IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
68 MARCO POLO BOOK I.
replied the Tartar, " did you hoard it, instead of expending it in keeping up an army ? Why did you not meet me at the Oxus ? " The Khalif could only say, " Such was God's will ! " " And that which has befallen you was also God's will," said
Hulaku.
Wassáf's narrative is interesting :—" Two days after his capture the Khalif was at his morning prayer, and began with the verse (Koran, III. 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 Khalifs 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 Kamál, 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 ! "
(Dayton in Ram. eh. xxvi. ; Per. Quat. 121 ; Pachynz. /We. Palaeol. II. 24 ; 7oinville, p. IS2 ; Sanuto, p. 238 ; .11 As. sér. V. tom. xi. 490, and xvi. 291 ; D'Oksson, III. 243 ; Hammer's Wassáf, 75-76 ; Quat. Rashid. 305.)
NOTE S.—Nevertheless Froissart brings the Khalif to life again one hundred and twenty years later, as " Le Galifre de Baudas." (Bk. III. ch. xxiv.)
CHAPTER VII.
How THE CALIF OF i3AUDAS TOOK COUNSEL TO SLAY ALL THE
CHRISTIANS IN HIS LAND.
I WILL tell you then this great marvel that occurred be-
tween Baudas and Mausul.
It was in the year of Christ 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,2 for they all
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.