CONTEMPORARIES of MARCO POLO % the Seal of Kuyuk Khan
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|5!tbrarg BURLINGTON CONTEMPORARIES of MARCO POLO % The Seal of Kuyuk Khan =^iS:^XS;:fe£=2!?i; £<L r^-'>4«»i IN THE POWER OF THE ETERNAL HEAVEN, THE ORDER OF THE OCEANIC KHAN OF THE PEOPLE OF THE GREAT MONGOLS. THE CON- QUERED PEOPLE MUST RESPECT IT AND FEAR THEM CONTEMPORARIES OF MARCO POLO (Consisting of the Travel T^cords to the Eastern T^arts of the World <?/" William of Rubruck [1253- 1255]; The Journey ^John of Pian de Carpini [i 245-1 247]; The fournal of Friar Odoric [1318-1330] &' The Oriental Travels of Rabbi Benjamin ^ Tudela [1160-1173] Edited by Manuel Komroff » LivERiGHT Publishing Corp., New York a^c^^N. ^^ ^ w^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^'^ Kb COPYRIGHT 1928 :: BY HORACE LIVERIGHT, Inc. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES ® LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORP. Published August, 1928 Second printing, February, 1932 Third printing, July, 1937 Printed in the United States of America rHE TEXTS The text of Friar John of Pian de Carpini was edited by a comparison of the old English text of Richard Hakluyt (first printed in London, 1589) with the various texts edited by Beazley and printed for the Hakluyt Society, Lon- don, 1903, as well as the translation by William Rockhill printed for the Hakluyt Society in looo. The first part of The Journey of Friar William of Rubruck was done from Hakluyt's Voyages and the volume by Beazley entitled The Texts and Versions of John de Piano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1903. But neither of these is complete. The second half of Rubruck was translated from Gidllaume de Rubrouck by Louis de Backer and the entire text compared with that of WilUam Rockhill: The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World; Hakluyt Society, 1900. The Journal of Friar Odoric was edited from the text first published in Hakluyt's Voyages and compared with the text translated by Sir Henry Yule and edited by Henri Cordier, as printed in Cathay and the Way Thither, Vol. n, Hakluyt Society, 191 3-6. The Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela were prepared from the text edited by Thomas Wright and published in Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn Library, 1848. Other volumes used for reference are listed in the bibliography printed at the end of this volume. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The works and notes of the distinguished American scholar and diplomat, William W. Rockhill, have contributed much to make this volume possible. Mr. Rockhill was bom in 1854. He undertook two long journeys in the years 1888-1892 through China, Mongolia and Tibet. These he accomplished while disguised as a native. He also served the Department of State as Minister to Greece, Roumania, Servia, and in 1900 Minister to China. He was later Am- bassador to Russia and Turkey. He died in 1914 while on his way to serve as adviser to the President of China and with his death America lost one of its most distinguished Oriental scholars. Some of his books are listed in the bibliography attached to this volume. Special thanks are due to the officials of the Vatican for permission to work in their library, consult the archives and photograph documents. To Professor Gino Borghezio, of the Vatican Library, for his many kindnesses and also for his translations from original documents. To Hiram K. Moderwell and the office of the Chicago Daily News in Rome for their good services, and to Albert D. Lippman and Miss R. Seeman for aid with translations. It was at the suggestion of Dr. Dawson Johnston, of the Library of Con- gress, that I prepared the bibliography contained in this volume. To this Harold Lamb suggested several additions. I have also to thank Miss Julie M. Eidesheim for the very serious task of proofreading and the preparation of a full index. And finally Herschel Brickell for his friendly encouragement. M. K. 7^7Jsr INTROT>UCTIOO^ Marco Polo was not the only traveller to journey to China. He was preceded by several travellers who visited the Mongol Courts and brought back to Mediaeval Europe vivid records and de- tailed pictures of that strange Eastern civilization. The conquering Mongols had already lost a good deal of their vitality when Marco Polo visited their last Great Khan, Kublaij the empire was already breaking up, de- generacy had set in and the silken lap of luxury had softened the warriors who descended directly from the great Chinghis Khan. Between Chinghis and Kublai were three other Great Khans: Ogotay, Kuyuk and Mangu. It was the courts of these last two that Friar Carpini and Friar Rubruck visited. In their records they have left us an intimate and striking picture of this spectacular civilization which sprung from the steppes of Mongolia and was destined to conquer almost the whole of Asia and to sweep across a good part of Europe. China went to Europe and opened the roads through which these travellers journeyed. But when the invading armies returned home and the western lands fell under the rule of Mongol princes, those roads were soon neglected and ever since that time have been closed. These roads, however, established by the invading forces, brought to Europe the first true accounts of the East. vli INTROT>UCTIO0^ How China Came to Euro-pe Chinghis Khan was already master of the greater part of Asia, the great empire of Turkey, its mosques, palaces, libraries and storehouses were plundered, its cities laid waste and ruined, the inhabitants slaughtered and the proud emperor Muhammad Shah a fugitive. The savage Mongol army sent out flying flanks with orders to follow Muham- mad wherever he went and bring him back dead or alive. In disguise he fled to the shores of the Caspian and was about to take refuge on a small island but paused at a mosque Jong enough to read the prayers and reveal his identity. The Mongols were soon close behind, but Mu- hammad escaped in a boat and took refuge on an island, in the Caspian, where soon after he died in wretchedness and poverty. The invading hordes marched north and around the Caspian in their search for the Emperor of the Turks. They carried fire and slaughter throughout entire Persia and at length came through the gorges of the Caucasus. In these campaigns Chinghis was aided by his sons, Ogotay, Tuluy and Chagatai. The year following, Chinghis decided to return to his home lands in Mongolia by way of India and Tibet. This was in 1223. He reached his native land two years later after an absence of seven years. But while Chinghis himself returned home, a greater part of his armies, under the leadership of his sons, remained in Persia and the Caucasus. At the foot of the hills they found a vast army of Kipchaks and Russians already as- sembled for defence. The Mongols at once retreated and allowed themselves to be pursued for twelve days. This stratagem scattered the attacking forces, who then soon INTROT>UCTIOO^ he fell victims to the ambushed Mongols, After a desperate battle lasting two days the Mongols defeated the Russian forces and entered European Russia. Now the Russian princes assembled at Kiev and agreed to join forces against the common enemy. While the armies gathered on the shores of the Dnieper, the Mongols sent ten ambassadors to the Russian princes to open peaceful relations. The ten ambassadors were killed by the Rus- sians, who at once opened their attack. The Mongols suf- fered several slight defeats but when their main army was brought into action they swept through the entire Russian forces, completely destroyed them, and followed those who escaped as far as the Dnieper. Here some of the Russian princes were captured and tied to planks upon which the Mongols sat to eat and drink and celebrate their victory. Fire, famine and slaughter followed. Then for a time the war-like activities of the Mongols in the west subsided. Chinghis was occupied with the con- quest of the Kin empire in Northern China and died in 1227. His son, Ogotay, succeeded him. Ogotay Khan The Kin dynasty was not fully overthrown until about ten years later and it was not until then that Ogotay Khan took up the conquests in the western countries begun by his father. Russian records tell us that the fierce Prince Batu, grandson of Chinghis and nephew of Ogotay, wintered with his army near the Volga in 1236-7, not far from the capital of the Bulgars, which he destroyed in the following autumn. At the same time the Mongol troops were harried by bands of robbers on the banks of the river and Mangu, son of Tuluy, the brother of Ogotay, was ordered to build two INTROT>UCTIOO^ hundred boats, each capable of holding a hundred men, and attack the river robbers. The opposite bank of the river and its adjacent forests were searched. The Mongols re- turned with much loot as well as the leader of the bands, who asked as a favour that he be killed by Mangu's own hand. Mangu, however, ordered his brother to cut the robber chief through the middle. The frontiers of Russia, then bounded on the east by Bulgaria, were in turn attacked. Cities were plundered and destroyed. The Mongols cut roads through the forests wide enough to allow three carts to pass abreast and the walled cities were attacked with stone-throwing engines. We learn from Persian records that in order to count the dead resulting from one of these sieges, instructions were given to cut off the right ear from all corpses.