(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 (Quatremere's Trans. II.
45), also in Wassaf (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 pugna; sagax est multum; et
etiam astutissimus in bello, quia longo tempore jam pugnavit." This Good
Prince was indeed crudelissimus in pugna. 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.
ser. IV. tom. xvii. p. 109; Buesching, 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 Masalak-al-Absar, 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 maltraites 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 Masalak-al-Absar, of the first half of the 14th century
(transl. by Quatremere, 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.]
[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., ser. IV. tom. xvii. p. 111.)
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]
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