There does not seem to be
any specific authority for assigning the Paradise of the Shaikh to Alamut;
and it is at least worthy of note that another of the castles of the
Mulahidah, destroyed by Hulaku, was called Firdus, i.e. Paradise.
In any
case, I see no reason to suppose that Polo visited Alamut, which would
have been quite out of the road that he is following.
It is possible that "the Castle," to which he alludes at the beginning of
next chapter, and which set him off upon this digression, was
Girdkuh.[1] It has not, as far as I know, been identified by modern
travellers, but it stood within 10 or 12 miles of Damghan (to the west or
north-west). It is probably the Tigado of Hayton, of which he thus
speaks: "The Assassins had an impregnable castle called Tigado, which was
furnished with all necessaries, and was so strong that it had no fear of
attack on any side. Howbeit, Halooen commanded a certain captain of his
that he should take 10,000 Tartars who had been left in garrison in
Persia, and with them lay siege to the said castle, and not leave it till
he had taken it. Wherefore the said Tartars continued besieging it for
seven whole years, winter and summer, without being able to take it. At
last the Assassins surrendered, from sheer want of clothing, but not of
victuals or other necessaries." So Ramusio; other copies read "27 years."
In any case it corroborates the fact that Girdkuh was said to have held
out for an extraordinary length of time.
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