The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 554 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0554	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

(D'Avezac, p. 486 seqq.; Golden Horde, p. 5; I. B. II. 375 seqq.; Büsching, IV.
359; Cathay, p. 233; Numi Asiatici, I. 333, 451; Klaproth's Travels, ch. xxxi.;
N. et Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279; P. de la Croix, II. 383; Rein. Abulf. I. 80;
D'Ohsson, II. 628.)

["The author of the Tarikh Djihan 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 10th 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 Madjars; 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
Madja-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 v) 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 remnant of the tribe still survived, maintaining their Teutonic
speech, to the middle of the 16th century, when Busbeck, the emperor's ambassador
to the Porte, fell in with two of them, from whom he derived a small vocabulary and
other particulars. (Bushequii Opera, 1660, 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,
Tuktuka 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 (Quatremère's Trans. II. 45), also in Wassaf
(Hammer's Trans. pp. 29-30). Plano Carpini's account of him is worth quoting:
"Hominibus quidem ejus satis benignus; timetur tamen valde ab iis; sed crudelis-
simus est in pugnâ; sagax est multum; et etiam astutissimus in bello, quia longo
tempore jam pugnavit." This Good Prince was indeed crudelissimus in pugnâ.

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