Baldach, Or Bagdat, Is A Great City In Which The
Supreme Caliph Formerly Resided, Who Was Pope Of All The Saracens.
From
this city it is counted seventeen days journey to the sea; but the river
Tigris runs past, on which people sail to Balsora, where the best dates in
the world grow, but in the passage between these; two cities there lies
another named Chisi.
In Bagdat are many manufactures of gold and silk, and
damasks and velvets with figures of various creatures; in that city there
is a university, where the law of Mahoment, physic, astronomy, and geomancy
are taught; and from it come all the pearls in Christendom.
When the Tartars began to extend their conquests, there were four brothers
who possessed the chief rule; of whom Mangu, the eldest, reigned in
Sedia[5]. These brethren proposed to themselves to subdue the whole world,
for which purpose one went to the east, another to the north, a third to
the west, and Ulau or Houlagu went to the south in 1250, with an army of an
hundred thousand horse, besides foot. Employing stratagem, he hid a great
part of his force in ambush, and advancing with an inconsiderable number,
enticed the caliph to follow him by a pretended flight; by this means he
took the caliph prisoner, and made himself master of the city, in which he
found such infinite store of treasure, that he was quite amazed. Sending
for the caliph into his presence, he sharply reproved him, that, possessing
such riches, he had not employed them in providing soldiers to defend his
dominions; and commanded him to be shut up in the tower where his treasure
was placed, without any sustenance.
This seemed a just judgment from our Lord Jesus Christ upon the caliph;
for, in the year 1225, seeking to convert the Christians to the Mahometan
superstition, and taking advantage of that passage in the gospel which
says, "He that hath faith as a grain of mustard seed, shall be able to
remove mountains," he summoned all the Christians, Nestorians, and
Jacobites, and gave them their choice, "In ten days to remove a certain
mountain, to turn Mahometans or to be slain;" alleging that there was not
one among them who had the least grain of faith. The astonished and
dismayed Christians continued ten days in prayer; when, by a revelation to
a certain bishop, a certain shoemaker was chosen to perform this
compulsatory miracle. This shoemaker was once tempted to lust in fitting a
shoe to a young woman, and had literally and zealously performed the
injunction of the gospel by putting out his right eye. On the day appointed
by the caliph, he and all the Christians of the city followed the cross
towards the mountain; then, lifting up his hands, he prayed to God to have
mercy on his afflicted people, and, in a loud voice, commanded the
mountain, in the name of the holy and ever blessed Trinity to remove:
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