The Ruins Of Majar Were Extensive When
Seen By Gmelin In The Last Century, But When Visited By Klaproth In The
Early Part Of The Present One There Were Few Buildings Remaining.
Inscriptions Found There Are, Like The Coins, Mongol-Mahomedan Of The 14th
Century.
Klaproth, with reference to these ruins, says that Majar merely
means in "old Tartar" a stone building, and denies any connection with the
Magyars as a nation.
But it is possible that the Magyar country, i.e.
Hungary, is here intended by Polo, for several Asiatic writers of his
time, or near it, speak of the Hungarians as Majar. Thus Abulfeda speaks
of the infidel nations near the Danube as including Aulak, Majars, and
Serbs; Rashiduddin speaks of the Mongols as conquering the country of the
Bashkirds, the Majars, and the Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania).
One such mention from Abulghazi has been quoted in note 2 to ch. xxii.; in
the Masalak-al-Absar, the Cherkes, Russians, Aas (or Alans), and
Majar are associated; the Majar and Alan in Sharifuddin. Doubts indeed
arise whether in some of these instances a people located in Asia be not
intended.[1] (Rubr. p. 246; D'Avezac, p. 486 seqq.; Golden
Horde, p. 5; I.B. II. 375 seqq.; Buesching, IV. 359; Cathay, p.
233; Numi Asiatici, I. 333, 451; Klaproth's Travels, ch. xxxi.; N. et
Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279; P. de la Croix, II. 383; Rein. Abulf. I. 80;
D'Ohsson, II. 628.)
["The author of the Tarikh Djihan Kushai, as well as Rashid and other
Mohammedan authors of the same period, term the Hungarians Bashkerds
(Bashkirs). This latter name, written also Bashkurd, appears for the
first time, it seems, in Ibn Fozlan's narrative of an embassy to the
Bulgars on the Volga in the beginning of the 10th century (translated by
Fraehn, 'De Bashkiris,' etc., 1822).... The Hungarians arrived in Europe
in the 9th century, and then called themselves Magyar (to be pronounced
Modjor), as they do down to the present time.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 925 of 1350
Words from 248600 to 248935
of 370046
