Wist he not well that he
was my liegeman and serf? Get ye back to him and tell him that I had
liever set my daughter in the fire than give her in marriage to him, and
that he deserves death at my hand, rebel and traitor that he is!" So he
bade the Envoys begone at once, and never come into his presence again.
The Envoys, on receiving this reply, departed straightway, and made haste
to their master, and related all that Prester John had ordered them to
say, keeping nothing back.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - Temujin was born in the year 1155, according to all the Persian
historians, who are probably to be relied on; the Chinese put the event in
1162. 1187 does not appear to be a date of special importance in his
history. His inauguration as sovereign under the name of Chinghiz Kaan was
in 1202 according to the Persian authorities, in 1206 according to the
Chinese.
In a preceding note (p. 236) we have quoted a passage in which Rubruquis
calls Chinghiz "a certain blacksmith." This mistaken notion seems to have
originated in the resemblance of his name Temujin to the Turki
Temurji, a blacksmith; but it was common throughout Asia in the Middle
Ages, and the story is to be found not only in Rubruquis, but in the books
of Hayton, the Armenian prince, and of Ibn Batuta, the Moor.
