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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
~ V.7.11:
CHAP. XVIII. KIACATU'S SOVEREIGNTY
475
CHAPTER XVIII.
How KIACATU SEIZED THE SOVEREIGNTY AFTER ARGON'S DEATH.
AND immediately on Argon's death, an uncle of his who
was own brother * to Abaga his father, seized the throne,
as he found it easy to do owing to Casan's being so far
away as the Arbre Sec. When Casan heard of his
father's death he was in great tribulation, and still more
when he heard of KIACATU'S seizing the throne. He
could not then venture to leave the frontier for fear of
his enemies, but he vowed that when time and place
should suit he would go and take as great vengeance as
his father had taken on Acomat. And what shall I tell
you ? Kiacatu continued to rule, and all obeyed him
except such as were along with Casan. Kiacatu took
the wife of Argon for his own, and was always dallying
with women, for he was a great lechour. He held the
throne for two years, and at the end of those two years
he died ; for you must know he was poisoned.'
NOTE I.-KÁIKHATÚ, of whom we heard in the Prologue (vol. i. p. 35), was the brother, not the uncle, of Arghún. On the death of the latter there were three claimants, viz., his son Gházán, his brother Káikhatu, and his cousin Baidu, the son of Tarakai, one of Hulaku's sons. The party of Káikhatu was strongest, and he was raised to the throne at Akhlath, 23rd July 1291. He took as wives out of the Royal Tents of Arghún the Ladies Bulughán (the 2nd, not her named in the Prologue) and Uruk. All the writers speak of Káikhatu's character in the same way. Hayton calls him " a man without law or faith, of no valour or experience in arms, but altogether given up to lechery and vice, living like a brute beast, glutting all his disordered appetites ; for his dissolute life hated by his own people, and lightly regarded by foreigners." (Ram. II. ch. xxiv.) The continuator of Abulfaraj, and Abulfeda in his Annals, speak in like terms. (Assem. III. Pt. 2nd, I19-12o ; Reiske,
Ann. Abulf. III. mi.)
Baidu rose against him ; most of his chiefs abandoned him, and he was put to death in March—April, 1295. He reigned therefore nearly four years, not two as the
text says.
* Frer carnaus (I. p. 187).
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