The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
CHAPTER IV.
2559 words | Chapter 332
OF THE BATTLE THAT THE GREAT KAAN FOUGHT WITH NAYAN.
What shall I say about it? When day had well broken, there was the Kaan
with all his host upon a hill overlooking the plain where Nayan lay
in his tent, in all security, without the slightest thought of any
one coming thither to do him hurt. In fact, this confidence of his was
such that he kept no vedettes whether in front or in rear; for he knew
nothing of the coming of the Great Kaan, owing to all the approaches
having been completely occupied as I told you. Moreover, the place was
in a remote wilderness, more than thirty marches from the Court, though
the Kaan had made the distance in twenty, so eager was he to come to
battle with Nayan.
And what shall I tell you next? The Kaan was there on the hill, mounted
on a great wooden bartizan,{1} which was borne by four well-trained
elephants, and over him was hoisted his standard, so high aloft that
it could be seen from all sides. His troops were ordered in battles
of 30,000 men apiece; and a great part of the horsemen had each a
foot-soldier armed with a lance set on the crupper behind him (for it
was thus that the footmen were disposed of);{2} and the whole plain
seemed to be covered with his forces. So it was thus that the Great
Kaan’s army was arrayed for battle.
When Nayan and his people saw what had happened, they were sorely
confounded, and rushed in haste to arms. Nevertheless they made them
ready in good style and formed their troops in an orderly manner. And
when all were in battle array on both sides as I have told you, and
nothing remained but to fall to blows, then might you have heard a
sound arise of many instruments of various music, and of the voices
of the whole of the two hosts loudly singing. For this is a custom of
the Tartars, that before they join battle they all unite in singing
and playing on a certain two-stringed instrument of theirs, a thing
right pleasant to hear. And so they continue in their array of battle,
singing and playing in this pleasing manner, until the great Naccara
of the Prince is heard to sound. As soon as that begins to sound the
fight also begins on both sides; and in no case before the Prince’s
Naccara sounds dare any commence fighting.{3}
So then, as they were thus singing and playing, though ordered and
ready for battle, the great Naccara of the Great Khan began to sound.
And that of Nayan also began to sound. And thenceforward the din of
battle began to be heard loudly from this side and from that. And they
rushed to work so doughtily with their bows and their maces, with their
lances and swords, and with the arblasts of the footmen, that it was
a wondrous sight to see. Now might you behold such flights of arrows
from this side and from that, that the whole heaven was canopied with
them and they fell like rain. Now might you see on this side and on
that full many a cavalier and man-at-arms fall slain, insomuch that
the whole field seemed covered with them. From this side and from that
such cries arose from the crowds of the wounded and dying that had God
thundered, you would not have heard Him! For fierce and furious was the
battle, and quarter there was none given.{4}
But why should I make a long story of it? You must know that it was
the most parlous and fierce and fearful battle that ever has been
fought in our day. Nor have there ever been such forces in the field
in actual fight, especially of horsemen, as were then engaged—for,
taking both sides, there were not fewer than 760,000 horsemen, a mighty
force! and that without reckoning the footmen, who were also very
numerous. The battle endured with various fortune on this side and on
that from morning till noon. But at the last, by God’s pleasure and
the right that was on his side, the Great Khan had the victory, and
Nayan lost the battle and was utterly routed. For the army of the
Great Kaan performed such feats of arms that Nayan and his host could
stand against them no longer, so they turned and fled. But this availed
nothing for Nayan; for he and all the barons with him were taken
prisoners, and had to surrender to the Kaan with all their arms.
Now you must know that Nayan was a baptized Christian, and bore the
cross on his banner; but this nought availed him, seeing how grievously
he had done amiss in rebelling against his Lord. For he was the Great
Kaan’s liegeman,{5} and was bound to hold his lands of him like all his
ancestors before him.{6}
NOTE 1.—“_Une grande_ bretesche.” _Bretesche, Bertisca_ (whence
old English _Brattice_, and _Bartizan_), was a term applied to
any boarded structure of defence or attack, but especially to
the timber parapets and roofs often placed on the top of the
flanking-towers in mediæval fortifications; and this use quite
explains the sort of structure here intended. The term and its
derivative _Bartizan_ came later to be applied to projecting
_guérites_ or watch-towers of masonry. _Brattice_ in English is
now applied to a fence round a pit or dangerous machinery. (See
_Muratori_, _Dissert._ I. 334; _Wedgwood’s Dict. of Etym._ sub. v.
_Brattice_; _Viollet le Duc_, by _Macdermott_, p. 40; _La Curne de
Sainte-Palaye, Dict._; _F. Godefroy, Dict._)
[John Ranking (_Hist. Res. on the Wars and Sports of the Mongols
and Romans_) in a note regarding this battle writes (p. 60): “It
appears that it is an old custom in Persia, to use four elephants
a-breast.” The Senate decreed Gordian III. to represent him
triumphing after the Persian mode, with chariots drawn with four
elephants. _Augustan Hist._ vol. ii. p. 65. See plate, p. 52.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—This circumstance is mentioned in the extract below
from Gaubil. He _may_ have taken it from Polo, as it is not in
Pauthier’s Chinese extracts; but Gaubil has other facts not noticed
in these.
[Elephants came from the Indo-Chinese Kingdoms, Burma, Siam,
Champa. —H. C.]
NOTE 3.—The specification of the Tartar instrument of two strings
is peculiar to Pauthier’s texts. It was no doubt what Dr. Clarke
calls “the _balalaika_ or two-stringed lyre,” the most common
instrument among the Kalmaks.
The sounding of the Nakkára as the signal of action is an old
Pan-Asiatic custom, but I cannot find that this very striking
circumstance of the whole host of Tartars playing and singing in
chorus, when ordered for battle and waiting the signal from the
boom of the Big Drum, is mentioned by any other author.
The _Naḳḳárah_ or _Nagárah_ was a great kettledrum, formed
like a brazen caldron, tapering to the bottom and covered with
buffalo-hide—at least 3½ or 4 feet in diameter. Bernier, indeed,
tells of _Naḳḳáras_ in use at the Court of Delhi that were not
less than a fathom across; and Tod speaks of them in Rájpútána
as “about 8 or 10 feet in diameter.” The Tartar Naḳḳárahs were
usually, I presume, carried on a camel; but as Kúblái had begun to
use elephants, his may have been carried on an elephant, as is
sometimes the case in India. Thus, too, P. della Valle describes
those of an Indian Embassy at Ispahan: “The Indian Ambassador was
also accompanied by a variety of warlike instruments of music
of strange kinds, and particularly by certain Naccheras of such
immense size that each pair had an elephant to carry them, whilst
an Indian astride upon the elephant between the two Naccheras
played upon them with both hands, dealing strong blows on this one
and on that; what a din was made by these vast drums, and what a
spectacle it was, I leave you to imagine.”
Joinville also speaks of the Nakkara as the signal for action:
“So he was setting his host in array till noon, and then he made
those drums of theirs to sound that they call _Nacaires_, and
then they set upon us horse and foot.” The Great Nakkara of the
Tartars appears from several Oriental histories to have been called
_Ḳúrḳah_. I cannot find this word in any dictionary accessible to
me, but it is in the _Ain Akbari_ (_Kawargah_) as distinct from
the _Naḳḳárah_. Abulfazl tells us that Akbar not only had a rare
knowledge of the science of music, but was likewise an excellent
performer—especially on the _Naḳḳárah!_
[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From a Chinese original.)]
The privilege of employing the Nakkara in personal state was one
granted by the sovereign as a high honour and reward.
The crusades naturalised the word in some form or other in most
European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of
meaning. For Wright defines _Naker_ as “a cornet or horn of brass.”
And Chaucer’s use seems to countenance this:—
“Pipes, Trompes, Nakeres, and Clariounes,
That in the Bataille blowen blody sounes.”
—_The Knight’s Tale_.
On the other hand, Nacchera, in Italian, seems always to have
retained the meaning of _kettle-drum_, with the slight exception of
a local application at Siena to a metal circle or triangle struck
with a rod. The fact seems to be that there is a double origin, for
the Arabic dictionaries not only have _Naḳḳárah_, but _Naḳír_ and
_Náḳúr_, “cornu, tuba.” The orchestra of Bibars Bunduḳdári, we are
told, consisted of 40 pairs of kettle-drums, 4 drums, 4 hautbois,
and 20 trumpets (_Naḳír_). (_Sir B. Frere; Della Valle_, II. 21;
_Tod’s Rájasthán_, I. 328; _Joinville_, p. 83; _N. et E._ XIV.
129, and following note; Blochmann’s _Ain-i-Akbari_, pp. 50–51;
_Ducange_, by Haenschel, s.v.; _Makrizi_, I. 173.)
[Dozy (_Supp. aux Dict. Arabes_) has نقّارة [_naqqārè_] “petit
tambour ou timbale, bassin de cuivre ou de terre recouvert d’une
peau tendue,” and “grosses timbales en cuivre portées sur un
chameau ou un mulet.”—Devic (_Dict. Étym._) writes: “Bas Latin,
_nacara_; bas grec, ἀνάχαρα. Ce n’est point comme on l’a dit,
l’Arabe نقير _naqïr_ ou ناقور _náqör_, qui signifient _trompette_,
_clairon_, mais le persan نقاره, en arabe, نقارة _naqāra_,
_timbale_.” It is to be found also in Abyssinia and south of
Gondokoro; it is mentioned in the _Sedjarat Malayu_.
In French, it gives _nacaire_ and _gnacare_ from the Italian
_gnacare_. “Quatre jouent de la guitare, quatre des castagnettes,
quatre des gnacares.” (MOLIÈRE, _Pastorale Comique_.)—H. C.]
[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From an Indian original.)]
NOTE 4.—This description of a fight will recur again and again till
we are very tired of it. It is difficult to say whether the style
is borrowed from the historians of the East or the romancers of the
West. Compare the two following parallels. First from an Oriental
history:—
“The Ear of Heaven was deafened with the din of the great _Kurkahs_
and Drums, and the Earth shook at the clangour of the Trumpets and
Clarions. The shafts began to fall like the rain-drops of spring,
and blood flowed till the field looked like the Oxus.” (_J. A. S._
sér. IV. tom. xix. 256.)
Next from an Occidental Romance:—
“Now rist grete tabour betyng,
Blaweyng of pypes, and ek trumpyng,
Stedes lepyng, and ek arnyng,
Of sharp speres, and avalyng
Of stronge knighttes, and wyghth meetyng;
Launces breche and increpyng;
Knighttes fallyng, stedes lesyng;
Herte and hevedes thorough kervyng;
Swerdes draweyng, lymes lesyng
Hard assaylyng, strong defendyng,
Stiff withstondyng and wighth fleigheyng.
Sharp of takyng armes spoylyng;
So gret bray, so gret crieyng,
Ifor the folk there was dyeyng;
_So muche dent, noise of sweord,
The thondur blast no myghte beo hirde_,
No the sunne hadde beo seye,
For the dust of the poudré!
_No the weolkyn seon be myght,
So was arewes and quarels flyght_.”
—_King Alisaunder, in Weber_, I. 93–94.
And again:—
“The eorthe quaked heom undur,
_No scholde mon have herd the thondur_.”
—_Ibid._ 142.
Also in a contemporary account of the fall of Acre (1291):
“Renovatur ergo bellum terribile inter alterutros ... clamoribus
interjectis hinc et inde ad terrorem; _ita ut nec Deus tonans in
sublime coaudiri potuisset_.” (_De Excidio Acconis_, in _Martene et
Durand_, V. 780.)
NOTE 5.—“_Car il estoit_ homme _au Grant Kaan_.” (See note 2, ch.
xiv., in Prologue.)
NOTE 6.—In continuation of note 4, chap. ii., we give Gaubil’s
conclusion of the story of Nayan: “The Emperor had gone ahead with
a small force, when Nayan’s General came forward with 100,000 men
to make a reconnaissance. The Sovereign, however, put on a bold
front, and though in great danger of being carried off, showed
no trepidation. It was night, and an urgent summons went to call
troops to the Emperor’s aid. They marched at once, the horsemen
taking the foot soldiers on the crupper behind them. Nayan all
this while was taking it quietly in his camp, and his generals did
not venture to attack the Emperor, suspecting an ambuscade. Liting
then took ten resolute men, and on approaching the General’s camp,
caused a Fire-_Pao_ to be discharged; the report caused a great
panic among Nayan’s troops, who were very ill disciplined at the
best. Meanwhile the Chinese and Tartar troops had all come up,
and Nayan was attacked on all sides: by Liting at the head of the
Chinese, by Yusitemur at the head of the Mongols, by Tutuha and
the Emperor in person at the head of his guards and the troops
of _Kincha_ (Kipchak). The presence of the Emperor rendered the
army invincible, and Nayan’s forces were completely defeated. That
prince himself was taken, and afterwards put to death. The battle
took place in the vicinity of the river Liao, and the Emperor
returned in triumph to Shangtu” (207). The Chinese record given in
detail by Pauthier is to the like effect, except as to the Kaan’s
narrow escape, of which it says nothing.
As regards the Fire-_Pao_ (the latter word seems to have been
applied to military machines formerly, and now to artillery), I
must refer to Favé and Reinaud’s very curious and interesting
treatise on the Greek fire (_du Feu Grégeois_). They do not seem
to assent to the view that the arms of this description which are
mentioned in the Mongol wars were cannon, but rather of the nature
of rockets.
[Dr. G. Schlegel (_T’oung Pao_, No. 1, 1902), in a paper entitled,
_On the Invention and Use of Fire-Arms and Gunpowder in China,
prior to the Arrival of Europeans_, says that “now, notwithstanding
all what has been alleged by different European authors against
the use of gunpowder and fire-arms in China, I maintain that not
only the Mongols in 1293 had cannon, but that they were already
acquainted with them in 1232.” Among his many examples, we quote
the following from the Books of the Ming Dynasty: “What were
anciently called _P’ao_ were all machines for hurling stones. In
the beginning of the Mongol Dynasty (A.D. 1260), _p’ao_ (catapults)
of the Western regions were procured. In the siege [in 1233] of the
city of _Ts’ai chow_ of the _Kin_ (Tatars), fire was for the first
time employed (in these _p’ao_), but the art of making them was not
handed down, and they were afterwards seldom used.”—H. C.]
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