The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
CHAPTER XII.
1653 words | Chapter 238
HOW THE TWO BROTHERS PRESENTED THEMSELVES BEFORE
THE NEW POPE.
And when they had been thus honourably conducted to Acre they proceeded
to the presence of the Pope, and paid their respects to him with humble
reverence. He received them with great honour and satisfaction, and
gave them his blessing. He then appointed two Friars of the Order of
Preachers to accompany them to the Great Kaan, and to do whatever might
be required of them. These were unquestionably as learned Churchmen as
were to be found in the Province at that day—one being called Friar
Nicolas of Vicenza, and the other Friar William of Tripoli.{1} He
delivered to them also proper credentials, and letters in reply to the
Great Kaan’s messages [and gave them authority to ordain priests and
bishops, and to bestow every kind of absolution, as if given by himself
in proper person; sending by them also many fine vessels of crystal
as presents to the Great Kaan].{2} So when they had got all that was
needful, they took leave of the Pope, receiving his benediction; and
the four set out together from Acre, and went to Layas, accompanied
always by Messer Nicolas’s son Marco.
Now, about the time that they reached Layas, Bendocquedar, the Soldan
of Babylon, invaded Hermenia with a great host of Saracens, and ravaged
the country, so that our Envoys ran a great peril of being taken or
slain.{3} And when the Preaching Friars saw this they were greatly
frightened, and said that go they never would. So they made over to
Messer Nicolas and Messer Maffeo all their credentials and documents,
and took their leave, departing in company with the Master of the
Temple.{4}
NOTE 1.—Friar William, of Tripoli, of the Dominican convent at
Acre, appears to have served there as early as 1250. [He was born
_circa_ 1220, at Tripoli, in Syria, whence his name.—H. C.] He is
known as the author of a book, _De Statu Saracenorum post Ludovici
Regis de Syriâ reditum_, dedicated to Theoldus, Archdeacon of
Liège (_i.e._ Pope Gregory). Of this some extracts are printed in
Duchesne’s _Hist. Francorum Scriptores_. There are two MSS. of it,
with different titles, in the Paris Library, and a French version
in that of Berne. A MS. in Cambridge Univ. Library, which contains
among other things a copy of Pipino’s Polo, has also the work of
Friar William:—“_Willelmus Tripolitanus, Aconensis Conventus,
de Egressu Machometi et Saracenorum, atque progressu eorumdem,
de Statu Saracenorum_,” etc. It is imperfect; it is addressed
THEOBALDO _Ecclesiarcho digno Sancte Terre Peregrino Sancto_. And
from a cursory inspection I imagine that the Tract appended to one
of the Polo MSS. in the British Museum (Addl. MSS., No. 19,952)
is the same work or part of it. To the same author is ascribed a
tract called _Clades Damiatae_. (_Duchesne_, V. 432; _D’Avezac_ in
_Rec. de Voyages_, IV. 406; _Quétif, Script. Ord. Praed._ I. 264–5;
_Catal. of MSS. in Camb. Univ. Library_, I. 22.)
NOTE 2.—I presume that the powers, stated in this passage from
Ramusio to have been conferred on the Friars, are exaggerated.
In letters of authority granted in like cases by Pope Gregory’s
successors, Nicolas III. (in 1278) and Boniface VIII. (in 1299),
the missionary friars to remote regions are empowered to absolve
from excommunication and release from vows, to settle matrimonial
questions, to found churches and appoint _idoneos rectores_,
to authorise Oriental clergy who should publicly submit to the
Apostolic See to enjoy the _privilegium clericale_, whilst in the
absence of bishops those among the missionaries who were priests
might consecrate cemeteries, altars, palls, etc., admit to the
Order of Acolytes, but nothing beyond. (See _Mosheim, Hist. Tartar.
Eccles._ App. Nos. 23 and 42.)
NOTE 3.—The statement here about Bundúḳdár’s invasion of Cilician
Armenia is a difficulty. He had invaded it in 1266, and his second
devastating invasion, during which he burnt both Layas and Sis,
the king’s residence, took place in 1275, a point on which Marino
Sanuto is at one with the Oriental Historians. Now we know from
Rainaldus that Pope Gregory left Acre in November or December,
1271, and the text appears to imply that our travellers left Acre
before him. The utmost corroboration that I can find lies in the
following facts stated by Makrizi:—
On the 13th Safar, A.H. 670 (20th September 1271), Bundúḳdár
arrived unexpectedly at Damascus, and after a brief raid against
the Ismaelians he returned to that city. In the middle of Rabi I.
(about 20–25 October) the Tartars made an incursion in northern
Syria, and the troops of Aleppo retired towards Hamah. There was
great alarm at Damascus; the Sultan sent orders to Cairo for
reinforcements, and these arrived at Damascus on the 9th November.
The Sultan then advanced on Aleppo, sending corps likewise towards
Marash (which was within the Armenian frontier) and Harran. At
the latter place the Tartars were attacked and those in the town
slaughtered; the rest retreated. The Sultan was back at Damascus,
and off on a different expedition, by 7th December. Hence, if the
travellers arrived at Ayas towards the latter part of November they
would probably find alarm existing at the advance of Bundúḳdár,
though matters did not turn out so serious as they imply.
“Babylon,” of which Bundúḳdár is here styled Sultan, means Cairo,
commonly so styled (_Bambellonia d’Egitto_) in that age. Babylon
of Egypt is mentioned by Diodorus quoting Ctesias, by Strabo, and
by Ptolemy; it was the station of a Roman Legion in the days of
Augustus, and still survives in the name of _Babul_, close to old
Cairo.
Malik Dáhir Ruknuddín Bíbars Bundúḳdári, a native of Kipchak, was
originally sold at Damascus for 800 dirhems (about 18_l._), and
returned by his purchaser because of a blemish. He was then bought
by the Amir Aláuddín Aidekín _Bundúḳdár_ (“The Arblasteer”) whose
surname he afterwards adopted. He became the fourth of the Mameluke
Sultans, and reigned from 1259 to 1276. The two great objects of
his life were the repression of the Tartars and the expulsion of
the Christians from Syria, so that his reign was one of constant
war and enormous activity. William of Tripoli, in the work above
mentioned, says: “Bondogar, as a soldier, was not inferior to
Julius Caesar, nor in malignity to Nero.” He admits, however, that
the Sultan was sober, chaste, just to his own people, and even kind
to his Christian subjects; whilst Makrizi calls him one of the best
princes that ever reigned over Musulmans. Yet if we take Bibars as
painted by this admiring historian and by other Arabic documents,
the second of Friar William’s comparisons is justified, for he
seems almost a devil in malignity as well as in activity. More than
once he played tennis at Damascus and Cairo within the same week. A
strange sample of the man is the letter which he wrote to Boemond,
Prince of Antioch and Tripoli, to announce to him the capture of
the former city. After an ironically polite address to Boemond as
having by the loss of his great city had his title changed from
Princeship (_Al-Brensíyah_) to Countship (_Al-Komasíyah_), and
describing his own devastations round Tripoli, he comes to the
attack of Antioch: “We carried the place, sword in hand, at the
4th hour of Saturday, the 4th day of Ramadhán, ... Hadst thou but
seen thy Knights trodden under the hoofs of the horses! thy palaces
invaded by plunderers and ransacked for booty! thy treasures
weighed out by the hundredweight! thy ladies (_Dámátaka_, ‘tes
DAMES’) bought and sold with thine own gear, at four for a dinár!
hadst thou but seen thy churches demolished, thy crosses sawn in
sunder, thy garbled Gospels hawked about before the sun, the tombs
of thy nobles cast to the ground; thy foe the Moslem treading thy
Holy of the Holies; the monk, the priest, the deacon slaughtered
on the Altar; the rich given up to misery; princes of royal blood
reduced to slavery! Couldst thou but have seen the flames devouring
thy halls; thy dead cast into the fires temporal with the fires
eternal hard at hand; the churches of Paul and of Cosmas rocking
and going down—, then wouldst thou have said, ‘Would God that I
were dust!’ ... As not a man hath escaped to tell thee the tale, I
TELL IT THEE!”
A little later, when a mission went to treat with Boemond, Bibars
himself accompanied it in disguise, to have a look at the defences
of Tripoli. In drawing out the terms, the Envoys styled Boemond
_Count_, not _Prince_, as in the letter just quoted. He lost
patience at their persistence, and made a movement which alarmed
them. Bibars nudged the Envoy Mohiuddin (who tells the story)
with his foot to give up the point, and the treaty was made. On
their way back the Sultan laughed heartily at their narrow escape,
“sending to the devil all the counts and princes on the face of the
earth.”
(_Quatremère’s Makrizi_, II. 92–101, and 190 _seqq._; _J. As._ sér.
I. tom. xi. p. 89; _D’Ohsson_, III. 459–474; _Marino Sanuto_ in
Bongars, 224–226, etc.)
NOTE 4.—The ruling Master of the Temple was Thomas Berard
(1256–1273), but there is little detail about the Order in the East
at this time. They had, however, considerable possessions and great
influence in Cilician Armenia, and how much they were mixed up in
its affairs is shown by a circumstance related by Makrizi. In 1285,
when Sultan Mansúr, the successor of Bundúḳdár, was besieging
the Castle of Markab, there arrived in Camp the Commander of the
Temple (_Kamandúr-ul Dewet_) of the Country of Armenia, charged
to negotiate on the part of the King of Sis (_i.e._ of Lesser
Armenia, Leon III. 1268–1289, successor of Hayton I. 1224–1268),
and bringing presents from him and from the Master of the Temple,
Berard’s successor, William de Beaujeu (1273–1291). (III. 201.)—H.
Y. and H. C.
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter