For he was
the father of Abaga, and Abaga was the father of Argon, and Argon was the
father of Casan who now reigns.[NOTE 2]
Now as we have told you all about the Tartars of the Levant, we will quit
them and go back and tell you more about Great Turkey - But in good sooth
we have told you all about Great Turkey and the history of Caidu,
and there is really no more to tell. So we will go on and tell you of the
Provinces and nations in the far North.
NOTE 1. - The Christian writers often ascribe Christianity to various
princes of the Mongol dynasties without any good grounds. Certain coins of
the Ilkhans of Persia, up to the time of Ghazan's conversion to Islam,
exhibit sometimes Mahomedan and sometimes Christian formulae, but this is
no indication of the religion of the prince. Thus coins not merely of the
heathen Khans Abaka and Arghun, but of Ahmad Tigudar, the fanatical
Moslem, are found inscribed "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost." Raynaldus, under 1285, gives a fragment of a letter addressed by
Arghun to the European Powers, and dated from Tabriz, "in the year of the
Cock," which begins "In Christi Nomen, Amen!" But just in like
manner some of the coins of Norman kings of Sicily are said to bear the
Mahomedan profession of faith; and the copper money of some of the
Ghaznevide sultans bears the pagan effigy of the bull Nandi,
borrowed from the coinage of the Hindu kings of Kabul.
