43 (return)
[ Pachymer (l. v. c. 10)
very properly explains liziouV (ligios) by?lidiouV. The use of
these words in the Greek and Latin of the feudal times may be amply
understood from the Glossaries of Ducange, (Græc. p. 811, 812. Latin. tom.
iv. p. 109—111.)]
44 (return)
[ The establishment and
progress of the Genoese at Pera, or Galata, is described by Ducange (C. P.
Christiana, l. i. p. 68, 69) from the Byzantine historians, Pachymer, (l.
ii. c. 35, l. v. 10, 30, l. ix. 15 l. xii. 6, 9,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l.
v. c. 4, l. vi. c. 11, l. ix. c. 5, l. ix. c. 1, l. xv. c. 1, 6,) and
Cantacuzene, (l. i. c. 12, l. ii. c. 29, &c.)]
45 (return)
[ Both Pachymer (l. iii.
c. 3, 4, 5) and Nic. Greg. (l. iv. c. 7) understand and deplore the
effects of this dangerous indulgence. Bibars, sultan of Egypt, himself a
Tartar, but a devout Mussulman, obtained from the children of Zingis the
permission to build a stately mosque in the capital of Crimea, (De
Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 343.)]
46 (return)
[ Chardin (Voyages en
Perse, tom. i. p. 48) was assured at Caffa, that these fishes were
sometimes twenty-four or twenty-six feet long, weighed eight or nine
hundred pounds, and yielded three or four quintals of caviare. The corn of
the Bosphorus had supplied the Athenians in the time of Demosthenes.]
47 (return)
[ De Guignes, Hist. des
Huns, tom. iii. p. 343, 344. Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 400. But this
land or water carriage could only be practicable when Tartary was united
under a wise and powerful monarch.]
48 (return)
[ Nic. Gregoras (l. xiii.
c. 12) is judicious and well informed on the trade and colonies of the
Black Sea. Chardin describes the present ruins of Caffa, where, in forty
days, he saw above 400 sail employed in the corn and fish trade, (Voyages
en Perse, tom. i. p. 46—48.)]
49 (return)
[ See Nic. Gregoras, l.
xvii. c. 1.]
These usurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the elder Andronicus, and by the civil wars that afflicted his age and the minority of his grandson. The talents of Cantacuzene were employed to the ruin, rather than the restoration, of the empire; and after his domestic victory, he was condemned to an ignominious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoese should reign in Constantinople. The merchants of Pera were offended by his refusal of some contiguous land, some commanding heights, which they proposed to cover with new fortifications; and in the absence of the emperor, who was detained at Demotica by sickness, they ventured to brave the debility of a female reign. A Byzantine vessel, which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the harbor, was sunk by these audacious strangers; the fishermen were murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese demanded satisfaction; required, in a haughty strain, that the Greeks should renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered with regular arms the first sallies of the popular indignation. They instantly occupied the debatable land; and by the labor of a whole people, of either sex and of every age, the wall was raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible speed. At the same time, they attacked and burnt two Byzantine galleys; while the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped from their hands: the habitations without the gates, or along the shore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of the regent, of the empress Irene, was confined to the preservation of the city. The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the public consternation: the emperor inclined to peaceful counsels; but he yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies, who rejected all reasonable terms, and to the ardor of his subjects, who threatened, in the style of Scripture, to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes, that he imposed for the construction of ships, and the expenses of the war; and as the two nations were masters, the one of the land, the other of the sea, Constantinople and Pera were pressed by the evils of a mutual siege. The merchants of the colony, who had believed that a few days would terminate the war, already murmured at their losses: the succors from their mother-country were delayed by the factions of Genoa; and the most cautious embraced the opportunity of a Rhodian vessel to remove their families and effects from the scene of hostility. In the spring, the Byzantine fleet, seven galleys and a train of smaller vessels, issued from the mouth of the harbor, and steered in a single line along the shore of Pera; unskilfully presenting their sides to the beaks of the adverse squadron. The crews were composed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance compensated by the native courage of Barbarians: the wind was strong, the waves were rough; and no sooner did the Greeks perceive a distant and inactive enemy, than they leaped headlong into the sea, from a doubtful, to an inevitable peril. The troops that marched to the attack of the lines of Pera were struck at the same moment with a similar panic; and the Genoese were astonished, and almost ashamed, at their double victory. Their triumphant vessels, crowned with flowers, and dragging after them the captive galleys, repeatedly passed and repassed before the palace: the only virtue of the emperor was patience; and the hope of revenge his sole consolation. Yet the distress of both parties interposed a temporary agreement; and the shame of the empire was disguised by a thin veil of dignity and power. Summoning the chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to despise the trivial object of the debate; and, after a mild reproof, most liberally granted the lands, which had been previously resigned to the seeming custody of his officers. 50
50 (return)
[ The events of this war
are related by Cantacuzene (l. iv. c. 11 with obscurity and confusion, and
by Nic. Gregoras l. xvii. c. 1—7) in a clear and honest narrative.
The priest was less responsible than the prince for the defeat of the
fleet.]
But the emperor was soon solicited to violate the treaty, and to join his arms with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of Genoa and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of peace and war, his moderation was provoked by a wanton insult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their rampart a large stone that fell in the midst of Constantinople. On his just complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer; but the next day the insult was repeated; and they exulted in a second proof that the royal city was not beyond the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly signed his treaty with the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was scarcely felt in the balance of these opulent and powerful republics. 51 From the Straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered each other with various success; and a memorable battle was fought in the narrow sea, under the walls of Constantinople. It would not be an easy task to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoese; 52 and while I depend on the narrative of an impartial historian, 53 I shall borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their own disgrace, and the honor of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies the Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to seventy-five sail: the Genoese did not exceed sixty-four; but in those times their ships of war were distinguished by the superiority of their size and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria, are illustrious in the annals of their country; but the personal merit of the former was eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the Genoese applaud their prowess; the friends of the Venetians are dissatisfied with their behavior; but all parties agree in praising the skill and boldness of the Catalans, 531 who, with many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken, were compensated by a double loss of the allies; of fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans, and two Greeks; 532 and even the grief of the conquerors expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive victories. Pisani confessed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified harbor, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the senate, he steered with a broken and flying squadron for the Isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of the sea. In a public epistle, 54 addressed to the doge and senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valor and victory of the Genoese, the first of men in the exercise of naval war: he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis of the East from the heresy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the Greeks were incapable of resistance; and three months after the battle, the emperor Cantacuzene solicited and subscribed a treaty, which forever banished the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominion. The Roman empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of the republic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of one hundred and thirty years was determined by the triumph of Venice; and the factions of the Genoese compelled them to seek for domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the French king. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude of Constantinople itself.
51 (return)
[ The second war is darkly
told by Cantacuzene, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 24, 25, 28—32,) who wishes to
disguise what he dares not deny. I regret this part of Nic. Gregoras,
which is still in MS. at Paris. * Note: This part of Nicephorus Gregoras
has not been printed in the new edition of the Byzantine Historians. The
editor expresses a hope that it may be undertaken by Hase. I should join
in the regret of Gibbon, if these books contain any historical
information: if they are but a continuation of the controversies which
fill the last books in our present copies, they may as well sleep their
eternal sleep in MS. as in print.—M.]
52 (return)
[ Muratori (Annali d'
Italia, tom. xii. p. 144) refers to the most ancient Chronicles of Venice
(Caresinus, the continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p. 421, 422) and
Genoa, (George Stella Annales Genuenses, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092;) both
which I have diligently consulted in his great Collection of the
Historians of Italy.]
53 (return)
[ See the Chronicle of
Matteo Villani of Florence, l. ii. c. 59, p. 145—147, c. 74, 75, p.
156, 157, in Muratori's Collection, tom. xiv.]
531 (return)
[ Cantacuzene praises
their bravery, but imputes their losses to their ignorance of the seas:
they suffered more by the breakers than by the enemy, vol. iii. p. 224.—M.]
532 (return)
[ Cantacuzene says that
the Genoese lost twenty-eight ships with their crews, autandroi; the
Venetians and Catalans sixteen, the Imperials, none Cantacuzene accuses
Pisani of cowardice, in not following up the victory, and destroying the
Genoese. But Pisani's conduct, and indeed Cantacuzene's account of the
battle, betray the superiority of the Genoese.—M.]
54 (return)
[ The Abbé de Sade
(Mémoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 257—263) translates
this letter, which he copied from a MS. in the king of France's library.
Though a servant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his
astonishment and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the
following year, (p. 323—332.)]
From the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, from the cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, I shall now ascend to the victorious Turks; whose domestic slavery was ennobled by martial discipline, religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the national character. The rise and progress of the Ottomans, the present sovereigns of Constantinople, are connected with the most important scenes of modern history; but they are founded on a previous knowledge of the great eruption of the Moguls 100 and Tartars; whose rapid conquests may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe. I have long since asserted my claim to introduce the nations, the immediate or remote authors of the fall of the Roman empire; nor can I refuse myself to those events, which, from their uncommon magnitude, will interest a philosophic mind in the history of blood. 1
100 (return)
[ Mongol seems to
approach the nearest to the proper name of this race. The Chinese call
them Mong-kou; the Mondchoux, their neighbors, Monggo or Monggou. They
called themselves also Beda. This fact seems to have been proved by M.
Schmidt against the French Orientalists. See De Brosset. Note on Le Beau,
tom. xxii p. 402.]
1 (return)
[ The reader is invited to
review chapters xxii. to xxvi., and xxiii. to xxxviii., the manners of
pastoral nations, the conquests of Attila and the Huns, which were
composed at a time when I entertained the wish, rather than the hope, of
concluding my history.]
From the spacious highlands between China, Siberia, and the Caspian Sea, the tide of emigration and war has repeatedly been poured. These ancient seats of the Huns and Turks were occupied in the twelfth century by many pastoral tribes, of the same descent and similar manners, which were united and led to conquest by the formidable Zingis. 101 In his ascent to greatness, that Barbarian (whose private appellation was Temugin) had trampled on the necks of his equals. His birth was noble; but it was the pride of victory, that the prince or people deduced his seventh ancestor from the immaculate conception of a virgin. His father had reigned over thirteen hordes, which composed about thirty or forty thousand families: above two thirds refused to pay tithes or obedience to his infant son; and at the age of thirteen, Temugin fought a battle against his rebellious subjects. The future conqueror of Asia was reduced to fly and to obey; but he rose superior to his fortune, and in his fortieth year he had established his fame and dominion over the circumjacent tribes. In a state of society, in which policy is rude and valor is universal, the ascendant of one man must be founded on his power and resolution to punish his enemies and recompense his friends. His first military league was ratified by the simple rites of sacrificing a horse and tasting of a running stream: Temugin pledged himself to divide with his followers the sweets and the bitters of life; and when he had shared among them his horses and apparel, he was rich in their gratitude and his own hopes. After his first victory, he placed seventy caldrons on the fire, and seventy of the most guilty rebels were cast headlong into the boiling water. The sphere of his attraction was continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the submission of the prudent; and the boldest chieftains might tremble, when they beheld, enchased in silver, the skull of the khan of Keraites; 2 who, under the name of Prester John, had corresponded with the Roman pontiff and the princes of Europe. The ambition of Temugin condescended to employ the arts of superstition; and it was from a naked prophet, who could ascend to heaven on a white horse, that he accepted the title of Zingis, 3 the most great; and a divine right to the conquest and dominion of the earth. In a general couroultai, or diet, he was seated on a felt, which was long afterwards revered as a relic, and solemnly proclaimed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls 4 and Tartars. 5 Of these kindred, though rival, names, the former had given birth to the imperial race; and the latter has been extended by accident or error over the spacious wilderness of the north.
101 (return)
[ On the traditions of
the early life of Zingis, see D'Ohson, Hist des Mongols; Histoire des
Mongols, Paris, 1824. Schmidt, Geschichte des Ost-Mongolen, p. 66, &c.,
and Notes.—M.]
2 (return)
[ The khans of the Keraites
were most probably incapable of reading the pompous epistles composed in
their name by the Nestorian missionaries, who endowed them with the
fabulous wonders of an Indian kingdom. Perhaps these Tartars (the
Presbyter or Priest John) had submitted to the rites of baptism and
ordination, (Asseman, Bibliot Orient tom. iii. p. ii. p. 487—503.)]
3 (return)
[ Since the history and
tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at least in French, seems to be the more
fashionable spelling; but Abulghazi Khan must have known the true name of
his ancestor. His etymology appears just: Zin, in the Mogul tongue,
signifies great, and gis is the superlative termination,
(Hist. Généalogique des Tatars, part iii. p. 194, 195.) From the same idea
of magnitude, the appellation of Zingis is bestowed on the ocean.]
4 (return)
[ The name of Moguls has
prevailed among the Orientals, and still adheres to the titular sovereign,
the Great Mogul of Hindastan. * Note: M. Remusat (sur les Langues
Tartares, p. 233) justly observes, that Timour was a Turk, not a Mogul,
and, p. 242, that probably there was not Mogul in the army of Baber, who
established the Indian throne of the "Great Mogul."—M.]
5 (return)
[ The Tartars (more properly
Tatars) were descended from Tatar Khan, the brother of Mogul Khan, (see
Abulghazi, part i. and ii.,) and once formed a horde of 70,000 families on
the borders of Kitay, (p. 103—112.) In the great invasion of Europe
(A.D. 1238) they seem to have led the vanguard; and the similitude of the
name of Tartarei, recommended that of Tartars to the Latins, (Matt.
Paris, p. 398, &c.) * Note: This relationship, according to M.
Klaproth, is fabulous, and invented by the Mahometan writers, who, from
religious zeal, endeavored to connect the traditions of the nomads of
Central Asia with those of the Old Testament, as preserved in the Koran.
There is no trace of it in the Chinese writers. Tabl. de l'Asie, p. 156.—M.]
The code of laws which Zingis dictated to his subjects was adapted to the preservation of a domestic peace, and the exercise of foreign hostility. The punishment of death was inflicted on the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and the capital thefts of a horse or ox; and the fiercest of men were mild and just in their intercourse with each other. The future election of the great khan was vested in the princes of his family and the heads of the tribes; and the regulations of the chase were essential to the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar camp. The victorious nation was held sacred from all servile labors, which were abandoned to slaves and strangers; and every labor was servile except the profession of arms. The service and discipline of the troops, who were armed with bows, cimeters, and iron maces, and divided by hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, were the institutions of a veteran commander. Each officer and soldier was made responsible, under pain of death, for the safety and honor of his companions; and the spirit of conquest breathed in the law, that peace should never be granted unless to a vanquished and suppliant enemy. But it is the religion of Zingis that best deserves our wonder and applause. 501 The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy, 6 and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article of faith was the existence of one God, the Author of all good; who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom and concord were taught and practised within the precincts of the same camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, and the Latin priest, enjoyed the same honorable exemption from service and tribute: in the mosque of Bochara, the insolent victor might trample the Koran under his horse's feet, but the calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of the most hostile sects. The reason of Zingis was not informed by books: the khan could neither read nor write; and, except the tribe of the Igours, the greatest part of the Moguls and Tartars were as illiterate as their sovereign. 601 The memory of their exploits was preserved by tradition: sixty-eight years after the death of Zingis, these traditions were collected and transcribed; 7 the brevity of their domestic annals may be supplied by the Chinese, 8 Persians, 9 Armenians, 10 Syrians, 11 Arabians, 12 Greeks, 13 Russians, 14 Poles, 15 Hungarians, 16 and Latins; 17 and each nation will deserve credit in the relation of their own disasters and defeats. 18
501 (return)
[ Before his armies
entered Thibet, he sent an embassy to Bogdosottnam-Dsimmo, a Lama high
priest, with a letter to this effect: "I have chosen thee as high priest
for myself and my empire. Repair then to me, and promote the present and
future happiness of man: I will be thy supporter and protector: let us
establish a system of religion, and unite it with the monarchy," &c.
The high priest accepted the invitation; and the Mongol history literally
terms this step the period of the first respect for religion;
because the monarch, by his public profession, made it the religion of the
state. Klaproth. "Travels in Caucasus," ch. 7, Eng. Trans. p. 92. Neither
Dshingis nor his son and successor Oegodah had, on account of their
continual wars, much leisure for the propagation of the religion of the
Lama. By religion they understand a distinct, independent, sacred moral
code, which has but one origin, one source, and one object. This notion
they universally propagate, and even believe that the brutes, and all
created beings, have a religion adapted to their sphere of action. The
different forms of the various religions they ascribe to the difference of
individuals, nations, and legislators. Never do you hear of their
inveighing against any creed, even against the obviously absurd Schaman
paganism, or of their persecuting others on that account. They themselves,
on the other hand, endure every hardship, and even persecutions, with
perfect resignation, and indulgently excuse the follies of others, nay,
consider them as a motive for increased ardor in prayer, ch. ix. p. 109.—M.]
6 (return)
[ A singular conformity may
be found between the religious laws of Zingis Khan and of Mr. Locke,
(Constitutions of Carolina, in his works, vol. iv. p. 535, 4to. edition,
1777.)]
601 (return)
[ See the notice on
Tha-tha-toung-o, the Ouogour minister of Tchingis, in Abel Remusat's 2d
series of Recherch. Asiat. vol. ii. p. 61. He taught the son of Tchingis
to write: "He was the instructor of the Moguls in writing, of which they
were before ignorant;" and hence the application of the Ouigour characters
to the Mogul language cannot be placed earlier than the year 1204 or 1205,
nor so late as the time of Pà-sse-pa, who lived under Khubilai. A new
alphabet, approaching to that of Thibet, was introduced under Khubilai.—M.]
7 (return)
[ In the year 1294, by the
command of Cazan, khan of Persia, the fourth in descent from Zingis. From
these traditions, his vizier Fadlallah composed a Mogul history in the
Persian language, which has been used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de
Genghizcan, p. 537—539.) The Histoire Généalogique des Tatars (à
Leyde, 1726, in 12mo., 2 tomes) was translated by the Swedish prisoners in
Siberia from the Mogul MS. of Abulgasi Bahadur Khan, a descendant of
Zingis, who reigned over the Usbeks of Charasm, or Carizme, (A.D. 1644—1663.)
He is of most value and credit for the names, pedigrees, and manners of
his nation. Of his nine parts, the ist descends from Adam to Mogul Khan;
the iid, from Mogul to Zingis; the iiid is the life of Zingis; the ivth,
vth, vith, and viith, the general history of his four sons and their
posterity; the viiith and ixth, the particular history of the descendants
of Sheibani Khan, who reigned in Maurenahar and Charasm.]
8 (return)
[ Histoire de Gentchiscan,
et de toute la Dinastie des Mongous ses Successeurs, Conquerans de la
Chine; tirée de l'Histoire de la Chine par le R. P. Gaubil, de la Société
de Jesus, Missionaire à Peking; à Paris, 1739, in 4to. This translation is
stamped with the Chinese character of domestic accuracy and foreign
ignorance.]
9 (return)
[ See the Histoire du Grand
Genghizcan, premier Empereur des Moguls et Tartares, par M. Petit de la
Croix, à Paris, 1710, in 12mo.; a work of ten years' labor, chiefly drawn
from the Persian writers, among whom Nisavi, the secretary of Sultan
Gelaleddin, has the merit and prejudices of a contemporary. A slight air
of romance is the fault of the originals, or the compiler. See likewise
the articles of Genghizcan, Mohammed, Gelaleddin,
&c., in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D'Herbelot. * Note: The preface
to the Hist. des Mongols, (Paris, 1824) gives a catalogue of the Arabic
and Persian authorities.—M.]
10 (return)
[ Haithonus, or Aithonus,
an Armenian prince, and afterwards a monk of Premontré, (Fabric, Bibliot.
Lat. Medii Ævi, tom. i. p. 34,) dictated in the French language, his book
de Tartaris, his old fellow-soldiers. It was immediately translated
into Latin, and is inserted in the Novus Orbis of Simon Grynæus, (Basil,
1555, in folio.) * Note: A précis at the end of the new edition of Le
Beau, Hist. des Empereurs, vol. xvii., by M. Brosset, gives large extracts
from the accounts of the Armenian historians relating to the Mogul
conquests.—M.]
11 (return)
[ Zingis Khan, and his
first successors, occupy the conclusion of the ixth Dynasty of
Abulpharagius, (vers. Pocock, Oxon. 1663, in 4to.;) and his xth Dynasty is
that of the Moguls of Persia. Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii.) has
extracted some facts from his Syriac writings, and the lives of the
Jacobite maphrians, or primates of the East.]
12 (return)
[ Among the Arabians, in
language and religion, we may distinguish Abulfeda, sultan of Hamah in
Syria, who fought in person, under the Mamaluke standard, against the
Moguls.]
13 (return)
[ Nicephorus Gregoras (l.
ii. c. 5, 6) has felt the necessity of connecting the Scythian and
Byzantine histories. He describes with truth and elegance the settlement
and manners of the Moguls of Persia, but he is ignorant of their origin,
and corrupts the names of Zingis and his sons.]
14 (return)
[ M. Levesque (Histoire de
Russie, tom. ii.) has described the conquest of Russia by the Tartars,
from the patriarch Nicon, and the old chronicles.]
15 (return)
[ For Poland, I am content
with the Sarmatia Asiatica et Europæa of Matthew à Michou, or De Michoviâ,
a canon and physician of Cracow, (A.D. 1506,) inserted in the Novus Orbis
of Grynæus. Fabric Bibliot. Latin. Mediæ et Infimæ Ætatis, tom. v. p. 56.]
16 (return)
[ I should quote
Thuroczius, the oldest general historian (pars ii. c. 74, p. 150) in the
1st volume of the Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, did not the same volume
contain the original narrative of a contemporary, an eye-witness, and a
sufferer, (M. Rogerii, Hungari, Varadiensis Capituli Canonici, Carmen
miserabile, seu Historia super Destructione Regni Hungariæ Temporibus Belæ
IV. Regis per Tartaros facta, p. 292—321;) the best picture that I
have ever seen of all the circumstances of a Barbaric invasion.]
17 (return)
[ Matthew Paris has
represented, from authentic documents, the danger and distress of Europe,
(consult the word Tartari in his copious Index.) From motives of
zeal and curiosity, the court of the great khan in the xiiith century was
visited by two friars, John de Plano Carpini, and William Rubruquis, and
by Marco Polo, a Venetian gentleman. The Latin relations of the two former
are inserted in the 1st volume of Hackluyt; the Italian original or
version of the third (Fabric. Bibliot. Latin. Medii Ævi, tom. ii. p. 198,
tom. v. p. 25) may be found in the second tome of Ramusio.]
18 (return)
[ In his great History of
the Huns, M. de Guignes has most amply treated of Zingis Khan and his
successors. See tom. iii. l. xv.—xix., and in the collateral
articles of the Seljukians of Roum, tom. ii. l. xi., the Carizmians, l.
xiv., and the Mamalukes, tom. iv. l. xxi.; consult likewise the tables of
the 1st volume. He is ever learned and accurate; yet I am only indebted to
him for a general view, and some passages of Abulfeda, which are still
latent in the Arabic text. * Note: To this catalogue of the historians of
the Moguls may be added D'Ohson, Histoire des Mongols; Histoire des
Mongols, (from Arabic and Persian authorities,) Paris, 1824. Schmidt,
Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, St. Petersburgh, 1829. This curious work, by
Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi, published in the original Mongol, was
written after the conversion of the nation to Buddhism: it is enriched
with very valuable Fnotes by the editor and translator; but,
unfortunately, is very barren of information about the European and even
the western Asiatic conquests of the Mongols.—M.]
The arms of Zingis and his lieutenants successively reduced the hordes of the desert, who pitched their tents between the wall of China and the Volga; and the Mogul emperor became the monarch of the pastoral world, the lord of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, who felt their united strength, and were impatient to rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the south. His ancestors had been the tributaries of the Chinese emperors; and Temugin himself had been disgraced by a title of honor and servitude. The court of Pekin was astonished by an embassy from its former vassal, who, in the tone of the king of nations, exacted the tribute and obedience which he had paid, and who affected to treat the son of heaven as the most contemptible of mankind. A haughty answer disguised their secret apprehensions; and their fears were soon justified by the march of innumerable squadrons, who pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the great wall. Ninety cities were stormed, or starved, by the Moguls; ten only escaped; and Zingis, from a knowledge of the filial piety of the Chinese, covered his vanguard with their captive parents; an unworthy, and by degrees a fruitless, abuse of the virtue of his enemies. His invasion was supported by the revolt of a hundred thousand Khitans, who guarded the frontier: yet he listened to a treaty; and a princess of China, three thousand horses, five hundred youths, and as many virgins, and a tribute of gold and silk, were the price of his retreat. In his second expedition, he compelled the Chinese emperor to retire beyond the yellow river to a more southern residence. The siege of Pekin 19 was long and laborious: the inhabitants were reduced by famine to decimate and devour their fellow-citizens; when their ammunition was spent, they discharged ingots of gold and silver from their engines; but the Moguls introduced a mine to the centre of the capital; and the conflagration of the palace burnt above thirty days. China was desolated by Tartar war and domestic faction; and the five northern provinces were added to the empire of Zingis.
19 (return)
[ More properly Yen-king,
an ancient city, whose ruins still appear some furlongs to the south-east
of the modern Pekin, which was built by Cublai Khan, (Gaubel, p.
146.) Pe-king and Nan-king are vague titles, the courts of the north and
of the south. The identity and change of names perplex the most skilful
readers of the Chinese geography, (p. 177.) * Note: And likewise in
Chinese history—see Abel Remusat, Mel. Asiat. 2d tom. ii. p. 5.—M.]
In the West, he touched the dominions of Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, who reigned from the Persian Gulf to the borders of India and Turkestan; and who, in the proud imitation of Alexander the Great, forgot the servitude and ingratitude of his fathers to the house of Seljuk. It was the wish of Zingis to establish a friendly and commercial intercourse with the most powerful of the Moslem princes: nor could he be tempted by the secret solicitations of the caliph of Bagdad, who sacrificed to his personal wrongs the safety of the church and state. A rash and inhuman deed provoked and justified the Tartar arms in the invasion of the southern Asia. 191 A caravan of three ambassadors and one hundred and fifty merchants were arrested and murdered at Otrar, by the command of Mohammed; nor was it till after a demand and denial of justice, till he had prayed and fasted three nights on a mountain, that the Mogul emperor appealed to the judgment of God and his sword. Our European battles, says a philosophic writer, 20 are petty skirmishes, if compared to the numbers that have fought and fallen in the fields of Asia. Seven hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars are said to have marched under the standard of Zingis and his four sons. In the vast plains that extend to the north of the Sihon or Jaxartes, they were encountered by four hundred thousand soldiers of the sultan; and in the first battle, which was suspended by the night, one hundred and sixty thousand Carizmians were slain. Mohammed was astonished by the multitude and valor of his enemies: he withdrew from the scene of danger, and distributed his troops in the frontier towns; trusting that the Barbarians, invincible in the field, would be repulsed by the length and difficulty of so many regular sieges. But the prudence of Zingis had formed a body of Chinese engineers, skilled in the mechanic arts; informed perhaps of the secret of gunpowder, and capable, under his discipline, of attacking a foreign country with more vigor and success than they had defended their own. The Persian historians will relate the sieges and reduction of Otrar, Cogende, Bochara, Samarcand, Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nisabour, Balch, and Candahar; and the conquest of the rich and populous countries of Transoxiana, Carizme, and Chorazan. 204 The destructive hostilities of Attila and the Huns have long since been elucidated by the example of Zingis and the Moguls; and in this more proper place I shall be content to observe, that, from the Caspian to the Indus, they ruined a tract of many hundred miles, which was adorned with the habitations and labors of mankind, and that five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years. The Mogul emperor encouraged or indulged the fury of his troops: the hope of future possession was lost in the ardor of rapine and slaughter; and the cause of the war exasperated their native fierceness by the pretence of justice and revenge. The downfall and death of the sultan Mohammed, who expired, unpitied and alone, in a desert island of the Caspian Sea, is a poor atonement for the calamities of which he was the author. Could the Carizmian empire have been saved by a single hero, it would have been saved by his son Gelaleddin, whose active valor repeatedly checked the Moguls in the career of victory. Retreating, as he fought, to the banks of the Indus, he was oppressed by their innumerable host, till, in the last moment of despair, Gelaleddin spurred his horse into the waves, swam one of the broadest and most rapid rivers of Asia, and extorted the admiration and applause of Zingis himself. It was in this camp that the Mogul conqueror yielded with reluctance to the murmurs of his weary and wealthy troops, who sighed for the enjoyment of their native land. Eucumbered with the spoils of Asia, he slowly measured back his footsteps, betrayed some pity for the misery of the vanquished, and declared his intention of rebuilding the cities which had been swept away by the tempest of his arms. After he had repassed the Oxus and Jaxartes, he was joined by two generals, whom he had detached with thirty thousand horse, to subdue the western provinces of Persia. They had trampled on the nations which opposed their passage, penetrated through the gates of Derbent, traversed the Volga and the desert, and accomplished the circuit of the Caspian Sea, by an expedition which had never been attempted, and has never been repeated. The return of Zingis was signalized by the overthrow of the rebellious or independent kingdoms of Tartary; and he died in the fulness of years and glory, with his last breath exhorting and instructing his sons to achieve the conquest of the Chinese empire. 205
191 (return)
[ See the particular
account of this transaction, from the Kholauesut el Akbaur, in Price, vol.
ii. p. 402.—M.]
20 (return)
[ M. de Voltaire, Essai
sur l'Histoire Générale, tom. iii. c. 60, p. 8. His account of Zingis and
the Moguls contains, as usual, much general sense and truth, with some
particular errors.]
204 (return)
[ Every where they
massacred all classes, except the artisans, whom they made slaves. Hist.
des Mongols.—M.]
205 (return)
[ Their first duty,
which he bequeathed to them, was to massacre the king of Tangcoute and all
the inhabitants of Ninhia, the surrender of the city being already agreed
upon, Hist. des Mongols. vol. i. p. 286.—M.]
The harem of Zingis was composed of five hundred wives and concubines; and of his numerous progeny, four sons, illustrious by their birth and merit, exercised under their father the principal offices of peace and war. Toushi was his great huntsman, Zagatai 21 his judge, Octai his minister, and Tuli his general; and their names and actions are often conspicuous in the history of his conquests. Firmly united for their own and the public interest, the three brothers and their families were content with dependent sceptres; and Octai, by general consent, was proclaimed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars. He was succeeded by his son Gayuk, after whose death the empire devolved to his cousins Mangou and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis. In the sixty-eight years of his four first successors, the Mogul subdued almost all Asia, and a large portion of Europe. Without confining myself to the order of time, without expatiating on the detail of events, I shall present a general picture of the progress of their arms; I. In the East; II. In the South; III. In the West; and IV. In the North.
21 (return)
[ Zagatai gave his name to
his dominions of Maurenahar, or Transoxiana; and the Moguls of Hindostan,
who emigrated from that country, are styled Zagatais by the Persians. This
certain etymology, and the similar example of Uzbek, Nogai, &c., may
warn us not absolutely to reject the derivations of a national, from a
personal, name. * Note: See a curious anecdote of Tschagatai. Hist. des
Mongols, p. 370.—M.]
I. Before the invasion of Zingis, China was divided into two empires or dynasties of the North and South; 22 and the difference of origin and interest was smoothed by a general conformity of laws, language, and national manners. The Northern empire, which had been dismembered by Zingis, was finally subdued seven years after his death. After the loss of Pekin, the emperor had fixed his residence at Kaifong, a city many leagues in circumference, and which contained, according to the Chinese annals, fourteen hundred thousand families of inhabitants and fugitives. He escaped from thence with only seven horsemen, and made his last stand in a third capital, till at length the hopeless monarch, protesting his innocence and accusing his fortune, ascended a funeral pile, and gave orders, that, as soon as he had stabbed himself, the fire should be kindled by his attendants. The dynasty of the Song, the native and ancient sovereigns of the whole empire, survived about forty-five years the fall of the Northern usurpers; and the perfect conquest was reserved for the arms of Cublai. During this interval, the Moguls were often diverted by foreign wars; and, if the Chinese seldom dared to meet their victors in the field, their passive courage presented and endless succession of cities to storm and of millions to slaughter. In the attack and defence of places, the engines of antiquity and the Greek fire were alternately employed: the use of gunpowder in cannon and bombs appears as a familiar practice; 23 and the sieges were conducted by the Mahometans and Franks, who had been liberally invited into the service of Cublai. After passing the great river, the troops and artillery were conveyed along a series of canals, till they invested the royal residence of Hamcheu, or Quinsay, in the country of silk, the most delicious climate of China. The emperor, a defenceless youth, surrendered his person and sceptre; and before he was sent in exile into Tartary, he struck nine times the ground with his forehead, to adore in prayer or thanksgiving the mercy of the great khan. Yet the war (it was now styled a rebellion) was still maintained in the southern provinces from Hamcheu to Canton; and the obstinate remnant of independence and hostility was transported from the land to the sea. But when the fleet of the Song was surrounded and oppressed by a superior armament, their last champion leaped into the waves with his infant emperor in his arms. "It is more glorious," he cried, "to die a prince, than to live a slave." A hundred thousand Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire, from Tonkin to the great wall, submitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan: his fleet was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of a hundred thousand Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition. But the circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He explored the Indian Ocean with a fleet of a thousand ships: they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably to the Isle of Borneo, under the equinoctial line; and though they returned not without spoil or glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had escaped from their hands.
22 (return)
[ In Marco Polo, and the
Oriental geographers, the names of Cathay and Mangi distinguish the
northern and southern empires, which, from A.D. 1234 to 1279, were those
of the great khan, and of the Chinese. The search of Cathay, after China
had been found, excited and misled our navigators of the sixteenth
century, in their attempts to discover the north-east passage.]
23 (return)
[ I depend on the
knowledge and fidelity of the Père Gaubil, who translates the Chinese text
of the annals of the Moguls or Yuen, (p. 71, 93, 153;) but I am ignorant
at what time these annals were composed and published. The two uncles of
Marco Polo, who served as engineers at the siege of Siengyangfou, * (l.
ii. 61, in Ramusio, tom. ii. See Gaubil, p. 155, 157) must have felt and
related the effects of this destructive powder, and their silence is a
weighty, and almost decisive objection. I entertain a suspicion, that
their recent discovery was carried from Europe to China by the caravans of
the xvth century and falsely adopted as an old national discovery before
the arrival of the Portuguese and Jesuits in the xvith. Yet the Père
Gaubil affirms, that the use of gunpowder has been known to the Chinese
above 1600 years. ** Note: * Sou-houng-kian-lou. Abel Remusat.—M.
Note: ** La poudre à canon et d'autres compositions inflammantes, dont ils
se servent pour construire des pièces d'artifice d'un effet suprenant,
leur étaient connues depuis très long-temps, et l'on croit que des
bombardes et des pierriers, dont ils avaient enseigné l'usage aux
Tartares, ont pu donner en Europe l'idée d'artillerie, quoique la forme
des fusils et des canons dont ils se servent actuellement, leur ait été
apportée par les Francs, ainsi que l'attestent les noms mêmes qu'ils
donnent à ces sortes d'armes. Abel Remusat, Mélanges Asiat. 2d ser. tom.
i. p. 23.—M.]
II. The conquest of Hindostan by the Moguls was reserved in a later period for the house of Timour; but that of Iran, or Persia, was achieved by Holagou Khan, 231 the grandson of Zingis, the brother and lieutenant of the two successive emperors, Mangou and Cublai. I shall not enumerate the crowd of sultans, emirs, and atabeks, whom he trampled into dust; but the extirpation of the Assassins, or Ismaelians 24 of Persia, may be considered as a service to mankind. Among the hills to the south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above a hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or Imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of Mount Libanus, so famous and formidable in the history of the crusades. 25 With the fanaticism of the Koran the Ismaelians had blended the Indian transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets; and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God. The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the Moslems enumerate, and persons multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain. But these daggers, his only arms, were broken by the sword of Holagou, and not a vestige is left of the enemies of mankind, except the word assassin, which, in the most odious sense, has been adopted in the languages of Europe. The extinction of the Abbassides cannot be indifferent to the spectators of their greatness and decline. Since the fall of their Seljukian tyrants the caliphs had recovered their lawful dominion of Bagdad and the Arabian Irak; but the city was distracted by theological factions, and the commander of the faithful was lost in a harem of seven hundred concubines. The invasion of the Moguls he encountered with feeble arms and haughty embassies. "On the divine decree," said the caliph Mostasem, "is founded the throne of the sons of Abbas: and their foes shall surely be destroyed in this world and in the next. Who is this Holagou that dares to rise against them? If he be desirous of peace, let him instantly depart from the sacred territory; and perhaps he may obtain from our clemency the pardon of his fault." This presumption was cherished by a perfidious vizier, who assured his master, that, even if the Barbarians had entered the city, the women and children, from the terraces, would be sufficient to overwhelm them with stones. But when Holagou touched the phantom, it instantly vanished into smoke. After a siege of two months, Bagdad was stormed and sacked by the Moguls; 251 and their savage commander pronounced the death of the caliph Mostasem, the last of the temporal successors of Mahomet; whose noble kinsmen, of the race of Abbas, had reigned in Asia above five hundred years. Whatever might be the designs of the conqueror, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina 26 were protected by the Arabian desert; but the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris and Euphrates, pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to join the Franks in the deliverance of Jerusalem. Egypt was lost, had she been defended only by her feeble offspring; but the Mamalukes had breathed in their infancy the keenness of a Scythian air: equal in valor, superior in discipline, they met the Moguls in many a well-fought field; and drove back the stream of hostility to the eastward of the Euphrates. 261 But it overflowed with resistless violence the kingdoms of Armenia 262 and Anatolia, of which the former was possessed by the Christians, and the latter by the Turks. The sultans of Iconium opposed some resistance to the Mogul arms, till Azzadin sought a refuge among the Greeks of Constantinople, and his feeble successors, the last of the Seljukian dynasty, were finally extirpated by the khans of Persia. 263
231 (return)
[ See the curious
account of the expedition of Holagou, translated from the Chinese, by M.
Abel Remusat, Mélanges Asiat. 2d ser. tom. i. p. 171.—M.]
24 (return)
[ All that can be known of
the Assassins of Persia and Syria is poured from the copious, and even
profuse, erudition of M. Falconet, in two Mémoires read before the
Academy of Inscriptions, (tom. xvii. p. 127—170.) * Note: Von
Hammer's History of the Assassins has now thrown Falconet's Dissertation
into the shade.—M.]
25 (return)
[ The Ismaelians of Syria,
40,000 Assassins, had acquired or founded ten castles in the hills above
Tortosa. About the year 1280, they were extirpated by the Mamalukes.]
251 (return)
[ Compare Von Hammer,
Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 283, 307. Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuzzüge,
vol. vii. p. 406. Price, Chronological Retrospect, vol. ii. p. 217—223.—M.]
26 (return)
[ As a proof of the
ignorance of the Chinese in foreign transactions, I must observe, that
some of their historians extend the conquest of Zingis himself to Medina,
the country of Mahomet, (Gaubil p. 42.)]
261 (return)
[ Compare Wilken, vol.
vii. p. 410.—M.]
262 (return)
[ On the friendly
relations of the Armenians with the Mongols see Wilken, Geschichte der
Kreuzzüge, vol. vii. p. 402. They eagerly desired an alliance against the
Mahometan powers.—M.]
263 (return)
[ Trebizond escaped,
apparently by the dexterous politics of the sovereign, but it acknowledged
the Mogul supremacy. Falmerayer, p. 172.—M.]
III. No sooner had Octai subverted the northern empire of China, than he resolved to visit with his arms the most remote countries of the West. Fifteen hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars were inscribed on the military roll: of these the great khan selected a third, which he intrusted to the command of his nephew Batou, the son of Tuli; who reigned over his father's conquests to the north of the Caspian Sea. 264 After a festival of forty days, Batou set forwards on this great expedition; and such was the speed and ardor of his innumerable squadrons, than in less than six years they had measured a line of ninety degrees of longitude, a fourth part of the circumference of the globe. The great rivers of Asia and Europe, the Volga and Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the Vistula and Danube, they either swam with their horses or passed on the ice, or traversed in leathern boats, which followed the camp, and transported their wagons and artillery. By the first victories of Batou, the remains of national freedom were eradicated in the immense plains of Turkestan and Kipzak. 27 In his rapid progress, he overran the kingdoms, as they are now styled, of Astracan and Cazan; and the troops which he detached towards Mount Caucasus explored the most secret recesses of Georgia and Circassia. The civil discord of the great dukes, or princes, of Russia, betrayed their country to the Tartars. They spread from Livonia to the Black Sea, and both Moscow and Kiow, the modern and the ancient capitals, were reduced to ashes; a temporary ruin, less fatal than the deep, and perhaps indelible, mark, which a servitude of two hundred years has imprinted on the character of the Russians. The Tartars ravaged with equal fury the countries which they hoped to possess, and those which they were hastening to leave. From the permanent conquest of Russia they made a deadly, though transient, inroad into the heart of Poland, and as far as the borders of Germany. The cities of Lublin and Cracow were obliterated: 271 they approached the shores of the Baltic; and in the battle of Lignitz they defeated the dukes of Silesia, the Polish palatines, and the great master of the Teutonic order, and filled nine sacks with the right ears of the slain. From Lignitz, the extreme point of their western march, they turned aside to the invasion of Hungary; and the presence or spirit of Batou inspired the host of five hundred thousand men: the Carpathian hills could not be long impervious to their divided columns; and their approach had been fondly disbelieved till it was irresistibly felt. The king, Bela the Fourth, assembled the military force of his counts and bishops; but he had alienated the nation by adopting a vagrant horde of forty thousand families of Comans, and these savage guests were provoked to revolt by the suspicion of treachery and the murder of their prince. The whole country north of the Danube was lost in a day, and depopulated in a summer; and the ruins of cities and churches were overspread with the bones of the natives, who expiated the sins of their Turkish ancestors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the sack of Waradin, describes the calamities which he had seen, or suffered; and the sanguinary rage of sieges and battles is far less atrocious than the treatment of the fugitives, who had been allured from the woods under a promise of peace and pardon and who were coolly slaughtered as soon as they had performed the labors of the harvest and vintage. In the winter the Tartars passed the Danube on the ice, and advanced to Gran or Strigonium, a German colony, and the metropolis of the kingdom. Thirty engines were planted against the walls; the ditches were filled with sacks of earth and dead bodies; and after a promiscuous massacre, three hundred noble matrons were slain in the presence of the khan. Of all the cities and fortresses of Hungary, three alone survived the Tartar invasion, and the unfortunate Bata hid his head among the islands of the Adriatic.
264 (return)
[ See the curious
extracts from the Mahometan writers, Hist. des Mongols, p. 707.—M.]
27 (return)
[ The Dashté Kipzak,
or plain of Kipzak, extends on either side of the Volga, in a boundless
space towards the Jaik and Borysthenes, and is supposed to contain the
primitive name and nation of the Cossacks.]
271 (return)
[ Olmutz was gallantly
and successfully defended by Stenberg, Hist. des Mongols, p. 396.—M.]