- Faghfur or Baghbur was a title applied by old Persian and
Arabic writers to the Emperor of China, much in the way that we used to
speak of the Great Mogul, and our fathers of the Sophy.
It is, as
Neumann points out, an old Persian translation of the Chinese title
Tien-tzu, "Son of Heaven"; Bagh-Pur = "The Son of the Divinity," as
Sapor or Shah-Pur = "The Son of the King." Faghfur seems to have been
used as a proper name in Turkestan. (See Baber, 423.)
There is a word, Takfur, applied similarly by the Mahomedans to the
Greek emperors of both Byzantium and Trebizond (and also to the Kings of
Cilician Armenia), which was perhaps adopted as a jingling match to the
former term; Faghfur, the great infidel king in the East; Takfur, the
great infidel king in the West. Defremery says this is Armenian,
Tagavor, "a king." (I.B., II. 393, 427.)
["The last of the Sung Emperors (1276) 'Facfur' (i.e. the Arabic for
Tien Tzu) was freed by Kublai from the (ancient Kotan) indignity of
surrendering with a rope round his neck, leading a sheep, and he received
the title of Duke: In 1288 he went to Tibet to study Buddhism, and in 1296
he and his mother, Ts'iuen T'ai How, became a bonze and a nun, and were
allowed to hold 360 k'ing (say 5000 acres) of land free of taxes under
the then existing laws." (E. H. Parker, China Review, February, March
1901, p. 195.) - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - Nevertheless the history of the conquest shows instances of
extraordinary courage and self-devotion on the part of Chinese officers,
especially in the defence of fortresses - virtues often shown in like
degree, under like circumstances, by the same class, in the modern history
of China.
NOTE 3. - Bayan (signifying "great" or "noble") is a name of very old
renown among the Nomad nations, for we find it as that of the Khagan of
the Avars in the 6th century. The present BAYAN, Kublai's most famous
lieutenant, was of princely birth, in the Mongol tribe called Barin. In
his youth he served in the West of Asia under Hulaku. According to
Rashiduddin, about 1265 he was sent to Cathay with certain ambassadors of
the Kaan's who were returning thither. He was received with great
distinction by Kublai, who was greatly taken with his prepossessing
appearance and ability, and a command was assigned him. In 1273, after the
capture of Siang-Yang (infra, ch. lxx.) the Kaan named him to the chief
command in the prosecution of the war against the Sung Dynasty. Whilst
Bayan was in the full tide of success, Kublai, alarmed by the ravages of
Kaidu on the Mongolian frontier, recalled him to take the command there,
but, on the general's remonstrance, he gave way, and made him a minister
of state (CHINGSIANG). The essential part of his task was completed by the
surrender of the capital King-sze (Lin-ngan, now Hang-chau) to his arms
in the beginning of 1276.
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