Previously to selecting old Saraï for his residence, the khan Barka was at Bolgar, the ancient capital of the kingdom of the Bolgars on the Volga, which had been subdued in 1236 by his brother and predecessor Batou, the “terrible Batou” of the Russians, surnamed by the Tatars, Saïn—The Good. An indigent Russian village stands on the site of the city, in the midst of ruins which impress the traveller by their extent; an impression I received when engaged in the Fourth Archæological Congress (1877), the members of which started upon their excursion from Kazan, and descending the river to Spassky-zaton, visited the locality distant seven miles in a direct line from the river. Considering the importance of these ruins, the large extent of ground they cover, the prodigious quantity of ancient oriental coins and other antiquities that are being continually recovered; considering, also, the testimony of Arabian authors and travellers on the commercial relations of the ancient Bolgars of the Volga, the question has frequently arisen—Why should that people have preferred to establish themselves at so great a distance from the river, after the manner of the inhabitants of the “city of the blind”, instead of selecting a more advantageous site? The enigma has been solved by Professor Golovkinsky (Sur la formation permienne du bassin Kama-Volgien, etc., in the Mém. de la Soc. Minér. de St. Pétersbourg, tom. i; and Anciens débris de l’homme au Gouvt. de Cazan, in the Travaux de la réunion des Natur. de Russie, St. Pétersbourg, 1868), formerly of the University of Kazan, now Rector of that at Odessa. The distinguished geologist shows, that the Volga and the Kama have been subjected to great changes in their course above their junction; that to a comparatively recent period, the eastern bank of the bed where the two rivers united, was close to the height upon which is the village of Bolgar, and that this ancient bed is to be traced to an arm of the Kazanka called the Boulak, and to the lake Kaban, both of which flow through the city of Kazan, and through a partly dried up marsh near the said village.—Bruun.
[(3.)] “a city called Bolar, in which are different kinds of beasts.”—These were probably furred animals, furs having been from all time the staple of commerce at Bolgar (whose locality is now established), at Saraï and Astrahan. Schiltberger leads us to the supposition that those cities had recovered from the state of desolation in which they were left by Timour.—Bruun.
[(4.)] “Ibissibur.”—In chapter 25, Schiltberger describes a country called “Ibissibur”. That there was a city of the name is clearly established by the Catalan atlas and Pizzigani map, in which we find Sebur, near a chain of mountains called “los montes de Sebur”, evidently the South Ural, styled Sibirsky kamian in a Russian work on ancient hydrography (Knyga bolshem. Tchertejou, 151, St. P., 1838).
The Sibir of the Russians, known also as Isker, was situated on the Irtysh, ten miles from Tobolsk; it was the residence of the Shaïbani khans, and was taken in 1581 by a handful of Cossacks under their ataman Yermak, who, in his turn, was besieged by the Tatars, and lost his life in the river during a sortie (1584). His countrymen have erected a monument at Tobolsk in honour of this Russian Cortez.—Bruun.
[(5.)] “Alathena.”—Alla Tana for Tana, which stood where is now Azoff, was a place of great importance in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was completely destroyed by Timour in 1395, but the Venetians returned soon afterwards, as would appear by the statement of Clavijo, that “six Venetian galleys arrived at the great city of Constantinople to meet the ships which were coming from Tana”. They maintained commercial intercourse with Tana even after its destruction by the Tatars in 1410, by the Turks in 1415, and later again by the Tatars; and there is the evidence of De Lannoy (Voy. et Ambass., 43) that in 1421, four Venetian vessels arrived at Caffa from that port. Schiltberger, who visited Tana at this period or shortly afterwards, proves that it had recovered its commercial prosperity, at all events so far as regards the fisheries, a fact supported by Barbaro.—Bruun.
[(6.)] “Vulchat.”—In saying that “Vulchat”, intended for Solkhat, was the capital of “Ephepstzach” or Kiptchak, Schiltberger may not have been aware that this latter name included the whole of South Russia and the Crimea, of which, Solkhat, afterwards Esky Crim, actually became the chief town. Neumann believes the author to have made a mistake, which may have arisen from the fact that in his time there were many princes, as has already been shown, who disputed the sovereignty; and a large portion of Kiptchak may have recognised the authority of one or the other of those princes who had taken up his residence at Solkhat, as for instance, the “viel empereur” to whom De Lannoy (Voy. et Ambass., 42) was accredited as the ambassador of Vithold in 1421, and who died at an unfortunate moment, because the knight leaves us in ignorance of his name. I believe that ruler to have been Ydegou, in the absence of any proof of Hammer’s statement (Gesch. d. G. H., 352), that Vithold’s old ally was the chief of an independent state on the shores of the Black Sea so late as the year 1423.—Bruun.
[(7.)] “Four thousand houses are in the suburbs.”—The importance attached to Caffa and the description of that city, is confirmed from other sources, except with regard to the estimated number of houses within the walls, and in the suburbs. That there were “two kinds of Jews” (the Talmudists and the Karaïms) is a well-authenticated fact. The four towns at the sea-side, dependant on Caffa, must have been Lusce, Gorzuni, Partenice, and Ialita, now known as Aloushta, Gourzouff, Partenite, and Yalta, all on the south coast of the peninsula, and the only places, besides Caffa, at which Genoese consuls were stationed.—Bruun.
[(8.)] “Karckeri.”—Kyrkyer, now Tchyfout Kaleh—Jew’s Fortress—at one time the residence of the Crimean khans, is at present occupied by three or four Karaïm families only. It is situated in the hilly part of the Crimea, which was called Gothia in the 15th century, a name carelessly transcribed in the text as “Sudi”, where the people were derisively called by the Tatars “That” or “Tatt”, a Turkish designation for a conquered race.—Bruun.
[(9.)] “That.”—Mourtadd is the Turkish for renegade. Pallas (Voy. d. les gouv. méridionaux de l’emp. de Russie, ii, 150) found that the Crimean Tatars applied the contemptuous term of Tadd to the Tatars on the south coast, because they did not consider them of pure descent, in consequence of the intercourse of their ancestors with the Greeks and Genoese during the occupation by those Christian people of that part of the peninsula.—Ed.
[(10.)] “Serucherman.”—The author was well informed in saying that the martyrdom of St. Clement took place here, the Saroukerman of Aboulfeda who had never been in those parts; the “Kersona civitas Clementis” of Rubruquis (Recueil de Voy. et de Mém., etc., iv) and which had been constituted a bishop’s see in 1333.—Bruun.