To Certain Very Great Lords Also There Is Given A Tablet With Gerfalcons
On It; This Is Only To The
Very greatest of the Kaan's barons, and it
confers on them his own full power and authority; so that if
One of those
chiefs wishes to send a messenger any whither, he can seize the horses of
any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at his pleasure.
[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - So Sanang Setzen relates that Chinghiz, on returning from one of
his great campaigns, busied himself in reorganising his forces and
bestowing rank and title, according to the deserts of each, on his nine
Orlok, or marshals, and all who had done good service. "He named
commandants over hundreds, over thousands, over ten thousands, over
hundred thousands, and opened his treasury to the multitude of the people"
(p. 91).
NOTE 2. - We have several times already had mention of these tablets. (See
Prologue, ch. viii. and xviii.) The earliest European allusion to them is
in Rubruquis: "And Mangu gave to the Moghul (whom he was going to send to
the King of France) a bull of his, that is to say, a golden plate of a
palm in breadth and half a cubit in length, on which his orders were
inscribed. Whosoever is the bearer of that may order what he pleases, and
his order shall be executed straightway."
These golden bulls of the Mongol Kaans appear to have been originally
tokens of high favour and honour, though afterwards they became more
frequent and conventional. They are often spoken of by the Persian
historians of the Mongols under the name of Paizah, and sometimes
Paizah Sir-i-Sher, or "Lion's Head Paizah." Thus, in a firman of Ghazan
Khan, naming a viceroy to his conquests in Syria, the Khan confers on the
latter "the sword, the august standard, the drum, and the Lion's Head
Paizah." Most frequently the grant of this honour is coupled with
Yarligh; "to such an one were granted Yarligh and Paizah" the former
word (which is still applied in Turkey to the Sultan's rescripts) denoting
the written patent which accompanies the grant of the tablet, just as the
sovereign's warrant accompanies the badge of a modern Order. Of such
written patents also Marco speaks in this passage, and as he uttered it,
no doubt the familiar words Yarligh u Paizah were in his mind. The
Armenian history of the Orpelians, relating the visit of Prince Sempad,
brother of King Hayton, to the court of Mangku Kaan, says: "They gave him
also a P'haiza of gold, i.e. a tablet whereon the name of God is written
by the Great Kaan himself; and this constitutes the greatest honour known
among the Mongols. Farther, they drew up for him a sort of patent, which
the Mongols call Iarlekh," etc. The Latin version of a grant by Uzbek
Khan of Kipchak to the Venetian Andrea Zeno, in 1333,[1] ends with the
words: "Dedimus baisa et privilegium cum bullis rubeis," where the
latter words no doubt represent the Yarligh al-tamgha, the warrant with
the red seal or stamp,[2] as it may be seen upon the letter of Arghun
Khan.
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