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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
158. CINGHIS 30?
Before BEREZIN, this same passage had been edited and translated by ERDMANN (Temudschin, 573-574). He too speaks of the « fourth of ramadan »; but instead of the absurd «sawwal », says
on the fifteenth of the ban ai of that year ».
In the Paris mss. (Mirzâ Muhammad QAZWINÎ was kind enough to collate them for me), three contain the corresponding passage; they read as follows :
Suppi. persan 209, 154 r° : «... on the fifteenth of si sicn ai of that year, corresponding to
the fourth of ramadan of the year 624 of the Hegira...
Suppi. persan 1113, 121 v0 : « ... on the [lacuna] of sl 31µ sign ai of that year, corresponding to the fourteenth of ramadan of the year 624 of the Hegira... ».
Anc. fonds persan 68, 121 r° : « ... in ,51 sin ai of that year, corresponding to the four-
teenth of ramadan of the year 624 of the Hegira... ».
Before discussing these readings, I must quote a last passage :
d. (Ber, III, Pers. text, 117; transi., 119) : « In ... sin (var. i7,1) of this (•.!\) said year of
the pig, corresponding to the fourteenth of ramadan of the year 624, they brought his coffin to the ordo (ordôha), and [then] made known the catastrophe about him... »
This passage, according to QAZWINI, occurs in two of the Paris mss. in the following form : Suppi. persan 209, 160 r° : «... in [lacuna] of sin of this (;,.,_') said year of the pig, corresponding to the fourteenth of ramadan of the year 624 », etc.
Suppi. persan 1113, 124 r° : «... in [lacuna] of sûn ai of the said year of the pig, corresponding to the fourteenth of ramadan of the year 624 », etc.
We are now in a position to restore the correct text. It is clear that instead of 1 ün ai, or sûn
ai, or sari alone, we should read si . .:in ai everywhere; but si ai, which was not understood by
the copyists, was altered by them to v,i in, « this », in the two texts of d. out of three, although in, « this », was pleonastic with the « said » year.
There can be no doubt either as to the meaning of sicn ai; it must be vocalized sün ai. Ai means « month » in Turkish, and Raid is merely quoting a month of the Uighur calendar. Siin ai occurs in the Sino-Uighur Vocabulary of the Bureau of Translators of the Ming dynasty; it is the name of the intercalary month, formed with sün - Ch. M fun, « intercalary [month] », and Turk. ai, « month » (cf. RADLOV, IV, 1109).
There is, however, a difficulty. The year 1227 was embolismic, but, in the Chinese calendar, the intercalary month of 1227 followed the fifth month, and the fifteenth would correspond to June 30, 1227, which is clearly unacceptable.
But here intervenes the fact that the Uighur calendar did not always coincide with the Chinese. Although the phases of the moon were of course the same in both countries, it may be that the Uighurs placed the intercalary month of 1227, not after the fifth month, but after the seventh. In such a case, not having an intercalary month after the fifth, the Chinese intercalary fifth month would be their sixth month, the Chinese sixth month would be their seventh, and the Chinese seventh month would be their intercalary month. The fifteenth of the Chinese seventh month would thus correspond to August 28, 1227, and this is exactly the date corresponding to the fourteenth of ramadan A. H. 624. So I have no doubt that the fourteenth of ramadan is the date actually given by Rasid, in agreement with most mss. in one case, and with all the mss. in the
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