The Voyages of Marco Polo. Марко Поло

Never a prayer, nor a cry, nor a groan

       Was heard from those massive walls of stone,

       Nor again was the Kalif seen alive.'

       This is the story, strange and true,

       That the great Captain Alau

       Told to his brother, the Tartar Khan,

       When he rode that day into Cambalu.

       By the road that leadeth to Ispahan." (Longfellow.)[1]

      The story of the death of Mosta'sim Billah, the last of the Abbaside

       Khalifs, is told in much the same way by Hayton, Ricold, Pachymeres, and

       Joinville. The memory of the last glorious old man must have failed him,

       when he says the facts were related by some merchants who came to King

       Lewis, when before Saiette (or Sidon), viz. in 1253, for the capture of

       Baghdad occurred five years later. Mar. Sanuto says melted gold was poured

       down the Khalif's throat—a transfer, no doubt, from the old story of

       Crassus and the Parthians. Contemporary Armenian historians assert that

       Hulaku slew him with his own hand.

      All that Rashiduddin says is: "The evening of Wednesday, the 14th of Safar, 656 (20th February, 1258), the Khalif was put to death in the village of Wakf, with his eldest son and five eunuchs who had never quitted him." Later writers say that he was wrapt in a carpet and trodden to death by horses.

      [Cf. The Story of the Death of the last Abbaside Caliph, from the Vatican MS. of Ibn-al-Furat, by G. le Strange (Jour. R. As. Soc., April, 1900, pp. 293–300). This is the story of the death of the Khalif told by Ibn-al-Furat (born in Cairo, 1335 A.D.):

      "Then Hulagu gave command, and the Caliph was left a-hungering, until his case was that of very great hunger, so that he called asking that somewhat might be given him to eat. And the accursed Hulagu sent for a dish with gold therein, and a dish with silver therein, and a dish with gems, and ordered these all to be set before the Caliph al Musta'sim, saying to him, 'Eat these.' But the Caliph made answer, 'These be not fit for eating.' Then said Hulagu: 'Since thou didst so well know that these be not fit for eating, why didst thou make a store thereof? With part thereof thou mightest have sent gifts to propitiate us, and with part thou shouldst have raised an army to serve thee and defend thyself against us! And Hulagu commanded them to take forth the Caliph and his son to a place without the camp, and they were here bound and put into two great sacks, being afterwards trampled under foot till they both died—the mercy of Allah be upon them."—H. C.]

      The foundation of the story, so widely received among the Christians, is to be found also in the narrative of Nikbi (and Mirkhond), which is cited by D'Obsson. When the Khalif surrendered, Hulaku put before him a plateful of gold, and told him to eat it. "But one does not eat gold," said the prisoner. "Why, then," replied the Tartar, "did you hoard it, instead of expending it in keeping up an army? Why did you not meet me at the Oxus?" The Khalif could only say, "Such was God's will!" "And that which has befallen you was also God's will," said Hulaku.

      Wassáf's narrative is interesting:—"Two days after his capture the Khalif was at his morning prayer, and began with the verse (Koran, III. 25), 'Say God is the Possessor of Dominion! It shall be given to whom He will; it shall be taken from whom He will: whom He will He raiseth to honour; whom He will He casteth to the ground.' Having finished the regular office he continued still in prayer with tears and importunity. Bystanders reported to the Ilkhan the deep humiliation of the Khalif's prayers, and the text which seemed to have so striking an application to those two princes. Regarding what followed there are different stories. Some say that the Ilkhan ordered food to be withheld from the Khalif, and that when he asked for food the former bade a dish of gold be placed before him, etc. Eventually, after taking counsel with his chiefs, the Padishah ordered the execution of the Khalif. It was represented that the blood-drinking sword ought not to be stained with the gore of Mosta'sim. He was therefore rolled in a carpet, just as carpets are usually rolled up, insomuch that his limbs were crushed."

      The avarice of the Khalif was proverbial. When the Mongol army was investing Miafarakain, the chief, Malik Kamál, told his people that everything he had should be at the service of those in need: "Thank God, I am not like Mosta'sim, a worshipper of silver and gold!"

      (Hayton in Ram. ch. xxvi.; Per. Quat. 121; Pachym. Mic. Palaeol. II. 24; Joinville, p. 182; Sanuto, p. 238; J. As. sér. V. tom. xi. 490, and xvi. 291; D'Ohsson, III. 243; Hammer's Wassáf, 75–76; Quat. Rashid. 305.)

      NOTE 8.—Nevertheless Froissart brings the Khalif to life again one hundred and twenty years later, as "Le Galifre de Baudas." (Bk. III. ch. xxiv.)

      [1] Not that Alaü (pace Mr. Longfellow) ever did see Cambalu.

      CHAPTER VII.

       Table of Contents

      HOW THE CALIF OF BAUDAS TOOK COUNSEL TO SLAY ALL THE CHRISTIANS IN HIS LAND.

      I will tell you then this great marvel that occurred between Baudas and

       Mausul.

      It was in the year of Christ[NOTE 1] … that there was a Calif at Baudas who bore a great hatred to Christians, and was taken up day and night with the thought how he might either bring those that were in his kingdom over to his own faith, or might procure them all to be slain. And he used daily to take counsel about this with the devotees and priests of his faith,[NOTE 2] for they all bore the Christians like malice. And, indeed, it is a fact, that the whole body of Saracens throughout the world are always most malignantly disposed towards the whole body of Christians.

      Now it happened that the Calif, with those shrewd priests of his, got hold of that passage in our Gospel which says, that if a Christian had faith as a grain of mustard seed, and should bid a mountain be removed, it would be removed. And such indeed is the truth. But when they had got hold of this text they were delighted, for it seemed to them the very thing whereby either to force all the Christians to change their faith, or to bring destruction upon them all. The Calif therefore called together all the Christians in his territories, who were extremely numerous. And when they had come before him, he showed them the Gospel, and made them read the text which I have mentioned. And when they had read it he asked them if that was the truth? The Christians answered that it assuredly was so. "Well," said the Calif, "since you say that it is the truth, I will give you a choice. Among such a number of you there must needs surely be this small amount of faith; so you must either move that mountain there,"—and he pointed to a mountain in the neighbourhood—"or you shall die an ill death; unless you choose to eschew death by all becoming Saracens and adopting our Holy Law. To this end I give you a respite of ten days; if the thing be not done by that time, ye shall die or become Saracens." And when he had said this he dismissed them, to consider what was to be done in this strait wherein they were.

      NOTE 1.—The date in the G. Text and Pauthier is 1275, which of course cannot have been intended. Ramusio has 1225.

      [The Khalifs in 1225 were Abu'l Abbas Ahmed VII. en-Nassir lidini 'llah (1180–1225) and Abu Nasr Mohammed IX. ed-Dhahir bi-emri 'llah (1225–1226).—H. C.]

      NOTE 2.—"Cum sez regisles et cum sez casses." (G. T.) I suppose the former expression to be a form of Regules, which is used in Polo's book for persons of a religious rule or order, whether Christian or Pagan. The latter word (casses) I take to be the Arabic Kashísh, properly a Christian Presbyter, but frequently applied by old travellers, and habitually by the Portuguese (caxiz, caxix), to Mahomedan Divines. (See Cathay, p. 568.) It may, however, be Kází.

      Pauthier's text has simply "à ses prestres de la Loi."