Forty-eight bridges built by Chagatai
Editorial contextBelow the mountain lake that Changchun named the Lake of Heaven (Sayram Lake), the road ran down a gorge of birch and pine, and the diarist credits Chinggis's second son Chagatai with cutting it through the rocks and building forty-eight timber bridges wide enough for two carts abreast. Earlier the cart road over the Altai had likewise been 'planned and constructed' by the third son, Ogedei, where the escort hauled the carts up with ropes and dragged the wheels going down (p.62). Here the Mongols appear as builders of roads and wooden bridges for their armies.
The second prince, who was with the emperor at the time he went to the west (in 1219), first made a way through these mountains, cut through the rocks, and built forty-eight bridges with the wood cut on the mountains. The bridges are so wide that two carts can pass side by side.
About Mongol army under Chagatai, Chinggis Khan's second son
Keep in mind
'(in 1219)' is Bretschneider's insertion. The diarist saw the bridges but was told who built them, and he does not say whose labour the prince used.
Almaliq: running water, fruit, Uighurs and Chinese settlers
Editorial contextBeyond the Iron Pass, guarded by Chinese soldiers, Chang De reached Almaliq, a Mongol-ruled city of the Chagatai realm. Its streets were crossed by running water and its melons, grapes and pomegranates were excellent. Muslim Turks lived mixed with Chinese and had picked up Chinese ways, and a town further south was full of settlers from Shanxi.
Leaving the pass he reached the city of Alimali (Almaliq). Its streets and markets are all crossed by running water. There are all kinds of fruit; the melons, grapes and pomegranates are the best. The Huihe (Muslim Turks) live mixed with the Han Chinese, and their customs have gradually been coloured until they are rather like China's. Further south is the city of Chimur, whose inhabitants are mostly people from Bing and Fen (Shanxi).
Working translation
Original wording
出関至阿里麻里城市井皆流水交貫有諸菓唯瓜蒲萄石榴最佳囬紇與漢民雜居其俗漸染頗似中國又南有赤木児城居民多并汾人
About Uighurs/Muslims (Huihe) and Chinese under Mongol rule
Continue in this sourceFine Talk from the Jade Hall: two Chinese journeys through the Mongol world1220 to 1259 · 14 passagesThe Dzungars live in tents, visiting their villages two months a year
Editorial contextIn a note on the emperor's text, Amiot explains that the Eleuths camp in tents and spend only two or three months a year in their hamlets, villages and 'kinds of towns', and only the most important among them bother to go there at all. Every head of a family plants a standard before his tent, larger or smaller by rank.
The Eleuths camp under tents; they are in their hamlets, villages and sorts of towns only about two or three months of the year, and even then only the most important of them deign to withdraw there. Each head of a family raises a standard in front of his tent
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Les Eleuths campent sous des tentes; ils ne sont dans leurs hameaux, villages & especes de villes, qu'environ deux ou trois mois de l'année; & encore n'y a-t-il que les plus considérables d'entr'eux, qui daignent s'y retirer. Chaque chef de famille arbore un etendart devant sa tente
About Eleuths (Dzungar or western Mongols, Kalmyks)
Keep in mind
Amiot never went to Dzungaria; he writes from Peking court information.
A capital of tents laid out like streets
Editorial contextRiding to his first audience, Unkovsky entered the ruler's urga, the moving headquarters camp. He describes rings of Kalmyk and Bukharan tent-camps (kuri) set out 'like streets', which he was led around for about a verst, and a bazaar in front of the ruler's own tent. This is what the capital of a powerful steppe state looked like: a planned city of portable dwellings.
When we rode into the first kuri (tent-rings), which are set out like streets, Kalmyk and Bukharan, they led us among them for about a verst, not straight but around the Urga; and when we came to the front of the Kontaisha's Urga, where the bazaar is held, about a hundred sazhens short of it, Kashka said we must get off our horses here.
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Какъ въѣхали въ первые кури, которые яко улицами поставлены, калмыцкіе и бухарскіе, и вели насъ между оными около версты не прямо, но вкругъ Урги, и какъ пріѣхали съ лица контайшиной Урги, гдѣ базаръ бываетъ, около ста сажень не доѣхавъ, сказалъ Кашка, что тутъ надлежитъ съ лошадей слезть.
About Dzungars (Oirats, 'Kalmyks') and Bukharans
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesA Muslim saint-khan's tomb, and the wrestling match that converted his people
Editorial contextThe Tobolsk Bukharans in Unkovsky's party told him of the tomb of 'Temer khan', a ruler of the Ili who, they said, had worshipped idols until a Muslim merchant threw his strongest wrestler three times. The khan then converted, his people were circumcised and threw the tassels from their caps into the Borotala river, damming it. Muslims built chambers over his grave and still brought offerings. Unkovsky wanted to see it but was not allowed. The tomb is generally identified with the mausoleum of the Chagatai khan Tughluq Timur near Khorgos.
For that reason Temer khan accepted the Muhammadan law, and all the people of his realm were circumcised and threw the tassels from their caps into the river Borotala, and supposedly dammed the river with them. And for this the Muhammadans revere Temer khan as a saint, and chambers have been built over his tomb, and to this day the Muhammadans bring offerings to his tomb, and there are guards at that tomb.
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Того ради Темерханъ принялъ Махометской законъ, и всѣ его владѣнія люди обрѣзались и съ шапокъ залы (или кисти) въ рѣку Борталъ побросали, и будто оными рѣку запрудили. И для вышеозначенного махометане оного Темерхана, святымъ почитаютъ, а надъ гробомъ его полаты построены и приносятъ доднесь махометане приносы на гробъ его, и сторожи при томъ гробѣ имѣются.
About Chagatai Mongols (Temer khan) and Muslim Bukharans
Keep in mind
A conversion legend passed on by Muslim merchants; Unkovsky did not see the tomb. The identification with Tughluq Timur is a modern one, not Unkovsky's.
Why the Torghuts left the Volga: conscription, hostages and religion
Editorial contextThe emperor gives the Torghuts' reasons for leaving Russia: the Russians kept demanding soldiers, had taken Ubashi's son as a hostage, and had a different religion and no regard for the Lamas' faith the Torghuts followed. On the same page they set out with wives, children and baggage, crossed the Kazakh country and the deserts by Lake Balkhash, and after eight months and more than ten thousand li reached the Ili frontier. The volume's preface puts their number at 500,000.
The Russians never ceasing to demand soldiers from him … and lately having taken his own son from him as a hostage, being moreover of a different religion from his and making no account of the religion of the Lamas which the Torghuts profess, Ubashi and his people at last resolved to shake off a yoke
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Les Russes ne cessant point d'exiger de lui qu'il leur fournît des soldats … en dernier lieu lui ayant enlevé son propre fils pour leur servir d'otage, étant outre cela d'une religion différente de la sienne, & ne faisant aucun cas de celle des Lamas dont les Tourgouths font profession, Oubaché & les siens se sont enfin déterminés à secouer un joug
About Torghuts (Volga Kalmyks) under Ubashi Khan
Keep in mind
The emperor's version stresses a free and willing submission to himself; Amiot's own note (n438) adds that the nation reached Ili in rags, with nothing to live on.
From Ozbeg's horde to a new church at Almaliq
Editorial contextThe legates wintered with Ozbeg, khan of the Golden Horde, who fed, clothed and rewarded them and sent them on with his own horses to Almaliq, a city of the Chagatai khanate in the Ili valley (near modern Huocheng, Xinjiang). There, only a year after a bishop and six friars had been killed, they bought a plot, built a church and preached openly. The Tartar khans appear as hosts who moved envoys across their realms at their own cost.
From there we came to the first emperor of the Tartars, Ozbeg, and presented letters, cloth, a warhorse, a 'cytiaca' (the editor guesses a strong liquor) and the Pope's gifts; and after the winter, well fed, clothed and magnificently rewarded, we travelled with his horses and at his expense to Almaliq of the middle empire, where we built a church, bought a plot of ground, made wells (or fonts), sang masses and baptised many, preaching freely and in public
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Inde ad primum Tartarorum Imperatorem Usbec pervenimus, & obtulimus literas, pannos, dextrarium, cytiacam, & dona Pape, & post hiemem bene pasti, vestiti, & remunerati magnifice, & cum ejus equis & expensis pervenimus in Armalec Imperii medii, ubi fecimus Ecclesiam, emimus aream, fecimus fontes, cantavimus missas, baptisavimus plures, libere, & publice predicantes
About Tartars of the Golden Horde (Ozbeg Khan) and of the Chagatai 'middle empire'
Continue in this sourceFriar John of Marignolli's mission to the Great Khan1339 to 1353 · 13 passagesThe khan's felt house inside a fence of reeds and willow
Editorial contextThe ruler of the Dzungars received the Russian envoy in a 'felt house' (a large yurt), set inside an enclosure woven from reeds and willow withies, entered through a door made of six planks. Unkovsky had to lift the felt door flap himself. The detail shows the materials of a steppe palace: felt, reed, willow and a little timber.
When we came within about 6 sazhens of the enclosure (kosha), which is woven of reed and willow around the Kontaisha's felt house, they opened the doors, which are joined from six planks.
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Какъ дошли сажень за 6 до коши, которая вкругъ контайшиной войлошной избы изъ камыша и талнику сплетена, отворили двери, которыя изъ шести плахъ сплочены.
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesNomads turning farmers on the khan's orders
Editorial contextUnkovsky notes that thirty years earlier the Kalmyks had little grain because they did not know how to plough, but now fields were multiplying: not only their subject Bukharans (settled Turkestani farmers) but many Kalmyks had taken up farming by the ruler's order. He lists wheat, millet, barley and rice, and melons, apricots, grapes and pomegranates from Yarkand and the other towns under Dzungar rule.
Some thirty years before this they had little grain, because they did not know how to plough. Now their fields multiply by the hour, and not only the subject Bukharans sow grain, but many Kalmyks are taking up ploughing, because there is an order from the Kontaisha about it.
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Предъ симъ временемъ лѣтъ за тридцать хлѣба мало имѣли, понеже пахать не умѣли. Нынѣ пашни у нихъ отъ часу умножаются, и не токмо подданные Бухарцы хлѣбъ сѣютъ, но и Калмыки многіе за пашню пріемлются, понеже о томъ Контайши приказъ есть.
About Dzungars (Oirats) and subject Bukharans
Keep in mind
The same page opens with Unkovsky's prejudiced remark that Kalmyks learn cunning and theft from childhood.
Kalmyk chiefs who wear deer antlers
Editorial contextFrom Bukhara merchants Burnes heard that Kalmyk Tartars settled around Ili and Yarkand marked their chiefs and nobles by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps, the size of the antlers showing rank. He adds a crude rumour about their women, and says the Chinese used Kalmyks to guard the frontier.
There are Calmuk Tartars settled around Eela and Yarkund, who have a singular custom to distinguish their chiefs and grandees, by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps.
About Kalmyk Tartars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Hearsay; the next page adds a sexual slander Burnes 'was assured' of.
No bread, only meat and fermented milk; the Tatars will drink it
Editorial contextInstead of flour the Dzungars sent the embassy chigan, fermented milk, saying they had no grain and ate only meat and drank chigan. Unkovsky answered that some of his people would drink it and some would not, since a Christian fast was about to begin: during it nobody but the Tatars would drink chigan. The 'Tatars' here are the Muslim service Tatars of Tobolsk and Tara travelling with him.
and instead of flour and groats they brought chigan, declaring that they have no bread now, and their people are not eating now, only meat, and drink chigan. They were told that some of our people will drink chigan and some will not; and especially since from tomorrow our fast begins … and nobody except the Tatars will drink chigan
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а вмѣсто муки и крупъ привезли чигану, объявляя, что у нихъ нынѣ хлѣба нѣтъ, и люди ихъ нынѣ не ѣдятъ, токмо мясо, и пьютъ чиганы. Сказано имъ, что наши люди иные будутъ пить чиганъ, а иные не будутъ; а особливо съ завтрешнего числа начнется у насъ постъ … и никто, кромѣ Татаръ, чигану пить не будутъ
About Dzungars (Oirats); Siberian service Tatars in the Russian suite
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesAn editor moves Almaliq and Sarai to Japan
Editorial contextFaced with unfamiliar names, the Prague editor Gelasius Dobner trusted a Franciscan martyrology that placed the martyrs 'in Japan' and concluded that Almaliq and Sarai were Japanese islands, Sarai being 'Sayrock Xymo' (probably Kyushu, which Jesuit writers called 'Saicoku' or 'Ximo'). In fact Almaliq lay in the Ili valley of Central Asia and Sarai on the lower Volga. By the eighteenth century the geography of the medieval Tartar empires had become hazy even for scholars.
And since the Martyrology of Saint Francis says they suffered in Japan, Almaliq was most probably one of the islands of Japan, just as Sarai, named just above, is most probably the present-day island of Sayrock Xymo, one of the three chief islands of Japan in the eastern Ocean.
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Et cum Martyrologium S. Francisci Seraphici dicat eos passos in Japonia, verosimillime Armalec una ex insulis fuit Japonie, quemadmodum mox supra nominata Saray verosimillime est hodierna insula Sayrock Xymo una inter tres precipuas Japonie insulas in Oceano orientali.
About Editor's note on the Tartar cities of Almaliq and Sarai
Keep in mind
The editor's error, not Marignolli's.
A martyr's prophecy against the Tartars of Sarai
Editorial contextMarignolli names the Franciscans killed at Almaliq the year before he arrived and credits one of them, Pascal the Spaniard, with visions and prophecies: that the Tartars of Sarai on the Volga would be destroyed by a flood, that Almaliq would perish, and that the ruler would be killed three days after the martyrdom. He presents the dead friars as holy martyrs 'shining with miracles'.
Brother Pascal the Spaniard, who was a prophet, saw heaven opened and foretold martyrdom for himself and his companions, and that the Tartars of Sarai would be destroyed by a flood, that Almaliq would perish because of their martyrdom, and that that emperor would be killed on the third day after their martyrdom
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frater Paschalis Hyspanus, qui fuit Propheta, & vidit celum apertum, & predixit sibi, & Sociis suis martirium, & Thartaros de Saray destruendos diluvio, Armalec perituram, propter ipsorum martirium, Imperatorem illum tercio die occidendum post ipsorum martirium
About Tartars of Sarai (Golden Horde) and of Almaliq (Chagatai khanate)
Keep in mind
Pious report: Marignolli arrived after the killings and repeats what the local friars remembered.
Wrestlers in rolled-up trousers
Editorial contextInvited to watch wrestling, Unkovsky sat near the ruler under awnings on tall poles. He describes bouts between the ruler's side and his son Galdan Tseren's side, with bets and judges who wrote down the results. The wrestlers came out bare but for trousers rolled above the knee, raised their arms, glared to look fearsome, and gripped each other by the trousers. A bout only counted when a man was thrown flat on both shoulders.
And so from both sides the wrestlers come out naked, only in trousers rolled up well above the knee. And when they are about four sazhens from each other they raise their arms, and, rolling their eyes (to make themselves look fearsome), slowly close in; and when they meet they bend forward and seize each other by the trousers
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И тако съ обѣихъ сторонъ выходятъ борцы нагіе, токмо въ штанахъ, которыя подобраны выше гораздо колѣнъ. И не дошедъ единъ отъ другого сажени за четыре, подымутъ руки вверхъ, и искося глаза (являя себя страшливыми), потихоньку сходятся; и какъ сойдутся, и принаклонясь, схватываются за штаны
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Unkovsky's embassy to the Dzungar khan1722 to 1724 · 13 passagesAlmaliq: a Muslim ruler beside a Mongol governor
Editorial contextAt Almaliq in the Ili valley the local Muslim ruler and the Mongol governor (darughachi, Bretschneider explains) rode out together to greet the sage, a glimpse of how the Mongols ruled a town through its old prince. The city was named for its apples (alma in Turkic). The travellers bought cloth woven from 'vegetable wool', cotton, then little known in China, saw people carrying water in jars on their heads, and heard the locals praise the Chinese as 'very able men' when they saw a Chinese well-bucket (pp.70-71).
The ruler of the realm of P'u-su-man came out of the city, together with the Mongol ta-lu-hua-chi, to meet the master. We stopped at a fruit orchard west (of the city). The people here call a fruit a-li-ma; and as the place is famed for its fruits, the city received the above name.
About Muslim ruler of the P'u-su-man; Mongol darughachi
Keep in mind
P'u-su-man (Muslims) and darughachi are Bretschneider's readings of the Chinese transcriptions; he places Almaliq near modern Kuldja.
Verbal courts and savage punishments
Editorial contextIn his closing description of the Dzungar state Unkovsky says the ruler took no great decision without his council of zaisangs, and that the court (zargo) of ten or more zaisangs judged cases orally, not in writing. Capital sentences were carried out by flogging to death or by tying limbs to horses' tails, though he adds that such executions were rare.
They decide cases not in writing but orally. If they condemn someone to death for serious matters, some they kneel down and flog to death with whips; others they tie by the hands and feet to horses' tails, and the horses, running, tear off those people's arms and legs. However, such executions happen rarely among them.
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Original wording
Суды рѣшатъ не письменно, но на словахъ. Ежели за важныя дѣла кого на смерть осудятъ: иныхъ, поставя на колѣнки, плетьми до смерти убиваютъ; иныхъ же, привязавъ къ лошадинымъ хвостамъ руки и ноги, и тако оныя лошади на бѣгу тѣмъ людямъ руки и ноги отрываютъ. Однакожъ, рѣдко у нихъ оныя казни случаются.
About Dzungars (Oirats)
Keep in mind
Part of a general summary built from inquiry, not an execution he witnessed.
Kalmak Tatars moved to Ili as horse breeders
Editorial contextFrom merchants' reports Moorcroft learned that many 'Kalmak Tatars' had once lived around Khotan but had been deported by the Chinese to the Ili valley, where some 200,000 families bred cattle, camels and horses and paid one head in a hundred as tax. They brought ten to twenty thousand geldings a year to Ili for sale.
A considerable portion of the population of Khoten consisted formerly of Kalmak Tatars, but it is said that when the Chinese subjugated the province, they deported the Kalmaks to the cities which collectively constitute the modern city of Ila, on the river of the same name, and to the adjacent districts.
About Kalmak Tatars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Secondhand information; the population figure is a trader's estimate.
Ili: the old Kalmyk capital becomes a Chinese garrison
Editorial contextIn the route copied from a Kashgar man's journal, the note on Ili says the old city by the river, once the Kalmaks' capital, is deserted, and that the name now covers two towns: Gulja, mostly Muslim, and Kura, the Chinese garrison and seat of the governor-general. It also mentions the grave of Tughluk Timur, the first Chaghatai khan to become Muslim, and a burning stone (coal) found nearby.
Ila is properly the name of the river on the borders of which stood the city, thence so called, and which is now deserted. There is the grave of Tughluk Timor, the first of the Chaghatai Sultans who adopted Mohammedanism.
About Kalmaks (Oirats) and the Qing army
Keep in mind
Not seen by Izzet Ullah; copied from another traveller's journal and oral notes.