1 Francis W. Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan of the Bārin in the Yüan Shih”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 19.3–4 (1956), p. 186; Igor de Rachewiltz et al., (eds.), In the Service of the Khan: Eminent Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yuan Period (1200–1300) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993), p. 584; Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo: Ouvrage Posthume, vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1959), pp. 67–68.

2 A. C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, Marco Polo: the Description of the World, vol. 1 (London: Routledge, 1938), pp. 310–312; Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, p. 68.

3 George Lane, “Whose Secret Intent?”, in Morris Rossabi (ed.), Eurasian Influences on Yuan China (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013), pp. 21–22.

4 De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service of the Khan, pp. 585, 603.

5 Francis W. Cleaves has provided translations of most of the major Chinese sources relating to Bayan in his article “The Biography of Bayan of the Bārin”, but he makes no mention of any wife in Persia.

6 ‘Ala-ad-Din ’Ata-Malik Juvainī, The History of the World-Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958).

7 Rashīd al-Dīn, Sbornik letopiseĭ, vol. 1, part 1, trans. L. A. Khetagurov (Moscow: Akademia Nauk SSSR, 1952); = Рашид ад-Дин, Сборник летописей, том 1, книга 1, пер. с персидского Λ. А. Хетагурова (Москва: Издательство Академии Наук CCCP, 1952); Rashīd al-Dīn. The Successors of Genghis Khan, trans. J. A. Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971).

8 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston, 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998–1999), vol. 1, p. 105; see also Rashīd al-Dīn, Jāmi' al-Tavārīkh, vol. 1, part 1, Kriticheskii Tekst, ed. A. A. Romaskevich, L. A. Khetagurov and A. Ali-zade (Moscow: Akademia Nauk SSSR, 1965); = Рашид ад-Дин, Джами’ ат-Таварих, том 1, книга 1, Критический Текст, ред. А. А. Ромаскевич, Λ. А. Хетагуров и А. Али-заде (Москва: Издательство Академии Наук CCCP, 1965), pp. 522, 524.

9 Following Khetagurov; Rashīd al-Dīn, Sbornik letopiseĭ, vol. 1, part 1, p. 188.

10 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami”u t-tawarikh, vol. 1, p. 136.

11 It must be noted that Cleaves is in error in apparently making her into a niece of Qubilai Qaγan himself: “Chao-jui shun-sheng huang-hou” (Pinyin Zhaorui shunsheng huanghou) was Čabi's title – see Song Lian 宋濂 et al. (eds.), Yuan shi 元史 (hereafter YS; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1976), vol. 10, j. 114, p. 2871 – and this princess was the daughter of Čabi's elder sister, not “his” (i.e. Qubilai's) elder sister, as Cleaves states. Hsiao explains this correctly. See de Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 585.

12 Translations of titles generally follow David M. Farquhar, The Government of China under Mongolian Rule: a Reference Guide (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1990), except where otherwise noted.

13 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 199, 206, 276, 285; Yuan Mingshan 元明善, Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei 丞相淮安忠武王碑, in Li Xiusheng 李修生 (ed), Quan Yuan wen 全元文, vol. 24 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 2001), pp. 347, 350.

14 Cleaves says 1277, but this is an error, perhaps a misprint.

15 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 191–192; Liu Minzhong 劉敏中, Ping Song lu 平宋錄, (Shoushange congshu 守山閣叢書 ed, reprinted in Zhongguo yeshi jicheng 中國野史集成, vol. 12, Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 1993), j. zhong, p. 115.

16 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 199, 285; Yuan Mingshan, Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei, p. 350.

17 YS, vol. 2, j. 18, p. 394.

18 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 285; Yuan Mingshan, Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei, p. 350.

19 Ibid., pp. 346–352; Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 275–292.

20 YS, vol. 14, j. 181, p. 4173.

21 Yuan Mingshan Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei, p. 351; Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 285. These titles are somewhat confusing. Assistant Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs (shumi fushi 樞密副使) was the highest of them in rank, immediately superior to Junior Assistant Director (qianshu shumiyuan shi 僉書樞密院事); Deputy Assistant Director (tong qianshu shumiyuan shi 同僉書樞 密院事) was one grade lower still (Farquhar, The Government of China, p. 247).

22 Baron C. D'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, depuis Tchinguiz-Khan jusqu'à Timur Bey ou Tamerlan, vol. 2 (The Hague and Amsterdam: Van Cleef 1834), p. 397.

23 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 205; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099.

24 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 205 n16.

25 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 1, p. 105.

26 YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099.

27 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 204 n10.

28 De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 584.

29 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 1, pp. 243–244; Juvainī, History of the World-Conqueror, vol. 1, pp. 91–93.

30 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 3, p. 482; Juvainī, History of the World-Conqueror, vol. 1, p. 146.

31 Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 97, 107, 110–111; De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, pp. 123–124.

32 Michal Biran, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: between China and the Islamic World (Cambridge: University Press, 2005), pp. 41–42; Yuri Bregel, An Historical Atlas of Central Asia (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003), pp. 28–34.

33 Étienne De La Vaissière, Sogdian Traders: a History, trans. J. Ward (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2005), pp. 161–162.

34 Valerie Hansen, “New Work on the Sogdians, the Most Important Traders on the Silk Road, A.D. 500–1000”, T'oung Pao, 2nd series, 89.1–3 (2003), p. 159.

35 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 198, 272; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3116; Yuan Mingshan, Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei, p. 350.

36 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 198; Hsiao, however, gives 1236 (De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 585; at the head of the biography on p. 584, however, Bayan's years are given as 1237–1295).

37 Fang Shiming 方詩銘 and Fang Xiaofen 方小芬, (eds.), Zhonguo shi liri he Zhong Xi liri duizhaobiao 中國史歴日和中西歴日對照表 (Shanghai: Renmin chubanshe, 2007), p. 562.

38 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, pp. 205, 276; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099; Yuan Mingshan, Chengxiang Huaian Zhongwu wang bei, p. 347.

39 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 207; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099; Farquhar, The Government of China, p. 170.

40 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 207; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099; Cleaves says “he was promoted”, but the YS uses the word qian 遷, which does not imply promotion. In fact, this post was probably roughly equal in rank to that of Senior Chief Chancellor. At the time, it was the highest position in the Bureau of Military Affairs, and was newly-created (see YS, vol. 7, j. 86, p. 2155; Farquhar, The Government of China, p. 247). I have deleted the word “Associate” from Farquhar's translation of the title of the post, as it was not an associate position until later.

41 See, for example, A. C. Moule, Quinsai, With Other Notes on Marco Polo (Cambridge: University Press, 1957), pp. 80–88; Peter Lorge, War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795, (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 83–86.

42 On which see, for example, Moule, Quinsai, pp. 70–79; Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, pp. 10–11; De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, pp. 550–555.

43 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 449; see also Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 289.

44 Farquhar, The Government of China, p. 170.

45 De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 540; YS, vol. 12, j. 157, p. 3696.

46 De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 543; YS, vol. 15, j. 205, p. 4558.

47 See Gerhard Doerfer, Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung älterer neupersischer Geschichtsquellen, vor allem der Mongolen- und Timuridenzeit, Band III, Türkische Elemente im Neupersischen, &gcaron;īm bis kāf (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1967), p. 327; Rashīd al-Dīn, Djami el-Tévarikh, Histoire générale du monde, Tome 2, Contenant l'histoire des empereurs mongols successeurs de Tchinkkiz Khaghan, ed. by E. Blochet (Leyden: Brill; London: Luzac, 1911), p. 477n, appendice 51. Blochet rejects the possibility that Rashīd al-Dīn might have misunderstood Zhongshu pingzhang, privy councillor of the Central Secretariat, or Shangshu pingzhang, and for some reason dropped the zhong or shang He suggests shou pingzhang 首平章 (“head privy councillor”), which might perhaps be possible: there is a single occurrence of this term in the YS, vol. 15, j. 205, p. 4586, but relating to the year 1355, long after the time of Aḥmad. I have been unable to find it anywhere else. It could not mean “awake vizier”, or anything similar.

48 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 449; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 290.

49 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, pp. 449–450; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 290.

50 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 450; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 291. There are several Chinese sources relating to the siege and fall of Xiangyang including not only the YS, but also Liu Yiqing 劉一清, Qiantang yishi 錢塘遺事, in Zhongguo yeshi jicheng, vol. 10, pp. 194–254; and Zhou Mi's account of the “Two Zhangs”. See Zhou Mi 周密, Qi dong ye yu 齊東野語, in Biji xiaoshuo daguan 13 bian 筆記小説大觀 13 編, vol. 4, pp. 2033–2354 (Taibei: Xinxing shuju, 1983), j. 18, pp. 2321–2323; for an English summary, see Stephen G. Haw, “Cathayan Arrows and Meteors: the Origins of Chinese Rocketry”, Journal of Chinese Military History 2 (2013), pp. 39–40. Zhou Mi wrote in about 1290, and states that his information came from old soldiers who had taken part in this campaign. Then, of course, there are all the biographical materials relating to the major participants. Many of these were among the sources of the YS.

51 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 450; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 291.

52 YS, vol. 1, j. 8, p. 148; j. 12, p. 241.

53 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 450; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 291.

54 I am not sure that Moule was right to calculate a total of 34 years (25 plus 9) (Moule, Quinsai, p. 77): it is not clear to me that this is in accord with Rashīd al-Dīn's meaning.

55 YS, vol.15, j. 205, pp. 4558, 4563.

56 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 449; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 288–289.

57 De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, p. 550.

58 YS, vol. 15, j. 205, p. 4563; De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, pp. 550–551.

59 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 450; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 291.

60 Stephen G. Haw, Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 160–161.

61 Moule and Pelliot, Marco Polo, pp. 214–216.

62 'Izz al-Dīn 'Alī Ibn al-Athīr, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil f'il-Tarikh, Part 3, The Years 589–629/1193–1231: The Ayyubids after Saladin and the Mongol Menace, trans. D. S. Richards (Farnham: Ashgate, 2008), p. 202.

63 Ibid., p. 203.

64 Ibid., pp. 269–270.

65 Ibid., p. 270.

66 Moule and Pelliot, Marco Polo, pp. 215–216.

67 Moule, Quinsai, pp. 78–79; Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, pp. 395–396; Haw, Marco Polo's China, p. 160.

68 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 453–454; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 297.

69 Moule and Pelliot, Marco Polo, p. 215.

70 Ibid., pp. 216–217.

71 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 195.

72 A. C. Moule, “The Siege of Saianfu and the Murder of Achmach Bailo (Two chapters of Marco Polo)”, Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 58 (1927), p. 15; Moule, Quinsai, p. 87.

73 YS, vol. 11, j. 133, p. 3238.

74 YS, vol. 1, j. 8, p. 157.

75 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 207; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099.

76 That is, the first month of the Chinese year which began on 9 February 1274.

77 That is, at Xiangyang and Fancheng, which, in fact, are today merged into a single conurbation called Xiangfan. Here, the Ping Song lu anticipates this merger.

78 Liu Minzhong, Ping Song lu, j. shang, pp. 107–108.

79 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 438; see also Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 270.

80 Wuchang is now part of the great conurbation of Wuhan, on both banks of the Yangtze.

81 Stephen G. Haw, “The Deaths of Two Khaghans: a Comparison of Events in 1242 and 1260”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 76.3 (2013), pp. 365–366.

82 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 414–415; Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, pp. 225–227.

83 Ibid., Successors, p. 248; Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 425.

84 Moule, Quinsai, pp. 82–84; YS, vol. 10, j. 128, pp. 3124–3125.

85 YS, vol. 1, j. 8, p. 153.

86 There is a biography of Shi Tianze in De Rachewiltz et al., In the Service, pp. 27–45.

87 Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 271; see also Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 439.

88 YS, vol. 1, j. 8, pp. 154–155.

89 Paul Ratchnevsky, “Jurisdiction, Penal Code, and Cultural Confrontation under Mongol-Yüan Law”, Asia Major, 3rd series, 6.1 (1993), p. 176.

90 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 2, p. 439; see also Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 272.

91 Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, pp. 177, 233.

92 A translation of one of the longest relevant passages can be found in Francis W. Cleaves, “The Lingǰi of Aruγ of 1340”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964–1965), p. 77.

93 Liu Yingli 劉應李, Da Yuan hunyi fangyu shenglan 大元混一方輿勝覽, rev. Zhan Youliang 詹友諒 (Chengdu: Sichuan daxue chubanshe, 2003), p. 466.

94 On the Qara-ǰang and Čaγān-ǰang, see Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, pp. 169–177.

95 Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964), p. 207 [character no. 782a]; Axel Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), pp. 153–154.

96 See Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, p. 238.

97 It seems likely that these places are to be sought somewhere in South-east Asia. I would very tentatively suggest that “Kalang” might be a corruption of a Persian version of Zhancheng 占城, Champa (central Vietnam). The other obvious omission from the list is Mian 缅, Burma (modern Myanmar). Could “Kyay” be a corruption of “Mian”?

98 Haw, “The Deaths of Two Khaghans”, pp. 364–365.

99 Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett, (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368 (Cambridge: University Press. 1994), p. 434.

100 Rashīd al-Dīn, Successors, p. 12.

101 Ibid., p. 11.

102 Ibid., Successors, p. 10.

103 These are not without value and interest, of course, but they are not history.

104 On the Mongols before Činggis Qan, see Louis Hambis, “L'Histoire des Mongols avant Gengis-Khan d'après les sources chinoises et mongoles, et la documentation conservée par Rašīdu-d-'Dīn”, Central Asiatic Journal 14.1–3 (1970), pp. 125–133.

105 John A. Boyle, “Rashīd al-Dīn and the Franks”, Central Asiatic Journal 14.1–3 (1970), pp. 62, 67.

106 It seems apparent to me that scholars of Persian, and, indeed, other scholars with no knowledge of Chinese, usually have no conception of the sheer quantity of Chinese materials relating to the Mongols. David Morgan, for example, has dismissed the claim that “most of the material dealing with the Mongols is written in Chinese” (David Morgan, “The Mongol Empire: a Review Article”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44.1 [1981], p. 124), but it is certainly true. In contrast, Joseph Fletcher referred to “the Persian histories and the more voluminous but less exploited material in Chinese …” (J. Fletcher, “The Mongols: Ecological and Social Perspectives”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 46 [1986], p. 27). The YS alone is probably more voluminous than the works of Juvainī, Rashīd al-Dīn and Waṣṣāf put together, but it is far from being the only Chinese source for the Mongols.

107 It should be noted however, that Rashīd al-Dīn also appears to have had good information about the Mongols themselves, from the time of Činggis Qan onward. Most of the material incorporated into the Shengwu qinzheng lu 聖武親征錄 was evidently available to him, for example. See I. de Rachewiltz, “On the Sheng-wu Ch'in-cheng Lu”, East Asian History 28 (2004), p. 35.

108 Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo Go to China? (London: Secker & Warburg, 1995), pp. 143–145.

109 See, for example, David Morgan, “Persian as a Lingua Franca in the Mongol Empire”, in B. Spooner and W.L. Hanaway (eds.), Literacy in the Persianate World: Language and the Social Order (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2012), pp. 166–168; Hyunhee Park Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-modern Asia (Cambridge: University Press, 2012), p. 97.

110 Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge: University Press, 2001), pp. 84–85.

111 Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami'u't-tawarikh, vol. 1, p. 26.

112 Of course, it may also be that Rashīd al-Dīn used “Turk” in a sense different from its modern usage, to mean (roughly) a “steppe nomad”, or something similar, but there are problems with that possibility, too, for not all Turkic peoples were nomadic.

113 Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: his Life and Times (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1988), p. 87.

114 Cleaves, “The Biography of Bayan”, p. 201; YS, vol. 10, j. 127, p. 3099.