Gaubil, Without Being Aware Of The Identity
Of The Asu (As The Name Aas Appears To Be Expressed In The
Chinese
Annals), beyond the fact that they dwelt somewhere near the Caspian,
observes that this people, after they were conquered,
Furnished many
excellent officers to the Mongols; and he mentions also that when the
Mongol army was first equipt for the conquest of Southern China, many
officers took service therein from among the Uighurs, Persians, and Arabs,
Kincha (people of Kipchak), the Asu and other foreign nations. 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.
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