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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XXV. DEATII OF THE OLD MAN
145
Afdhal, the powerful Wazir of Egypt, at Cairo. 1126. Kasian Aksonkor, Prince of Mosul and Aleppo, in the Great Mosque at Mosul. i 127. Moyin-uddin, Wazir of Sanjár Shah of Persia. 1129. Arnír Billah, Khalif of Egypt. 1131. Taj-ul Mulúk Buri, Prince of Damascus. 1134. Shams-ul-Mulúk, son of the preceding. 1135-38. The Khalif Mostarshid, the Khalif Rashíd, and Daùd, Seljukian Prince of Azerbaijan. I149. Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191. Kizil Arzlan, Prince of Azerbaijan. I192. Conrad of Montferrat, titular King of Jerusalem ; a murder which King Richard has been accused of instigating. 1217. Oghulmish, Prince of Hamadán.
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 Fidáwí 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, IL MO; J. As. XI. 15a)
NOTE 2.—Hammer mentions as what he chooses to call " Grand Priors " under the Shaikh or " Grand Master " at Alamút, 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 Irák ; 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 11/i//escorte, which looks like Malasa ird, north of Lake Van. (IL des Assass. p. 104 ; J. R. G. S. III. 16 ; Cathay, p. ccxliii.)
CHAPTER XXV.
How THE OLD MAN CAME BY HIS END.
Now it carne to pass, in the year of Christ's Incarnation,
1252, that Alai", 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
VOL. I. K
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