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.
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