Note 6 — Chapter LXX
Henry Yule translation
Professor Sprenger informs me that the first mention of the
Manjanik
in Mahomedan history is at the siege of Táyif by Mahomed himself,
A.D.
630 (and see
Sprenger’s Mohammed
[German], III. 330). The
Annales Marbacenses
in
Pertz
, xvii. 172, say under 1212, speaking of wars of the Emperor Otho in Germany: “Ibi tunc cepit haberi usus instrumenti bellici quod vulgo
tribok
appellari solet.”
There is a ludicrous Oriental derivation of Manjanik, from the Persian: “Man chi nek!” “How good am I!” Ibn Khallikan remarks that the word must be foreign, because the letters j and ḳ (ج and ق) never occur together in genuine Arabic words (Notes by Mr. E. Thomas, F.R.S.). It may be noticed that the letters in question occur together in another Arabic word of foreign origin used by Polo, viz. Játhalíḳ.