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0088 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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72   54. BALTASAR

On Balkh in the Mongol period, cf. Pa, 108-112 (to be used with caution); Y, I, 151-152; Br, II, 100-101. The Chinese transcriptions IA jji Pan-lo-ho in Shêng-wu ch'in-chêng lu,

62 a, and in YS, I, s. a. 1221, and   Ff jL Pan-lo-ho in YS, 137, 1 a, are learned transcriptions
in which the second character, originally written smaller, is only meant to correct to -1 the final -n of the first; the whole is a strict transcription of Bair, Balkh. In Chinghiz-khan's life-time, the name is transcribed IA Pan (= BaI [kh]) by Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai (Br. I, 23) and I . Pan-li

in the account of Ch'ang-ch'un's journey (Br, I, 93). It is written tom/.   '!j Pi-li-han in the

biography of Sübôtaï (YS, 121, lb), E   ~. Pa-li-hei on the Chinese map of c. 1330 and in

the corresponding list of YS, 63, 16b. I doubt that the Ffil iI J ~ A-la-hei of the biography of Ho-ssû-mai-li (YS, 120, 7 a), adduced by BRETSCHNEIDER (Br, II, 101), refers to Balkh. In Ming times, we find A IJ A Pa-la-hei in Ch'ên Ch'êng's diary of 1414 (Hsi-yü hping-ch'êng chi, ed.

Peiping Nat. Library, 18a), and the same form, but with an alternative form jk   Pa-li,

perhaps corrupt for'A   Pa-Ii-hei, in his Hsi-yü fan-kuo chili (same ed., 13a). The tran-

scription in the Ming shih (332, 12 b) is 4e, jj A Pa-li-hei.

The Nestorian priest Yazd-bôzèd, in Chinese f #h I-ssû, the man at whose expense the famous Nestorian tablet of 781 was erected, was the son of a priest of Balkh, and had himself

come to China from   A. j Wang-shê-ch'êng, the «City of the Royal Residence», which is not
here Rajagrha as in Buddhist texts, but is another name of Balkh (cf. Mo, 43, 48). Under the

Yüan dynasty,   ? Ch'a-han, Cayân, who translated various works from Chinese into Mongol
and vice-versa, was born in China and had received a Mongol name, but was the son of a man from Balkh ( YS, 137, 1-2).

It is generally said that Balkh was conquered by Chinghiz-khan in 1221, and almost destroyed in 1223. A. Waley (Travels of an Alchemist, 111) has adopted the dates 1220 and 1222; this is in apparent agreement with the statement of the diarist of Ch'ang-ch'un's travels, who says that at the end of September 1222, the inhabitants of Balkh had recently rebelled against the khan and had been removed. But, whatever may be the truth for the date of the «revolt» which led to Balkh's devastation, it seems impossible to doubt the accuracy of both Chinese and Mussulman sources fixing the taking of Balkh by Chinghiz-khan in the spring of 1221; cf. BARTHOLD, Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion, 438.

54. BALTASAR

baldasar LT, Z baldisar VB baldissera V

balthasar FB
balthazar FA

beltasar F, L boltasar TA1

One of the Magi kings. On their names, cf. Y, I, 82-83; add H. KEHRER, Die heiligen Drei Könige in Literatur und Kunst (2 vols., 1908-1909), and V. SCHEIL, in Florilegium Melchior de Vogüé, Paris, 1909, 8vo, 552-553. The name of «Baltasar» is taken from the Septuagint, and represents the Assyrian BM gar wur, «Bêi ! Save the King ».