Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 270 (Color Image)

0270	Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1

khan himself as an obstinate and high-tempered man. He violently opposed his elder brother
Jöči, but agreed to the appointment of his younger brother Ögödäi and his lineage to succeed
Chinghiz-khan. He remained to the last true to the laws which his father had laid down, and,
when Ögödäi died at the end of 1241, Čayatai seems to have been instrumental in leaving the
supreme power in Ögödäi's branch. Moreover, he did not long survive Ögödäi : like him, he
had taken to drink, and died in 1242, when he must have been still under sixty. Despite Polo,
he was never a Christian.

When in 1266 Qubilai installed the eight « chambers » (室 shih) of the Ancestral Temple,
the fifth « chamber » was that of Čayatai and of his principal wife 也速倫 Yeh-su-lun (Yäsülün;
YS, 74, 1b; she is the يسولين Yesülün of Rašidu-'d-Dīn, in Bl, II, 154). The YS (69, 5a) has
preserved the text of the Chinese song which was sung at the Ancestral Temple in honour of
Čayatai.

The best genealogical table of Čayatai's branch down to 1300 is that given in Rašidu-'d-Dīn
(Bl, II, 153-177). The YS (107, 5a-b, 7b) goes quite astray owing to a confusion which makes it
transfer part of Čayatai's branch to the line of Tolui (see « Cibai and Caban »). An unpublished
Sino-Uighur inscription of 1326 gives at least a correct genealogy of Čayatai's sixth son Baidar :
Baidar's son was Aluyu (not « Naliyu » who is another man, despite Bl, I, 120-121; II, 176),
father of Čübäi (Polo's « Cibai »), father of Nom-quli, father of Nom-taš (or Nom-daš ?). The
current tables given for Čayatai's branch in the first half of the 14th cent. are often erroneous,
and could be corrected to a certain extent with the help of Chinese sources. But such a discus-
sion would be out of the scope of the present notes.

Western sources of the early 14th cent. speak of the dominions of Čayatai's branch as
« Medium Imperium », sometimes, by a curious mistake, as « Medorum Imperium » (cf. HALLBERG,
343-345); we also find, for the allied houses of Ögödäi and Čayatai, the term « Empire of Qaidu
and Dua » used as a sort of territorial designation even after the death of both Dua and Qaidu
(see « Caidu »). Although BARTHOLD (in EI, s. v. « Čaghatāi-khān ») considers Dua to be the « true
founder » of the Čayatai Empire, it was not his name which was ultimately retained, but that of
Čayatai himself, which has survived to designate both the country and the Turkish dialect spo-
ken by its inhabitants. This extended use of the name of Čayatai was already well established
at the end of the 14th cent., as is shown by the accounts of Clavijo and Schiltberger, and by the
Libellus de notitia orbis written in 1402 by John III, archbishop of Sultaniyah (cf. KERN, in
Arch. Fratr. Praed. VIII, 96, 100); it occurs also in the 15th cent. in Josafa Barbaro (RAMU-
SIO, II, 105-106). But the question may be raised whether it did not begin much earlier.
When the YS speaks of « the princes of the north-west, Čayatai and others » in 1328-1329
(cf. above), we have no indication that a prince whose name was Čayatai should have then
existed. I am greatly tempted to interpret this « Čayatai » as meaning the princes « of the
branch of Čayatai », i. e. with the value which the name certainly had half a century later.
Ultimately, the use of the name « Čayatai » was restricted to the western half of the Moyol, the
name « Moyol » being retained by the eastern half. Both branches had dwindled to in-
significance when Mirzā Muḥammad Haidar completed his Ta'rīḫ-i Rašīdī (cf. the translation by
ELIAS and ROSS, 148).

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books