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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. LI. INTERMENT OF THE TARTAR KAANS
247
NOTE I.—Before parting with Chinghiz let me point out what has not to my knowledge been suggested before, that the name of " Cambuscan bold " in Chaucer's tale is only a corruption of the name of Chinghiz. The name of the conqueror appears in Fr. Ricold as Camiuscan, from which the transition to Cambuscan presents no difficulty. Camius was, I suppose, a clerical corruption out of Canjus or Cianjus. In the chronicle of St. Antonino, however, we have him called " Ching hiscan rectius Tamgius Cam " (XIX. c. 8). If this is not merely the usual blunder of t for c, it presents a curious analogy to the form Tankiz Khán always used by Ibn Batuta. I do not know the origin of the latter, unless it was suggested by tankis (Ar.) " Turning upside down." (See Pereg Qual., p. 119 ; I. B. III. 22, etc.)
NOTE 2.—Polo's history here is inadmissible. He introduces into the list of the supreme Kaans Batzi, who was only Khan of Kipchak (the Golden Horde), and Hulaku, who was Khan of Persia, whilst he omits Okkodai, the immediate successor of Chinghiz. It is also remarkable that he uses the form Alacou here instead of Alaii as elsewhere ; nor does he seem to mean the same person, for he was quite well aware that Alaü was Lord of the Levant, who sent ambassadors to the Great Khan Cúbláy, and could not therefore be one of his predecessors. The real succession ran : I. Chinghiz ; 2. Okkodai ; 3. Kuyuk ; 4. Mangku ; 5. Kúblái.
There are quite as great errors in the history of Haiton, who had probably greater advantages in this respect than Marco. And I may note that in Teixeira's abridgment of Mirkhond, Hulaku is made to succeed Mangku Kaan on the throne of Chinghiz. (Relaciones, p. 338.)
NOTE 3.—The ALTAI here certainly does not mean the Great South Siberian Range to which the name is now applied. Both Altai and Altura-Khan appear sometimes to be applied by Sanang Setzen to the Khingan of the Chinese, or range running immediately north of the Great Wall near Kalgan. (See ch. lxi. note 1.) But in reference to this matter of the burial of Chinghiz, he describes the place as " the district of Yekeh Utek, between the shady side of the Altai-Khan and the sunny side of the Kentei-Khan." Now the Kentei-Khan (khan here meaning" mountain") is near the sources of the Onon, immediately to the north-east of Urga ; and Altai-Khan in this connection cannot mean the hills near the Great Wall, 500 miles distant.
According to Rashiduddin, Chinghiz was buried at a place called Búrkán Káldún (" God's Hill "), or Yekeh Kúrúk (" The Great Sacred or Tabooed Place ") ; in another passage he calls the spot Bzsdah Undúr (which means, I fancy, the same as Búrkán Káldún), near the River Selenga. Búrkán Kaldún is often mentioned by Sanang Setzen, and Quatremère seems to demonstrate the identity of this place with the mountain called by Pallas (and Timkowski) Khanoolla. This is a lofty mountain near Urga, covered with dense forest, and is indeed the first woody mountain reached in travelling from Peking. It is still held sacred by the Mongols and guarded from access, though the tradition of Clair ghiz's grave seems to be extinct. Now, as this Khanoolla (" Mount Royal," for khan here means " sovereign," and oolla " mountain ") stands immediately to the south of the Kentei mentioned in the quotation from S. Setzen, this identification agrees with his statement, on the supposition that the Khanoolla is the Altai of the same quotation. The Khanoolla must also be the Han mountain which Mongol chiefs claiming descent from Chinghiz named to Gaubil as the burial-place of that conqueror. Note that the Khanoolla, which we suppose to be the Altai of Polo, and here of Sanang Setzen, belongs to a range known as Khi;zJan, whilst we see that Setzen elsewhere applies Altai and Altan-Khan to the other Khingan near the Great Wall.
Erdmann relates, apparently after Rashiduddin, that Chinghiz was buried at the foot of a tree which had taken his fancy on a hunting expedition, and which he had then pointed out as thé place where he desired to be interred. It was then conspicuous, but afterwards the adjoining trees shot up so rapidly, that a dense wood
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