Beautiful order; and I can assure you there was many a rich tent
and pavilion therein, so that it looked indeed like a camp of the wealthy.
Alau said he would tarry there to see if Barca and his people would come;
so there they tarried, abiding the enemy's arrival. This place where the
camp was pitched was on the frontier of the two kings. Now let us speak of
Barca and his people.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1. - "Que marcesoit a le un et a le autre;" in Scotch phrase,
"which marched with both."
NOTE 2. - Respecting the Iron Gates, see vol. i. p. 53. The Caspian is here
called the Sea of Sarain, probably for Sarai, after the great city on
the Volga. For we find it in the Catalan Map of 1375 termed the Sea of
Sarra. Otherwise Sarain might have been taken for some corruption of
Shirwan. (See vol. i. p. 59, note 8.)
NOTE 3. - The war here spoken of is the same which is mentioned in the very
beginning of the book, as having compelled the two Elder Polos to travel
much further eastward than they had contemplated.
Many jealousies and heart-burnings between the cousins Hulaku and Barka
had existed for several years. The Mameluke Sultan Bibars seems also to
have stimulated Barka to hostility with Hulaku. War broke out in 1262,
when 30,000 men from Kipchak, under the command of Nogai, passed Derbend
into the province of Shirwan. They were at first successful, but
afterwards defeated. In December, Hulaku, at the head of a great army,
passed Derbend, and routed the forces which met him. Abaka, son of Hulaku,
was sent on with a large force, and came upon the opulent camp of Barka
beyond the Terek. They were revelling in its plunder, when Barka rallied
his troops and came upon the army of Abaka, driving them southward again,
across the frozen river. The ice broke and many perished. Abaka escaped,
chased by Barka to Derbend. Hulaku returned to Tabriz and made great
preparations for vengeance, but matters were apparently never carried
further. Hence Polo's is anything but an accurate account of the matter.
The following extract from Wassaf's History, referring to this war, is a
fine sample of that prince of rigmarole:
"In the winter of 662 (A.D. 1262-1263) when the Almighty Artist had
covered the River of Derbend with plates of silver, and the Furrier of the
Winter had clad the hills and heaths in ermine; the river being frozen
hard as a rock to the depth of a spear's length, an army of Mongols went
forth at the command of Barka Aghul, filthy as Ghuls and Devils of the
dry-places, and in numbers countless as the rain-drops," etc.
