I May, However, Point To Plano Carpini (P. 755), Who
Describes The Courtiers At Karakorum As Clad In White Purpura.
The London prices of Chermisi and Baldacchini in the early part of the
15th century will be found in Uzzano's work, but they are hard to
elucidate.
Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for its
variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature of the
goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but Josephus
speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of Titus,
"gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom," and he also
describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a [Greek: peplos Babylonios]
of varied colours marvellously wrought. Pliny says King Attalus invented
the intertexture of cloth with gold; but the weaving of damasks of a
variety of colours was perfected at Babylon, and thence they were called
Babylonian.
The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which Marco
speaks, are still a specialite at Benares, where they are known by the
name of Shikargah or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation of
the name Thard-wahsh "beast-hunts," by which they were known to the
mediaeval Saracens. (See Q. Makrizi, IV. 69-70.) Plautus speaks of such
patterns in carpets, the produce of Alexandria - "Alexandrina belluata
conchyliata tapetia." Athenaeus speaks of Persian carpets of like
description at an extravagant entertainment given by Antiochus Epiphanes;
and the same author cites a banquet given in Persia by Alexander, at which
there figured costly curtains embroidered with animals. In the 4th century
Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus, rebukes the Christians who indulge
in such attire: "You find upon them lions, panthers, bears, huntsmen,
woods, and rocks; whilst the more devout display Christ and His disciples,
with the stories of His miracles," etc. And Sidonius alludes to upholstery
of like character:
"Peregrina det supellex
* * *
Ubi torvus, et per artem
Resupina flexus ora,
It equo reditque telo
Simulacra bestiarum
Fugiens fugansque Parthus." (Epist. ix. 13.)
A modern Kashmir example of such work is shown under ch. xvii.
(D'Avezac, p. 524; Pegolotti, in Cathay, 295, 306; I. B. II. 309,
388, 422; III. 81; Della Decima, IV. 125-126; Fr.-Michel, Recherches,
etc., II. 10-16, 204-206; Joseph. Bell. Jud. VII. 5, 5, and V. 5, 4;
Pliny, VIII. 74 (or 48); Plautus, Pseudolus, I. 2; Yonge's
Athenaeus, V. 26 and XII. 54; Mongez in Mem. Acad. IV. 275-276.)
NOTE 5. - [Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 114) says: "Hulagu left
Karakorum, the residence of his brother, on the 2nd May, 1253, and
returned to his ordo, in order to organize his army. On the 19th October
of the same year, all being ready, he started for the west." He arrived at
Samarkand in September, 1255. For this chapter and the following of Polo,
see: Hulagu's Expedition to Western Asia, after the Mohammedan Authors,
pp. 112-122, and the Translation of the Si Shi Ki (Ch'ang Te), pp.
122-156, in Bretschneider's Mediaeval Researches, I. - H. C.]
NOTE 6. - ["Hulagu proceeded to the lake of Ormia (Urmia), when he
ordered a castle to be built on the island of Tala, in the middle of the
lake, for the purpose of depositing here the immense treasures captured at
Baghdad. A great part of the booty, however, had been sent to Mangu Khan."
(Hulagu's Exp., Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 120.) Ch'ang Te says
(Si Shi Ki, p. 139): "The palace of the Ha-li-fa was built of fragrant
and precious woods. The walls of it were constructed of black and white
jade. It is impossible to imagine the quantity of gold and precious stones
found there." - H. C.]
NOTE 7. -
"I said to the Kalif: 'Thou art old,
Thou hast no need of so much gold.
Thou shouldst not have heaped and hidden it here,
Till the breath of Battle was hot and near,
But have sown through the land these useless hoards
To spring into shining blades of swords,
And keep thine honour sweet and clear.
* * * * *
Then into his dungeon I locked the drone,
And left him to feed there all alone
In the honey-cells of his golden hive:
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.
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