(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.
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