Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume II.
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CHAPTER XXIV.

CONCERNING THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT AND THEIR LORDS.

The first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was SAIN, a very great and puissant king, who conquered ROSIA and COMANIA, ALANIA, LAC, MENJAR, ZIC, GOTHIA, and GAZARIA; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain. Before his conquest these all belonged to the Comanians, but they did not hold well together nor were they united, and thus they lost their territories and were dispersed over divers countries; and those who remained all became the servants of King Sain.[NOTE 1]

After King Sain reigned King PATU, and after Patu BARCA, and after Barca MUNGLETEMUR, and after Mungletemur King TOTAMANGUL, and then TOCTAI the present sovereign.[NOTE 2]

Now I have told you of the Tartar kings of the Ponent, and next I shall tell you of a great battle that was fought between Alau the Lord of the Levant and Barca the Lord of the Ponent.

So now we will relate out of what occasion that battle arose, and how it was fought.

NOTE 1.—+The COMANIANS, a people of Turkish race, the Polovtzi[or "Dwellers of the Plain" of Nestor, the Russian Annalist] of the old Russians, were one of the chief nations occupying the plains on the north of the Black Sea and eastward to the Caspian, previous to the Mongol invasion. Rubruquis makes them identical with the KIPCHAK, whose name is generally attached to those plains by Oriental writers, but Hammer disputes this. [See a note, pp. 92-93 of Rockhill's Rubruck.—H.C.]

ALANIA, the country of the Alans on the northern skirts of the Caucasus and towards the Caspian; LAC, the Wallachs as above. MENJAR is a subject of doubt. It may be Májar, on the Kuma River, a city which was visited by Ibn Batuta, and is mentioned by Abulfeda as Kummájar. It was in the 14th century the seat of a Franciscan convent. Coins of that century, both of Majar and New Majar, are given by Erdmann. The building of the fortresses of Kichi Majar and Ulu Majar (little and great) is ascribed in the Derbend Nameh to Naoshirwan. The ruins of Majar were extensive when seen by Gmelin in the last century, but when visited by Klaproth in the early part of the present one there were few buildings remaining. Inscriptions found there are, like the coins, Mongol-Mahomedan of the 14th century. Klaproth, with reference to these ruins, says that Majar merely means in "old Tartar" a stone building, and denies any connection with the Magyars as a nation. But it is possible that the Magyar country, i.e. Hungary, is here intended by Polo, for several Asiatic writers of his time, or near it, speak of the Hungarians as Majár. Thus Abulfeda speaks of the infidel nations near the Danube as including Aulák, Majárs, and Serbs; Rashiduddin speaks of the Mongols as conquering the country of the Bashkirds, the Majárs, and the Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania). One such mention from Abulghazi has been (...)

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