Hulagu Khan

“ A capable Sultan such men would obey; a weak or evil one they would replace. Under this ascendancy Egypt remained an independent power until 1517, when it fell to the Ottoman Turks.
The first destructive vigour of Hulagu’s Mongols soon subsided, but in the fifteenth century a last tornado of nomadism arose in Western Turkestan under the leadership of a certain Timur the Lame, or Timurlane. He was descended in the female line from Jengis Khan. He established himself in Samarkand, and spread his authority over Kipchak (Turkestan to South Russia) , Siberia, and southward as far as the Indus. ”

“ In Persia, where Hūlāgū founded the dynasty of the Īlk͟hāns, the progress of Islam among the Mongols was much slower. In order to strengthen himself against the attacks of Baraka K͟hān and the Sultan of Egypt, Hūlāgū accepted the alliance of the Christian powers of the East, such as the king of Armenia and the Crusaders. His favourite wife was a Christian and favourably disposed the mind of her husband towards her co-religionists, and his son Abāqā K͟hān married the daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople. ”

“ In August, 1257, this Mongol master of Persia sent his envoys to Bagdad, with a letter to Mostassim, the Kalif then in office, who was a grandson of Nassir, that successor of the Prophet who had invited Jinghis Khan to destroy Shah Mohammed.
After certain introductions and complaints in the letter, Hulagu warned against resistance substantially as follows: “Strike not the point of an awl with thy fist, mistake not the sun for the glowing wick of a flameless taper. Level the walls of Bagdad at once, fill its moats ”

“ He declared at last that Alemdar and Bolga had said to him: “Hulagu and Kubilai are on distant expeditions, and our late sovereign has left you at the head of the principal ulus of the Mongols. Why hesitate? Make yourself [339] Grand Khan immediately.” He had consulted with the other officers; all held that opinion together. The officers present confirmed what Arik Buga had stated, and ten of them were sentenced to pay the death penalty. But to judge Arik Buga himself Kubilai wished the presence of Hulagu, Berkai, and Algu. ”

“ Baidju then took Rokn ud din out of prison and installed him as Sultan in all the Rūm provinces. Yzz ud din fled now a second time and found refuge with the Byzantine Emperor who was visiting Sardis. This emperor, Theodore Lascaris, fearing Rokn ud din’s partisans, as well as the Mongols, advised the fleeing Sultan to return to his kingdom. Yzz ud din took the advice, and offered submission to Hulagu, who upheld the division of Rūm between the two brothers.
When Mangu became Grand Khan in 1251 the Cilician king, Hayton, begged Batu to recommend him to the new Mongol sovereign. ”

“ Now, the tribute they exacted of the country was that of a full grown man, to be chosen by lot, every year; and on whoso the lot fell, he had to go, without redemption, whatever his condition in life. Thus it happened one year that the lot fell on the Khan himself. In all the kingdom there was no one of equal rank who could be received instead of him, unless it had been his only son. When his son would have gone in his stead, he answered him, “What is it to me if the Serpents devour me, so that thou, my son, reignest in peace?” ”

“ Then the White Serpent-king went his way down under the water again to his palace, and the tamer turned him towards his own country, the red-coloured dog following behind him.
“Thus was the promise of Princess Goldfrog fulfilled,” exclaimed the Khan.
And as he let these words escape him, the Siddhî-kür replied, “Forgetting his health, the Well-and-wise-walking Khan hath opened his lips.” And with the cry, “To escape out of this world is good!” he sped him through the air, swift out of sight. ”

“ With the portrait of the peerless Chaoukeun in his bosom, and his mandarin garments raised up under each arm, the miscreant Suchong Pollyhong Ka-te-tow reached the presence of the Great Khan. "O Khan of Tartary," said he, "may thy sword be ever keen, thy lance unerring, and thy courser swift. I am thy slave. O thou who commandest a hundred thousand warriors, hath thy slave permission to address thee?" ”

“ When they arrived, the Khan said, "When one has to show his gratitude, and dismisses him to whom he is indebted with presents, that does not make an end of the matter. That I was not put to death by the Manggus is thy doing; that the kingdom was not given over to destruction was thy doing; that the ministers were not eaten up by the Manggus was thy doing: it is meet, therefore, that we share between us the inheritance, even between us two, and reign in perfect equality." ”

“ We will not flee from death to exist in opprobrium. If we survive we are happy; if we die we are martyrs. Ye demand that obedience which we render the vicar of the Prophet, ye shall not have it; we would rather go to the place in which he is. Tell the man2 who indited your message that we care no more for his words than for the buzz of a fly or the squeak of a Persian fiddle.”
Hulagu gave command to his army to march into Syria. He summoned Bedr ud din Lulu, who, excused because of great age, had to send his son, Melik Salih Ismail, with the troops of Mosul. ”

“ I know what he will do; in a day or two, when he has cured the Khan by not letting us approach him to devour his life, he will assemble together all the men of the place with their arms, and all the women, telling them to bring each a faggot of wood for burning. When all are assembled he will say, 'Let that he-goat be brought to me,' so they will bind thee and take thee before him. ”

“ Not content with having recovered China, the emperor Hungwu sent an army of 400,000 men into Mongolia in pursuit of the forces which yet remained to the khakan. Even on their own ground the disheartened Mongols failed in their resistance to the Chinese, and at all points suffered disaster. Meanwhile Toghon Timur, who did not long survive his defeat, was succeeded in the khakanate by Biliktu Khan, who again in 1379 was followed by Ussakhal Khan. ”

“ They were divided into tribes under the rule of chieftains called Khans; and over the whole was a chosen ruler named the Khakan—the Khan of Khans. Their numbers grew. They led the pastoral life. As conquerors they were as ruthless as the Huns from whom they were descended, and at length, under the famous Kublai Khan, they possessed by far the greater portion of Asia and Europe as far as the boundaries of Poland. Before the end of the thirteenth century Kublai Khan, with his palace at Peking, dominated the whole of China, and a vast portion of the earth's surface besides. ”

“ During the march yesterday the Nuwab was regretting that we did not fall in with a good stream of clear water, that he might take his usual sherbet; you know that the slave girl he has with him always prepares it. Now I am in hopes that we may meet one in to-morrow's march, and I will try all I can to persuade him to alight and refresh himself; while he is engaged in conversation with me, if we find him off his guard, we can fall on him."
"Nothing is easier," replied Surfuraz Khan; "we cannot fail if he once sits down: his weapons will not then serve him." ”

“ If thou come thou wilt find here good treatment, if not God knows and He alone what will happen.”
Rokn ud din repeated his worn out excuses. Hulagu would not receive them, and commanded his troops to march into Rudbar from various points simultaneously. The right wing moved from Mazanderan, the left by the Khar route and over Lemnan, while the center went by the Talekan highway. By order of Hulagu, who advanced with the center, the three hundred men sent by Rokn ud din were cut down near Kazvin, slain in secret. Reaching Meimundiz he made a tour of the fortress and summoned a council. ”

“ Perhaps you don't keep your head where we Mongols keep ours! but what will the Khan say, if we take back only five or six out of 300 men?"
"Five or six?" repeated Libor in alarm; "are so many lost?"
"Well, and if it's not so many! and if you, who ought to be first in the fight have managed to save your own skin! quite enough have fallen for all that, and we shall all perish if this mad business goes on any longer. Take care, Knéz! Look after yourself! for Batu Khan is not used to being played with by new men such as you!" ”

“ On the Friday next after the death of the Kalif these words were pronounced in place of the usual invocation: [255] “Praise to God who has destroyed high existences, and condemned to nonentity dwellers in this abode (of humanity) . O God, assist us in woes such as Islam has never experienced: but we belong to God and return to Him.”
Hulagu was now master of Bagdad, and he proposed to the Ulema this question: “Which man is better as sovereign, an unbeliever who is just, or a Moslem unjust in his dealings?” ”

“ This ceremony brought the separate history of the Kalkas to a close, since from that time they have been engulfed in the Chinese Empire.
During the Kin dynasty of China the Keraits, as has been pointed out, were for a time supreme in Mongolia, and it was during that period that one of the earliest recognized sovereigns, Merghus Buyuruk Khan, sat on the throne. In an engagement with a neighbouring Tatar tribe their khan was captured and sent as a propitiatory present to the Kin emperor, who put him to death by nailing him on a wooden ass. ”

“ There he was bidden to act as barber and cut the monarch's hair, and after he had done so he invariably disappeared and was never seen or heard of again. Of course, it was easy to guess that he had been put to death. Needless to say, the fathers and mothers of young men lived in constant dread and hated the Khan with their whole hearts, yet they had no power to withstand his orders.
Now it happened one day that the Khan's messenger stopped at the house of a widow who had only one child,—a fine, handsome lad whom she loved better than life itself. ”

“ And he gave sentence that all that he possessed should be confiscated, and that he should be a beggar at the gate of his enemies [3] , with his head shorn [4] . "Let it be permitted to me to speak again," said the younger brother, "and I will prove to the Khan the truth of what I have advanced." And the Khan having given him permission to speak, he said, "Let the Khan now send to the burying-place on the other side of the rock, and there in the mouth of the corpse shall be found the tip of this woman's nose." Then the Khan sent, and found it was even as he had said. ”

“ It was well that they should find thee, and deliver thee from under the rock; but what would it have availed had not my potion restored thee to life? It is to me thou owest all, so give me thy wife for my guerdon.”
“Nay!” interposed the wood-carver’s son, “nay, but it is to my craft thou owest all. The woman had never been rescued from the power of the Khan but by [114] means of my wooden garuda-bird. Behold, are we six unarmed men able to have laid siege to the Khan’s palace? And as no man is suffered to pass within its portal, never had she been reached, but by means of my bird. ”

“ The great Khan at first established his royal court at Kara-kum in the desert, and followed the Tarter custom of moving about with the golden horde, attended by numerous flocks and herds, according to the changes of the season: but Mangu-Khan, and Cublai-Khan, established their principal seat of empire in the new city of Pe-king, or Khan-balu, and perfected the conquest of China, reducing Corea, Tonkin, Cochin-china, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, to different degrees of subjection, or tribute, under the direct influence of the great Khan, and his peculiar lieutenants. ”

“ When they had arrived near the capital of the kingdom, they sent an embassage before them to the Khan, saying,—
“We, thy two sons, Sunshine and Moonshine, are returned to thee.”
The Khan and the Khanin, who had for many years past quite lost their reason out of grief for the loss of their children, and held no more converse with men, [81] were at once restored to sense and animation at this news, and sent out a large troop of horsemen to meet them, and conduct them to their palace. ”

“ He is worthy to be saved, throw him not into the water. Or else if you will throw him in, throw me in also with him.” Then the men went and showed the Khan her words; whereupon the king was wroth, and said, “She is not worthy to be called the Khan’s daughter; let them therefore be both sewn up into one bullock’s skin, and so cast into the water.” The men therefore did according to the Khan’s bidding, [78] and sewing them both up in one bullock-hide together, cast them into the water to the Serpent-gods. ”

“ Seeing him yet afar, his wife came out to meet him, carrying brandy. She opened her eyes when she saw the two elephants laden with butter and meal; but knowing that he loved to be left at ease, forbore to question him that night. The next morning she made him tell her the whole story before they got up; but when she heard what little demands he had made after rendering the Khan so great a service as restoring his talisman, she exclaimed,—
"If a man would be called a man, he ought to know better how to use his opportunities." ”

“ Many and many a brave man rejected his offers at [Pg 254] the risk, and with the loss, of his life; but there were some who were ready to do what the Khan wanted, if only they could hit upon any scheme. All their proclamations issued in the Khan's name failed to inspire confidence, however. The people did not return; those hitherto left in peace fled at the approach of the Mongols, the general need increased day by day, and the captives were put to death by hundreds to save food. ”