File:History of Genghis Khan (1860) (14780250291).jpg

Identifier: historyofgenghis00abbo (find matches)
Title: History of Genghis Khan
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: Abbott, Jacob, 1803-1879
Subjects: Genghis Khan, 1162-1227 Mongols
Publisher: New York, Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: Information and Library Science Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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a shongar, according to a custom often ob-served among the people of that region. Theshongar was a very large and fierce bird ofprey, which, however, could be trained like thefalcons which were so much prized in the Mid-dle Ages by the princes and nobles of Europe.It seems it was customary for an inferior khanto present one of these birds to his superior ongreat occasions, as an emblem and token of hissubmission to his superiors authority. Thebird in such a case was very richly decoratedwith gold and precious stones, so that the presLent was sometimes of a very costly and mag-nificent character. Genghis Khan received such a present asthis from a chieftain named Urus Inal, whowas among those that yielded to his sway inthe country of the Irtish, after the battle atwhich Tukta Bey was defeated and killed.The bird was presented to Genghis Khan byUrus with great ceremony, as an act of sub-mission and homage. What, in the end, was the fate of PrinceKushluk, will appear in the next chapter.
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1208.) Idikut. 175 Idikut. The old system of farming revenues. Chapter XIV.Idikut. THEEE was another great and powerfulkhan, named Idikut, whose tribe had hith-erto been under the dominion of Gurkhan, thePrince of Turkestan, where Kushluk had soughtrefuge, but who about this time revolted fromGurkhan and went over to Genghis Khan, un-der circumstances which illustrate, in some de-gree, the peculiar nature of the political tiesby which these different tribes and nationswere bound to each other. It seems that thetribe over which Idikut ruled was tributary toTurkestan, and that Gurkhan had an officerstationed in Idikuts country whose business itwas to collect and remit the tribute. Thename of this collector was Shuwakem. Hewas accustomed, it seems, like almost all tax-gatherers in those days, to exact more than washis due. The system generally adopted bygovernments in that age of the world for col-lecting their revenues from tributary or con-quered provinces was to farm them, as the 176

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