The correction was probably made
by Polo himself; it is certainly of very early date. For in the romance of
Bauduin de Sebourc, which I believe dates early in the 14th century, the
Caliph, on witnessing the extraordinary devotion of the followers of the
Old Man (see note 1, ch. xxiv.), exclaims:
"Par Mahon ...
Vous estes Diex en terre, autre coze n'i a!" (I. p. 360.)
So also Fr. Jacopo d'Aqui in the Imago Mundi, says of the Assassins:
"Dicitur iis quod sunt in Paradiso magno Dei Terreni" - expressions, no
doubt, taken in both cases from Polo's book.
Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the name
Mulehet represents Alamut. But the resemblance is much closer and more
satisfactory to Mulhid or Mulahidah. Mulhet is precisely the name by
which the kingdom of the Ismailites is mentioned in Armenian history, and
Mulihet is already applied in the same way by Rabbi Benjamin in the 12th
century, and by Rubruquis in the 13th. The Chinese narrative of Hulaku's
expedition calls it the kingdom of Mulahi. (Joinville, p. 138; J.
As. ser. II., tom. xii. 285; Benj. Tudela, p. 106; Rub. p. 265;
Remusat, Nouv. Melanges, I. 176; Gaubil, p. 128; Pauthier, pp.
cxxxix.-cxli.; Mon.
