CHAP. V. CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE MONGOLS. GENGHIS Khan gave the sovereignty of the empire of Capschac to A. D. 1211. his eldest son, Touschi Khan. This division was bounded on the south by the Caspian Sea and the Palus Mæotis; on the east by the river Irtish; on the west by the Don, including the Crimea; and on the north by Kazan up to the Arctic Sea*. Batou Khan succeeded his father, Touschi, who died in 1226. He A.D. 1226. built the town of Serai on the Volga, and made it his residence. Batou invaded Russia, and reduced that country: appointing vice- A. D. 1240. roys every where, without expelling the Russian princes. They Sheibani Khan, brother of Batou, with fifteen thousand families, A. D. 1242. was sent to the north, and settled at Tiumin on the river Tura, which they named Genghidin, in honour of the great conqueror. afterwards removed about a hundred and seventy miles north-east, and founded the city of Isker, or Sibir, sixteen miles from Tobolsk, on the Irtish; their boundaries being the rivers Isset and Tavda †. Sheibani had possessions also, by inheritance, on the river Yaik or Ural, where Batou founded the Golden Horde: and vestiges of Saratchick are still visible . Kazan was built by a son of Batou, who resided there. (The A.D. 1257. khans of Kazan became independent in 1441.) Kasimof on the Oka * Petis de la Croix, p. 387. Abul Ghazi, Vol. II. 576. The Tartars gave the name of Tura to the city and all Siberia, and call them so to this day. Sibir (whence Siberia) is probably the Russian word north. See Strahlenberg, p. 452. Strahlenberg, p. 266. Vol. VII. pp. 192, 195, 242. Tooke, Ch. II. p. 61. Gibbon, Ch. LXIV. Levesque, De Guines, Vol. IV. p. 446. 200 CHAP. IMMENSE INVASION FROM CHINA. was the court residence of a khan: there are remains of a palace, lofty tower, mausoleum, &c. *. Old Astrachan, Tsaritzin, and Bolgar, below the mouth of the Kama, shew remains of large and magnificent cities †. A.D. 1268. CENTRAL SIBERIA. KAIDU, great grand-son of Genghis, and nephew of the Grand Khan Kublai, governed the countries about Almalegh: he gained the chiefs of the hordes that encamp north-north-east of Turfan, and those north of the Altai mountains. He rebelled against Kublai; who, being engagin China, gave the command of the army to Chetien-tche: many lords from the countries of the Igours, Persia, Arabia, Capschac, and some Tartar chiefs, accompanied him, with three hundred thousand men, who met at Siang-yang. Omar, an Arab, with a corps of western troops, encamped at Tchingtou, to make the attack from all sides; and Kaidu was defeated. In 1276, Kaidu was, with his brother, at the head of one hundred thousand troops; and, having increased in power, he maintained his independence. This king and his armies, at all times, remain in the open plains, vallies, and woods, with which this region abounds. They subsist on flesh and milk, and his subjects pay implicit obedience to their king. They possess vast herds of horses, cows, sheep, and other domestic animals. In these districts are found bears of a white colour, and about twenty spans in length; foxes entirely black; wild asses, and * Kasimof on the Oka was a populous Tartar town with mosques, in 1685.— Father Avril, p. 128. ↑ Tooke, Vol. II. p. 48. Levesque, Vol. VII. p. 191. BATTLES ON THE IRTISH. 201 V. zibelins; besides martins, and swarms of Pharaoh's mice. They CHAP. travel in sledges without wheels, and drawn by dogs Kaidu concerted a rebellion, against the Grand Khan Kublai, with A.D. 1286. Nayan, a near relation of both parties, to whose ancestor, Belgatai, brother of Genghis, a considerable district in Leao-tong had been giv en: but Nayan was defeated, and put to death by Kublai, before Kai du could join him. (See the Chapter on Kublai). Kaidu was entirely routed on the banks of the Irtish, by Timur A.D. 1289. Kaan, grandson of Kublai, and viceroy of Yunan, Burmah, Bangalla, &c. but, after that commander's departure, Kaidu gained over the hordes to the north and north-west of Caracorum. Kublai died in 1294, and his grandson Timur Kaan succeeded him as Grand Khan. In 1297, Kaidu was driven northward; and the next A.D. 1297. year, a great victory was gained over him near the river Irtish. During the whole reign of Timur Kaan, (he died in 1307), there A.D. 1298. was scarcely any other war than this in Tartary. Kaidu disputed the empire for thirty years; which he pretended Kublai had usurped. Timur Kaan was always obliged to keep numerous armies in these countries. Caichan, nephew of the Grand Khan, fought several bloody battles with the rebels between Caracorum and the river Tamir. Kaidu, after having lost his whole army, died of vexation. Ton-oua, A.D. 1301. his brother, was dangerously wounded, and submitted. Thus ended this long wart. See Marsden's Marco Polo, B. II. Ch. I. B. III. Ch. XLIV. And De Guines, Vol. IV. p. 151. + Marco Polo, and notes, in B. II. Ch. I. and B. III. Ch. XLIV. Since the year 1272 the Grand Khan employed elephants in his wars. In the chapter on Kublai, it is shewn, that the khan was in a castle borne by four elephants, in the action with Nayan: and that he possessed thousands of those animals. During the wars with Kaidu, as there were no other hostilities, and as Kaidu disputed the Empire, there can be no doubt but great numbers of elephants were present in these wars on the Irtish, and in driving Kaidu to the north. There are, in the neigbourhood of Tomsk, a vast number of rich tombs; and these wars of Timur DD 202 CHAP. V. IMPORTANT POSITION.-ALTAI MOUNTAINS. [This position of Kaidu's appears always to have been an important one, as the head quarters of the Asiatic Tartars. Justin sent an embassy to the Khakan or Emperor, who resided in a fine vale near the sources of the Irtish*. The appellative Turks was borne about A.D, 545, (how much earlier is not known,) only by that part of the nation which had long had its habitation in the Altai mountains along the Irtish, where that people became so powerful as to give disturbance to China and Persia. In the same century the state split into petty Khanates, and at length became a prey to the victorious Arabs +. Kaan must have been those which caused many of them, for the following reasons: I. Many of the tombs, being very rich, and about four hundred years old, when discovered. II. Elephants' bones being found in them. III. The Chinese wishing to visit them as those of their ancestors, (as will be shown). IV. The armies having marched from Yunan and Bangalla, Timur Kaan being governor of those provinces before he was Emperor of China and Grand Khan of the Moguls. The Siberians attribute the tombs to the wars of Genghis Khan, and Timur Bec (Tamerlane). The Monarch of China was also named Timur, and was the great great grandson of Genghis. This appears to clear up satisfactorily several interesting points in the history of Siberia, probably not now known in that country, and possibly not even in Russia. It may also be particularly remarked, that Assam was under Timur Kaan's viceroyalty; and that it is the custom of the Assamese to bury an elephant with the corpse of a great man. Mangalu, uncle of Timur Kaan, was at this time viceroy of Shen-si, residing at Singan, the capital, and the city where army equipments are made. Singan was the capital of China when the Emperor was the ally of Afrasiab, against the Persian Roostum, and was captured. See Chapter III. The description, character, and customs, of these invaders of Siberia, from the earliest times, to the thirty years war under Kublai and Timur Kaan, correspond so truly with the tombs, and their contents, as to leave no doubt of their origin. These Indian countries have probably supplied the buffaloes, fossil remains of which have been found in several places in Siberia, as those animals are used by the Chinese to draw carts. See Van Braam's Einbassy, Journal, March 25, 1795, * Sir Wm. Jones, Vol. I. p. 63, Discourse V, See also an embassy from the Roman Emperor at Constantinople to this same place, in Ch. III, of this Vol. † Tooke, Vol. II. p. 37. "In the year 1720, when some Russian regiments went AFRASIAB EMPEROR OF CHINA.OGUS KHAN. The country of the Getes, and Turquestan, was included in Touschi's sovereignity of Capschac*. Algu, grandson of Zagatai, had for his share all the country lying between the Altai mountains and the river Amu, (Oxus)†. It is the supposed country of Afrasiab, who, with his ally the Emperor of China, who fought upon a white elephant, were beaten by the Persian hero, Roostum. The Emperor of China was made prisoner, and the territories were divided by Roostum among the Persian leaders +. It appears certain that this was part of the country of Ogus Khan: a name as famous in the east, as that of Alexander or Cæsar in the west: he conquered Kitai, Cashmere, and many other countries. He lived above a hundred years §. from the city of Tobolsk, up the river Irtish, they found there many antiquities, and temples of idols. The Tobolskian Tartars and Russians say, that from this river, farther towards the west, south, and south-west from the city of Tobolsk, between the sources of the rivers Tobol and Ischim; parts which few people frequented, there were to be found great numbers of images, cut in stone, of men and beasts: and that the ruins of several cities were discernible in those deserts. The mountains of Ulug-tau and Kitzig-tau, also called Arr-tag and Kar-tag, lie between the said rivers; on the first of which, Tamerlane, when there with his army, erected obelisks: and near which place the great Ogus Khan had his residence." Vide Strahlenberg, p. 4. De la Croix, p. 387. † Abul Ghazi, Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, Vol. I. pp. 46 and 124. 163. § Strahlenberg, pp. 4, and 136 to 141. "About six hundred and fifty-seven years before Christ, (this was the supposed epoch of Ogus), says Du Halde, a prince of Shen-si revolted; but the Emperor Syang-Vang soon defeated him, by the help of an army of Tartars, whom he had brought over to his interest by marrying the daughter of their chief. Tsi, the king of Shen-si, died; and the Emperor, freed from his fears, divor ced his Tartar spouse, under pretence that she was a stranger, whom he had married for political reasons. The chief of the Tartars resolved on revenge. Sho tay, the Emperor's son, was a discontented prince. The Tartar promised to make him Emperor, if he would join him; which he did. They marched to the capital, 203 CHAP. |