- The date in Pauthier is 1242; in the G. T. and in Ramusio 1262.
Neither is right, nor certainly could Polo have meant the former.
When Mangku Kaan, after his enthronement (1251), determined at a great
Kurultai or Diet, on perfecting the Mongol conquests, he entrusted his
brother Kublai with the completion of the subjugation of China and the
adjacent countries, whilst his brother Hulaku received the command of the
army destined for Persia and Syria. The complaints that came from the
Mongol officers already in Persia determined him to commence with the
reduction of the Ismailites, and Hulaku set out from Karakorum in
February, 1254. He proceeded with great deliberation, and the Oxus was not
crossed till January, 1256. But an army had been sent long in advance
under "one of his Barons," Kitubuka Noyan, and in 1253 it was already
actively engaged in besieging the Ismailite fortresses. In 1255, during
the progress of the war, ALA'UDDIN MAHOMED, the reigning Prince of the
Assassins (mentioned by Polo as Alaodin), was murdered at the instigation
of his son Ruknuddin Khurshah, who succeeded to the authority. A year
later (November, 1256) Ruknuddin surrendered to Hulaku. [Bretschneider
(Med. Res. II. p. 109) says that Alamut was taken by Hulaku, 20th
December, 1256. - H. C.] The fortresses given up, all well furnished with
provisions and artillery engines, were 100 in number. Two of them,
however, Lembeser and Girdkuh, refused to surrender. The former fell after
a year; the latter is stated to have held out for twenty years -
actually, as it would seem, about fourteen, or till December, 1270.
Ruknuddin was well treated by Hulaku, and despatched to the Court of the
Kaan.
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