Chapter LXIV: Genghis Khan, and the return of the Turks
Read it here or here.
0) General
This is a day or so late - I actually read through this short chapter pretty quickly on Saturday morning, but the unseasonably warm weather deterred me from writing it up until now.
1) Good lines
The global economic system: The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage hostility: a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden; and the remote nations of the Baltic and the ocean trembled at the approach of the Tartars,28 whom their fear and ignorance were inclined to separate from the human species.
28 In the year 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia (Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars, from sending, as usual, their ships to the herring fishery on the coast of England; and as there was no exportation, forty or fifty of these fish were sold for a shilling, (Matthew Paris, p. 396.) It is whimsical enough, that the orders of a Mogul khan, who reigned on the borders of China, should have lowered the price of herrings in the English market.
On the dubious tastes of Samuel Johnson: 41 ... In one of the Ramblers, Dr Johnson praises Knolles (a General History of the Turks to the present Year. London, 1603) as the first of historians, unhappy only in the choice of his subject. Yet I much doubt whether a partial and verbose compilation from Latin writers, thirteen hundred folio pages of speeches and battles, can either instruct or amuse an enlightened age, which requires from the historian some tincture of philosophy and criticism.
On not reading too much into the last book of the New Testament: The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelations;45 the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardes is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example, that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.
45 See the Travels of Wheeler and Spon, of Pocock and Chandler, and more particularly Smith's Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, p. 205 - 276. The more pious antiquaries labor to reconcile the promises and threats of the author of the Revelations with the present state of the seven cities. Perhaps it would be more prudent to confine his predictions to the characters and events of his own times.
2) Summary
The Mongols (or as Gibbon interchangeably calls them, the Moguls/Tartars) rise from Central Asia and make vast conquests to the north, south, east and west. But after the reign of Zingis/Genghis, the Turkes return as the main threat to the Byzantine empire.
3) Points arising
i) haven't we heard some of this before?
Back in Chapter XXXIV, ostensibly about Attila the Hun, we had a couple of large chunks about Zingis and the success of the Moguls, eight centuries later. Gibbon now rather disarmingly admits that those bits "were composed at a time when I entertained the wish, rather than the hope, of concluding my history." But we're on the last volume now, Eddie-boy, with only seven more chapters to go after this one.
ii) how do you pronounce that?
I noted last time this came up that Gibbon's standard spelling is different from ours. It was also different from Voltaire's, as he himself reports: 3 Since the history and tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at least in French, seems to be the more fashionable spelling; but Abulghazi Khan must have known the true name of his ancestor. His etymology appears just: Zin, in the Mogul tongue, signifies great, and gis is the superlative termination, (Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, part iii. p. 194, 195.) From the same idea of magnitude, the appellation of Zingis is bestowed on the ocean.
Nowadays, of course, we can just look up the Mongolian language version of Wikipedia, which spells his name Чингис хаан, "Chin-gis Khaan".
iii) the Mongols are better than the Catholics
Gibbon is actually fairly sound on toleration as a general principle, though of course unable to recognise his own country's shortcomings in that regard. So his praise for the Mongols is sincere (as is his mockery of the Papists): But it is the religion of Zingis that best deserves our wonder and applause. The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy,6 and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article of faith was the existence of one God, the Author of all good; who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom and concord were taught and practised within the precincts of the same camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, and the Latin priest, enjoyed the same honourable exemption from service and tribute: in the mosque of Bochara, the insolent victor might trample the Koran under his horse's feet, but the calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of the most hostile sects.
6 A singular conformity may be found between the religious laws of Zingis Khan and of Mr. Locke, (Constitutions of Carolina, in his works, vol. iv. p. 535, 4to. edition, 1777.)
The difference being that Locke's draft constitutional law was never actually enacted.
iv) Chinese etymology
I did not know this: 19 ... Pe-king and Nan-king are vague titles, the courts of the north and of the south. The identity and change of names perplex the most skilful readers of the Chinese geography
But it's absolutely true: Beijing / 北京 means 'northern capital', Nanjing / 南京 means 'southern capital', and while we're at it Tōkyō / 東京 means 'eastern capital', which was also an old name for Seoul (Namgyeong). Korea also had a 'western capital', 西京 / Seogyeong which is now, oddly enough, Pyongyang. China also had eastern and western capitals, but I have not heard of either of them (I have at least heard of Xi'an which was called Xijing / 西京 / western capital but only from 1930 to 1943).
v) The Battle of Kosovo
Knowing the Balkan iconography of this event as I do, it's interesting to read Gibbon's somewhat sceptical description, tagged onto the end of a paragraph abouth the Janissaries: The Janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous countrymen; and in the battle of Cossova, the league and independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. As the conqueror walked over the field, he observed that the greatest part of the slain consisted of beardless youths; and listened to the flattering reply of his vizier, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irresistible arms. But the sword of his Janizaries could not defend him from the dagger of despair; a Servian soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound. The grandson of Othman was mild in his temper, modest in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but the Moslems were scandalized at his absence from public worship; and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause: a mixture of servitude and freedom not infrequent in Oriental history.55
55 See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I., in Cantemir, (p 33 - 45,) the first book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici of Leunclavius. According to another story, the sultan was stabbed by a Croat in his tent; and this accident was alleged to Busbequius (Epist i. p. 98) as an excuse for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as if were, between two attendants, an ambassador's arms, when he is introduced to the royal presence.
4) Coming next
Chapter LXV: Timour/Tamerlane, and the Turks again. Read it here or here.
0) General
This is a day or so late - I actually read through this short chapter pretty quickly on Saturday morning, but the unseasonably warm weather deterred me from writing it up until now.
1) Good lines
The global economic system: The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage hostility: a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden; and the remote nations of the Baltic and the ocean trembled at the approach of the Tartars,28 whom their fear and ignorance were inclined to separate from the human species.
28 In the year 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia (Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars, from sending, as usual, their ships to the herring fishery on the coast of England; and as there was no exportation, forty or fifty of these fish were sold for a shilling, (Matthew Paris, p. 396.) It is whimsical enough, that the orders of a Mogul khan, who reigned on the borders of China, should have lowered the price of herrings in the English market.
On the dubious tastes of Samuel Johnson: 41 ... In one of the Ramblers, Dr Johnson praises Knolles (a General History of the Turks to the present Year. London, 1603) as the first of historians, unhappy only in the choice of his subject. Yet I much doubt whether a partial and verbose compilation from Latin writers, thirteen hundred folio pages of speeches and battles, can either instruct or amuse an enlightened age, which requires from the historian some tincture of philosophy and criticism.
On not reading too much into the last book of the New Testament: The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelations;45 the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardes is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example, that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.
45 See the Travels of Wheeler and Spon, of Pocock and Chandler, and more particularly Smith's Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, p. 205 - 276. The more pious antiquaries labor to reconcile the promises and threats of the author of the Revelations with the present state of the seven cities. Perhaps it would be more prudent to confine his predictions to the characters and events of his own times.
2) Summary
The Mongols (or as Gibbon interchangeably calls them, the Moguls/Tartars) rise from Central Asia and make vast conquests to the north, south, east and west. But after the reign of Zingis/Genghis, the Turkes return as the main threat to the Byzantine empire.
3) Points arising
i) haven't we heard some of this before?
Back in Chapter XXXIV, ostensibly about Attila the Hun, we had a couple of large chunks about Zingis and the success of the Moguls, eight centuries later. Gibbon now rather disarmingly admits that those bits "were composed at a time when I entertained the wish, rather than the hope, of concluding my history." But we're on the last volume now, Eddie-boy, with only seven more chapters to go after this one.
ii) how do you pronounce that?
I noted last time this came up that Gibbon's standard spelling is different from ours. It was also different from Voltaire's, as he himself reports: 3 Since the history and tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at least in French, seems to be the more fashionable spelling; but Abulghazi Khan must have known the true name of his ancestor. His etymology appears just: Zin, in the Mogul tongue, signifies great, and gis is the superlative termination, (Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, part iii. p. 194, 195.) From the same idea of magnitude, the appellation of Zingis is bestowed on the ocean.
Nowadays, of course, we can just look up the Mongolian language version of Wikipedia, which spells his name Чингис хаан, "Chin-gis Khaan".
iii) the Mongols are better than the Catholics
Gibbon is actually fairly sound on toleration as a general principle, though of course unable to recognise his own country's shortcomings in that regard. So his praise for the Mongols is sincere (as is his mockery of the Papists): But it is the religion of Zingis that best deserves our wonder and applause. The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy,6 and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article of faith was the existence of one God, the Author of all good; who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom and concord were taught and practised within the precincts of the same camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, and the Latin priest, enjoyed the same honourable exemption from service and tribute: in the mosque of Bochara, the insolent victor might trample the Koran under his horse's feet, but the calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of the most hostile sects.
6 A singular conformity may be found between the religious laws of Zingis Khan and of Mr. Locke, (Constitutions of Carolina, in his works, vol. iv. p. 535, 4to. edition, 1777.)
The difference being that Locke's draft constitutional law was never actually enacted.
iv) Chinese etymology
I did not know this: 19 ... Pe-king and Nan-king are vague titles, the courts of the north and of the south. The identity and change of names perplex the most skilful readers of the Chinese geography
But it's absolutely true: Beijing / 北京 means 'northern capital', Nanjing / 南京 means 'southern capital', and while we're at it Tōkyō / 東京 means 'eastern capital', which was also an old name for Seoul (Namgyeong). Korea also had a 'western capital', 西京 / Seogyeong which is now, oddly enough, Pyongyang. China also had eastern and western capitals, but I have not heard of either of them (I have at least heard of Xi'an which was called Xijing / 西京 / western capital but only from 1930 to 1943).
v) The Battle of Kosovo
Knowing the Balkan iconography of this event as I do, it's interesting to read Gibbon's somewhat sceptical description, tagged onto the end of a paragraph abouth the Janissaries: The Janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous countrymen; and in the battle of Cossova, the league and independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. As the conqueror walked over the field, he observed that the greatest part of the slain consisted of beardless youths; and listened to the flattering reply of his vizier, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irresistible arms. But the sword of his Janizaries could not defend him from the dagger of despair; a Servian soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound. The grandson of Othman was mild in his temper, modest in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but the Moslems were scandalized at his absence from public worship; and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause: a mixture of servitude and freedom not infrequent in Oriental history.55
55 See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I., in Cantemir, (p 33 - 45,) the first book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici of Leunclavius. According to another story, the sultan was stabbed by a Croat in his tent; and this accident was alleged to Busbequius (Epist i. p. 98) as an excuse for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as if were, between two attendants, an ambassador's arms, when he is introduced to the royal presence.
4) Coming next
Chapter LXV: Timour/Tamerlane, and the Turks again. Read it here or here.