We Find
Also, At A Later Period Of The Mongol History (1336), Letters Reaching
Pope Benedict XII.
From several Christian Alans holding high office at the
court of Cambaluc - one of them being a Chingsang or
Minister of the
First Rank, and another a Fanchang or Minister of the Second Order - in
which they conveyed their urgent request for the nomination of an
Archbishop in succession to the deceased John of Monte Corvino. John
Marignolli speaks of those Alans as "the greatest and noblest nation in
the world, the fairest and bravest of men," and asserts that in his day
there were 30,000 of them in the Great Kaan's service, and all, at least
nominally, Christians.[1] Rashiduddin also speaks of the Alans as
Christians; though Ibn Batuta certainly mentions the Aas as Mahomedans.
We find Alans about the same time (in 1306) fighting well in the service
of the Byzantine Emperors (Muntaner, p. 449). All these circumstances
render Marco's story of a corps of Christian Alans in the army of Bayan
perfectly consistent with probability. (Carpini, p. 707; Rub., 243;
Ramusio, II. 92; I.B. II. 428; Gaubil, 40, 147; Cathay, 314
seqq.)
[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 88, note): "The Alans or Aas appear to
be identical with the An-ts'ai or A-lan-na of the Hou Han shu (bk. 88,
9), of whom we read that 'they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana
(K'ang-chu) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their
wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.' (Ma Twan-lin,
bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 97, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-te
and Wen-na-sha (see also Bretschneider, Med. Geog., 258, et seq.).
Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but
contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom
later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (De Morgan,
Mission, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the 'Scythian Alans'
([Greek: Alanoi Skythai]); but the first definite mention of them in
classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius
Periergetes (305), who speaks of the [Greek: alkaeentes Alanoi]. (See also
De Morgan, i. 202, and Deguignes, ii. 279 et seq.)
"Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of
tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia.
'Distributed over two continents, all these nations, whose various names I
refrain from mentioning, though separated by immense tracts of country in
which they pass their vagabond existence, have with time been confounded
under the generic appellation of Alans.' Ibn Alathir, at a later date,
also refers to the Alans as 'formed of numerous nations.' (Dulaurier,
xiv. 455).
"Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of
the Alans moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the
Caucasus; though long prior to that, in A.D. 51, they had, as allies of
the Georgians, ravaged Armenia.
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