Of it, with different titles, in the Paris Library, and
a French version in that of Berne.
A MS. in Cambridge Univ. Library, which
contains among other things a copy of Pipino's Polo, has also the work of
Friar William: - "Willelmus Tripolitanus, Aconensis Conventus, de Egressu
Machometi et Saracenorum, atque progressu eorumdem, de Statu
Saracenorum," etc. It is imperfect; it is addressed THEOBALDO
Ecclesiarcho digno Sancte Terre Peregrino Sancto. And from a cursory
inspection I imagine that the Tract appended to one of the Polo MSS. in
the British Museum (Addl. MSS., No. 19,952) is the same work or part of
it. To the same author is ascribed a tract called Clades Damiatae.
(Duchesne, V. 432; D'Avezac in Rec. de Voyages, IV. 406; Quetif,
Script. Ord. Praed. I. 264-5; Catal. of MSS. in Camb. Univ. Library, I.
22.)
NOTE 2. - I presume that the powers, stated in this passage from Ramusio to
have been conferred on the Friars, are exaggerated. In letters of
authority granted in like cases by Pope Gregory's successors, Nicolas III.
(in 1278) and Boniface VIII. (in 1299), the missionary friars to remote
regions are empowered to absolve from excommunication and release from
vows, to settle matrimonial questions, to found churches and appoint
idoneos rectores, to authorise Oriental clergy who should publicly
submit to the Apostolic See to enjoy the privilegium clericale, whilst
in the absence of bishops those among the missionaries who were priests
might consecrate cemeteries, altars, palls, etc., admit to the Order of
Acolytes, but nothing beyond. (See Mosheim, Hist. Tartar. Eccles. App.
Nos. 23 and 42.)
NOTE 3. - The statement here about Bundukdar's invasion of Cilician Armenia
is a difficulty. He had invaded it in 1266, and his second devastating
invasion, during which he burnt both Layas and Sis, the king's residence,
took place in 1275, a point on which Marino Sanuto is at one with the
Oriental Historians. Now we know from Rainaldus that Pope Gregory left
Acre in November or December, 1271, and the text appears to imply that our
travellers left Acre before him. The utmost corroboration that I can find
lies in the following facts stated by Makrizi: -
On the 13th Safar, A.H. 670 (20th September 1271), Bundukdar arrived
unexpectedly at Damascus, and after a brief raid against the Ismaelians he
returned to that city. In the middle of Rabi I. (about 20-25 October) the
Tartars made an incursion in northern Syria, and the troops of Aleppo
retired towards Hamah. There was great alarm at Damascus; the Sultan sent
orders to Cairo for reinforcements, and these arrived at Damascus on the
9th November. The Sultan then advanced on Aleppo, sending corps likewise
towards Marash (which was within the Armenian frontier) and Harran. At the
latter place the Tartars were attacked and those in the town slaughtered;
the rest retreated. The Sultan was back at Damascus, and off on a
different expedition, by 7th December. Hence, if the travellers arrived at
Ayas towards the latter part of November they would probably find alarm
existing at the advance of Bundukdar, though matters did not turn out so
serious as they imply.
"Babylon," of which Bundukdar is here styled Sultan, means Cairo, commonly
so styled (Bambellonia d'Egitto) in that age. Babylon of Egypt is
mentioned by Diodorus quoting Ctesias, by Strabo, and by Ptolemy; it was
the station of a Roman Legion in the days of Augustus, and still survives
in the name of Babul, close to old Cairo.
Malik Dahir Ruknuddin Bibars Bundukdari, a native of Kipchak, was
originally sold at Damascus for 800 dirhems (about 18l.), and returned
by his purchaser because of a blemish. He was then bought by the Amir
Alauddin Aidekin Bundukdar ("The Arblasteer") whose surname he
afterwards adopted. He became the fourth of the Mameluke Sultans, and
reigned from 1259 to 1276. The two great objects of his life were the
repression of the Tartars and the expulsion of the Christians from Syria,
so that his reign was one of constant war and enormous activity. William
of Tripoli, in the work above mentioned, says: "Bondogar, as a soldier,
was not inferior to Julius Caesar, nor in malignity to Nero." He admits,
however, that the Sultan was sober, chaste, just to his own people, and
even kind to his Christian subjects; whilst Makrizi calls him one of the
best princes that ever reigned over Musulmans. Yet if we take Bibars as
painted by this admiring historian and by other Arabic documents, the
second of Friar William's comparisons is justified, for he seems almost a
devil in malignity as well as in activity. More than once he played tennis
at Damascus and Cairo within the same week. A strange sample of the man is
the letter which he wrote to Boemond, Prince of Antioch and Tripoli, to
announce to him the capture of the former city. After an ironically polite
address to Boemond as having by the loss of his great city had his title
changed from Princeship (Al-Brensiyah) to Countship (Al-Komasiyah),
and describing his own devastations round Tripoli, he comes to the attack
of Antioch: "We carried the place, sword in hand, at the 4th hour of
Saturday, the 4th day of Ramadhan,... Hadst thou but seen thy Knights
trodden under the hoofs of the horses! thy palaces invaded by plunderers
and ransacked for booty! thy treasures weighed out by the hundredweight!
thy ladies (Damataka, 'tes DAMES') bought and sold with thine own gear,
at four for a dinar! hadst thou but seen thy churches demolished, thy
crosses sawn in sunder, thy garbled Gospels hawked about before the sun,
the tombs of thy nobles cast to the ground; thy foe the Moslem treading
thy Holy of the Holies; the monk, the priest, the deacon slaughtered on
the Altar; the rich given up to misery; princes of royal blood reduced to
slavery! Couldst thou but have seen the flames devouring thy halls; thy
dead cast into the fires temporal with the fires eternal hard at hand; the
churches of Paul and of Cosmas rocking and going down - , then wouldst thou
have said, 'Would God that I were dust!' ... As not a man hath escaped to
tell thee the tale, I TELL IT THEE!"
A little later, when a mission went to treat with Boemond, Bibars himself
accompanied it in disguise, to have a look at the defences of Tripoli.
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