Note (3) — 26.—How one lord succeeds another lord.

(3.) “Thebachk, who fought with him for the kingdom and killed him.”—It is stated in Penzel’s Edition (1814) of Schiltberger, that Tamir, the brother of Polet, reigned fourteen months and was then expelled by Jalal uddin, who occupied the throne for a like period, fourteen months, and was then deposed by his brother, “Thebachk”. Coins and annals establish the fact of the existence of a brother of Poulad, named Timour, who, having ruled in the Crimea in 1407, forcibly seized upon the throne of the Golden Horde in 1411, and was dethroned the following year by Jalal uddin, the Zelenii Soultann of the Russian annalists (Savelieff, Mon. Joud., ii, 329), who would not be entitled to reproach Schiltberger for the free and easy manner in which he deals with the names of the suzerain lords. The brother and murderer of Jalal uddin, named “Thebachk” in the text, was probably no other than Kepak, some of whose coins, struck at Bolgar and Astrahan, are preserved, but the year is unfortunately wanting. Chroniclers make no mention of this prince, attributing the death of Jalal uddin to another brother, Kerym byrdy, who, according to our author, must in his turn have been expelled by “Thebachk”; yet Russian annalists have asserted that Kerym byrdy was killed by another brother, whose name was Yerym ferdyn or Yarym ferden. From the resemblance of the name Jebbar or Tchebbar, by which he was known to Mussulman authors, to that of his elder brother Kepek, Schiltberger may have mistaken the former for the latter, calling him also “Thebachk”.—Bruun.