Talk:Bayan of the Baarin

Mongol or Turcic
I think we can all agree that he was Mongol in the sense of "part of the ruling elite of the Mongol empire". Whether his ethnicity was Turcic or not seems a very interesting question - what exactly does Rossabi base his evidence on? Cleaves says Chinese texts treat him as "Mongol of the Baarin tribe", and discusses the names of his ancestors. He does not discuss whether Bayan was Mongol or Turcic, though. He gives a statement in one source about Bayan being born and grown up in Persia, but dismisses it as obviously erroneous (p. 205, note 16). Yaan (talk) 15:59, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Passages from Rossabi's book
To avoid any confusion about what the source entails, I will quote Rossabi directly from his book given in the reference section. On page 25 Bayan is introduced as an aide to Kublai in the Dali campaign of 1253, his main task to oversee the construction of inflated sheepskin rafts to cross the Jinsha River. On page 189, Rossabi speaks of the campaign against the Southern Song:

So there you have it, Rossabi claims he was an ethnic Turk who was a descendant of those who had long served the Mongol Khans.-- Pericles of Athens  Talk 03:06, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * without citing any evidence, though, or does he? I agree Rossabi is not just some amateur. Yaan (talk) 10:54, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

I think Baarin is mongoloid tribe who are descendants of Alangua. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enerelt (talk • contribs) 10:10, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Needs some writing help
The section about his war with Nayan becomes very choppy, with some unclear sentences, and all references suddenly cease. I will repair a sentence or two, but it needs rewriting and could use some research fill in missing sources. Deliusfan (talk) 04:12, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

no mention of Chinese sources
one might get the false impression from this article that Bayan is only known thanks to Marco Polo, despite having a biography in the 元史 2607:FEA8:AA03:9600:38C4:77C8:3046:9B1E (talk) 08:58, 16 December 2023 (UTC)