Mr. Howorth Has Lately Denied The Identity Of Alans And Aas;
But He Treats The Question As All One With The Identity Of Alans And
Ossethi, Which Is Another Matter, As May Be Seen In Vivien De St. Martin's
Elaborate Paper On The Alans (N. Ann.
Des Voyages, 1848, tom.
3, p. 129
seqq.). The Alans are mentioned by the Byzantine historian, Pachymeres,
among nations whom the Mongols had assimilated to themselves and adopted
into their military service. Gaubil, without being aware of the identity
of the Asu (as the name Aas appears to be expressed in the Chinese
Annals), beyond the fact that they dwelt somewhere near the Caspian,
observes that this people, after they were conquered, furnished many
excellent officers to the Mongols; and he mentions also that when the
Mongol army was first equipt for the conquest of Southern China, many
officers took service therein from among the Uighurs, Persians, and Arabs,
Kincha (people of Kipchak), the Asu and other foreign nations. We find
also, at a later period of the Mongol history (1336), letters reaching
Pope Benedict XII. from several Christian Alans holding high office at the
court of Cambaluc - one of them being a Chingsang or Minister of the
First Rank, and another a Fanchang or Minister of the Second Order - in
which they conveyed their urgent request for the nomination of an
Archbishop in succession to the deceased John of Monte Corvino. John
Marignolli speaks of those Alans as "the greatest and noblest nation in
the world, the fairest and bravest of men," and asserts that in his day
there were 30,000 of them in the Great Kaan's service, and all, at least
nominally, Christians.[1] Rashiduddin also speaks of the Alans as
Christians; though Ibn Batuta certainly mentions the Aas as Mahomedans.
We find Alans about the same time (in 1306) fighting well in the service
of the Byzantine Emperors (Muntaner, p. 449). All these circumstances
render Marco's story of a corps of Christian Alans in the army of Bayan
perfectly consistent with probability. (Carpini, p. 707; Rub., 243;
Ramusio, II. 92; I.B. II. 428; Gaubil, 40, 147; Cathay, 314
seqq.)
[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 88, note): "The Alans or Aas appear to
be identical with the An-ts'ai or A-lan-na of the Hou Han shu (bk. 88,
9), of whom we read that 'they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana
(K'ang-chu) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their
wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.' (Ma Twan-lin,
bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 97, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-te
and Wen-na-sha (see also Bretschneider, Med. Geog., 258, et seq.).
Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but
contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom
later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (De Morgan,
Mission, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the 'Scythian Alans'
([Greek: Alanoi Skythai]); but the first definite mention of them in
classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius
Periergetes (305), who speaks of the [Greek: alkaeentes Alanoi]. (See also
De Morgan, i. 202, and Deguignes, ii. 279 et seq.)
"Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of
tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia.
'Distributed over two continents, all these nations, whose various names I
refrain from mentioning, though separated by immense tracts of country in
which they pass their vagabond existence, have with time been confounded
under the generic appellation of Alans.' Ibn Alathir, at a later date,
also refers to the Alans as 'formed of numerous nations.' (Dulaurier,
xiv. 455).
"Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of
the Alans moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the
Caucasus; though long prior to that, in A.D. 51, they had, as allies of
the Georgians, ravaged Armenia. (See Yule, Cathay, 316; Deguignes, I.,
pt. ii. 277 et seq.; and De Morgan, I. 217, et seq.)
"Mirkhond, in the Tarikhi Wassaf, and other Mohammedan writers speak of
the Alans and As. However this may be, it is thought that the Oss or
Ossetes of the Caucasus are their modern representatives (Klaproth, Tabl.
hist., 180; De Morgan, i. 202, 231.)" Aas is the transcription of
A-soo (Yuen-shi, quoted by Deveria, Notes d'epig., p. 75). (See
Bretschneider, Med. Res., II., p. 84.) - H.C.]
NOTE 3. - The Chinese histories do not mention the story of the Alans and
their fate; but they tell how Chang-chau was first taken by the Mongols
about April 1275, and two months later recovered by the Chinese; how
Bayan, some months afterwards, attacked it in person, meeting with a
desperate resistance; finally, how the place was stormed, and how Bayan
ordered the whole of the inhabitants to be put to the sword. Gaubil
remarks that some grievous provocation must have been given, as Bayan was
far from cruel. Pauthier gives original extracts on the subject, which are
interesting. They picture the humane and chivalrous Bayan on this occasion
as demoniacal in cruelty, sweeping together all the inhabitants of the
suburbs, forcing them to construct his works of attack, and then
butchering the whole of them, boiling down their carcasses, and using the
fat to grease his mangonels! Perhaps there is some misunderstanding as to
the use of this barbarous lubricant. For Carpini relates that the
Tartars, when they cast Greek fire into a town, shot with it human fat,
for this caused the fire to rage inextinguishably.
Cruelties, like Bayan's on this occasion, if exceptional with him, were
common enough among the Mongols generally. Chinghiz, at an early period in
his career, after a victory, ordered seventy great caldrons to be heated,
and his prisoners to be boiled therein. And the "evil deed" of the citizens
of Chang-chau fell far short of Mongol atrocities.
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