79-530: Kitay may refer to: Cathay , alternative English name for China David Kitay (born 1961), American film composer Kitay-gorod , business district in Moscow The New China ( Osvobozhdyonnyy kitay ), 1950 Soviet documentary See also [ edit ] Kitai (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
158-590: A cultural center, made Ghazni into a center of learning, inviting Ferdowsi and al-Biruni. He even attempted to persuade Avicenna , but was refused. Mahmud preferred that his fame and glory be publicized in Persian and hundreds of poets assembled at his court. He brought whole libraries from Rayy and Isfahan to Ghazni and even demanded that the Khwarizmshah court send its men of learning to Ghazni. Due to his invasion of Rayy and Isfahan, Persian literary production
237-612: A division of power, to which Ismail refused. Mahmud marched on Ghazna and subsequently Ismail was defeated and captured in 998 at the Battle of Ghazni . In 998, Mahmud , son of Sebuktigin, succeeded to the governorship, and Ghazni and the Ghaznavid dynasty became perpetually associated with him. He emphasized his loyalty in a letter to the caliph, saying that the Samanids had only been replaced because of their treason. Mahmud received
316-590: A fantastical reimagination of the world used as a setting for various novels and games produced by Games Workshop , Grand Cathay is the largest human empire, situated in the far east of the setting and based on medieval China. Cathay is more prevalent in proper terms, such as in Cathay Pacific Airways or Cathay Hotel . Cathay Bank is a bank with multiple branches throughout the United States and other countries. Cathay Cineplexes
395-543: A merchant from Florence , compiled the Pratica della mercatura , a guide about trade in China, a country he called Cathay , noting the size of Khanbaliq (modern Beijing ) and how merchants could exchange silver for Chinese paper money that could be used to buy luxury items such as silk. Words related to Khitay are still used in many Turkic and Slavic languages to refer to China. The ethnonym derived from Khitay in
474-515: A result of the original involvement of Sebuktigin and Mahmud of Ghazni in Samanid affairs and in the Samanid cultural environment, the dynasty became thoroughly Persianized, so that in practice one cannot consider their rule over Iran one of foreign domination. They also copied their administrative system from the Samanids. In terms of cultural championship and the support of Persian poets, they were more Persian than their ethnically-Iranian rivals,
553-563: A span of nine years, four more kings claimed the throne of Ghazni. In 1058, Mas'ud's son Ibrahim , a great calligrapher who wrote the Koran with his own pen, became king. Ibrahim re-established a truncated empire on a firmer basis by arriving at a peace agreement with the Seljuks and a restoration of cultural and political linkages. Under Ibrahim and his successors the empire enjoyed a period of sustained tranquility. Shorn of its western land, it
632-581: A strong suspicion that Marco Polo's Cathay is simply the Tatar (i.e., Mongol ) name for the country he was in, i.e. China. Ricci supported his arguments by numerous correspondences between Marco Polo's accounts and his own observations: Most importantly, when the Jesuits first arrived to Beijing 1598, they also met a number of "Mohammedans" or "Arabian Turks" – visitors or immigrants from the Muslim countries to
711-481: Is China, as he met the members of a caravan returning from Beijing to Kashgar, who told them about staying in the same Beijing inn with Portuguese Jesuits. (In fact, those were the same very "Saracens" who had, a few months earlier, confirmed it to Ricci that they were in "Cathay"). De Góis died in Suzhou, Gansu – the first Ming China city he reached – while waiting for an entry permit to proceed toward Beijing; but, in
790-507: Is a historical name for China that was used in Europe. During the early modern period, the term Cathay initially evolved as a term referring to what is now Northern China, completely separate and distinct from China , which was a reference to southern China. As knowledge of East Asia increased, Cathay came to be seen as the same polity as China as a whole. The term Cathay became a poetic name for China. The name Cathay originates from
869-584: Is a cinema operator in Singapore operated by mm2 Asia, acquired from the Cathay Organisation . Cathay United Bank and Cathay Life Insurance are, respectively, a financial services company and an insurance company, both located in Taiwan. Ghaznavids The Ghaznavid dynasty ( Persian : غزنویان Ġaznaviyān ) was a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin. It ruled
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#1732772219835948-511: Is a derogatory term in Chinese meaning "barbarians of the south" ( Man was used to describe unsinicised Southern China in its earlier periods), and would therefore not have been used by the Chinese to describe themselves or their own country, but it was adopted by the Mongols to describe the people and country of Southern China. The name for South China commonly used on Western medieval maps
1027-550: The Abbasid Caliphate , the Ghaznavid administrative traditions and military practice came from the Abbasids. The Arabian horses , at least in the earliest campaign, were still substantial in Ghaznavid military incursions, especially in dashing raids deep into hostile territory. There is a record of '6000 Arab horse' being sent against king Anandapala in 1008, and evidence of this Arabian cavalry persists until 1118 under
1106-658: The Amu Darya , the Indus River and the Indian Ocean in the east and to Rey and Hamadan in the west. Under the reign of Mas'ud I , the Ghaznavid dynasty began losing control over its western territories to the Seljuk Empire after the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, resulting in a restriction of its holdings to modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India. In 1151, Sultan Bahram Shah lost Ghazni to
1185-506: The Buyid dynasty , whose support of Arabic letters in preference to Persian is well known. The 16th century Persian historian, Firishta , records Sabuktigin's genealogy as descended from the Sasanian kings : "Subooktu-geen, the son of Jookan, the son of Kuzil-Hukum, the son of Kuzil-Arslan, the son of Ferooz, the son of Yezdijird , king of Persia." However, modern historians believe this
1264-778: The Ghaznavid Empire or the Empire of Ghazni from 977 to 1186, which at its at its greatest extent, extended from the Oxus to the Indus Valley . The dynasty was founded by Sabuktigin upon his succession to the rule of Ghazna after the death of his father-in-law, Alp Tigin , who was an ex-general of the Samanid Empire from Balkh . Sabuktigin's son, Mahmud of Ghazni , expanded the Ghaznavid Empire to
1343-750: The Ghaznavid court (in Ghazna , in today's Afghanistan) was visited by envoys from the Liao ruler, he was described as a "Qatā Khan", i.e. the ruler of Qatā ; Qatā or Qitā appears in writings of al-Biruni and Abu Said Gardezi in the following decades. The Persian scholar and administrator Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) mentions Khita and China in his Book on the Administration of the State , apparently as two separate countries (presumably, referring to
1422-677: The Ghurid sultan Ala al-Din Husayn . The Ghaznavids retook Ghazni, but lost the city to the Ghuzz Turks who in turn lost it to Muhammad of Ghor . In response, the Ghaznavids fled to Lahore, their regional capital. In 1186, Lahore was conquered by the Ghurid sultan, Muhammad of Ghor, with its Ghaznavid ruler, Khusrau Malik , imprisoned and later executed. Two military families arose from
1501-652: The Hindu Shahi in the Battle of Peshawar . In 1004-5, he invaded the Principality of Bhatiya and in 1006 the neighbouring Emirate of Multan . In 1008-9, he again vanquished the Hindu Shahis at the Battle of Chach , and established Governors in the conquered areas. In India, the Ghaznavids were called Turushkas ("Turks") or Hammiras (from the Arabic Amir "Commander"). In 1018, he laid waste
1580-754: The Liao and Song Empires , respectively). The name's currency in the Muslim world survived the replacement of the Khitan Liao dynasty with the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the early 12th century. When describing the fall of the Jin Empire to the Mongols (1234), Persian history described the conquered country as Khitāy or Djerdaj Khitāy (i.e., "Jurchen Cathay"). The Mongols themselves, in their Secret History (13th century) talk of both Khitans and Kara-Khitans. In about 1340 Francesco Balducci Pegolotti ,
1659-679: The Mediterranean . The Ghaznavid rulers are generally credited with spreading Islam into the Indian subcontinent . They were, however, unable to hold power for long and by 1040 the Seljuk Empire had taken over their Persian domains and a century later the Ghurids took over their remaining sub-continental lands. The Ghaznavid conquests facilitated the beginning of the Turko-Afghan period into India, which would be further conducted by
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#17327722198351738-689: The Mughal capitals Agra and Lahore ), Cathay – a country that could be reached via Kashgar – had a large Christian population, while the Jesuits in China had not found any Christians there. In retrospect, the Central Asian Muslim informants' idea of the Ming China being a heavily Christian country may be explained by numerous similarities between Christian and Buddhist ecclesiastical rituals – from having sumptuous statuary and ecclesiastical robes to Gregorian chant – which would make
1817-652: The Uyghur language for Han Chinese is considered pejorative by both its users and its referents, and the PRC authorities have attempted to ban its use. The term also strongly connotes Uyghur nationalism . As European and Arab travelers started reaching the Mongol Empire , they described the Mongol-controlled Northern China as Cathay in a number of spelling variants. The name occurs in
1896-434: The "Cathayans" were dividing the day – and Martini, who of course knew no Persian, was able to continue the list. The names of the 24 solar terms matched as well. The story, soon published by Martini in the "Additamentum" to his Atlas of China, seemed to have finally convinced most European scholars that China and Cathay were the same. Even then, some people still viewed Cathay as distinct from China, as did John Milton in
1975-579: The 11th Book of his Paradise Lost (1667). In 1939, Hisao Migo ( Japanese : 御江久夫 , a Japanese botanist ) published a paper describing Iris cathayensis (meaning "Chinese iris") in the Journal of the Shanghai Science Institute . Below is the etymological progression from "Khitan" to Cathay as the word travelled westward: In many Turkic and Slavic languages a form of "Cathay" (e.g., Russian : Китай , Kitay ) remains
2054-520: The 19th century, when it was completely replaced by China . Demonyms for the people of Cathay (i.e., Chinese people ) were Cathayan and Cataian . The terms China and Cathay have histories of approximately equal length in English. Cathay is still used poetically. The Hong Kong flag-bearing airline is named Cathay Pacific . One of the largest commercial banks of Taiwan is named Cathay United Bank . The novel Creation by Gore Vidal uses
2133-679: The Dutch Orientalist Jacobus Golius met with the China-based Jesuit Martino Martini , who was passing through Leyden . Golius knew no Chinese, but he was familiar with Zij-i Ilkhani , a work by the Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi , completed in 1272, in which he described the Chinese ("Cathayan") calendar . Upon meeting Martini, Golius started reciting the names of the 12 divisions into which, according to Nasir al-Din,
2212-584: The Ghaznavid governor in Lahore . Due to their access to the Indus-Ganges plains , the Ghaznavids, during the 11th and 12th centuries, developed the first Muslim army to use war elephants in battle. The elephants were protected by armour plating on their fronts. The use of these elephants was a foreign weapon in other regions that the Ghaznavids fought in, particularly in Central Asia. Although
2291-562: The Pacific coast, north of Beijing (Pekin) which was already well known to Europeans. The borders drawn on some of these maps would first make Cathay the northeastern section of China (e.g. 1595 map by Gerardus Mercator ), or, later, a region separated by China by the Great Wall and possibly some mountains and/or wilderness (as in a 1610 map by Jodocus Hondius , or a 1626 map by John Speed ). J. J. L. Duyvendak hypothesized that it
2370-684: The Portuguese reached Southeast Asia ( Afonso de Albuquerque conquering Malacca in 1511) and the southern coast of China ( Jorge Álvares reaching the Pearl River estuary in 1513), they started calling the country by the name used in South and Southeast Asia. It was not immediately clear to the Europeans whether this China is the same country as Cathay known from Marco Polo . Therefore, it would not be uncommon for 16th-century maps to apply
2449-627: The Samanid decline. Samanid weakness attracted into Transoxiana the Karluks , a Turkic people who had recently converted to Islam. They occupied Bukhara in 992, establishing in Transoxania the Kara-Khanid Khanate . Alp Tigin's died in 963, and after two ghulam governors and three years, his slave Sabuktigin became the governor of Ghazna. Sabuktigin lived as a mamluk , Turkic slave-soldier, during his youth and later married
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2528-546: The Seljuks, who came to the aid of Bahram. Ghaznavid struggles with the Ghurids continued in subsequent years as they nibbled away at Ghaznavid territory, and Ghazni and Zabulistan were lost to a group of Oghuz Turks before being captured by the Ghurids. Ghazni fell to the Ghurids around 1170. After the fall of Ghazni in 1163, the Ghaznavids established themselves in Lahore , their regional capital for Indian territories since its conquest by Mahmud of Ghazni, which became
2607-634: The Turkic slave-guards of the Samanid Empire , the Simjurids and Ghaznavids, who ultimately proved disastrous to the Samanids. The Simjurids received an appanage in the Kohistan region of eastern Khorasan. The Samanid generals Alp Tigin and Abu al-Hasan Simjuri competed for the governorship of Khorasan and control of the Samanid Empire by placing on the throne emirs they could dominate after
2686-454: The Turkic soldiery unwilling to take up arms. Sabuktigin reformed the system making them all a mustaghall -type fief. In 976, he ended the conflict between two Turkic ghulams at Bust and restored the original ruler. Later that same year, Sabuktigin campaigned against Qusdar, catching the ruler(possibly Mu'tazz b. Ahmad) off guard and obtaining an annual tribute from him. After the death of Sabuktigin, his son by Alptigin's daughter, Ismail ,
2765-483: The Turkmen raiding neighbouring settlements, the governor of Tus, Abu l'Alarith Arslan Jadhib, led military strikes against them. The Turkmen were defeated and scattered to neighbouring lands. Still, as late as 1033, Ghaznavid governor Tash Farrash executed fifty Turkmen chiefs for raids into Khorasan. Mahmud of Ghazni led incursions deep into India , as far as Mathura , Kannauj and Somnath . In 1001, he defeated
2844-478: The administrative apparatus which gave it shape came very speedily to be within the Perso-Islamic tradition of statecraft and monarchical rule, with the ruler as a distant figure, buttressed by divine favor, ruling over a mass of traders, artisans, peasants, etc., whose prime duty was obedience in all respects but above all in the payment of taxes. The fact that the personnel of the bureaucracy which directed
2923-598: The area south of the Hindu Kush in what is now Afghanistan. During the rule of Sultan Mahmud, a new, larger military training center was established in Bost (now Lashkar Gah ). This area was known for blacksmiths where war weapons were made. After capturing and conquering the Punjab region , the Ghaznavids began to employ Hindus in their army. The Indian soldiers, whom Romila Thapar presumed to be Hindus , were one of
3002-416: The capital the next year. Ala al-Din Husayn , a Ghorid King, conquered the city in 1151, in revenge for his brother Kutubbuddin's death, who was son-in-law of the king but was publicly punished and killed for a minor offence. Ala al-Din Husayn then razed the city, burning it for 7 days, after which he became known as "Jahānsuz" ( World Burner ). Ghazni was restored to the Ghaznavids by the intervention of
3081-455: The city as a Samanid authority. The Simjurids enjoyed control of Khorasan south of the Amu Darya but were hard-pressed by a third great Iranian dynasty, the Buyid dynasty , and were unable to survive the collapse of the Samanids and the subsequent rise of the Ghaznavids. The struggles of the Turkic slave generals for mastery of the throne with the help of shifting allegiance from the court's ministerial leaders both demonstrated and accelerated
3160-459: The city of Mathura , which was "ruthlessly sacked, ravaged, desecrated and destroyed". According to Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah , writing an "History of Hindustan" in the 16th-17th century, the city of Mathura was the richest in India. When it was attacked by Mahmud of Ghazni, "all the idols" were burnt and destroyed during a period of twenty days, gold and silver was smelted for booty, and the city
3239-401: The components of the army with their commander called sipahsalar -i-Hinduwan and lived in their own quarter of Ghazna practicing their own religion. Indian soldiers under their commander Suvendhray remained loyal to Mahmud. They were also used against a Turkic rebel, with the command given to a Hindu named Tilak according to Baihaki . Like the other dynasties that rose out of the remains of
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3318-449: The daughter of his master Alptigin , who fled to Ghazna following a failed coup attempt, and conquered the city from the local Lawik rulers in 962. After Alptigin death, his son Abu Ishaq Ibrahim governed Ghazna for three years. His death was followed by the reign of a former ghulam of Alptigin, Bilgetigin. Bilgetigin's rule was so harsh the populace invited Abu Bakr Lawik back. It was through Sabuktigin's military ability that Lawik
3397-492: The day-to-day running of the state, and which raised the revenue to support the sultans' life-style and to finance the professional army, were Persians who carried on the administrative traditions of the Samanids, only strengthened this conception of secular power. Persianisation of the state apparatus was accompanied by the Persianisation of high culture at the Ghaznavid court... The level of literary creativity
3476-408: The death of Abd al-Malik I in 961. His death created a succession crisis between his brothers. A court party instigated by men of the scribal class – civilian ministers rather than Turkic generals – rejected the candidacy of Alp Tigin for the Samanid throne. Mansur I was installed instead, and Alp Tigin prudently retired to south of the Hindu Kush , where he captured Ghazna and became the ruler of
3555-488: The dynasty was of Central Asian Turkic origin, it was thoroughly Persianised in terms of language, culture, literature and habits and has been regarded as a "Persian dynasty". According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth : The Ghaznavid sultans were ethnically Turkish , but the sources, all in Arabic or Persian , do not allow us to estimate the persistence of Turkish practices and ways of thought amongst them. Yet given
3634-471: The external people circa 1000. The Khitans refer to themselves as Qidan ( Khitan small script : [REDACTED] ; Chinese : 契丹 ), but in the language of the ancient Uyghurs the final -n or -ń became -y, and this form may have been the source of the name Khitai for later Muslim writers. This version of the name was then introduced to medieval and early modern Europe via Muslim and Russian sources. The Khitans were known to Muslim Central Asia: in 1026,
3713-422: The fact that the essential basis of the Ghaznavids' military support always remained their Turkish soldiery, there must always have been a need to stay attuned to their troops' needs and aspirations; also, there are indications of the persistence of some Turkish literary culture under the early Ghaznavids (Köprülüzade, pp. 56–57). The sources do make it clear, however, that the sultans' exercise of political power and
3792-642: The golden age and height of the Ghaznavid Empire. Mahmud carried out seventeen expeditions through northern India to establish his control and set up tributary states, and his raids also resulted in the looting of a great deal of plunder. He established his authority from the borders of Ray to Samarkand , from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna . During Mahmud's reign (997–1030), the Ghaznavids settled 4,000 Turkmen families near Farana in Khorasan. By 1027, due to
3871-400: The governorship of Khurasan and titles of Yamin al-Dawla and Amin al-Milla. As a representative of caliphal authory, he championed Sunni Islam by campaigning against the Ismaili and Shi'ite Buyids. He completed the conquest of the Samanid and Shahi territories, including the Ismaili Kingdom of Multan , Sindh , as well as some Buwayhid territory. By all accounts, the rule of Mahmud was
3950-484: The label China just to the coastal region already well known to the Europeans (e.g., just Guangdong on Abraham Ortelius ' 1570 map), and to place the mysterious Cathay somewhere inland. It was a small group of Jesuits , led by Matteo Ricci who, being able both to travel throughout China and to read, learned about the country from Chinese books and from conversation with people of all walks of life. During his first fifteen years in China (1583–1598) Matteo Ricci formed
4029-472: The magnificence of the capital and of the conqueror's munificent support of literature. Mahmud died in April 1030 and had chosen his son, Mohammed, as his successor. Mahmud left the empire to his son Mohammed, who was mild, affectionate and soft. His brother, Mas'ud , asked for three provinces that he had won by his sword, but his brother did not consent. Mas'ud had to fight his brother, and he became king, blinding and imprisoning Mohammed as punishment. Mas'ud
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#17327722198354108-418: The name in reference to "those states between the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers" as the novel is set in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. Ezra Pound 's Cathay (1915) is a collection of classical Chinese poems translated freely into English verse. In Robert E. Howard 's Hyborian Age stories (including the tales of Conan the Barbarian ), the analog of China is called Khitai . In Warhammer Fantasy ,
4187-415: The name was also used in Marco Polo 's book on his travels in Yuan dynasty China (he referred to southern China as Mangi ). Odoric of Pordenone (d. 1331) also writes about Cathay and the Khan in his travelbooks from his journey before 1331, perhaps 1321–1330. The term Cathay came from the name for the Khitans. A form of the name Cathai is attested in a Uyghur Manichaean document describing
4266-485: The new capital of the Late Ghaznavids. Ghaznavid power in northwestern India continued until the Ghurid conquest of Lahore by Muhammad of Ghor in 1186, deposing the last Ghaznavid ruler Khusrau Malik . Both Khusrau Malik and his son were imprisoned and summarily executed in Firozkoh in 1191, extinguishing the Ghaznavid lineage. The core of the Ghaznavid army was primarily made up of Turks, as well as thousands of native Afghans who were trained and assembled from
4345-403: The political economy of most of India would be implemented by the later Ghaznavids. The Persian culture established by the Ghaznavids in Ghazna and Eastern Afghanistan survived the Ghurid invasion in the 12th century and endured until the invasion of the Mongols. At its height, the Ghaznavid empire grew from the Oxus to the Indus Valley and was ruled from 977 to 1186. The history of the empire
4424-455: The state became apparent when he died in 1115, with internal strife between his sons ending with the ascension of Sultan Bahram Shah as a Seljuk vassal. Bahram Shah defeated his brother Arslan for the throne at the Battle of Ghazni in 1117. Sultan Bahram Shah was the last Ghaznavid King, ruling Ghazni , the first and main Ghaznavid capital, for thirty-five years. In 1148 he was defeated in Ghazni by Sayf al-Din Suri , but he recaptured
4503-401: The sultan for a while as his chief secretary. The Ghaznavids thus present the phenomenon of a dynasty of Turkish slave origin which became culturally Persianised to a perceptibly higher degree than other contemporary dynasties of Turkish origin such as Saljuqs and Qarakhanids . Persian literary culture enjoyed a renaissance under the Ghaznavids during the 11th century. The Ghaznavid court
4582-431: The term Khitan ( Chinese : 契丹 ; pinyin : Qìdān ), a para-Mongolic nomadic people who ruled the Liao dynasty in northern China from 916 to 1125, and who later migrated west after they were overthrown by the Jin dynasty to form the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty) for another century thereafter. Originally, this name was the name applied by Central and Western Asians and Europeans to northern China;
4661-540: The title Kitay . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kitay&oldid=962156183 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Cathay Cathay ( / k æ ˈ θ eɪ / ka- THAY )
4740-610: The two religions appear externally similar to a Muslim merchant. This may also have been the genesis of the Prester John myth. To resolve the China – Cathay controversy, the India Jesuits sent a Portuguese lay brother, Bento de Góis , on an overland expedition north and east, with the goal of reaching Cathay and finding out once and for all whether it is China or some other country. Góis spent almost three years (1603–1605) crossing Afghanistan , Badakhshan , Kashgaria , and Kingdom of Cialis with Muslim trade caravans . In 1605, in Cialis , he, too, became convinced that his destination
4819-414: The usual modern name for China. In Javanese , the word ꦏꦠꦻ ( Katai , Katé ) exists, and it refers to "East Asian", literally meaning "dwarf" or "short-legged" in today's language. In Uyghur, the word "Xitay (Hitay)" is used as a derogatory term for Ethnic Han Chinese. In the English language , the word Cathay was sometimes used for China, although increasingly only in a poetic sense, until
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#17327722198354898-562: The west of China, who told Ricci that now they were living in the Great Cathay. This all made them quite convinced that Cathay was indeed China. China-based Jesuits promptly informed their colleagues in Goa (Portuguese India) and Europe about their discovery of the Cathay–China identity. This was stated e.g. in a 1602 letter of Ricci's comrade Diego de Pantoja , which was published in Europe along with other Jesuits' letters in 1605. The Jesuits in India, however, were not convinced, because, according to their informants (merchants who visited
4977-495: The words of Henry Yule , it was his expedition that made " Cathay ... finally disappear from view, leaving China only in the mouths and minds of men". Ricci's and de Gois' conclusion was not, however, completely convincing for everybody in Europe yet. Samuel Purchas , who in 1625 published an English translation of Pantoja's letter and Ricci's account, thought that perhaps Cathay still can be found somewhere north of China. In this period, many cartographers were placing Cathay on
5056-464: The writings of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (c. 1180–1252) (as Kitaia ), and William of Rubruck (c. 1220–c. 1293) (as Cataya or Cathaia ). Travels in the Land of Kublai Khan by Marco Polo has a story called "The Road to Cathay". Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , ibn Battuta , and Marco Polo all referred to Northern China as Cathay, while Southern China, ruled by the Song dynasty , was Mangi , Manzi , Chin , or Sin . The word Manzi (蠻子) or Mangi
5135-408: Was Mangi , a term still used in maps in the 16th century. The division of China into northern and southern parts ruled by, in succession, the Liao , Jin and Yuan dynasties in the north, and the Song dynasty in the south, ended in the late 13th century with the conquest of southern China by the Yuan dynasty. While Central Asia had long known China under names similar to Cathay , that country
5214-440: Was an attempt to connect himself with the history of old Persia. Historian Bosworth explains: "In fact with the adoption of Persian administrative and cultural ways the Ghaznavids threw off their original Turkish steppe background and became largely integrated with the Perso-Islamic tradition." As a result, Ghazni developed into a great centre of Arabic learning. With Sultan Mahmud's invasions of North India , Persian culture
5293-455: Was burnt down. In 1018 Mahmud also captured Kanauj , the capital of the Pratiharas , and then confronted the Chandelas , from whom he obtained the payment of tribute. In 1026, he raided and plundered the Somnath temple , taking away a booty of 20 million dinars. The wealth brought back from Mahmud's Indian expeditions to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians ( e.g. , Abolfazl Beyhaghi , Ferdowsi ) give glowing descriptions of
5372-420: Was elevated from prison to the throne, while Mas'ud was consigned to a dungeon after a reign of ten years and was assassinated in 1040. Mas'ud's son, Madood, was governor of Balkh, and in 1040, after hearing of his father's death, he came to Ghazni to claim his kingdom. He fought with the sons of the blind Mohammed and was victorious. However, the empire soon disintegrated and most kings did not submit to Madood. In
5451-469: Was established at Lahore, which later produced the famous poet, Masud Sa'd Salman . Lahore, under Ghaznavid rule in the 11th century, attracted Persian scholars from Khorasan, India and Central Asia and became a major Persian cultural centre. It was also during Mahmud's reign that Ghaznavid coinage began to have bilingual legends consisting of Arabic and Devanagari script. The entire range of Persianate institutions and customs that would come to characterize
5530-517: Was given Ghazna. Another son, Abu'l-Muzaffar Nasr, was given the governorship of Bust, while in Khorasan, the eldest son Mahmud, was given command of the army. Sabuktigin's intent was to ensure governorships for his family, despite the decaying influence of the Samanid Empire, and did not consider his dynasty as independent. Ismail, upon gaining his inheritance, quickly traveled to Bust and did homage to Emir Abu'l-Harith Mansur b. Nuh. Mahmud, who had been left out of any significant inheritance, proposed
5609-408: Was inaugurated in Azerbaijan and Iraq . The Ghaznavids continued to develop historical writing in Persian that had been initiated by their predecessors, the Samanid Empire . The historian Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi 's Tarikh-e Beyhaqi , written in the latter half of the 11th century, is an example. Although the Ghaznavids were Turkic and their military leaders were generally of the same stock, as
5688-631: Was increasingly sustained by riches accrued from raids across Northern India, where it faced stiff resistance from Indian rulers such as the Paramara of Malwa and the Gahadvala of Kannauj . He ruled until 1098. Mas'ud III became king for sixteen years, with no major event in his lifetime. Mas'ud built the Palace of Sultan Mas'ud III and one of the Ghazni Minarets . Signs of weakness in
5767-553: Was just as high under Ebrāhīm and his successors up to Bahrāmšāh, with such poets as Abu’l-Faraj Rūnī, Sanāʾī, ʿOṯmān Moḵtārī, Masʿūd-e Saʿd-e Salmān, and Sayyed Ḥasan Ḡaznavī. We know from the biographical dictionaries of poets (taḏkera-ye šoʿarā) that the court in Lahore of Ḵosrow Malek had an array of fine poets, none of whose dīvāns has unfortunately survived, and the translator into elegant Persian prose of Ebn Moqaffaʿ’s Kalīla wa Demna, namely Abu’l-Maʿālī Naṣr-Allāh b. Moḥammad, served
5846-435: Was known to the peoples of Southeast Asia and India under names similar to China (cf. e.g. Cina in modern Malay). Meanwhile, in China itself, people usually referred to the realm in which they lived on the name of the ruling dynasty, e.g. Da Ming Guo ("Great Ming state") and Da Qing Guo ("Great Qing state"), or as Zhongguo (中國, lit. Middle Kingdom or Central State ); see also Names of China for details. When
5925-557: Was removed, Bilgetigin was exiled, and Sabuktigin gained the governorship. Once established as governor of Ghazna, Sabuktigin was asked to intervene in Khurasan, at the insistence of the Samanid emir, and after a victorious campaign received the governorships of Balkh, Tukharistan, Bamiyan, Ghur and Gharchistan. Sabuktigin inherited a governorship in turmoil. In Zabulistan, the typical military fief system( mustaghall ) were being changed into permanent ownership( tamlik ) which resulted in
6004-464: Was so renowned for its support of Persian literature that the poet Farrukhi traveled from his home province to work for them. The poet Unsuri's short collection of poetry was dedicated to Sultan Mahmud and his brothers Nasr and Yaqub. Another poet of the Ghaznavid court, Manuchehri , wrote numerous poems about the merits of drinking wine. Sultan Mahmud, modelling the Samanid Bukhara as
6083-573: Was the ignorance of the fact that "China" is the mighty "Cathay" of Marco Polo that allowed the Dutch governor of East Indies Jan Pieterszoon Coen to embark on an "unfortunate" (for the Dutch) policy of treating the Ming Empire as "merely another 'oriental' kingdom". The last nail into the coffin of the idea of there being a Cathay as a country separate from China was, perhaps, driven in 1654, when
6162-540: Was unable to preserve the empire and following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, he lost all the Ghaznavid lands in Persia and Central Asia to the Seljuks, plunging the realm into a "time of troubles". His last act was to collect all his treasures from his forts in hope of assembling an army and ruling from India, but his own forces plundered the wealth and he proclaimed his blind brother as king again. The two brothers now exchanged positions: Mohammed
6241-472: Was written by Abu Nasr al-Utbi, who documented the Ghaznavid's achievements, including regaining lost territory from their rivals, the Kara-Khanids , in present-day Iran and Afghanistan. In addition to the wealth accumulated through raiding Indian cities, and exacting tribute from Indian rajas , the Ghaznavids also benefited from their position as an intermediary along the trade routes between China and
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