Its Close Coincidence In Substance With
Polo's Story Is Quite Remarkable.
After a detailed description of the
Paradise, and the transfer into it of the aspirant under the influence of
bang, on his awaking and seeing his chief enter, he says, "O chief!
Am I
awake or am I dreaming?" To which the chief: "O such an One, take heed
that thou tell not the dream to any stranger. Know that Ali thy Lord hath
vouchsafed to show thee the place destined for thee in Paradise....
Hesitate not a moment therefore in the service of the Imam who thus deigns
to intimate his contentment with thee," and so on.
William de Nangis thus speaks of the Syrian Shaikh, who alone was known to
the Crusaders, though one of their historians (Jacques de Vitry, in
Bongars, I. 1062) shows knowledge that the headquarters of the sect was
in Persia: "He was much dreaded far and near, by both Saracens and
Christians, because he so often caused princes of both classes
indifferently to be murdered by his emissaries. For he used to bring up in
his palace youths belonging to his territory, and had them taught a
variety of languages, and above all things to fear their Lord and obey him
unto death, which would thus become to them an entrance into the joys of
Paradise. And whosoever of them thus perished in carrying out his Lord's
behests was worshipped as an angel." As an instance of the implicit
obedience rendered by the Fidawi or devoted disciples of the Shaikh, Fra
Pipino and Marino Sanuto relate that when Henry Count of Champagne
(titular King of Jerusalem) was on a visit to the Old Man of Syria, one
day as they walked together they saw some lads in white sitting on the top
of a high tower.
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