They Retire, And Then
Come The Saracen Priests And Do Likewise; The Priests Of The Idolaters
Follow.
He all the while believes in none of them, though they all follow
his court as flies follow honey.
He bestows his gifts on all of them, each
party believes itself to be his favourite, and all prophesy smooth things
to him." Abulfaragius calls Kublai "a just prince and a wise, who loved
Christians and honoured physicians of learning, whatsoever their nation."
There is a good deal in Kublai that reminds us of the greatest prince of
that other great Mongol house, Akbar. And if we trusted the first
impression of the passage just quoted from Ramusio, we might suppose that
the grandson of Chinghiz too had some of that real wistful regard towards
the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we seem to see traces in the grandson of
Baber. But with Kublai, as with his predecessors, religion seems to have
been only a political matter; and this aspect of the thing will easily be
recognised in a re-perusal of his conversation with Messer Nicolas and
Messer Maffeo. The Kaan must be obeyed; how man shall worship God is
indifferent; this was the constant policy of his house in the days of its
greatness. Kublai, as Koeppen observes, the first of his line to raise
himself above the natural and systematic barbarism of the Mongols,
probably saw in the promotion of Tibetan Buddhism, already spread to some
extent among them, the readiest means of civilising his countrymen.
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