Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania).  One such mention from Abulghazi has been quoted in note 2 to ch. xxii.; in the Masalak-al-Absar, the Cherkes, Russians, Aas (or Alans), and Majar are associated; the Majar and Alan in Sharifuddin.  Doubts indeed arise whether in some of these instances a people located in Asia be not intended.[1] (Rubr. p. 246; D’Avezac, p. 486 seqq.; Golden Horde, p. 5; I.B. II. 375 seqq.; Buesching, IV. 359; Cathay, p. 233; Numi Asiatici, I. 333, 451; Klaproth’s Travels, ch. xxxi.; N. et Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279; P. de la Croix, II. 383; Rein.  Abulf. I. 80; D’Ohsson, II. 628.)

["The author of the Tarikh Djihan Kushai, as well as Rashid and other Mohammedan authors of the same period, term the Hungarians Bashkerds (Bashkirs).  This latter name, written also Bashkurd, appears for the first time, it seems, in Ibn Fozlan’s narrative of an embassy to the Bulgars on the Volga in the beginning of the 10th century (translated by Fraehn, ‘De Bashkiris,’ etc., 1822)....  The Hungarians arrived in Europe in the 9th century, and then called themselves Magyar (to be pronounced Modjor), as they do down to the present time.  The Russian Chronicler Nestor mentions their passing near Kiev in 898, and terms them Ugry.  But the name Magyar was also known to other nations in the Middle Ages.  Abulfeda (ii. 324) notices the Madjgars; it would, however, seem that he applies this name to the Bashkirs in Asia.  The name Madjar occurs also in Rashid’s record.  In the Chinese and Mongol annals of the 13th century the Hungarians are termed Madja-rh.” (Bretschneider, Med.  Res. I. pp. 326-327.)—­H.C.]

ZIC is Circassia.  The name was known to Pliny, Ptolemy, and other writers of classic times.  Ramusio (II. 196 v) gives a curious letter to Aldus Manutius from George Interiano, “Della vita de’ Zychi chiamati Circassi,” and a great number of other references to ancient and mediaeval use of the name will be found in D’Avezac’s Essay, so often quoted (p. 497).

GOTHIA is the southern coast of the Crimea from Sudak to Balaklava and the mountains north of the latter, then still occupied by a tribe of the Goths.  The Genoese officer who governed this coast in the 15th century bore the title of Capitanus Gotiae; and a remnant of the tribe still survived, maintaining their Teutonic speech, to the middle of the 16th century, when Busbeck, the emperor’s ambassador to the Porte, fell in with two of them, from whom he derived a small vocabulary and other particulars. (Busbequii Opera, 1660, p. 321 seqq.; D’Avezac, pp. 498-499; Heyd., II. 123 seqq.; Cathay, pp. 200-201.)

GAZARIA, the Crimea and part of the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, formerly occupied by the Khazars, a people whom Klaproth endeavours to prove to have been of Finnish race.  When the Genoese held their settlements on the Crimean coast the Board at Genoa which administered the affairs of these colonies was called The Office of Gazaria.