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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
158. CINGHIS 301
to the absence of é in Arabic, but the argument is unsound. Ibn Ballûlah might have resorted
to the old Arabic device of transcribing e• with s, as he does in the inherited spelling of the
name of China (see « Cin »). Above ail, he might have done in this case what he did in all other cases, that is to say, write y instead and in value of cr. For instance, we find in his text •. Jarh
for the Persian Carb (III, 88), Srby Jautäri for the Hindi Iraudhari (III, 388, and cf. YULE, Hobson-
Jobson 2, s. v. « chowdry »), Järkäs for the Turko-Persian ärkäs (II, 448; see « Çic »), ;,--ti
Sarâjùq for the Turkish Saraicïq. If he did not do the same for the Mongolian « Cinggis », it must have been either because he heard the name pronounced « Tängiz », or because he or his informants connected it with the Turk. tängiz, « sea » (YuLE's tentative explanation connecting it with Ar. tänkis, « upside down » [ Y, I, 247] cannot be seriously considered).
« Tängiz » occurs in real or legendary Altaic onomastic at an early date. I leave aside the
name of Attila's son Aeyy which MARQUART thought was derived from tengiz, deiaiz (Die
Chronologie der alttürk. Inschriften, 109; Izv. R. Arkh. Inst. y Konstantinople, xv [1911], 26). Although the name strongly recalls the Turkish word for « sea », and still more the « tengizich » (-- *tengizik), «auster», « southern wind », of the Codex Cumanicus (Kuun, 181; left unexplained by RADLOV, Das türk. Sprachmaterial des Codex Comanicus, 127, but perhaps a derivative form of tängiz ), the initial d- of OsyycVx is hard to explain, since all the ancient forms of tängiz begin with t-; Osmanli or Kazan forms with d- are out of the question at such an early date. But, in the legend of Uighur origin, Oyuz-khan's youngest son was Tengiz-[ ? Tingiz-]khan
Ghâzi, DESMAISONS'S transi., 27; cf. also RAVERTY, 881) or Dengiz-[ ? Dingiz-]khan (Ber, I, 6). Whatever the origin of « Cinggis », there is no doubt that Chinghiz-khan, when taking this title, intended that he should be considered sovereign of the universe. The ocean, supposed to surround the earth, provided a convenient term for it. We know that Chinghiz-khan's successors held the same view. The real Mongol word for « ocean », « sea », is dalai, corresponding to Turk. talui. In the Secret History (§ 280), Ögödäi, Chinghiz's third son and successor, is spoken of as dalai-in qa'an, « oceanic Emperor ». When Güyük, Ögödäi's successor, writes to Pope Innocent IV in 1246, the Turkish preamble of his Persian letter gives him the title of taluï-nung han, and his Mongol seal that of dalai-in qan, both having the same meaning as in the case of Ögödäi (Pe, 22-24). One century later, the 'Phags-pa text of the Chü-Yung-kuan inscriptions (L 17) speaks of the Mongol Emperor as talayi-yin ejän ulus-un qa'an, « master of the ocean, Emperor of the Nation ». On account of this last formula, I now believe that Stephen Orbelian had in view the same title when he spoke of Mongka as « master of the earth and the sea ». It is well know that rgya-mcho, « ocean », was used in the same way in Tibetan, and that the same image lies at the basis of the Mongol-Tibetan title of the Dalai-lama, « Oceanic religious lord », i. e. « Universal ».
So I think it probable that « inggis » is derived from the Turk. tängiz, « sea », « ocean ». Such is not, however, the opinion expressed by VLADIMIRCOV in his Cingis-khan (p. 45). While seeing in « Cinggis » the old title shorn-yä of the Hsiung-nu sovereigns, BANZAROV had drawn attention to a god « Hajir einggis tängri », mentioned in a Mongolian shamanist text (Cernaya Véra, 78). Since Mongol tradition makes the shaman Kököcü play an important part in the attribution of the name « Cinggis » to Chinghiz-khan, BARTHOLD supposed that this was « the name of one of the
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