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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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MARCO POLO PROL.
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Europe russe, p. 761.) The Bulgars were converted to Islam in 922. Their country was first invaded by the Mongols under Subutai in 1223 ; this General conquered it in 1236, the capital was destroyed the following year, and the country annexed to the kingdom of Kipcliak. Bolghar was again destroyed in 1391 by Tamerlan. In 1438, Ulugh Mohammed, cousin of Toka Timur, younger son of Juji, transformed this country into the khanate of Kazan, which survived till 1552. It had probably been the capital of the Golden I-lorde before Sarai.
With reference to the early Christianity of the Bulgarians, to which Yule refers in his note, the Laurentian Chronicle (A. n. 1229), quoted by Shpilevsky, adduces evidence to show that in the Great City, i.e. Bu ar, there were Russian Christians and a Christian cemetery, and the death of a Bulgarian Christian martyr is related in the same chronicle as well as in the Nikon, Tver, and rI atischef annals in which his name is given. (Cf. Shpilevsky, Anc. towns and other Bul, aro- Tartar monuments, Kazan, 1877, p. 158 seq. ; Rockhill's Rubruck, Hakl. Soc. p. 121) note.)—H. C.]
The severe and lasting winter is spoken of by Ibn Fozlán and other old writers in terms that seem to point to a modern mitigation of climate. It is remarkable, too, that Ibn Fozlán speaks of the aurora as of very frequent occurrence, which is not now the case in that latitude. We may suspect this frequency to have been connected with the greater cold indicated, and perhaps with a different position of the magnetic pole. Ibn Fozlán's account of the aurora is very striking :--" Shortly before sunset the horizon became all very ruddy, and at the same time I heard sounds in the upper air, with a dull rustling. I looked up and beheld sweeping over me a fire-red cloud, from which these sounds issued, and in it movements, as it were, of men and horses ; the men grasping bows, lances, and swords. This I saw, or thought I saw. Then there appeared a white cloud of like aspect ; in it also I beheld armed horsemen, and these rushed against the former as one squadron of horse charges another. We were so terrified at this that we turned with humble prayer to the Almighty, whereupon the natives about us wondered and broke into loud laughter. We, however, continued to gaze, seeing how one cloud charged the other, remained confused with it a while, and then sundered again. These movements lasted deep into the night, and then all vanished."
(Fraehn, Ueber die [Volga Bulraren, Petersb. 1832 ; Gold. Horde, 8, 9, 423-424 Not. et Extr. II. 541 ; Ibn Bat. II. 398 ; Biischings Hag: V. 492 ; Erd,nalz;z, Numi Asiat. I. 315-318, 333-334, 520-535 ; Niceph. Gregoras, II. 2, 2. )
NOTE 3.—ALAV is Polo's representation of the name of Hulák6, brother of the Great Kaans Mangu and Kublai and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia. In the Mongol pronunciation guttural and palatal consonants are apt to be elided, hence this spelling. The same name is written by Pope Alexander IV., in addressing the Khan, Olao, by Pachymeres and Gregoras XaÄav and XaÄaov, by Hayton Haolozz, by Ibn Batuta h ucldán, as well as in a letter of Hulaku's own, as given by Makrizi.
The war in question is related in Rashíduddín's history, and by Polo himself towards the end of the work. It began in the summer of 1262, and ended about eight months later. Hence the Polos must have reached Barka's Court in 1261.
Marco always applies to the Mongol Khans of Persia the title of " Lords of the East" (Levant), and to the Khans of Kipchak that of Lords of the West " (Ponent). We use the term Levant still with a similar specific application, and in another form Anatolia. I think it best to preserve the terms Levant and Ponent when used in this way.
[Robert Parke in his translation out of Spanish of Mendoza, The Histoîie of the great and mightie kingdome of China . . . London, printed by I. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588, uses the word Ponent : " You shall understande that this mightie kingdome is the Orientalest part of all Asia, and his next neighbour towards the Ponent is the kingdome of Quaclzinclzina . . . (p. 2)."—H. C.]
NOTE 4.—UCACA or UKEK was a town on the right br nk of the Volga, nearly
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