MISSION TO BAGDAD.
AFTER the assassination of Touran Chah at Pharescour, the Mamelukes were
very much at a loss on whom to bestow the crown so long worn by the
chiefs of this family of Saladin. In their perplexity they elevated
Chegger Edour to the throne, and proclaimed her 'Queen of the
Mussulmen.' But the affairs of the sultana did not go smoothly. Moslems
were aroused at the elevation of a woman to sovereignty; and the Caliph
of Bagdad, when asked to send the rich robe which the caliphs were in
the habit of sending by way of investiture to the Sultans of Egypt,
demanded with indignation if a man capable of reigning could no longer
be found. Every day the confusion increased and the troubles multiplied.
In order to make matters more pleasant, the sultana associated a
Mameluke named Turcoman with her in the government, and even
condescended so far as to unite herself with him in marriage. But the
aspect of affairs became gradually more alarming, and Chegger Edour,
yielding to the prevailing discontent, abdicated in favour of her
husband. Turcoman, however, found that his crown was somewhat thorny;
and at a critical period he aroused the jealousy of his wife by aspiring
to wed an oriental princess.
The sultana vowed vengeance, and hastened to execute it by causing
Turcoman to be assassinated in his bath. One night an emir, hastily
summoned to the palace, found Chegger Edour seated on a couch with her
feet resting on the dead body of her husband. The emir uttered an
exclamation of horror; but she calmly stated that she had sent for him
to offer her hand and her crown. The emir fled in terror, and next day
the mother of the murdered man had the sultana put to death by her
slaves, and caused her corpse to be thrown into a ditch.
A Mameluke named Koutouz was now elevated to the throne, and signalised
himself by a victory over the Moguls or Tartars, hordes of wandering
warriors who were now making themselves terrible both to Europe and
Asia. Unfortunately for Koutouz, however, he at that time renewed a
truce with the Christians of Syria, and raised the anger of his soldiers
to such a height that his death was decreed. Accordingly, one day, when
he had ridden out from Sallhie to hunt, a Mameluke chief suddenly
spurred into the camp, his garments stained with blood.
'I have slain the sultan,' said he.
'Well, then, reign in his stead,' replied the bystanders.
The Mameluke chief was Bibars Bendocdar; and, having been proclaimed as
successor to the man he had murdered, he ascended the throne, and, as
sultan of Egypt and Syria, began to govern with despotic power.
Meanwhile, Louis was anxious to redeem from captivity the Crusaders who
had been left in Egypt, and sent ambassadors to Cairo with the money
that had been agreed on as their ransom. But the ambassadors could
hardly get a hearing. At length they did obtain the release of four
hundred of the Christian prisoners, most of whom had paid their own
ransom; but when they pressed for the liberation of the others, they
were plainly told that the King of France might deem himself fortunate
that he had regained his own liberty; and that if he gave more trouble,
he might expect the Mamelukes to besiege him at Acre. On hearing this
Louis was much perplexed, and consulted his nobles, especially the Lord
of Joinville.
'Sire,' said Joinville, after some consideration, 'this is a serious
question, and one not to be hastily disposed of; for I remember that
when I was on the eve of leaving home, my cousin, the Seigneur de
Bollaincourt, said to me, "Now you are going beyond the seas, but take
care how you return; no knight, either rich or poor, can come back
without shame, if he leaves behind him, in the hands of the Saracens,
any of the common people who leave home in his company." Now,' added the
seneschal, 'these unhappy captives were in the service of the king, as
well as the service of God, and never can they escape from captivity if
the king should abandon them.'
On hearing this Louis was more perplexed than ever. In his anxiety,
however, he bethought him of the caliph, and resolved, great as was the
distance, to send ambassadors to Bagdad, where reigned Musteazem the
Miser, the thirty-seventh of his dynasty.
Now, albeit Moslems were in the habit of paying great reverence to the
caliph as the successor of Mahomet, he exercised very little substantial
power over the fierce warriors who fought for Islamism. Nor, indeed, had
the history of the caliphate been such as to add to the sacredness of
the office, or to increase the superstitious veneration with which it
was regarded. For several centuries, the East witnessed the spectacle of
rival caliphs, both professing to be the representatives of the prophet,
and each claiming all the privileges attaching to the character. The
rivals were known as the Fatimites and the Abassides. The Fatimites
claimed the caliphate as being the heirs of Ali, Mahomet's son-in-law,
and established their throne at Cairo. The Abassides, who were Mahomet's
male heirs, maintained their state at Bagdad. At length, in 1170, the
struggle for supremacy was terminated by Saladin the Great, who killed
the Caliph of Cairo with his mace, and rendered the Caliph of Bagdad
undisputed chief of all Moslems; and, from that time, the Abassides,
though sunk in effeminacy, and much given to sensual indulgences,
continued to exercise their vague privileges and their shadowy
authority.
Nevertheless, King Louis, bent on obtaining the relief of the captive
Crusaders, despatched ambassadors to Bagdad to treat with the caliph.
The ambassadors were a Templar, and Bisset the English knight; and with
them, in their train, went Walter Espec, now, at length, hopeful of
ascertaining something about his brother's fate.
It was not without encountering considerable danger, and having to
endure much fatigue, that the Templar and the English knight, under the
guidance of Beltran the renegade, who had opportunely appeared at Acre,
and whom Bisset had pressed into the service, traversed the country;
and, after many days' travel, drew nigh to the capital of the caliphate,
which had been built, in the eighth century, by Al Mansour, one of the
Abasside caliphs, out of the ruins of Ctesiphon, and afterwards enlarged
and adorned by Haroun Alraschid, the great caliph of his dynasty.
But the journey had not been without its novelty and excitement; and
Walter Espec was riding by the side of Beltran the renegade, towards
whom, in spite of his prejudices as a Crusader, he felt the gratitude
due to a man who had saved his life, when he was cut down at Mansourah.
At present he was much interested with the account given by the renegade
of the ostriches or camel-birds, and eager to learn how they were
hunted.
'And so, good Beltran,' said he, 'you have actually hunted this bird,
whose height is gigantic, whose cry at a distance resembles the lion's,
and which is to be found in parched and desolate tracts, deserted even
by antelopes and beasts of prey.'
'In truth have I,' replied Beltran.
'I envy you,' said Walter; 'nothing would please me more than such an
enterprise.'
'Nevertheless,' rejoined the renegade, 'it is somewhat irksome, and
requires much patience. But the Arabs have a proverb, that patience is
the price that must be paid for all success, and act accordingly. They
have horses trained for the purpose; and, when they first start the
ostrich, they go off at an easy gallop, so as to keep the bird in view,
without going so near as to alarm it. On discovering that it is pursued,
the ostrich begins to move away, gently at first, but gradually
increasing its speed, running with wings extended, as if flying, and
keeps doubling. It generally takes two days to run one down; but the
hunter gets the best of the race at last; and, when the ostrich finds
itself exhausted and beaten, it buries its head in the sand; and the
hunters, coming up, kill it with their clubs, taking care not to spoil
the feathers.'
'On my faith,' said Walter, 'I do own that such a pursuit would be
irksome; and I hardly think that my patience would brook so much delay.'
'However,' said Beltran, suddenly raising his hand and pointing forward,
'there lies before you the city of the caliph.'
Bagdad, as the reader may be aware, is situated on the Tigris, at the
distance of two hundred miles above the junction of that river with the
Euphrates, and the Tigris is here about six hundred feet in breadth. The
city, which is of an oblong shape, and of which the streets are so
narrow that not more than two horsemen can ride abreast, is surrounded
with a high wall, flanked with towers, some of an immense size, built by
the early caliphs; and several old buildings remain to attest its
ancient magnificence--such as the Gate of the Talisman, a lofty
minaret, built in 785; the tomb of Zobeida, the most beloved of the
wives of Haroun Alraschid; and the famous Madressa College, founded in
1233 by the Caliph Mustenatser.
No traces, however, are left of the palace so long inhabited by the
caliphs; nor does anything mark the place where, though its glory was
about to depart, it still stood in all its pride, with the black banner
of the Abassides floating over its portals, when the ambassadors of St.
Louis reached Bagdad, and craved an audience of the heir of the prophet.
It was a sight to impress even men accustomed to the wealth and
splendour of Acre; and they thanked God for having conducted them in
safety to a place where there was a prospect of food and rest.
But Walter Espec was not thinking of such things; his whole mind was
occupied with the question, whether or not his lost brother was a
captive within these walls.