Currency – Tael: China. Bezants: Byzantium. Drachma: Arabic. England: Silver penny. France: Livre, and I cannot tell you how much it delights me that today this word in French means “book.” Now that’s currency. Florence: Florins. Venice: Accommodate all currencies but rely on gemstones. In A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara Tuchman writes, “…the non-specialist reader would be well advised not to worry about it, because the names of coins and currency mean nothing anyway except in terms of purchasing power.” Surely a bargain in Baghdad that begins with a search for bezants to buy malachite beads which is concluded with a horse race sufficiently illuminates her statement.
Curzola – Now Korkula, an island in Croatia.
Dai Fang – Wu Li’s second wife. Johanna’s step-mother. Gokudo’s lover.
Dayir – Aide to Bayan. Friend of Marco Polo. Ogodei’s father.
Ambroise De L’Arête – Lord of Château L’Arête by marriage.
Deshi the Scout – Caravan master to Wu Li.
Edward I of England – King of England, 1272–1307. Known also as Longshanks. Yes, he was in Acre in 1271 at the same time as the Polos, and as fellow strangers in a strange land are surely drawn together in faraway places even today, Edward and the Polos could have met. Maffeo and Niccolo had already been to the court of the Khan and they could have dined out forever on tales of Cathay. Why not at table with kings? Marco Polo certainly did after he got home.
Edward II of England – King of England, 1307–1237. Oh my yes, lots of competing stories here. When you tour Nottingham Castle, the guide will tell you definitively that Edward II was killed in September 1327 by having a red-hot poker shoved up his rectum. Barbarity in the Middle Ages was not reserved to Mongols. But! In the 1800s a letter written to Edward III from a papal prelate was found, telling of Edward III’s father killing his jailer and escaping into the night, eventually ending his days as a monk in Italy. It is even rumored that Edward III met with Edward II in Koblenz in 1338. Note: He was imprisoned by Isabella and Mortimer first in Kenilworth and then in Berkeley, but for the purposes of my plot I have imprisoned him only in Berkeley.
Edward III of England – King of England, 1327–1377. True, he was only fourteen in 1327, but fourteen then and fourteen now are two very different things. He was the heir to a throne and had his share of the Plantagenet good looks. Very little would have been denied him. He could have had Johanna on the nearest flat surface in five minutes and no one would have lifted a finger to stop him. But he was also a lover of all things Arthurian and the creator of the Order of the Garter in the Round Table’s image, and I have chosen to imagine him as being amused by and respectful of Jaufre’s prior claim.
Edyk the Portuguese – Trader residing in Cambaluc.
Ell – See Bureau of Weights and Measures above. The distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger, or about 18 inches. A standard unit of measurement for textiles in the Middle Ages, and never mind the differences between Scots, English, Flemish, Polish, German and French ells.
Eneas – Wu Li’s agent in Alexandria.
Europe – A name I did not discover has been in use since Anaximander until I was writing Book III. What a futile thing is research.
Fakhir – Wu Li’s agent in Antioch.
Farhad bin Mohammed – Son of Sheik Mohammed of Talikan.
Fatima – Daughter of Malala and Ahmed, betrothed of Azar, friend to Johanna.
Félicien – Old lord of L’Arête.
Félicien – A Frank from Dijon. Goliard, or student traveling the world. Has studied liberal arts in Paris and medicine in Salerno.
Félicienne – Daughter to the lord of L’Arête.
Firas – A Nazari Ismaili from Alamut, the hereditary home of the Old Man of the Mountain, leader of the Assassins.
Florian – Lieutenant for Ambroise de L’Arête.
Shidibala Gegeen Khan The Khan in Cambaluc when Johanna and company departed. I have waved my authorial wand and made his tenure in office even shorter than it actually was.
Gokudo – Samurai, now ronin, expert in naginata (spear). Family killed and exiled from Cipangu in 1192. Dai Fang’s lover and hatchet man.
Giovanni Gradenigo – Ship’s captain, and member of a powerful Venetian shipping family.
Grigori the Tatar – Wu Li’s agent in Kabul.
Guilham – Page to Ambroise de L’Arête.
Gujarat – Now a province in northwest India.
Hari – Chughi monk, itinerant preacher, self-styled priest.
Hayat – An inmate of Sheik Mohammed’s harem. A weaver.
Hasan. Wu Li’s agent in Tabriz.
Hicca – A boy of Glynnow.
Hilde – Servant of L’Arête.
Ibn Battuta – Berber slave trader, 1304-1369, known for writing The Rihla (The Journey), an account of his extensive travels throughout the medieval, mostly Muslim world. I have advanced his first visit to Kabul purely for the convenience of my plot.
Ibn Tabib – Doctor in Kabul.
Philippe Imbert – Agent for the Gradenigo interests in Lyon.
Ishan – Stablemaster to Sheik Mohammed of Talikan.
Jaufre of Cambaluc – Son of Agalia and Robert de Beauville. Orphaned on the Silk Road, rescued by Wu Li, raised as Johanna’s foster brother.
Jibran – Headman of the village of Aab.
Joan Burgh – English pilgrim on the Jerusalem Journey. Based on the real life Margery Kempe.
Johanna of Cambaluc – Daughter of Wu Li and Shu Ming, granddaughter of Marco Polo and Shu Lin. Known in Sheik Mohammed’s harem as Nazirah.
John XXII – Pope in Avignon from 1316–1334.
Kabul – Now the capital of Afghanistan. Holdout against attack from every invading force from Alexander the Great on, including Genghis Khan, the USSR and the USA. In spite of being a mile high, highs averages in the 60’s (F) as soon as March.
Kadar – The chief eunuch in Sheik Mohammed’s harem.
Kerra – A girl of Glynnow, Johanna’s stablehand.
Khuree – The summer capital of the Mongols. Now Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Kinsai – Now Hangzhou, or Hangchow, China.
Koran – Or Quran. All quotations from quran.com.
Lanchow – Now Lanzhou, China.
League – The distance one person could walk in an hour, also defined as about three miles. I have rounded up and down. The Khan’s yambs were built every 25 miles, therefore in Silk and Song every eight leagues. The Khan’s imperial mailmen rode 200 miles daily, hence sixty leagues. Close enough for government work and fiction.
The Levant – From Wikipedia: “A geographic and cultural region consisting of the eastern Mediterranean between Anatolia and Egypt...The Levant consists today of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Cyprus and parts of southern Turkey. Iraq and the Sinai Peninsula are also sometimes included.”
Madhar. Wu Li’s agent in Calicut.
Mangu – Cook in Wu Li’s caravan.
Marco Polo – Venetian merchant, c.1254–1324. Traveled to China with his father and uncle where they spent twenty years working for Kublai Khan. He did say upon his deathbed, “I did not tell half of what I saw.”
Did Marco leave a daughter behind when he finally went home? I’d be surprised if he didn’t leave a dozen. In any edition of his memoir, no matter how bowdlerized, it is clear that he loved the ladies, and during the twenty years he was from home he must have gotten lucky at least a couple of times. If he didn’t, yes, by Marco’s own account Kublai Khan did in fact exact tributes of nubile young women from his various suzerainties, enjoy their company, and then award them as gifts to his vassals. This was deemed to be the highest honor. Marco was a personable and capable young man, high in the Khan’s favor. It is reasonable to suppose he might have been so rewarded, so I have the taken the liberty to suppose it here.
The Travels of Marco Polo – Published as Il Milione in 1300, and Marco himself was nicknamed “Marco Milione” because of the exaggerated
figures he used in description. His stories were at first disbelieved and derided, especially by comparison to Sir John Mandeville’s book, which was of course the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth itself. Much later, when advanced scholarship discredited Mandeville as a fabulist and a plagiarist, Marco’s far better informed star (and story) rose by comparison. You can see Christopher Columbus’ copy, with marginalia by Columbus himself, in the Biblioteca Columbina in Seville.
Donata Polo – Marco Polo’s second wife. Mother of Fantina, Bellela, and Moreta.
Moreta Polo – Daughter of Marco and Donata Polo.
Middle Sea – The Mediterranean. Also called the Western Sea.
Mien – Now Myanmar, or Burma.
Mintan – A short-waisted, long-sleeved coat. Ottoman.
Mohammed – Sheik of Talikan. Father of Sabir.
Sheik Mohammed bin Assad of Talikan. Father of Farhad.
Mongol battle tactics and strategy – Surrender or die. If you surrendered, you would continue to live, albeit under Mongol rule, which was, amazingly, pretty reasonable. If you fought, if you crossed them or betrayed them in any way, they would annihilate you with whatever means they had to hand. They mounted hundreds of thousands of soldiers with extensive training. Their engineers were superb. They didn’t travel with siege engines, they built them from available materials when it came time to use them. They’d catapult anything into a city they thought would kill and spread terror, naphtha bombs, stoppered urns filled with poisonous snakes and spiders that burst upon impact, bodies dead from the plague (weapons that stretch back to antiquity, FYI, the Mongols didn’t have to invent them). When the city fell, as it almost invariably did, the Mongols would send in execution squads to kill off any remaining survivors, including women and children. Sometimes they’d save the soldiers and the engineers and put them to work. Sometimes the conquered soldiers would be placed in front in the attack on the next target, keeping the Mongols’ own soldiers in reserve until the besieged ran out of ammunition. You really, really didn’t want to get on their bad side, and it astonishes me how many cities didn’t just strike their colors at the first hint of a Mongol flag on the horizon.
Mongols and torture – Yes, they did those things. Those exact things. And more.
Mysore – Then as now, a city in northwest India.
Niu Gang. Wu Li’s factotum.
Ogodei – Son of Dayir, friend to Wu Li. A captain of the ten thousand risen to one of the twelve barons of the Shiang. Named for Ghengis Khan’s successor.
Paiza – The royal Mongol passport. The Mongols called it a gerrega. Also a yarlik.
Pascau – A boatman of Avignon.
Peter – Marco Polo’s Mongol servant.
Philosophy – The words “science” and “scientists” would not be invented for another five hundred years. I have used “philosopher” here as a catch-all for anyone studying the hard sciences.
Rambahadur – Raj Havildar of the first caravan into Kabul in 1323.
Robert de Beauville – Knight Templar, Jaufre’s father, Agalia’s husband.
Messire Roland – A fencing master in Venice.
Roubin – Page to Ambroise de L’Arête.
Sabir – Sheik Mohammed’s son and heir.
Sarik A headscarf. Ottoman.
Eremo di Sant’ Alberto – The Hermitage of St. Albert in Pavia, Italy. A real place I shanghaied for my own fell purpose.
Shang-tu – The summer capital of the Mongols. Now Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Also called Khuree.
Shensi – Now Shaanxi, China.
Shidibala Gegeen Khan – The Khan in Cambulac when Johanna and company departed. I have waved my authorial wand and made his tenure in office even shorter than it actually was.
Shu Lin – Shu Ming’s mother, Marco Polo’s concubine, the Khan’s gift to Marco Polo, Johanna’s grandmother.
Shu Ming – Johanna’s mother, Wu Li’s wife, Shu Lin’s daughter, Marco Polo’s daughter. Shu Shao’s adopted elder sister.
Shu Shao – Also called “Shasha.” Johanna’s foster sister. Nurse, friend, healer, wise woman.
Silk Road – The trade route(s) between Europe and China. “Silk Road” is a term that did not come into common use until the twentieth century. Here I use the more generic Road.
Giovanni Soranzo – Doge of Venice 1312–1328.
Talan – A boy of Glynnow, Johanna’s stablehand.
Talikan – I have appropriated the name of today’s tiny (pop. 43) village in northeast Iran for Sheik Mohammed’s great walled city of 1323, which exists somewhere in Dana World south and west of the Terak Pass and south and east of the Caspian Sea.
Templars – Their order existed for nearly 200 years, from between the First and Second Crusades until their dissolution in 1307 (or 1312 or 1314, take your pick). They weren’t all slaughtered, contrary to the fervent wishes of Philip the Fair of France, and after the dissolution many were allowed to join the Knights of the Hospital and other orders. As late as 1338, former Templars were still drawing pensions in England. Surely others, perhaps those who felt themselves more at risk, must have seen the writing on the wall and decamped early enough to escape the coming purge. It isn’t much of a stretch to imagine them hiring their experienced swords as caravan guards after their Templar gig fell through. It is no stretch at all to imagine some of them absconding with whatever treasure was near to hand on their way out the door.
Time – See Bureau of Weights and Measures above. In Europe: divided into times for prayer. Matins: midnight. Lauds: 3am. Prime: Sunrise. Terce: Mid-morning. Sext: Noon. None: Mid-afternoon. Vespers: Sunset. Compline: Bedtime.
Tiphaine – Venetian street kid.
Tregloyne – Master of Glynnow in Cornwall, England.
Turgesh or Turkic – Turkey, or Turkish.
Umar al-Khayyam – Omar Khayyám, author of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, a verse of which Johanna translates so ably under Alma’s direction.
Wilmot of Bavaria – Knight Templar.
Wu Cheng – Wu Li’s brother. A eunuch who was gelded by his parents for advancement at court. Fell out of favor when the old Khan died and with the help of his brother went into business as a trader on the Road.
Wu Hai – Marco Polo’s friend and Wu Li’s father.
Wu Li – Johanna’s father, Shu Ming’s husband, and later Dai Fang’s husband.
Zeilan On what is now the Somali-Ethiopian border.
Timeline
Fictional events are displayed in italics.
1215
Kublai Khan born
1254
Marco Polo born
1270
Edward I of England joins French King Louis IX on Crusade
1271
The Polos depart Venice for Chandu
The beginning of the Ninth (and last) Crusade
1272
The end of the Ninth Crusade
1275
The Polos arrive in Chandu
1280
Alaric the Templar born in Languedoc
1281
Robert de Beauville born in England
1285
Marco Polo given a concubine by Kublai Khan, the beautiful Shu Lin
1289
Marco Polo and Shu Lin have a daughter, Shu Ming
1291
Acre falls to the Mameluks
1292
The Polos leave China
Kublai Khan holds Shu Lin and Shu Ming hostage against Marco Polo’s return
Marco commits them to the care of his merchant friend, Wu Hai
Ogodei born to Daiyin
1294
Kublai Khan dies
Shu Lin dies
Wu Hai marries Shu Ming, age 5, to his son, Wu Li, age 9
1296
Robert de Beauville joins the Knights Templar
1302
The Templars lose Ruad
1306
Agalia, a Greek merchant’s daughter, marries Robert de Beauville, ex-Templar, in Antioch
Jaufre, their son, born
Johanna born to Wu Li and Shu Ming
Shu Shao, 12, becomes Johanna’s foster sister
1307
Wu Hai dies, Wu Li inherits all
Philip IV arrests all Knights Templar in France
July—Edward I dies
1308
February 25—Edward II crowned at Westminster
1309
March Pope Clement VI moves papacy to Avignon
Papal bull dissolves the Knights Templar
Giovanni Soranzo elected Doge of Venice
November—Edward III born at Windsor
1312
Wu Li, Shu Ming, and Johanna find Jaufre east of Kashgar, the lone survivor of a caravan attacked by bandits
1314
March 18—Knight Templar masters Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney burned at the stake in Paris by Philip IV
Philip IV of France dies
Battle of Bannockburn
1314–1317
Hard winters and wet summers
Crops fail, Europeans starve and some resort to cannibalism
1316
August 7—Pope John XXII crowned in Avignon
1320
November—Shu Ming dies
1321
July—Wu Li marries Dai Fang
1322
Wu Li dies
April—Johanna, Jaufre and Shu Shao leave Cambaluc
June—Arrive at Kashgar
Firas, Hari and Félicien join the company
August—The company crosses Terak Pass
1323
Ogodei arrives at Talikan
Alaric joins the company
October—Arrive at Gaza
November—Arrive at Venice
Silk and Song Page 70