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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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MARCO POLO

bishop in succession to the deceased John of Monte Corvino. John Marignolli speaks of those Alans as " the greatest and noblest nation in the world, the fairest and bravest of men," and asserts that in his day there were 30,000 of them in the Great Kaan's service, and all, at least nominally, Christians.* Rashiduddin also speaks of the Alans as Christians ; though Ibn Batuta certainly mentions the Aas as Mahomedans. We find Alans about the same time (in 1306) fighting well in the service of the Byzantine Emperors (Illu;ztaner, p. 449). All these circumstances render Marco's story of a corps of Christian Alans in the army of Bayan perfectly consistent with

probability.   (Carpini, p. 707 ; Ruh., 243 ; Rainusio, II. 92 ; I. B. II. 428 ;
Gaubil, 4o, 147 ; Cathay, 314 segq. )

[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 88, note) : " The Alans or Aas appear to be identical with the An-ts'ai or A-lan-na of the Hou Ilan slzu (bk. 88, 9), of whom we read that ` they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana (K'ang-chii) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.' (Ma Twan-lin, bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 91, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-ta and Wen-na-sha (see also Bretschneider, Med. Geog., 25S, et seq.). Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (De Ill r an, Mission, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the ` Scythian Alans' ('A\avoi IKÓOat) ; but the first definite mention of them in classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius Periergetes (305), who speaks of the á KIIEPTes 'A\avoí. (See also De Morgan, i. 202, and Deb uzg nes, ii. 279 et seq.)

" Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia. ` Distributed over two

• `'4t   continents, all these nations, whose various names I refrain from mentioning, though

w '" #   separated by immense tracts of country in which they pass their vagabond existence,

.

   04„, :   ..   have with time been confounded under the generic appellation of Alans.' Ibn Alathir,

• •   ;I?   at a later date, also refers to the Alans as ` formed of numerous nations.' (Dulaurier,
  xiv. 455).

" Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of the Alans moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the Caucasus ; though long prior to that, in A.D. 51, they had, as allies of the Georgians, ravaged Armenia.

,. .   ' v, (See Yule, Cathay, 316 ; De, uzg izes, I., pt. ii. 277 et seq. ; and De Morgan, I. 217,

-3*

..*•et seq.)

   4 . i,41   " Mirkhond, in the Tarikhi Wassaf, and other Mohammedan writers speak of the

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"   may Alans and As. However this ma be, it is thought i   ~   that the Oss or Ossetes of the g

4      Caucasus are their modern representatives (IKlaprotli, Tabl. hist., 1So; De Morgan,
i. 202) 231. )" Aas is the transcription of A-soo (Yuen-slii, quoted by Devéria, Notes d'4pia , p. 75. (See Bretschneider, Med. Res., II., p. 84.)—H. C.]

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t • .      NOTE 3.—Tire Chinese histories do not mention the story of the Alans and their
`=

fate ; but they tell how Chang-chau was first taken by the Mongols about April 1275, and two months later recovered by the Chinese ; how Bayan, some months afterwards,

•                  attacked it in person, meeting with a desperate resistance ; finally, how the place was stormed, and how Bayan ordered the whole of the inhabitants to be put to the sword. Gaubil remarks that some grievous provocation must have been given, as Bayan was far from cruel. Pauthier gives original extracts on the subject, which are interesting. They picture the humane and chivalrous Bayan on this occasion as demoniacal in cruelty, sweeping together all the inhabitants of the suburbs, forcing them to construct his works of attack, and then butchering the whole of them, boiling down their carcasses, and using the fat to grease his mangonels ! Perhaps there is some misunder-

   .   standing as to the use of this barbarous lubricant. For Carpini relates that the

* I must observe here that the learned Professor Bruun has raised doubts whether these Alans of Marignolli's could be Alans of the Caucasus, and if they were not rather Ohleíus, i.e. Mongol princes and nobles. There are difficulties certainly about Marignolli's Alans ; but obvious difficulties also in this explanation.

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