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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

866   373. ULAU

« Alau » is the only reading in F, and sporadically occurs in Z and R, although « Viau » is Z's usual spelling and is also more frequent in R. « Viau » (= « Ulau ») is of course more satisfactory, and cannot well be accidental. Perhaps we ought to admit that the « Ulau » form, given by Polo, was altered to « Alau » under the influence of the form then most in use in the West and due to others than Polo; but the alteration must be more ancient than almost the whole of Polo's Mss. tradition, with the exception of the prototypes of R and Z. Georgian texts write « Ulo », very close to Polo's « Ulau » (cf. BROSSET, Hist. de la Géorgie, I, 538-541).

In 1260 (or 1261), a Pontifical letter is sent « Olaoni Regi » (MosHEIM, Hist. Tart. Eccl., 66; BN, Lat. 14173, 24); from it derives « Olaon » in ZURITA, Indices rerum, 1578, p. 148. A letter of 1261 or 1262, from the Templar Great Master Thomas Berard names twice « Haian » (read « Halau » ?) ; cf. LUARD, Ann. Burd., 492. « Helay », in the transcript of a letter from Abaya (cf. G. SORANZO, Il Papato, 220), must be a wrong reading of the copyist. « Hulau », remarkably correct, appears c. 1266-1291 in Fidenzio da Padua (GOLUBOvlcH, Bibl. bio-bibi., II, 34). But the Latin translation of Aryun's letter of 1285 to Honorius IV reads « Alaum » (acc.; cf. CHABOT, Hist. de Mar Jabalaha III, 190) ; Pachymeres and Gregoras use Xc aaû and Xaaoû (Y, I, 8) ; and « Halaon » (var. « Haloon ») was made popular in 1307 by Hethum's Flor des estoires (cf. Hist. des Crois., Arm., II, 167, 299); Les Gestes des Ciprois also give « Halaon » (ibid., 750). The Persian transcriptions are 1fY~► Hüiägü and 9;Y~, Hüläwü (cf. Juwaini, I, 268; Bl, II, 214; in Syriac, we find « Hûiâgû » (BUDGE, The monks of Kûblâi Khân, 324; but, for p. 158, MONTGOMERY, Hist. of Yaballaha III, p. 47, says that the Ms. has « Hûlâbû », which is perhaps to be compared with « Hüläwü »). The Armenian form is « Hulawu ». The Chinese transcriptions are ) Hsü-lieh-wu and Hsü-lieh.

The original Mongol form is Hüiägü, Hülä'ü, with that initial h- which has an etymological value and was really heard in Polo's time, but which the Uiguro-Mongol writing did not note; the written Mongol form is only Ülägü, Üiä'ü, which means « surplus » (cf. JA, 1925, I, 236-237). While the Chinese, Persian, and the Armenian Hethum have marked the h-, Polo has dropped it, as he does generally (the exceptions are « Cogacin », q. v., for Hügäci and « Curmos », q. v., for Hormuz).

Hüiägü, Tolui's fifth son, born about 1216, arrived in Persia in February 1256, captured Bagdad on Febr. 5, 1258, and died on Febr. 8, 1265.

In a paragraph dealing with Chinghiz-khan's successors, BENEDETTO (B, 53) establishes Polo's