IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
90 65. BAUDAC
which are probably, at least in some cases, to be restored as Batu (cf. WANG Hui-tsui, 29, 4). Batu is Mongol, and means «firm ».
Batu was JöCi's second son, and was the real founder of the khanate of Qipcaq, or Golden Horde. He reigned from 1227 to his death, at the end of 1254, or more probably in the beginning of 1255. He was also known under the appellation of Sayin-han, «the Excellent Khan », and Polo is wrong in speaking of a Khan «Sain», as Batu's predecessor ; see «Sain».
| 65. BAUDAC balach L balcho, bandach V (c. mosul) baldac TA3, LT, VB, Z, G baldach TA3, LT, VB, Z, L, VL, S, R | oaldachi P baldacho, baldaco VA baudac F, FB, TA' baudach Fr, t, Z, L | baudas FA baudaz FBr, t boldach VB baldato LT |
Baydâd, Bagdad.. Polo does not give here a transcription of his own, but uses the form «Baudac» or «Baldac» which was then current among the Franks (for instance «Baldac» in Plan Carpine, Wy, 113). In his French text, the form was probably «Baudac» as in F, and I have kept it; but the Venetian version which seems to be the basis of Z and of RAMUSIO's main ms. had probably «Baldac». The «Baudas» adopted from PAUTHIER in Y, I, 63, 65, although it has passed into Froissart, is a secondary form of less value, which possibly originated from some clerical error, and which does not account for derived forms like Ital. baldachino or Engl. baudekin. In Pegolotti, the name is «Baldacca », but with a curious adjectival form «baccadeo », once altered to «gabbadeo» (ed. EVANS, 397, 398, 400); Spanish texts give «bagadel» (HEYD, Hist. du commerce, II, 697).
Bagdad appears in Chinese texts towards the end of the 8th cent. in the form fg Fu-ta
(*B'jwak-d'ât) ; the transcription is absolutely correct and HIRTH and ROCKHILL were mistaken (HR, 14) in supposing that it was corrupt or that is applied to «Fostat» (Fustât, Old Cairo). In
1178, Chou Ch'ü-fei writes Po-ta (*B'vk-d'ât), which was copied in 1225 by Chao Ju-kua
(HR, 117, 135; for possible wrong duplicates of the same name, see « Çiraç »). The account of
Ch'ang Tê's mission of 1259 has 41 Pao-ta, *Baudad, and this has given rise to some strange
misconceptions. While YULE (Y, I, 64) supposed that both Pao-ta and his wrong Polo form «Baudas» were «due to the Mongol habit of slurring gutturals », HIRTH and ROCKHILL (adopting also «Baudas ») said that Polo « must have taken ... Baudas from the Chinese» (HR, 135). But there was no «slurring» of real gutturals in Mongolian, and many parallel forms like Soldaia, So) dak and Sudaq, sultan ; Fr. soudan, etc., are enough to show that the Mongolian or the Chinese have nothing to do with the case. Moreover, we also find i\f  Pa-ha-t'a and A. =â :j Pa-chi-ta, correct transcriptions of Bagdad, in YS, 3, anno 1253, and 63, 16 b. The Secret History writes Baqtat (§§ 260, 261, 270, 274). Cf. also Br, II, 123-125. A Ming itinerary has 4E ft 13 Pa-hei-tan (China Review, v, 239) = Baydan, a well-known mediaeval popular form of
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.