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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

MARCO POLO   BOOK IV.

492

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:t!

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(D'Avezac, p. 486 seqq. ; Golden Horde, p. 5; 1. B. II. 375 seqq. ; Blisching, IV.

'   359 ; Cathay, p. 233 ; Nzt»ai Asiatici, I. 333, 451 ; Klaproth's Travels, ch. xxxi. ;

' i   1V. et Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279 ; P. de la Croix, II. 383 ; Rein. Abulf. I. So ;

D'Olzsson, II. 628.)

[" The author of the Tarikh Djilian Kushai, as well as Rashid and other Mohammedan authors of the same period, term the Hungarians Bashkerds (Bashkirs).

This latter name, written also Bashkurd, appears for the first time, it seems, in

+   Ibn Fozlan's narrative of an embassy to the Bulgars on the Volga in the beginning

of the loth century (translated by Fraehn, ` De Bashkiris,' etc., 1822)    The

Hungarians arrived in Europe in the 9th century, and then called themselves Magyar

(to be pronounced Modjor), as they do down to the present time. The Russian Chronicler Nestor mentions their passing near Kiev in 898, and terms them Ugry. But the name Magyar was also known to other nations in the Middle Ages. Abulfeda (ii. 324) notices the Madjgars; it would, however, seem that he applies this name to the Bashkirs in Asia. The name Madjar occurs also in Rashid's record. In the Chinese and Mongol annals of the 13th century the Hungarians are termed 111adja-rh." (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. pp. 326-327.)—H. C.]

Zic is Circassia. The name was known to Pliny, Ptolemy, and other writers of classic times. Ramusio (II. 196 y) gives a curious letter to Aldus Manutius from George Interiano, "Della vita de' Zychi chiamati Circassi," and a great number of other references to ancient and mediæval use of the name will be found in D'Avezac's Essay, so often quoted (p. 497).

GoTHIA is the southern coast of the Crimea from Sudak to Balaklava and the mountains north of the latter, then still occupied by a tribe of the Goths. The Genoese officer who governed this coast in the 15th century bore the title of Capitanus Gotiae ; and a reninant of the tribe still survived, maintaining their Teutonic speech, to the middle of the 16th century, when Busted:, the emperor's ambassador to the Porte, fell in with two of them, from whom he derived a small vocubulary and other particulars. (Busbequii Opera, 166o, p. 321 seqq. ; D'Avezac, pp. 498-499 Heyd. II. 123 seqq. ; Cathay, pp. 200-201.)

GAZARIA, the Crimea and part of the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, formerly occupied by the Khazars, a people whom Klaproth endeavours to prove to have been of Finnish race. When the Genoese held their settlements on the Crimean coast the Board at Genoa which administered the affairs of these colonies was called The Office of Gazaria.

NOTE 2.—The real list of the " Kings of the Ponent," or Khans of the Golden Horde, down to the time of Polo's narrative, runs thus : BATU, Sartak, Ulagchi (these two almost nominal), BARKA, MANGKU TIMUR, TUDAI MANGKU, Tulabugha, 1 rrktuka or TOKTAI. Polo here omits Tulabugha (though he mentions him below in ch. xxix.), and introduces before Batu, as a great and powerful conqueror, the founder of the empire, a prince whom he calls Sain. This is in fact Batu himself, the leader of the great Tartar invasion of Europe (1240-1242), whom he has split into two kings. Batu bore the surname of Sain Khan, or " the Good Prince," by which name he is mentioned, e.g., in Makrizi (Qztatremère's Trans. II. 45), also in Wassáf (Hammer's Trans. pp. 29-30).. Plano Carpini's account of him is worth quoting : " Hominibus quidem ejus satis benignus ; timetur tarnen valde ab its ; sed crudelissimus est in pugnâ ; sagax est multum ; et etiam astutissimus in bello, quia longo tempore jam pugnavit." This Good Prince was indeed crudelissimus in punt .

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(Ruhr. 274, Plan. Cardin. 747 ; and in same vol., D'Avezac, p. 491.) Further confusion arises from the fact that, besides the Uralian Bashkirs, there were, down to the 13th century, Bashkirs recognised as such, and as distinct from the Hungarians though akin to them, dwelling in Hungarian territory. Ibn Said, speaking of Sebennico (the cradle of the Polo family), says that when the Tartars advanced under its walls (1242?) " the Hungarians, the Bashkirs, and the Germans united their forces near the city " and gave the invaders a signal defeat. (Reinaud's Abulf. I. 312 ; see also 294, 295.) One would gladly know what are the real names that M. Reinaud renders Hongrois and Allemande. The Christian Bashkirds of Khondemir, on the borders of the Franks, appear to be Hungarians. (Ste J. As., sér. IV. tom. xvii. p. III.)

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