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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
458 MARCO POLO Roos{ IV.
stroy him. So, out of this quarrel between them, there
arose a great war, and several great battles were fought
by the host of Caidu against the host of the Great Kaan,
his uncle. And the Great Kaan from year's end to year's
end keeps an army watching all Caidu's frontier, lest he
should make forays on his dominions. He, natheless,
will never cease his aggressions on the Great Kaan's
territory, and maintains a bold face to his enemies.'
Indeed, he is so potent that he can well do so ; for
he can take the field with I oo, 000 horse, all stout soldiers
and inured to war. He has also with him several Barons
of the imperial lineage ; i.e., of the family of Chinghis
Kaan, who was the first of their lords, and conquered a
great part of the world, as I have told you more particu-
larly in a former part of this Book.
Now you must know that Great Turkey lies towards
the north-west when you travel from Hormos by that
road I described. It begins on the further bank of the
River JON,* and extends northward to the territory of the
Great Kaan.
Now I shall tell you of sundry battles that the troops
of Caidu fought with the armies of the Great Kaan.
M
NOTE 1.—We see that Polo's error as to the relationship between Kúblái and Kaidu, and as to the descent of the latter (see Vol. I. p. 186) was not a slip, but persistent. The name of Kaidu's grandfather is here in the G. T. written precisely Chagatai ( Ciagatai).
Kaidu was the son of Kashin, son of Ol: kodai, who was the third son of Chinghiz and his successor in the Kaanate. Kaidu never would acknowledge the supremacy of Kúblái, alleging his own superior claim to the Kaanate, which Chinghiz was said to have restricted to the house of Okkodai as long as it should have a representative. From the vicinity of Kaidu's position to the territories occupied by the branch of Chaghatai he exercised great influence over its princes, and these were often his allies in the constant hostilities that he maintained against the Kaan. Such circumstances may have led Polo to confound Kaidu with the house of Chaghatai. Indeed, it is not easy to point out the mutual limits of their territories, and these must have been somewhat complex, for we find Kaidu and Borrak Khan of Chaghatai at one time exercising a kind of joint sovereignty in the cities of Bokhara and Samarkand. Probably, indeed, the limits were in a great measure tribal rather than territorial. But it may be gathered that Kaidu's authority extended over Kashgar and the cities
* The Jailiúii or Oxus.
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