On the Massacre of the Alan Warriors during the Mongol Conquest of the Southern Song Empire

• Main Author: Kaziev E.V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: State Institution «Sh.Marjani Institute of History of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences» 2020-06-01
• Series: Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie
• Subjects: alans; mongols; conquest of southern song; massacre in zhenchao
• Online Access: http://goldhorde.ru/en/stati2020-2-1/
• ISSN: 2308-152X; 2313-6197

Research objectives: To ascertain the circumstances of the mass destruction of Alan warriors that occurred at the final stage of the Mongol conquest of Southern China. Research materials: Official chronicles of the Chinese Song and Yuan dynasties, the “Book of the Marvels of the World” by Marco Polo. Results and novelty of the research: Based on the information contained in the Chinese chronicles and in the narrative by Marco Polo, the author discusses the issue of the circumstances of the Alan warriors’ destruction that occurred during the anti-Mongol rebellion in the southern Chinese city of Zhenchao. The study of this issue seems relevant, since these sources, while reproducing the outline of that event, diverge in the description of a number of its important circumstances. In addition, the Russian and English translations by A.I. Ivanov and A. Alemany of the information about that event contained in the biographies of the Alan military leaders of the “History of the Yuan” do not precisely adhere to the original source texts. They contain obvious contradictions and inaccuracies related to the interpretation of certain circumstances of that event, as well as to the interpretation of information about its consequences both for the Alan military leaders’ families and for Zhenchao’s residents. A comparison of the information about that event, available from the original texts of the Alan military leaders’ biographies in the “History of the Yuan”, augmented by their Russian and English translations, and with the information about that event available in the “History of Song” and in the full version of Marco Polo’s narrative, edited by orientalists A. Moule and P. Pelliot, makes it possible to present a feasible reconstruction of a number of the main circumstances of that event.