Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his Court in grand and noble style, and made those simple hill-folks about him believe firmly that he was a great Prophet. And when he wanted one of his Ashishin to send on any mission, he would cause that potion whereof I spoke to be given to one of the youths in the garden, and then had him carried into his Palace. So when the So when the young man awoke, he found himself in the Castle, and no longer in that Paradise; whereat he was not over well pleased. He was then conducted to the Old Man's presence, and bowed before him with great veneration as believing himself to be in the presence of a true Prophet. The Prince would then ask whence he came, and he would reply that he came from Paradise! and that it was exactly such as Mahommet had described it in the Law. This of course gave the others who stood by, and who had not been admitted, the greatest desire to enter therein. So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he would say to such a youth: "Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest my Angels shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise." So he caused them to believe; and thus there was no order of his that they would not affront any peril to execute, for great desire they had to get back into that Paradise of his. And in this manner the Old One got his people to murder any one whom he desired to get rid of. Thus, too, the great dread that he inspired all Princes withal, made them become his tributaries in order that he might abide at peace and amity with them.' the I should also tell you that the Old Man had certain others under him, who copied his proceedings and acted exactly in the same manner. One of these was sent into the Territory of Damascus, and the other into Curdistan. NOTE 1.-Romantic as this story is, it seems to be precisely the same that was current over all the East. It is given by Odoric at length, more briefly by a Chinese author, and again from an Arabic source by Hammer in the Mines de l'Orient. The following is the Chinese account as rendered by Rémusat: "The soldiers of this country (Mulahi) are veritable brigands. When they see a lusty youth, they tempt him with the hope of gain, and bring him to such a point that he will be ready to kill his father or his elder brother with his own hand. After he is enlisted, they intoxicate him, and carry him in that state into a secluded retreat, where he is charmed with delicious music and beautiful women. All his desires are satisfied for several days, and then (in sleep) he is transported back to his original position. When he awakes, they ask what he has seen? He is then informed that if he will become an Assassin, he will be rewarded with the same happiness. And with the texts and prayers that they teach him they heat him to such a pitch that whatever commission be given him he will brave death without regret in order to execute it." The Arabic narrative is too long to extract. It is from a kind of historical romance called The Memoirs of Hakim, the date of which Hammer unfortunately omits to give. Its close coincidence in substance with Polo's story is quite remarkable. After a detailed description of the Paradise, and the transfer into it of the aspirant under the influence of bang, on his awaking and seeing his chief enter, he says, "O chief! am I awake or am I dreaming?" To which the chief: “O such an One, take heed that thou tell not the dream to any stranger. Know that Ali thy Lord hath vouchsafed to show thee the place destined for thee in Paradise. . . . Hesitate not a moment therefore in the service of the Imam who thus deigns to intimate his contentment with thee," and so on. William de Nangis thus speaks of the Syrian Shaikh who alone was known to the Crusaders, though one of their historians (Jacques de Vitry, in Bongars, I. 1062) shows knowledge that the head-quarters of the sect was in Persia: "He was much dreaded far and near, by both Saracens and Christians, because he so often caused princes of both classes indifferently to be murdered by his emissaries. For he used to bring up in his palace youths belonging to his territory, and had them. taught a variety of languages, and above all things to fear their Lord and obey him unto death, which would thus become to them an entrance into the joys of Paradise. And whosoever of them thus perished in carrying out his Lord's behests was worshipped as an angel." As an instance of the implicit obedience rendered by the Fidáwi or devoted disciples of the Shaikh, Fra Pipino and Marino Sanuto relate that when Henry Count of Champagne (titular King of Jerusalem) was on a visit to the Old Man of Syria, one day as they walked together they saw some lads in white sitting on the top of a high tower. The Shaikh, turning to the Count, asked if he had any subjects as obedient as his own? and without giving time for reply made a sign to two of the boys, who immediately leapt from the tower, and were killed on the spot. The same story is told in the Cento Novelle Antiche, as happening when the Emperor Frederic was on a visit (imaginary) to the Veglio. And it is introduced likewise as an incident in the Romance of Bauduin de Sebourg : "Vollés veioir merveilles? dist li Rois Seignouris" to Bauduin and his friends, and on their assenting he makes the signal to one of his men on the battlements, and in a twinkling "Quant le vinrent en l'air salant de tel avis, Et aussi liément, et aussi esjois, Qu'il deust conquester mil livres de parisis! Sur les roches agues desrompis corps et pis," &c. (Cathay, 153; Rémusat, Nouv. Mél. I. 178; Mines de l'Orient, III. 201 seqq.; Nangis in Duchesne, V. 332; Pipino in Muratori, IX. 705; Defréméry in J. As. ser. 5, tom. v. 34 seqq.; Cent. Nov. Antiche, Firenze, 1572, p. 91; Bauduin de Sebourg, I. 359.) The following are some of the more notable murders or attempts at murder ascribed to the Ismaelite emissaries either from Syria or from Persia : A.D. 1092. Nizam-ul-Mulk, formerly the powerful minister of Malik Shah, Seljukian sovereign of Persia, and a little later his two sons. 1102. The Prince of Homs, in the chief Mosque of that city. 1113. Maudúd, Prince of Mosul, in the chief Mosque of Damascus. About 1114. Abul Muzafar 'Ali, Wazir of Sanjár Shah, and Chakar Beg, granduncle of the latter. 1116. Ahmed Yel, Prince of Maragha, at Baghdad, in the presence of Mahomed, Sultan of Persia. 1121. The Amir Afdhal, the powerful Wazir of Egypt, at Cairo. 1126. Kasim Aksonkor, Prince of Mosul and Aleppo, in the Great Mosque at Mosul. 1127. Moyinuddin, Wazir of Sanjar Shah of Persia. 1129. Amír Billah, Khalif of Egypt. 1131. Taj-ul Mulúk Buri, Prince of Damascus. 1134. Shamsul-Mulúk, son of the preceding. 1135-38. The Khalif Mostarshid, the Khalif Rashíd, and Daùd, Seljukian Prince of Adherbaijan. 1149. Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191. Kizil Arzlan, Prince of Adherbaijan. 1192. Conrad of Montferrat, titular King of Jerusalem. Add in 1174 and 1176 attempts to murder the great Saladin. 1271. Attempt to murder Ala'uddin Juwaini, Governor of Baghdad and historian of the Mongols. 1272. The attempt to murder Prince Edward of England at Acre. In latter years the Fidawi or Ismaelite adepts appear to have let out their services simply as hired assassins. Bibars, in a letter to his court at Cairo, boasts of using them when needful. A Mahomedan author ascribes to Bibars the instigation of the attempt on Prince Edward. (Makrizi, II. 100; J. As. XI. 150.) NOTE 2.-Hammer mentions as "Grand Priors" under the Shaikh or Grand Master at Alamút, the chief in Syria, one in the Kuhistan of E. Persia (Tun-o-Kaïn), one in Kumis (the country about Damghan and Bostam), and one in Irák; he does not speak of any in Kurdistan. Colonel Monteith however says, though without stating authority or particulars, "There were several divisions of them (the Assassins) scattered throughout Syria, Kurdistan (near the Lake of Wan), and Asia Minor, but all acknowledging as Imaum or High Priest the Chief residing at Alamut." And it may be noted that Odoric puts the Old Man at Millescorte, which looks like Malasgird, north of Lake Van. (H. des Assass. p. 104; J. R. G. S. III. 16; Cathay, p. ccxliii.) CHAPTER XXV. HOW THE OLD MAN CAME BY HIS END. Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ's Incarnation 1252, that Alaü, Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, heard tell of these great crimes of the Old Man, and resolved to make an end of him. So he took and sent one of his Barons with a great Army to that Castle, and they besieged it for three years, but they could not take it, so strong was it. And indeed if they had had food within it never would have been taken. But after being besieged those three years they ran short of victual, and were taken. The Old Man was put to death with all his men [and the Castle with its Garden of Paradise was levelled with the ground]. And since that time he has had no successor; and there was an end to all his villainies.' Now let us go back to our journey. NOTE 1.-The date in Pauthier is 1242; in the G. T. and in Ramusio 1262. Neither is right, nor certainly could Polo have meant the former. When Mangu Kaan, after his enthronement (1251), determined at a great Kurultai or Diet, on perfecting the Mongol conquests, he entrusted his brother Kublaï with the completion of the subjugation of China and the adjacent countries, whilst his brother Hulaku received the command of the army destined for Persia and Syria. The complaints that came from the Mongol officers already in Persia determined him to commence with the reduction of the Ismaelites, and Hulaku set out from Karakorum in February 1254. He proceeded with great deliberation, and the Oxus was not crossed till January 1256. But an army had been sent long in advance under "one of his Barons," Kitubuka Noyan, and in 1253 it was already actively engaged in besieging the Ismaelite fortresses. In 1255, during the progress of the war, ALA'UDDIN MAHOMED, the reigning Prince of the Assassins (mentioned by Polo as Alaodin), was murdered at the instigation of his son Ruknuddin Khurshah, who succeeded to the authority. A year later (Nov. 1256) Ruknuddin surrendered to Hulaku. The fortresses given up, all well furnished with provisions and artillery engines, were 100 in number. however, Lembeser and Girdkuh, refused to surrender. after a year; the latter is stated to have held out for twenty years, actually, as it would seem, about fourteen, or till December 1270. Ruknuddin was well treated by Hulaku, and despatched to the Court of the Kaan. The accounts of his death differ, but that most commonly alleged, according to Rashiduddin, is that Mangu Kaan was irritated at hearing of his approach, asking why his post-horses should be fagged to no purpose, and sent executioners to put Ruknuddin to death on the road. Alamut had been surrendered without any substantial resistance. Some survivors of the sect got hold of it again in 1275-6, and held out for a time. The dominion was extinguished but the sect remained, though scattered indeed and obscure. Traces of them exist in Persia still. Early in this century at least their Shaikh resided at Yezd, and more recently Abbott mentions the sect as still existing in Kerman. The Bohrahs of Western India are said to be an offshoot of the Ismaelites. Two of them, The former fell A Chinese account of the expedition of Hulaku will be found in Rémusat's Nouveaux Mélanges (I.), and in Pauthier's Introduction. (Q. R. 115-219, esp. 213; Ilch. vol. I.; Fraser, 376-7.) There is some account of the rock of Alamut and its exceedingly slender traces of occupancy, by Col. Monteith, in J. R. G. S. III. 15, and again by Sir Justin Shiel in vol. VIII. p. 431. There does not seem to be any specific authority for assigning the Paradise of the Shaikh to Alamut; and it is at least worthy of note that another of the castles of the Muláhidah, destroyed by Hulaku, was called Firdús, i.c. Paradise. In any case I see no reason to suppose that Polo visited Alamut, which would have been quite out of the road that he is following. It is possible that "the Castle," to which he alludes at the beginning of next chapter, and which set him off upon this digression, was Girdkuh. It has not, as far as I know, been identified by modern travellers, but it stood within 10 or 12 miles of Damghan (to the west or north-west). It |