Nizum-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. Maudud, Prince of
Mosul, in the chief Mosque of Damascus. About 1114. Abul Muzafar 'Ali,
Wazir of Sanjar Shah, and Chakar Beg, grand-uncle 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. Moyin-uddin, Wazir of Sanjar Shah of Persia. 1129.
Amir Billah, Khalif of Egypt. 1131. Taj-ul Muluk Buri, Prince of Damascus.
1134. Shams-ul-Muluk, son of the preceding. 1135-38. The Khalif
Mostarshid, the Khalif Rashid, and Daud, Seljukian Prince of Azerbaijan.
1149. Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191. Kizil Arzlan, Prince of Azerbaijan.
1192. Conrad of Montferrat, titular King of Jerusalem; a murder which King
Richard has been accused of instigating. 1217. Oghulmish, Prince of
Hamadan.
And 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 Ismailite 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 what he chooses to call "Grand Priors" under
the Shaikh or "Grand Master" at Alamut, the chief, in Syria, one in the
Kuhistan of E. Persia (Tun-o-Kain), one in Kumis (the country about
Damghan and Bostam), and one in Irak; 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, a generation after
Polo, 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.)
[1] This story has been transferred to Peter the Great, who is alleged to
have exhibited the docility of his subjects in the same way to the
King of Denmark, by ordering a Cossack to jump from the Round Tower at
Copenhagen, on the summit of which they were standing.
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW THE OLD MAN CAME BY HIS END.
Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ's Incarnation, 1252, that Alaue,
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.[NOTE 1]
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 Mangku Kaan, after his enthronement (1251), determined at a great
Kurultai or Diet, on perfecting the Mongol conquests, he entrusted his
brother Kublai 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 Ismailites, 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 Ismailite 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 (November, 1256) Ruknuddin surrendered to Hulaku. [Bretschneider
(Med. Res. II. p. 109) says that Alamut was taken by Hulaku, 20th
December, 1256. - H. C.] The fortresses given up, all well furnished with
provisions and artillery engines, were 100 in number. Two of them,
however, Lembeser and Girdkuh, refused to surrender. The former fell 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 Mangku 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 1275-1276, and held out for a time. The
dominion was extinguished, but the sect remained, though scattered indeed
and obscure. A very strange case that came before Sir Joseph Arnould in
the High Court at Bombay in 1866 threw much new light on the survival of
the Ismailis.
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