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 Majar.
Thus Abulfeda speaks
of the infidel nations near the Danube as including Aulak, Majars, and
Serbs; Rashiduddin speaks of the Mongols as conquering the country of the
Bashkirds, the Majars, and the Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania).
One such mention from Abulghazi has been quoted in note 2 to ch. xxii.; in
the Masalak-al-Absar, the Cherkes, Russians, Aas (or Alans), and
Majar are associated; the Majar and Alan 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.; Buesching, 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 478 of 701
Words from 248645 to 249167
of 370046
