The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 44 : It came to pa.s.s in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning at Constantinop

It came to pa.s.s in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning at Constantinople,[NOTE 1] that Messer Nicolas Polo, the father of my lord Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the brother of Messer Nicolas, were at the said city of CONSTANTINOPLE, whither they had gone from Venice with their merchants' wares. Now these two Brethren, men singularly n.o.ble, wise, and provident, took counsel together to cross the GREATER SEA on a venture of trade; so they laid in a store of jewels and set forth from Constantinople, crossing the Sea to SOLDAIA.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--Baldwin II (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by Michael Palaeologus.

The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers' voyage across the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts. But the figure is certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the Brothers return to Venice in 1269, they find Mark, who, according to Ramusio's version, was _born after their departure_, a lad of fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they must have left Venice about 1253-54. And we shall see also that they reached the Volga in 1261. Hence their start from Constantinople may well have occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they really left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears. But as their brother, Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself "_whilom of Constantinople_,"

their headquarters were probably there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Castle of Soldaia or Sudak]

NOTE 2.--In the Middle Ages the Euxine was frequently called _Mare Magnum_ or _Majus_. Thus Chaucer:--

"In the GRETE SEE, At many a n.o.ble Armee hadde he be."

The term Black Sea (_Mare Maurum_ v. _Nigrum_) was, however, in use, and Abulfeda says it was general in his day. That name has been alleged to appear as early as the 10th century, in the form [Greek: Skoteinae], "The Dark Sea"; but an examination of the pa.s.sage cited, from Constantine Porphyrogenitus, shows that it refers rather to the Baltic, whilst that author elsewhere calls the Euxine simply Pontus. (_Reinaud's Abulf._ I.

38, _Const. Porph. De Adm. Imp._ c. 31, c. 42.)

+ _Sodaya, Soldaia_, or _Soldachia_, called by Orientals _Sudak_, stands on the S.E. coast of the Crimea, west of Kaffa. It had belonged to the Greek Empire, and had a considerable Greek population. After the Frank conquest of 1204 it apparently fell to Trebizond. It was taken by the Mongols in 1223 for the first time, and a second time in 1239, and during that century was the great port of intercourse with what is now Russia. At an uncertain date, but about the middle of the century, the Venetians established a factory there, which in 1287 became the seat of a consul. In 1323 we find Pope John XXII. complaining to Uzbek Khan of Sarai that the Christians had been ejected from Soldaia and their churches turned into mosques. Ibn Batuta, who alludes to this strife, counts Sudak as one of the four great ports of the World. The Genoese got Soldaia in 1365 and built strong defences, still to be seen. Kaffa, with a good anchorage, in the 14th century, and later on Tana, took the place of Soldaia as chief emporium in South Russia. Some of the Arab Geographers call the Sea of Azov the Sea of Sudak.

The Elder Marco Polo in his Will (1280) bequeaths to the Franciscan Friars of the place a house of his in _Soldachia_, reserving life occupation to his own son and daughter, then residing in it. Probably this establishment already existed when the two Brothers went thither. (_Elie de Laprimaudare_, pa.s.sim; _Gold. Horde_, 87; _Mosheim_, App. 148; _Ibn Bat._ I. 28, II. 414; _Cathay_, 231-33; _Heyd_, II. pa.s.sim.)

CHAPTER II.

HOW THE TWO BROTHERS WENT ON BEYOND SOLDAIA.

Having stayed a while at Soldaia, they considered the matter, and thought it well to extend their journey further. So they set forth from Soldaia and travelled till they came to the Court of a certain Tartar Prince, BARCA KAAN by name, whose residences were at SARA[NOTE 1] and at BOLGARA [and who was esteemed one of the most liberal and courteous Princes that ever was among the Tartars.][NOTE 2] This Barca was delighted at the arrival of the Two Brothers, and treated them with great honour; so they presented to him the whole of the jewels that they had brought with them.

The Prince was highly pleased with these, and accepted the offering most graciously, causing the Brothers to receive at least twice its value.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map to ill.u.s.trate the Geographical Position of the CITY of SARAI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Part of the Remains of the CITY of SARAI near TZAREV North of the AKHTUBA Branch of the VOLGA]

After they had spent a twelvemonth at the court of this Prince there broke out a great war between Barca and Alau, the Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, and great hosts were mustered on either side.[NOTE 3]

But in the end Barca, the Lord of the Tartars of the Ponent, was defeated, though on both sides there was great slaughter. And by reason of this war no one could travel without peril of being taken; thus it was at least on the road by which the Brothers had come, though there was no obstacle to their travelling forward. So the Brothers, finding they could not retrace their steps, determined to go forward. Quitting Bolgara, therefore, they proceeded to a city called UCACA, which was at the extremity of the kingdom of the Lord of the Ponent;[NOTE 4] and thence departing again, and pa.s.sing the great River Tigris, they travelled across a Desert which extended for seventeen days' journey, and wherein they found neither town nor village, falling in only with the tents of Tartars occupied with their cattle at pasture.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.-- + Barka Khan, third son of Juji, the first-born of Chinghiz, ruled the _Ulus_ of Juji and Empire of Kipchak (Southern Russia) from 1257 to 1265. He was the first Musulman sovereign of his race. His chief residence was at SARAI (Sara of the text), a city founded by his brother and predecessor Batu, on the banks of the Akhtuba branch of the Volga. In the next century Ibn Batuta describes Sarai as a very handsome and populous city, so large that it made half a day's journey to ride through it. The inhabitants were Mongols, Aas (or Alans), Kipchaks, Circa.s.sians, Russians, and Greeks, besides the foreign Moslem merchants, who had a walled quarter. Another Mahomedan traveller of the same century says the city itself was not walled, but, "The Khan's Palace was a great edifice surmounted by a golden crescent weighing two _kantars_ of Egypt, and encompa.s.sed by a wall flanked with towers," etc. Pope John XXII., on the 26th February 1322, defined the limits of the new Bishopric of Kaffa, which were Sarai to the east and Varna to the west.

Sarai became the seat of both a Latin and a Russian metropolitan, and of more than one Franciscan convent. It was destroyed by Timur on his second invasion of Kipchak (1395-6), and extinguished by the Russians a century later. It is the scene of Chaucer's half-told tale of Cambuscan:--

"At _Sarra_, in the Londe of Tartarie, There dwelt a King that werried Russie."

["_Mesalek-al-absar_ (285, 287), says Sarai, meaning 'the Palace,' was founded by Bereke, brother of Batu. It stood in a salty plain, and was without walls, though the palace had walls flanked by towers. The town was large, had markets, _madrasas_--and baths. It is usually identified with Selitrennoye Gorodok, about 70 miles above Astrakhan." (_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 260, note.)--H. C.]

Several sites exhibiting extensive ruins near the banks of the Akhtuba have been identified with Sarai; two in particular. One of these is not far from the great elbow of the Volga at Tzaritzyn: the other much lower down, at Selitrennoye Gorodok or Saltpetre-Town, not far above Astrakhan.

The upper site exhibits by far the most extensive traces of former population, and is declared unhesitatingly to be the sole site of Sarai by M. Gregorieff, who carried on excavations among the remains for four years, though with what precise results I have not been able to learn. The most dense part of the remains, consisting of mounds and earth-works, traces of walls, buildings, cisterns, dams, and innumerable ca.n.a.ls, extends for about 7-1/2 miles in the vicinity of the town of Tzarev, but a tract of 66 miles in length and 300 miles in circuit, commencing from near the head of the Akhtuba, presents remains of like character, though of less density, marking the ground occupied by the villages which encircled the capital. About 2-1/2 miles to the N.W. of Tzarev a vast ma.s.s of such remains, surrounded by the traces of a brick rampart, points out the presumable position of the Imperial Palace.

M. Gregorieff appears to admit no alternative. Yet it seems certain that the indications of Abulfeda, Pegolotti, and others, with regard to the position of the capital in the early part of the 14th century, are not consistent with a site so far from the Caspian. Moreover, F. H. Muller states that the site near Tzarev is known to the Tartars as the "Sarai of Janibek Khan" (1341-1357). Now it is worthy of note that in the coinage of Janibek we repeatedly find as the place of mintage, _New Sarai_. Arabshah in his History of Timur states that 63 years had elapsed from the foundation to the destruction of Sarai. But it must have been at least 140 years since the foundation of Batu's city. Is it not possible, therefore, that both the sites which we have mentioned were successively occupied by the Mongol capital; that the original Sarai of Batu was at Selitrennoye Gorodok, and that the _New Sarai_ of Janibek was established by him, or by his father Uzbeg in his latter days, on the upper Akhtuba? Pegolotti having carried his merchant from Tana (Azov) to Gittarchan (Astrakhan), takes him _one day_ by river to Sara, and from Sara to _Saracanco_, also by river, eight days more. (_Cathay_, p. 287.) In the work quoted I have taken Saracanco for Saraichik, on the Yaik. But it was possibly the Upper or New Sarai on the Akhtuba. Ibn Batuta, marching on the frozen river, reached Sarai in three days from Astrakhan. This could not have been at Tzarev, 200 miles off.

In corroboration (_quantum valeat_) of my suggestion that there must have been two Sarais near the Volga, Professor Bruun of Odessa points to the fact that Fra Mauro's map presents _two_ cities of Sarai on the Akhtuba; only the Sarai of Janibeg is with him no longer _New_ Sarai, but _Great_ Sarai.

The use of the latter name suggests the possibility that in the _Saracanco_ of Pegolotti the latter half of the name may be the Mongol _Kunk_ "Great." (See _Pavet de Courteille_, p. 439.)

Professor Bruun also draws attention to the impossibility of Ibn Batuta's travelling from Astrakhan to Tzarev in three days, an argument which had already occurred to me and been inserted above.

[The Empire of Kipchak founded after the Mongol Conquest of 1224, included also parts of Siberia and Khwarizm; it survived nominally until 1502.--H. C.]

(_Four Years of Archaeological Researches among the Ruins of Sarai_ [in Russian] by M. Gregorieff [who appears to have also published a pamphlet specially on the site, but this has not been available]; _Historisch- geographische Darstellung des Stromsystems der Wolga, von Ferd. Heinr.

Muller_, Berlin, 1839, 568-577; _Ibn. Bat._ II. 447; _Not. et Extraits_, XIII. i. 286; _Pallas, Voyages; Cathay_, 231, etc.; _Erdmann, Numi Asiatici_, pp. 362 seqq.; _Arabs._ I. p. 381.)

NOTE 2.--BOLGHAR, our author's Bolgara, was the capital of the region sometimes called Great Bulgaria, by Abulfeda _Inner Bulgaria_, and stood a few miles from the left bank of the Volga, in lat.i.tude about 54 54', and 90 miles below Kazan. The old Arab writers regarded it as nearly the limit of the habitable world, and told wonders of the cold, the brief summer nights, and the fossil ivory that was found in its vicinity. This was exported, and with peltry, wax, honey, hazel-nuts, and Russia leather, formed the staple articles of trade. The last item derived from Bolghar the name which it still bears all over Asia. (See Bk. II. ch. xvi., and Note.) Bolghar seems to have been the northern limit of Arab travel, and was visited by the curious (by Ibn Batuta among others) in order to witness the phenomena of the short summer night, as tourists now visit Hammerfest to witness its entire absence.

Russian chroniclers speak of an earlier capital of the Bulgarian kingdom, Brakhimof, near the mouth of the Kama, destroyed by Andrew, Grand Duke of Rostof and Susdal, about 1160; and this may have been the city referred to in the earlier Arabic accounts. The fullest of these is by Ibn Fozlan, who accompanied an emba.s.sy from the Court of Baghdad to Bolghar, in A.D. 921.

The King and people had about this time been converted to Islam, having previously, as it would seem, professed Christianity. Nevertheless, a Mahomedan writer of the 14th century says the people had then long renounced Islam for the wors.h.i.+p of the Cross. (_Not. et Extr._ XIII. i.

270.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ruins of Bolghar.]

Bolghar was first captured by the Mongols in 1225. It seems to have perished early in the 15th century, after which Kazan practically took its place. Its position is still marked by a village called Bolgari, where ruins of Mahomedan character remain, and where coins and inscriptions have been found. Coins of the Kings of Bolghar, struck in the 10th century, have been described by Fraehn, as well as coins of the Mongol period struck at Bolghar. Its latest known coin is of A.H. 818 (A.D. 1415-16). A history of Bolghar was written in the first half of the 12th century by Yakub Ibn Noman, Kadhi of the city, but this is not known to be extant.

Fraehn shows ground for believing the people to have been a mixture of Fins, Slavs, and Turks. Nicephorus Gregoras supposes that they took their name from the great river on which they dwelt ([Greek: Boulga]).

["The ruins [of Bolghar]," says Bretschneider, in his _Mediaeval Researches_, published in 1888, vol. ii. p. 82, "still exist, and have been the subject of learned investigation by several Russian scholars.

These remains are found on the spot where now the village _Uspenskoye_, called also _Bolgarskoye_ (Bolgari), stands, in the district of Spask, province of Kazan. This village is about 4 English miles distant from the Volga, east of it, and 83 miles from Kazan." Part of the Bulgars removed to the Balkans; others remained in their native country on the sh.o.r.es of the Azov Sea, and were subjugated by the Khazars. At the beginning of the 9th century, they marched northwards to the Volga and the Kama, and established the kingdom of Great Bulgaria. Their chief city, Bolghar, was on the bank of the Volga, but the river runs now to the west; as the Kama also underwent a change in its course, it is possible that formerly Bolghar was built at the junction of the two rivers. (Cf. _Reclus, Europe russe_, p. 761.) The Bulgars were converted to Islam in 922. Their country was first invaded by the Mongols under Subutai in 1223; this General conquered it in 1236, the capital was destroyed the following year, and the country annexed to the kingdom of Kipchak. Bolghar was again destroyed in 1391 by Tamerlan. In 1438, Ulugh Mohammed, cousin of Toka Timur, younger son of Juji, transformed this country into the khanate of Kazan, which survived till 1552. It had probably been the capital of the Golden Horde before Sarai.

With reference to the early Christianity of the Bulgarians, to which Yule refers in his note, the _Laurentian Chronicle_ (A.D. 1229), quoted by Shpilevsky, adduces evidence to show that in the Great City, i.e.

_Bulgar_, there were Russian Christians and a Christian cemetery, and the death of a Bulgarian Christian martyr is related in the same chronicle as well as in the Nikon, Tver, and Tatischef annals in which his name is given. (Cf. Shpilevsky, _Anc. towns and other Bulgaro-Tartar monuments_, Kazan, 1877, p. 158 seq.; _Rockhill's Rubruck_, Hakl. Soc. p. 121, note.) --H. C.]

The severe and lasting winter is spoken of by Ibn Folzan and other old writers in terms that seem to point to a modern mitigation of climate. It is remarkable, too, that Ibn Fozlan speaks of the aurora as of very frequent occurrence, which is not now the case in that lat.i.tude. We may suspect this frequency to have been connected with the greater cold indicated, and perhaps with a different position of the magnetic pole. Ibn Fozlan's account of the aurora is very striking:--"Shortly before sunset the horizon became all very ruddy, and at the same time I heard sounds in the upper air, with a dull rustling. I looked up and beheld sweeping over me a fire-red cloud, from which these sounds issued, and in it movements, as it were, of men and horses; the men grasping bows, lances, and swords.

This I saw, or thought I saw. Then there appeared a white cloud of like aspect; in it also I beheld armed hors.e.m.e.n, and these rushed against the former as one squadron of horse charges another. We were so terrified at this that we turned with humble prayer to the Almighty, whereupon the natives about us wondered and broke into loud laughter. We, however, continued to gaze, seeing how one cloud charged the other, remained confused with it a while, and then sundered again. These movements lasted deep into the night, and then all vanished."

(_Fraehn, Ueber die Wolga Bulgaren_, Petersb. 1832; _Gold. Horde_, 8, 9, 423-424; _Not. et Extr._ II. 541; _Ibn Bat._ II. 398; _Buschings Mag._ V.

492; _Erdmann, Numi Asiat._ I. 315-318, 333-334, 520-535; _Niceph.

Gregoras_, II. 2, 2.)

NOTE 3.--ALAU is Polo's representation of the name of Hulaku, brother of the Great Kaans Mangu and Kublai and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia. In the Mongol p.r.o.nunciation guttural and palatal consonants are apt to be elided, hence this spelling. The same name is written by Pope Alexander IV., in addressing the Khan, _Olao_, by Pachymeres and Gregoras [Greek: Chalau] and [Greek: Chalaon], by Hayton _Haolon_, by Ibn Batuta _Hulaun_, as well as in a letter of Hulaku's own, as given by Makrizi.

The war in question is related in Ras.h.i.+duddin's history, and by Polo himself towards the end of the work. It began in the summer of 1262, and ended about eight months later. Hence the Polos must have reached Barka's Court in 1261.

Marco always applies to the Mongol Khans of Persia the t.i.tle of "Lords of the East" (_Levant_), and to the Khans of Kipchak that of "Lords of the West" (_Ponent_). We use the term _Levant_ still with a similar specific application, and in another form _Anatolia_. I think it best to preserve the terms _Levant_ and _Ponent_ when used in this way.

[Robert Parke in his translation out of Spanish of Mendoza, _The Historie of the great and mightie kingdome of China_ ... London, printed by I.

Wolfe for Edward White, 1588, uses the word _Ponent_: "You shall understande that this mightie kingdome is the Orientalest part of all Asia, and his next neighbour towards the _Ponent_ is the kingdome of _Quachinchina_ ... (p. 2)."--H. C.]