_A letter from Emir Daoud ibn Abdallah to El Malik Baibars
al-Bunduqdari, from Orvieto, 21st day of Rajab, 662 A.H.:_
Although the central part of Italy, the Papal States, is said to be
under the control of the pope, I have learned that his army is
barely large enough to protect his person and nowhere near enough to
enforce his authority. Manfred could attack the pope whenever he
wished, but he does not do so because he fears that the other
princes of Europe would then attack him.
The northern part of Italy is divided among a number of cities, each
of which is a small independent nation. These cities are often at
war with one another. The most important are Venice, Genoa,
Florence, Milan, Siena, Pisa, and Lucca.
Within each city there is also constant warfare among various
factions. The palaces of the great families are all heavily
fortified.
Italy is also divided between two parties, the Ghibellini and the
Guelfi. These parties are to be found everywhere, constantly at each
other's throats. They arose long ago in the northern part of the
Holy Roman Empire, where the German language is spoken. The
Hohenstaufen emperors came from the town of Waiblingen. And in the
early days of the Hohenstaufens their enemies were a family named
Welf. In Italy Welfs and Waiblings have become Guelfi and
Ghibellini.
Each day I come to realize more and more how complicated the history
of Europe is. It seems that most of Italy has been claimed by the
Holy Roman Empire--but Rome itself is not part of that empire.
Members of the Hohenstaufen family have been Holy Roman Emperors for
over two hundred years, and they have always been at war with the
popes. Why the emperor should be called "holy" when he is
traditionally the enemy of the pope I do not understand.
Furthermore, at this time there is no Holy Roman Emperor. The last
one was Conrad, son of Frederic and half brother of Manfred. He died
ten years ago, and then Manfred proclaimed himself king of southern
Italy and Sicily. The German part of the Holy Roman Empire is in a
more chaotic state than Italy, if my lord can imagine such a thing.
Here in Orvieto, where the pope has settled for his safety, there
are no Ghibellini. The townsmen have managed to find other reasons
to fight among themselves. The chief rivalry is between two great
families, the Monaldeschi and the Filippeschi. Since the Tartar
emissaries are guests of the Monaldeschi, I hope to make friends
with the Filippeschi.
* * * * *
Seated at a table in his little room at Cardinal Ugolini's, Daoud made
two copies of his letter to Baibars on small sheets of parchment scraped
so thin as to be almost transparent. He had written the letters in a
code using the Arabian system of numbers. Even if the message suffered
the unlikely fate of being intercepted and finding its way to one of the
few Arabic-reading Christians, it would remain an enigma.
Daoud rolled up the two letters tightly and put them in the leather
scrip at his belt. He stepped out of his room into a narrow corridor.
Doors on his right opened into rooms for Ugolini's guests and
high-ranking members of his staff. On his left, oiled-parchment windows
let light into the corridor from the atrium of the mansion.
Ugolini's cabinet, his private workroom, was at the end of the corridor,
where it turned a corner. Daoud walked up to the heavy oaken door and
raised his fist to knock.
He felt light-headed, as he did when going into combat. This was combat
of a kind. He had been a guest in Ugolini's mansion for over two weeks
now, and he had already, he thought, hurt the Tartars' prospects for an
alliance with the Christians. But he needed to do much more, with help
from Ugolini. The cardinal, Daoud knew, would be absolutely terrified at
the thought of his Muslim guest appearing before the pope.
And to appear before the pope, with the cardinal presenting him, was
precisely what Daoud wanted to do.
He knocked on the cabinet door.