Note 1 — Chapter XLVI

A passage in Mirkhond extracted by Erdmann (Temudschín, p. 532) seems to make Bálá Sághún the same as Bishbálik, now Urumtsi, but this is inconsistent with other passages abstracted by Oppert (Presbyter Johan. 131–32); and Vámbéry indicates a reason for its being sought very much further west (H. of Bokhara, 116). [Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res.) has a chapter on Kara-Khitaí (I. 208 seqq.) and in a long note on Bala Sagun, which he calls Belasagun, he says (p. 226) that “according to the Tarikh Djihan Kúshai (d’Ohsson, i. 433), the city of Belasagun had been founded by Buku Khan, sovereign of the Uigurs, in a well-watered plain of Turkestan with rich pastures. The Arabian geographers first mention Belasagun, in the ninth or tenth century, as a city beyond the Sihun or Yaxartes, depending on Isfidjab (Sairam, according to Lerch), and situated east of Taras. They state that the people of Turkestan considered Belasagun to represent ‘the navel of the earth,’ on account of its being situated in the middle between east and west, and likewise between north and south.” (Sprenger’s Poststr. d. Or., Mavarannahar). Dr. Bretschneider adds (p. 227): “It is not improbable that ancient Belasagun was situated at the same place where, according to the T’ang history, the Khan of one branch of the Western T’u Kuë (Turks) had his residence in the seventh century. It is stated in the T’ang shu that Ibi Shabolo Shehu Khan, who reigned in the first half of the seventh century, placed his ordo on the northern border of the river Sui ye. This river, and a city of the same name, are frequently mentioned in the T’ang annals of the seventh and eighth centuries, in connection with the warlike expeditions of the Chinese in Central Asia. Sui ye was situated on the way from the river Ili to the city of Ta-lo-sz’ (Talas). In 679 the Chinese had built on the Sui ye River a fortress; but in 748 they were constrained to destroy it.” (Comp. Visdelou in Suppl. Bibl. Orient. pp. 110–114; Gaubil’s Hist. de la Dyn. des Thang, in Mém. conc. Chin. xv. p. 403 seqq.).—H. C.]