Chapter LXXIV

OF THE CITY OF CHINGINJU AND THE SLAUGHTER OF CERTAIN
ALANS THERE.

Leaving the city of Chinghianfu and travelling three days south-east through a constant succession of busy and thriving towns and villages, you arrive at the great and noble city of CHINGINJU. The people are Idolaters, use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They live by trade and handicrafts, and they have plenty of silk. They have also abundance of game, and of all manner of victuals, for it is a most productive territory.{1}

Now I must tell you of an evil deed that was done, once upon a time, by the people of this city, and how dearly they paid for it.

You see, at the time of the conquest of the great province of Manzi, when Bayan was in command, he sent a company of his troops, consisting of a people called Alans, who are Christians, to take this city.{2} They took it accordingly, and when they had made their way in, they lighted upon some good wine. Of this they drank until they were all drunk, and then they lay down and slept like so many swine. So when night fell, the townspeople, seeing that they were all dead-drunk, fell upon them and slew them all; not a man escaped.

And when Bayan heard that the townspeople had thus treacherously slain his men, he sent another Admiral of his with a great force, and stormed the city, and put the whole of the inhabitants to the sword; not a man of them escaped death. And thus the whole population of that city was exterminated.{3}

Now we will go on, and I will tell you of another city called Suju.

NOTE 1.—Both the position and the story which follows identify
this city with CHANG-CHAU. The name is written in Pauthier’s MSS.
_Chinginguy_, in the G. T. _Cingiggui_ and _Cinghingui_, in Ramusio
_Tinguigui_.

The capture of Chang-chau by Gordon’s force, 11th May 1864, was the
final achievement of that “Ever Victorious Army.”

Regarding the territory here spoken of, once so rich and densely
peopled, Mr. Medhurst says, in reference to the effects of the
T’ai-P’ing insurrection: “I can conceive of no more melancholy
sight than the acres of ground that one passes through strewn with
remains of once thriving cities, and the miles upon miles of rich
land, once carefully parcelled out into fields and gardens, but now
only growing coarse grass and brambles—the home of the pheasant,
the deer, and the wild pig.” (_Foreigner in Far Cathay_, p. 94.)

NOTE 2.—The relics of the Alans were settled on the northern skirts
of the Caucasus, where they made a stout resistance to the Mongols,
but eventually became subjects of the Khans of Sarai. The name
by which they were usually known in Asia in the Middle Ages was
_Aas_, and this name is assigned to them by Carpini, Rubruquis, and
Josafat Barbaro, as well as by Ibn Batuta. 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 Uighúrs, 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-chü) 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-tê 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’ (Ἀλανοί Σκύθαι); 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 άλκήεντες Ἀλανοί.
(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
Devéria, _Notes d’épig._, 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. Thus Hulaku, suspecting the Turkoman chief
Nasiruddin, who had just quitted his camp with 300 men, sent a
body of horse after him to cut him off. The Mongol officers told
the Turkoman they had been ordered to give him and his men a
parting feast; they made them all drunk and then cut their throats.
(_Gaubil_, 166, 167, 170; _Carpini_, 696; _Erdmann_, 262; _Quat.
Rashid._ 357.)

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[1] I must observe here that the learned Professor Bruun has raised
doubts whether these Alans of Marignolli’s could be Alans of
the Caucasus, and if they were not rather _Ohláns_, _i.e._
Mongol Princes and nobles. There are difficulties certainly
about Marignolli’s Alans; but obvious difficulties also in this
explanation.