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 Kamal, 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. ser. V. tom. xi.
490, and xvi. 291; D'Ohsson, III. 243; Hammer's Wassaf, 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 Alaue (pace Mr. Longfellow) ever did see Cambalu.
CHAPTER VII.
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.
