Fox, and many other valuable furs. They are all hunters by trade, and amass amazing quantities of those furs. And the people who are on their borders, where the Light is, purchase all those furs from them; for the people of the Land of Darkness carry the furs to the Light country for sale, and the merchants who purchase these make great gain thereby, I assure you.[NOTE 3]

The people of this region are tall and shapely, but very pale and colourless. One end of the country borders upon Great Rosia. And as there is no more to be said about it, I will now proceed, and first I will tell you about the Province of Rosia.

NOTE 1.—In the Ramusian version we have a more intelligent representation of the facts regarding the Land of Darkness: "Because for most part of the winter months the sun appears not, and the air is dusky, as it is just before the dawn when you see and yet do not see;" and again below it speaks of the inhabitants catching the fur animals "in summer when they have continuous daylight." It is evident that the writer of this version did and the writer of the original French which we have translated from did not understand what he was writing. The whole of the latter account implies belief in the perpetuity of the darkness. It resembles Pliny's hazy notion of the northern regions:[1] "pars mundi damnata a rerum natura et densa mersa caligine." Whether the fault is due to Rustician's ignorance or is Polo's own, who can say? We are willing to debit it to the former, and to credit Marco with the improved version in Ramusio. In the Masálak-al-Absár, however, we have the following passage in which the conception is similar: "Merchants do not ascend (the Wolga) beyond Bolghar; from that point they make excursions through the province of Julman (supposed to be the country on the Kama and Viatka). The merchants of the latter country penetrate to Yughra, which is the extremity of the North. Beyond that you see no trace of habitation except a great Tower built by Alexander, after which there is nothing but Darkness." The narrator of this, being asked what he meant, said: "It is a region of desert mountains, where frost and snow continually reign, where the sun never shines, no plant vegetates, and no animal lives. Those mountains border on the Dark Sea, on which rain falls perpetually, fogs are ever dense, and the sun never shows itself, and on tracts perpetually covered with snow." (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 285.)

NOTE 2.—This is probably a story of great antiquity, for it occurs in the legends of the mythical Ughuz, Patriarch of the Turk and Tartar nations, as given by Rashiduddin. In this hero's campaign towards the far north, he had ordered the old men to be left behind near Almalik; but a very ancient sage called Bushi Khwaja persuaded his son to carry him forward in a box, as they were sure sooner or later to need the counsel of experienced age. When they got to the land of Kará Hulun, Ughuz and his officers were much perplexed about finding their way, as they had arrived at the Land of Darkness. The old Bushi was then consulted, and his advice was that they should take with them 4 mares and 9 she-asses that had foals, and tie up the foals at the entrance to the Land of Darkness, but drive the dams before them. And when they wished to return they would be guided by the scent and maternal instinct of the mares and she-asses. And so it was done. (See Erdmann Temudschin, p. 478.) Ughuz, according to the Mussulman interpretation of the Eastern Legends, was the great-grandson of Japhet.

The story also found its way into some of the later Greek forms of the Alexander Legends. Alexander, when about to enter the Land of Darkness, takes with him only picked young men. Getting into difficulties, the King wants to send back for some old sage who should advise. Two young men had smuggled their old father with them in anticipation of such need, and on promise of amnesty they produce him. He gives the advice to use the mares as in the text. (See Müller's ed. of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. II. ch. xxxiv.)

NOTE 3.—Ibn Batuta thus describes the traffic that took place with the natives of the Land of Darkness: "When the Travellers have accomplished a journey of 40 days across this Desert tract they encamp near the borders of the Land of Darkness. Each of them then deposits there the goods that he has brought with him, and all return to their quarters. On the morrow they come back to look at their goods, and find laid beside them skins of the Sable, the Vair, and the Ermine. If the owner of the goods is satisfied with what is laid beside his parcel he takes it, if not he leaves it there. The inhabitants of the Land of Darkness may then (on another visit) increase the amount of their deposit, or, as often happens, they may take it away altogether and leave the goods of the foreign merchants untouched. In this way is the trade conducted. The people who go thither never know whether those with whom they buy and sell are men or goblins, for they never see any one!" (II. 401.)

["Ibn Batuta's account of the market of the 'Land of Darkness' … agrees almost word for word with Dr. Mirth's account of the 'Spirit Market, taken from the Chinese.'" (Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.)—H.C.]

Abulfeda gives exactly the same account of the trade; and so does Herberstein. Other Oriental writers ascribe the same custom to the Wisu, a people three months' journey from Bolghar. These Wisu have been identified by Fraehn with the Wesses, a people spoken of by Russian historians as dwelling on the shores of the Bielo Osero, which Lake indeed is alleged by a Russian author to have been anciently called Wüsu, misunderstood into Weissensee, and thence rendered into Russian Bielo Osero ("White Lake"). (Golden Horde, App. p. 429; Büsching, IV. 359-360; Herberstein in Ram. II. 168 v.; Fraehn, Bolghar, pp. 14, 47; Do., Ibn Fozlan, 205 seqq., 221.) Dumb trade of the same kind is a circumstance related of very many different races and periods, e.g., of a people beyond the Pillars of Hercules by Herodotus, of the Sabaean dealers in frankincense by Theophrastus, of the Seres by Pliny, of the Sasians far south of Ethiopia by Cosmas, of the people of the Clove Islands by Kazwini, of a region beyond Segelmessa by Mas'udi, of a people far beyond Timbuctoo by Cadamosto, the Veddas of Ceylon by Marignolli and more modern writers, of the Poliars of Malabar by various authors, by Paulus Jovius of the Laplanders, etc. etc.

Pliny's attribution, surely erroneous, of this custom to the Chinese [see supra, H.C.], suggests that there may have been a misunderstanding by which this method of trade was confused with that other curious system of dumb higgling, by the pressure of the knuckles under a shawl, a masonic system in use from Peking to Bombay, and possibly to Constantinople.

The term translated here "Light," and the "Light Country," is in the G.T. "a la Carte," "a la Cartes." This puzzled me for a long time, as I see it puzzled Mr. Hugh Murray, Signor Bartoli, and Lazari (who passes it over). The version of Pipino, "ad Lucis terras finitimas deferunt," points to the true reading;—Carte is an error for Clarté.

The reading of this chapter is said to have fired Prince Rupert with the scheme which resulted in the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company.

_______________

Notes:

[1] That is, in one passage of Pliny (iv. 12); for in another passage from his multifarious note book, where Thule is spoken of, the Arctic day and night are much more distinctly characterised (IV. 16).
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:39 am

CHAPTER XXII. DESCRIPTION OF ROSIA AND ITS PEOPLE. PROVINCE OF LAC.

Rosia is a very great province, lying towards the north. The people are Christians, and follow the Greek doctrine. There are several kings in the country, and they have a language of their own. They are a people of simple manners, but both men and women very handsome, being all very white and [tall, with long fair hair]. There are many strong defiles and passes in the country; and they pay tribute to nobody except to a certain Tartar king of the Ponent, whose name is TOCTAI; to him indeed they pay tribute, but only a trifle. It is not a land of trade, though to be sure they have many fine and valuable furs, such as Sables, in abundance, and Ermine, Vair, Ercolin, and Fox skins, the largest and finest in the world [and also much wax]. They also possess many Silver-mines, from which they derive a large amount of silver.[NOTE 1]

There is nothing else worth mentioning; so let us leave Rosia, and I will tell you about the Great Sea, and what provinces and nations lie round about it, all in detail; and we will begin with Constantinople.—First, however, I should tell you of a province that lies between north and north-west. You see in that region that I have been speaking of, there is a province called LAC, which is conterminous with Rosia, and has a king of its own. The people are partly Christians and partly Saracens. They have abundance of furs of good quality, which merchants export to many countries. They live by trade and handicrafts.[NOTE 2]

There is nothing more worth mentioning, so I will speak of other subjects; but there is one thing more to tell you about Rosia that I had forgotten. You see in Rosia there is the greatest cold that is to be found anywhere, so great as to be scarcely bearable. The country is so great that it reaches even to the shores of the Ocean Sea, and 'tis in that sea that there are certain islands in which are produced numbers of gerfalcons and peregrine falcons, which are carried in many directions. From Russia also to OROECH it is not very far, and the journey could be soon made, were it not for the tremendous cold; but this renders its accomplishment almost impossible.[NOTE 3]

Now then let us speak of the Great Sea, as I was about to do. To be sure many merchants and others have been there, but still there are many again who know nothing about it, so it will be well to include it in our Book. We will do so then, and let us begin first with the Strait of Constantinople.

NOTE 1.—Ibn Fozlan, the oldest Arabic author who gives any detailed account of the Russians (and a very remarkable one it is), says he "never saw people of form more perfectly developed; they were tall as palm-trees, and ruddy of countenance," but at the same time "the most uncleanly people that God hath created," drunken, and frightfully gross in their manners. (Fraehn's Ibn Fozlan, p. 5 seqq.) Ibn Batuta is in some respects less flattering; he mentions the silver-mines noticed in our text: "At a day's distance from Ukak[1] are the hills of the Russians, who are Christians. They have red hair and blue eyes; ugly to look at, and crafty to deal with. They have silver-mines, and it is from their country that are brought the saum or ingots of silver with which buying and selling is carried on in this country (Kipchak or the Ponent of Polo). The weight of each saumah is 5 ounces" (II. 414). Mas'udi also says: "The Russians have in their country a silver-mine similar to that which exists in Khorasan, at the mountain of Banjhir" (i.e. Panjshir; II. 15; and see supra, vol. i. p. 161). These positive and concurrent testimonies as to Russian silver-mines are remarkable, as modern accounts declare that no silver is found in Russia. And if we go back to the 16th century, Herberstein says the same. There was no silver, he says, except what was imported; silver money had been in use barely 100 years; previously they had used oblong ingots of the value of a ruble, without any figure or legend. (Ram. II. 159.)

But a welcome communication from Professor Bruun points out that the statement of Ibn Batuta identifies the silver-mines in question with certain mines of argentiferous lead-ore near the River Mious (a river falling into the sea of Azof, about 22 miles west of Taganrog); an ore which even in recent times has afforded 60 per cent. of lead, and 1/24 per cent. of silver. And it was these mines which furnished the ancient Russian rubles or ingots. Thus the original ruble was the saumah of Ibn Batuta, the sommo of Pegolotti. A ruble seems to be still called by some term like saumah in Central Asia; it is printed soom in the Appendix to Davies's Punjab Report, p. xi. And Professor Bruun tells me that the silver ruble is called Som by the Ossethi of Caucasus.[2]

Franc.-Michel quotes from Fitz-Stephen's Desc. of London (temp. Henry II.):—

"Aurum mittit Arabs …
Seres purpureas vestes; Galli sua vina;
Norwegi, Russi, varium, grysium, sabelinas."


Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu Khan (1237-1238), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia. Tartar tax-gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far north as Rostov and Jaroslawl, and for many years Russian princes as far as Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol Khans in their court at Sarai. Their subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as Polo seems to imply; and at least a dozen Russian princes met their death at the hands of the Mongol executioner.

[Illustration: Mediaeval Russian Church. (From Fergusson.)]

NOTE 2.—The Lac of this passage appears to be WALLACHIA. Abulfeda calls the Wallachs Aulák; Rubruquis Illac, which he says is the same word as Blac (the usual European form of those days being Blachi, Blachia), but the Tartars could not pronounce the B (p. 275). Abulghazi says the original inhabitants of Kipchak were the Urús, the Olaks, the Majars, and the Bashkirs.

Rubruquis is wrong in placing Illac or Wallachs in Asia; at least the people near the Ural, who he says were so-called by the Tartars, cannot have been Wallachs. Professor Bruun, who corrects my error in following Rubruquis, thinks those Asiatic Blac must have been Polovtzi, or Cumanians.

[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 130, note) writes: "A branch of the Volga Bulgars occupied the Moldo-Vallach country in about A.D. 485, but it was not until the first years of the 6th century that a portion of them passed the Danube under the leadership of Asparuk, and established themselves in the present Bulgaria, Friar William's 'Land of Assan.'"—H.C.]

NOTE 3.—Oroech is generally supposed to be a mistake for Noroech, NORWEGE or Norway, which is probable enough. But considering the Asiatic sources of most of our author's information, it is also possible that Oroech represents WAREG. The Waraegs or Warangs are celebrated in the oldest Russian history as a race of warlike immigrants, of whom came Rurik, the founder of the ancient royal dynasty, and whose name was long preserved in that of the Varangian guards at Constantinople. Many Eastern geographers, from Al Biruni downwards, speak of the Warag or Warang as a nation dwelling in the north, on the borders of the Slavonic countries, and on the shores of a great arm of the Western Ocean, called the Sea of Warang, evidently the Baltic. The Waraegers are generally considered to have been Danes or Northmen, and Erman mentions that in the bazaars of Tobolsk he found Danish goods known as Varaegian. Mr. Hyde Clark, as I learn from a review, has recently identified the Warangs or Warings with the Varini, whom Tacitus couples with the Angli, and has shown probable evidence for their having taken part in the invasion of Britain. He has also shown that many points of the laws which they established in Russia were purely Saxon in character. (Bayer in Comment. Acad. Petropol. IV. 276 seqq.; Fraehn in App. to Ibn Fozlan, p. 177 seqq.; Erman, I. 374; Sat. Review, 19th June, 1869; Gold. Horde, App. p. 428.)

_______________

Notes:

[1] This Ukak of Ibn Batuta is not, as I too hastily supposed (vol. i. p. 8) the Ucaca of the Polos on the Volga, but a place of the same name on the Sea of Azof, which appears in some mediaeval maps as Locac or Locaq (i.e. l'Ocac), and which Elle de Laprimaudaie in his Periplus of the Mediaeval Caspian, locates at a place called Kaszik, a little east of Mariupol. (Et. sur le Comm. au Moyen. Age, p. 230.) I owe this correction to a valued correspondent, Professor Bruun, of Odessa.

[2] The word is, however, perhaps Or. Turkish; Som, "pure, solid." (See Pavet de Courteille, and Vámbéry, s.v.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:40 am

CHAPTER XXIII. HE BEGINS TO SPEAK OF THE STRAITS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, BUT DECIDES TO LEAVE THAT MATTER.

At the straits leading into the Great Sea, on the west side, there is a hill called the FARO.—But since beginning on this matter I have changed my mind, because so many people know all about it, so we will not put it in our description, but go on to something else. And so I will tell you about the Tartars of the Ponent, and the lords who have reigned over them.
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:40 am

CHAPTER XXIV. CONCERNING THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT AND THEIR LORDS.

The first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was SAIN, a very great and puissant king, who conquered ROSIA and COMANIA, ALANIA, LAC, MENJAR, ZIC, GOTHIA, and GAZARIA; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain. Before his conquest these all belonged to the Comanians, but they did not hold well together nor were they united, and thus they lost their territories and were dispersed over divers countries; and those who remained all became the servants of King Sain.[NOTE 1]

After King Sain reigned King PATU, and after Patu BARCA, and after Barca MUNGLETEMUR, and after Mungletemur King TOTAMANGUL, and then TOCTAI the present sovereign.[NOTE 2]

Now I have told you of the Tartar kings of the Ponent, and next I shall tell you of a great battle that was fought between Alau the Lord of the Levant and Barca the Lord of the Ponent.

So now we will relate out of what occasion that battle arose, and how it was fought.

NOTE 1.—+The COMANIANS, a people of Turkish race, the Polovtzi[or "Dwellers of the Plain" of Nestor, the Russian Annalist] of the old Russians, were one of the chief nations occupying the plains on the north of the Black Sea and eastward to the Caspian, previous to the Mongol invasion. Rubruquis makes them identical with the KIPCHAK, whose name is generally attached to those plains by Oriental writers, but Hammer disputes this. [See a note, pp. 92-93 of Rockhill's Rubruck.—H.C.]

ALANIA, the country of the Alans on the northern skirts of the Caucasus and towards the Caspian; LAC, the Wallachs as above. MENJAR is a subject of doubt. It may be Májar, on the Kuma River, a city which was visited by Ibn Batuta, and is mentioned by Abulfeda as Kummájar. It was in the 14th century the seat of a Franciscan convent. Coins of that century, both of Majar and New Majar, are given by Erdmann. The building of the fortresses of Kichi Majar and Ulu Majar (little and great) is ascribed in the Derbend Nameh to Naoshirwan. The ruins of Majar were extensive when seen by Gmelin in the last century, but when visited by Klaproth in the early part of the present one there were few buildings remaining. Inscriptions found there are, like the coins, Mongol-Mahomedan of the 14th century. Klaproth, with reference to these ruins, says that Majar merely means in "old Tartar" a stone building, and denies any connection with the Magyars as a nation. But it is possible that the Magyar country, i.e. Hungary, is here intended by Polo, for several Asiatic writers of his time, or near it, speak of the Hungarians as Majár. Thus Abulfeda speaks of the infidel nations near the Danube as including Aulák, Majárs, and Serbs; Rashiduddin speaks of the Mongols as conquering the country of the Bashkirds, the Majárs, and the Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania). One such mention from Abulghazi has been quoted in note 2 to ch. xxii.; in the Masálak-al-Absár, the Cherkes, Russians, Aas (or Alans), and Majar are associated; the Majar and Alán in Sharifuddin. Doubts indeed arise whether in some of these instances a people located in Asia be not intended.[1] (Rubr. p. 246; D'Avezac, p. 486 seqq.; Golden Horde, p. 5; I.B. II. 375 seqq.; Büsching, IV. 359; Cathay, p. 233; Numi Asiatici, I. 333, 451; Klaproth's Travels, ch. xxxi.; N. et Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279; P. de la Croix, II. 383; Rein. Abulf. I. 80; D'Ohsson, II. 628.)

["The author of the Tarikh Djihan Kushai, as well as Rashid and other Mohammedan authors of the same period, term the Hungarians Bashkerds (Bashkirs). This latter name, written also Bashkurd, appears for the first time, it seems, in Ibn Fozlan's narrative of an embassy to the Bulgars on the Volga in the beginning of the 10th century (translated by Fraehn, 'De Bashkiris,' etc., 1822)…. The Hungarians arrived in Europe in the 9th century, and then called themselves Magyar (to be pronounced Modjor), as they do down to the present time. The Russian Chronicler Nestor mentions their passing near Kiev in 898, and terms them Ugry. But the name Magyar was also known to other nations in the Middle Ages. Abulfeda (ii. 324) notices the Madjgars; it would, however, seem that he applies this name to the Bashkirs in Asia. The name Madjar occurs also in Rashid's record. In the Chinese and Mongol annals of the 13th century the Hungarians are termed Madja-rh." (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. pp. 326-327.)—H.C.]

ZIC is Circassia. The name was known to Pliny, Ptolemy, and other writers of classic times. Ramusio (II. 196 v) gives a curious letter to Aldus Manutius from George Interiano, "Della vita de' Zychi chiamati Circassi," and a great number of other references to ancient and mediaeval use of the name will be found in D'Avezac's Essay, so often quoted (p. 497).

GOTHIA is the southern coast of the Crimea from Sudak to Balaklava and the mountains north of the latter, then still occupied by a tribe of the Goths. The Genoese officer who governed this coast in the 15th century bore the title of Capitanus Gotiae; and a remnant of the tribe still survived, maintaining their Teutonic speech, to the middle of the 16th century, when Busbeck, the emperor's ambassador to the Porte, fell in with two of them, from whom he derived a small vocabulary and other particulars. (Busbequii Opera, 1660, p. 321 seqq.; D'Avezac, pp. 498-499; Heyd., II. 123 seqq.; Cathay, pp. 200-201.)

GAZARIA, the Crimea and part of the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, formerly occupied by the Khazars, a people whom Klaproth endeavours to prove to have been of Finnish race. When the Genoese held their settlements on the Crimean coast the Board at Genoa which administered the affairs of these colonies was called The Office of Gazaria.

NOTE 2.—The real list of the "Kings of the Ponent," or Khans of the Golden Horde, down to the time of Polo's narrative, runs thus: BATU, Sartak, Ulagchi (these two almost nominal), BARKA, MANGKU TIMUR, TUDAI MANGKU, Tulabugha, Tuktuka or TOKTAI. Polo here omits Tulabugha (though he mentions him below in ch. xxix.), and introduces before Batu, as a great and powerful conqueror, the founder of the empire, a prince whom he calls Sain. This is in fact Batu himself, the leader of the great Tartar invasion of Europe (1240-1242), whom he has split into two kings. Batu bore the surname of Sain Khan, or "the Good Prince," by which name he is mentioned, e.g., in Makrizi (Quatremère's Trans. II. 45), also in Wassáf (Hammer's Trans. pp. 29-30). Piano Carpini's account of him is worth quoting: "Hominibus quidem ejus satis benignus; timetur tamen valde ab iis; sed crudelissimus est in pugnâ; sagax est multum; et etiam astutissimus in bello, quia longo tempore jam pugnavit." This Good Prince was indeed crudelissimus in pugnâ. At Moscow he ordered a general massacre, and 270,000 right ears are said to have been laid before him in testimony to its accomplishment. It is odd enough that a mistake like that in the text is not confined to Polo. The chronicle of Kazan, according to a Russian writer, makes Sain succeed Batu. (Carpini, p. 746; J. As. sér. IV. tom. xvii. p. 109; Büsching, V. 493; also Golden Horde, p. 142, note.)

Batu himself, in the great invasion of the West, was with the southern host in Hungary; the northern army which fought at Liegnitz was under Baidar, a son of Chaghatai.

According to the Masálak-al-Absár, the territory of Kipchak, over which this dynasty ruled, extended in length from the Sea of Istambul to the River Irtish, a journey of 6 months, and in breadth from Bolghar to the Iron Gates, 4 (?) months' journey. A second traveller, quoted in the same work, says the empire extended from the Iron Gates to Yughra (see p. 483 supra), and from the Irtish to the country of the Nemej. The last term is very curious, being the Russian Niemicz, "Dumb," a term which in Russia is used as a proper name of the Germans; a people, to wit, unable to speak Slavonic. (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 282, 284.)

["An allusion to the Mongol invasion of Poland and Silesia is found in the Yuen-shi, ch. cxxi., biography of Wu-liang-ho t'ai (the son of Su-bu-t'ai). It is stated there that Wu-liang-ho t'ai [Urtangcadai] accompanied Badu when he invaded the countries of Kin ch'a (Kipchak) and Wu-la-sz' (Russia). Subsequently he took part also in the expedition against the P'o-lie-rh and Nie-mi-sze." (Dr. Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 322.) With reference to these two names, Dr. Bretschneider says, in a note, that he has no doubt that the Poles and Germans are intended. "As to its origin, the Russian linguists generally derive it from nemoi, 'dumb,' i.e., unable to speak Slavonic. To the ancient Byzantine chroniclers the Germans were known under the same name. Cf. Muralt's Essai de Chronogr. Byzant., sub anno 882: 'Les Slavons maltraités par les guerriers Nemetzi de Swiatopolc' (King of Great Moravia, 870-894). Sophocles' Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine periods from B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100: 'Nemitzi' Austrians, Germans. This name is met also in the Mohammedan authors. According to the Masálak-al-Absár, of the first half of the 14th century (transl. by Quatremère, N. et Ext. XXII. 284), the country of the Kipchaks extended (eastward) to the country of the Nemedj, which separates the Franks from the Russians. The Turks still call the Germans Niemesi; the Hungarians term them Nemet."—H.C.]

[Illustration: Figure of a Tartar under the feet of Henry II, Duke of Silesia, Cracow, and Poland, from the tomb at Breslau of that Prince, killed in battle with the Tartar host at Liegnitz, 9th April, 1241.]

_______________

Notes:

[1] This doubt arises also where Abulfeda speaks of Majgaria in the far north, "the capital of the country of the Madjgars, a Turk race" of pagan nomads, by whom he seems to mean the Bashkirs. (Reinaud's Abulf. I. 324.) For it is to the Bashkir country that the Franciscan travellers apply the term Great Hungary, showing that they were led to believe it the original seat of the Magyars. (Rubr. 274, Plan. Carpin. 747; and in same vol. D'Avezac, p. 491.) Further confusion arises from the fact that, besides the Uralian Bashkirs, there were, down to the 13th century, Bashkirs recognised as such, and as distinct from the Hungarians though akin to them, dwelling in Hungarian territory. Ibn Said, speaking of Sebennico (the cradle of the Polo family), says that when the Tartars advanced under its walls (1242?) "the Hungarians, the Bashkirs, and the Germans united their forces near the city" and gave the invaders a signal defeat. (Reinaud's Abulf. I. 312; see also 294, 295.) One would gladly know what are the real names that M. Reinaud refers Hongrois and Allemands. The Christian Bashkirds of Khondemir, on the borders of the Franks, appear to be Hungarians. (See J. As., sér. IV. tom. xvii. p. 111.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:41 am

CHAPTER XXV. OF THE WAR THAT AROSE BETWEEN ALAU AND BARCA, AND THE BATTLES THAT THEY FOUGHT.

It was in the year 1261 of Christ's incarnation that there arose a great discord between King Alau the Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, and Barca the King of the Tartars of the Ponent; the occasion whereof was a province that lay on the confines of both.[NOTE 1]

<+>(They exchange defiances, and make vast preparations.)

And when his preparations were complete, Alau the Lord of Levant set forth with all his people. They marched for many days without any adventure to speak of, and at last they reached a great plain which extends between the Iron Gates and the Sea Of Sarain.[NOTE 2] In this plain he pitched his camp in beautiful order; and I can assure you there was many a rich tent and pavilion therein, so that it looked indeed like a camp of the wealthy. Alau said he would tarry there to see if Barca and his people would come; so there they tarried, abiding the enemy's arrival. This place where the camp was pitched was on the frontier of the two kings. Now let us speak of Barca and his people.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.—"Que marcesoit à le un et à le autre;" in Scotch phrase, "which marched with both."

NOTE 2.—Respecting the Iron Gates, see vol. i. p. 53. The Caspian is here called the Sea of Sarain, probably for Sarai, after the great city on the Volga. For we find it in the Catalan Map of 1375 termed the Sea of Sarra. Otherwise Sarain might have been taken for some corruption of Shirwán. (See vol. i. p. 59, note 8.)

NOTE 3.—The war here spoken of is the same which is mentioned in the very beginning of the book, as having compelled the two Elder Polos to travel much further eastward than they had contemplated.

Many jealousies and heart-burnings between the cousins Hulaku and Barka had existed for several years. The Mameluke Sultan Bibars seems also to have stimulated Barka to hostility with Hulaku. War broke out in 1262, when 30,000 men from Kipchak, under the command of Nogai, passed Derbend into the province of Shirwan. They were at first successful, but afterwards defeated. In December, Hulaku, at the head of a great army, passed Derbend, and routed the forces which met him. Abaka, son of Hulaku, was sent on with a large force, and came upon the opulent camp of Barka beyond the Terek. They were revelling in its plunder, when Barka rallied his troops and came upon the army of Abaka, driving them southward again, across the frozen river. The ice broke and many perished. Abaka escaped, chased by Barka to Derbend. Hulaku returned to Tabriz and made great preparations for vengeance, but matters were apparently never carried further. Hence Polo's is anything but an accurate account of the matter.

The following extract from Wassáf's History, referring to this war, is a fine sample of that prince of rigmarole:

"In the winter of 662 (A.D. 1262-1263) when the Almighty Artist had covered the River of Derbend with plates of silver, and the Furrier of the Winter had clad the hills and heaths in ermine; the river being frozen hard as a rock to the depth of a spear's length, an army of Mongols went forth at the command of Barka Aghul, filthy as Ghúls and Devils of the dry-places, and in numbers countless as the rain-drops," etc. etc. (Golden Horde, p. 163 seqq.; Ilchan. I. 214 seqq.; Q.R. p. 393 seqq.; Q. Makrizi, I. 170; Hammer's Wassáf, p. 93.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:41 am

CHAPTER XXVI. HOW BARCA AND HIS ARMY ADVANCED TO MEET ALAU.

<+>(Barca advances with 350,000 horse, encamps on the plain within 10 miles of Alau; addresses his men, announcing his intention of fighting after 3 days, and expresses his confidence of success as they are in the right and have 50,000 men more than the enemy.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:42 am

CHAPTER XXVII. HOW ALAU ADDRESSED HIS FOLLOWERS.

<+>(Alau calls together "a numerous parliament of his worthies"[1] and addresses them.)

_______________

Notes:

[1] "Il asemble encore sez parlemant de grand quantités des buens homes."
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:42 am

CHAPTER XXVIII. OF THE GREAT BATTLE BETWEEN ALAU AND BARCA.

<+>(Description of the Battle in the usual style, with nothing characteristic. Results in the rout of Barca and great slaughter.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:42 am

CHAPTER XXIX. HOW TOTAMANGU WAS LORD OF THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT.

You must know there was a Prince of the Tartars of the Ponent called MONGOTEMUR, and from him the sovereignty passed to a young gentleman called TOLOBUGA. But TOTAMANGU, who was a man of great influence, with the help of another Tartar King called NOGAI, slew Tolobuga and got possession of the sovereignty. He reigned not long however, and at his death TOCTAI, an able and valiant man, was chosen sovereign in the place of Totamangu. But in the meantime two sons of that Tolobuga who was slain were grown up, and were likely youths, able and prudent.

So these two brothers, the sons of Totamangu, got together a goodly company and proceeded to the court of Toctai. When they had got thither they conducted themselves with great discretion, keeping on their knees till Toctai bade them welcome, and to stand up. Then the eldest addressed the Sovereign thus: "Good my Lord Toctai, I will tell you to the best of my ability why we be come hither. We are the sons of Totamangu, whom Tolobuga and Nogai slew, as thou well knowest. Of Tolobuga we will say no more, since he is dead, but we demand justice against Nogai as the slayer of our Father; and we pray thee as Sovereign Lord to summon him before thee and to do us justice. For this cause are we come!"[NOTE 1]

(Toctai agrees to their demand and sends two messengers to summon Nogai, but Nogai mocks at the message and refuses to go. Whereupon Toctai sends a second couple of messengers.)

NOTE 1.—I have not attempted to correct the obvious confusion here; for in comparing the story related here with the regular historians we find the knots too complicated for solution.

In the text as it stands we first learn that Totamangu by help of Nogai kills Tolobuga, takes the throne, dies, and is succeeded by Toctai. But presently we find that it is the sons of Totamangu who claim vengeance from Toctai against Nogai for having aided Tolobuga to slay their father. Turning back to the list of princes in chapter xxiv. we find Totamangu indeed, but Tolobuga omitted altogether.

The outline of the history as gathered from Hammer and D'Ohsson is as follows:—

NOGHAI, for more than half a century one of the most influential of the Mongol Princes, was a great-great-grandson of Chinghiz, being the son of Tatar, son of Tewal, son of Juji. He is first heard of as a leader under Batu Khan in the great invasion of Europe (1241), and again in 1258 we find him leading an invasion of Poland.

In the latter quarter of the century he had established himself as practically independent, in the south of Russia. There is much about him in the Byzantine history of Pachymeres; Michael Palaeologus sought his alliance against the Bulgarians (of the south), and gave him his illegitimate daughter Euphrosyne to wife. Some years later Noghai gave a daughter of his own in marriage to Feodor Rostislawitz, Prince of Smolensk.

Mangu- or Mangku-Temur, the great-nephew and successor of Barka, died in 1280-81 leaving nine sons, but was succeeded by his brother TUDAI-MANGKU (Polo's Totamangu). This Prince occupied himself chiefly with the company of Mahomedan theologians and was averse to the cares of government. In 1287 he abdicated, and was replaced by TULABUGHA (Tolobuga), the son of an elder brother, whose power, however, was shared by other princes. Tulabugha quarrelled with old Noghai and was preparing to attack him. Noghai however persuaded him to come to an interview, and at this Tulabugha was put to death. TOKTAI, one of the sons of Mangku-Temur, who was associated with Noghai, obtained the throne of Kipchak. This was in 1291. We hear nothing of sons of Tudai-Mangku or Tulabugha.

Some years later we hear of a symbolic declaration of war sent by Toktai to Noghai, and then of a great battle between them near the banks of the Don, in which Toktai is defeated. Later, they are again at war, and somewhere south of the Dnieper Noghai is beaten. As he was escaping with a few mounted followers, he was cut down by a Russian horseman. "I am Noghai," said the old warrior, "take me to Toktai." The Russian took the bridle to lead him to the camp, but by the way the old chief expired. The horseman carried his head to the Khan; its heavy grey eyebrows, we are told, hung over and hid the eyes. Toktai asked the Russian how he knew the head to be that of Noghai. "He told me so himself," said the man. And so he was ordered to execution for having presumed to slay a great Prince without orders. How like the story of David and the Amalekite in Ziklag! (2 Samuel, ch. i.).

The chronology of these events is doubtful. Rashiduddin seems to put the defeat of Toktai near the Don in 1298-1299, and a passage in Wassáf extracted by Hammer seems to put the defeat and death of Noghai about 1303. On the other hand, there is evidence that war between the two was in full flame in the beginning of 1296; Makrizi seems to report the news of a great defeat of Toktai by Noghai as reaching Cairo in Jumadah I.A.H. 697 or February-March, 1298. And Novairi, from whom D'Ohsson gives extracts, appears to put the defeat and death of Noghai in 1299. If the battle on the Don is that recounted by Marco it cannot be put later than 1297, and he must have had news of it at Venice, perhaps from relations at Soldaia. I am indeed reluctant to believe that he is not speaking of events of which he had cognizance before quitting the East; but there is no evidence in favour of that view. (Golden Horde, especially 269 seqq.; Ilchan. II. 347, and also p. 35; D'Ohsson, IV. Appendix; Q. Mákrizi, IV. 60.)

The symbolical message mentioned above as sent by Toktai to Noghai, consisted of a hoe, an arrow, and a handful of earth. Noghai interpreted this as meaning, "If you hide in the earth, I will dig you out! If you rise to the heavens I will shoot you down! Choose a battle-field!" What a singular similarity we have here to the message that reached Darius 1800 years before, on this very ground, from Toktai's predecessors, alien from him in blood it may be, but identical in customs and mental characteristics:—

"At last Darius was in a great strait, and the Kings of the Scythians having ascertained this, sent a herald bearing, as gifts to Darius, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows…. Darius's opinion was that the Scythians meant to give themselves up to him…. But the opinion of Gobryas, one of the seven who had deposed the Magus, did not coincide with this; he conjectured that the presents intimated: 'Unless, O Persians, ye become birds, and fly into the air, or become mice and hide yourselves beneath the earth, or become frogs and leap into the lakes, ye shall never return home again, but be stricken by these arrows.' And thus the other Persians interpreted the gifts." (Herodotus, by Carey, IV. 131, 132.) Again, more than 500 years after Noghai and Toktai were laid in the steppe, when Muraview reached the court of Khiva in 1820, it happened that among the Russian presents offered to the Khan were two loaves of sugar on the same tray with a quantity of powder and shot. The Uzbegs interpreted this as a symbolical demand: Peace or War? (V. et Turcomanie, p. 165.)
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Re: The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello

Postby admin » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:43 am

CHAPTER XXX. OF THE SECOND MESSAGE THAT TOCTAI SENT TO NOGAI, AND HIS REPLY.

<+>(They carry a threat of attack if he should refuse to present himself before Toctai. Nogai refuses with defiance. Both sides prepare for war, but Toctai's force is the greater in numbers.)
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