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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
148
MARCO POLO Roos, H.
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You must know that she was conducted to the Great
Kaan, who gave her an honourable reception, and caused
her to be served with all state, like a great lady as she
was. But as for the King her husband, he never more
did quit the isles of the sea to which he had fled, but
died there. So leave we him and his wife and all their
concerns, and let us return to our story, and go on
regularly with our account of the great province of
Manzi and of the manners and customs of its people.
And, to begin at the beginning, we must go back to the
city of Coiganju, from which we digressed to tell you
about the conquest of Manzi.
w
•
NOTE I . — Fad hfúr or Bag hbúr was a title applied by old Persian and Arabic writers to the Emperor of China, much in the way that we used to speak of the Great Mogul, and our fathers of the Sophy. It is, as Neumann points out, an old Persian translation of the Chinese title Tien-tzű, " Son of Heaven " ; Bagh-Púr = " The Son of the Divinity," as Sapor or Shah-Púr = " The Son of the King." Faghfur seems to have been used as a proper name in Turkestan. (See Baber, 423.)
There is a word, Takfúr, applied similarly by the Mahomedans to the Greek emperors of both Byzantium and Trebizond (and also to the Kings of Cilician Armenia), which was perhaps adopted as a jingling match to the former term ; Faghfur, the great infidel king in the East ; Takfur, the great infidel king in the West. Defréméry says this is Armenian, Tagavor, "a king." (L B., II. 393, 427.)
E" The last of the Sung Emperors (1276) ` Facfur' (i.e. the Arabic for Tien Tzű) was freed by Kúblái from the (ancient Kotan) indignity of surrendering with a rope round his neck, leading a sheep, and he received the title of Duke : In 1288 he went to Tibet to study Buddhism, and in 1296 he and his mother, Ts'iuen T'aï How, became a bonze and a nun, and were allowed to hold 36o k'ing (say 5000 acres) of land free of taxes under the then existing laws." (E. H. Parker, China Review, February, March 1901, p. 195.)---I-I. C.]
NOTE 2.—Nevertheless the history of the conquest shows instances of extraordinary courage and self-devotion on the part of Chinese officers, especially in the defence of fortresses—virtues often shown in like degree, under like circumstances, by the same class, in the modern history of China.
NOTE 3.—Bayan (signifying " great " or " noble ") is a name of very old renown among the Nomad nations, for we find it as that of the Khagan of the Avars in the 6th century. The present BAYAN, Kúblái's most famous lieutenant, was of princely birth, in the Mongol tribe called Barin. In his youth he served in the West of Asia under Hulaku. According to Rashiduddin, about 1265 he was sent to Cathay with certain ambassadors of the Kaan's who were returning thither. He was received with great distinction by Kúblái, who was greatly taken with his prepossessing appearance and ability, and a command was assigned him. In 1273, after the capture of Siang-Yang (infra, eh. ixx.) the Kaan named him to the chief command in the prosecution of the war against the Sung Dynasty. Whilst Bayan was in the full tide of success, Kúblái, alarmed by the ravages of Kaidu on the Mongolian frontier, recalled him to take the command there, hut, on the general's remonstrance, he gave way, and made him a minister of state (CHINGSIANG). The essential part of his task
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