i.) The earliest European allusion to them is
in Rubruquis: "And Mangu gave to the Moghul (whom he was going to send to
the King of France) a bull of his, that is to say, a golden plate of a
palm in breadth and half a cubit in length, on which his orders were
inscribed. Whosoever is the bearer of that may order what he pleases, and
his order shall be executed straightway."

These golden bulls of the Mongol Kaans appear to have been originally
tokens of high favour and honour, though afterwards they became more
frequent and conventional. They are often spoken of by the Persian
historians of the Mongols under the name of _Paizah_, and sometimes
_Paizah Sir-i-Sher_, or "Lion's Head Paizah." Thus, in a firman of Ghazan
Khan, naming a viceroy to his conquests in Syria, the Khan confers on the
latter "the sword, the august standard, the drum, and the _Lion's Head
Paizah_." Most frequently the grant of this honour is coupled with
_Yarligh_; "to such an one were granted Yarligh and Paizah" the former
word (which is still applied in Turkey to the Sultan's rescripts) denoting
the written patent which accompanies the grant of the tablet, just as the
sovereign's warrant accompanies the badge of a modern Order. Of such
written patents also Marco speaks in this passage, and as he uttered it,
no doubt the familiar words _Yarligh u Paizah_ were in his mind. The
Armenian history of the Orpelians, relating the visit of Prince Sempad,
brother of King Hayton, to the court of Mangku Kaan, says: "They gave him
also a _P'haiza_ of gold, i.e. a tablet whereon the name of God is written
by the Great Kaan himself; and this constitutes the greatest honour known
among the Mongols. Farther, they drew up for him a sort of patent, which
the Mongols call _Iarlekh_," etc. The Latin version of a grant by Uzbek
Khan of Kipchak to the Venetian Andrea Zeno, in 1333,[1] ends with the
words: "_Dedimus_ baisa _et_ privilegium _cum bullis rubeis_," where the
latter words no doubt represent the _Yarligh al-tamgha_, the warrant with
the red seal or stamp,[2] as it may be seen upon the letter of Arghun
Khan. (See plate at ch. xvii. of Bk. IV.). So also Janibek, the son of
Uzbek, in 1344, confers privileges on the Venetians, "_eisdem dando_
baissinum _de auro_"; and again Bardibeg, son, murderer, and successor of
Janibeg, in 1358, writes: "Avemo dado comandamento [i.e. Yarlig] cum le
bolle rosse, et lo _paysam_."

Under the Persian branch, at least, of the house t