After reducing Aleppo Hulagu moved against Harem, a fortress two days’ journey toward Antioch. The garrison was summoned to surrender with a promise under oath that no man would be injured. The defenders replied, that the religion which Hulagu held was unknown to them, hence they knew not how to consider his promise, but if a Moslem would swear on the Koran that their lives would be spared, they would surrender the castle. Hulagu asked whom they wished as the man to give oath to them; they replied Fakhr ud din Saki, last commandant in the citadel of Aleppo. Hulagu sent this man with directions to swear to everything asked of him. On the faith of his oath the place was delivered. All then were ordered to go forth from Harem. Hulagu, angry that his word had been questioned, put Fakhr ud din to death straightway, and slaughtered the whole population, not pitying even infants. He spared one person only, an Armenian, a jeweller of skill, whom he needed. [[267]]
[1] “Long beard, short wit,” an Arabic proverb. [↑]
[2] This man was Nassir ud din the astronomer who had been at Alamut, and had confounded the astrologer favorable to the Kalif. [↑]
CHAPTER XIV
VICTORY OF KUTUZ, SULTAN OF EGYPT
Hulagu received news now of the death of Mangu, the Grand Khan, and deciding at once to return to Mongolia, he made Kita Buga commander of the armies in Syria, and when departing ordered him to level the walls of Aleppo and its citadel. A deputation of Crusaders came at this time to Kita Buga.
It is said by historians, that Hulagu had resolved to take Palestine from the Moslems, and give it to Christians, and that he was about to do this when news came of Mangu’s demise in Mongolia. He turned homeward immediately, intending to strive for his own elevation, but he learned in Tebriz that his brother, Kubilai, was elected, and this stopped his journey.
From El Arish Nassir had hastened on toward Kathia, but Kutuz, now in Salahiyet, not desiring an Eyubite prince as a ruler for Egypt, wished to render him harmless. He wrote to the chiefs under Nassir’s command, among others the false Sheherzurians, and requested them to enter his service, offering high places, and money as he did so. Seduced by these offers the Turks and Kurds deserted Nassir. There remained with the prince, but his brother and a very few other men. On reaching Kathia he dared not go farther toward Egypt, so changing his road he went on by the desert toward Shubek; when he arrived there, he and the men with him had naught but their horses and two or three servants. He held on farther toward Karak; the sovereign of that place sent horses, tents, and all needed articles to Nassir with the statement that he might stay with him or go to Shubek. Nassir would do neither; he continued his journey to Balka, but, betrayed by two Kurd attendants who informed Kita Buga of his whereabouts, he was seized near Lake Ziza by Mongols and taken to their general, who was laying siege then to Ajalon. The general forced Nassir [[268]]to order the commandant to surrender that fortress to the Mongols. The commandant obeyed after certain resistance and Ajalon, that stronghold built by Iziz ud din, one of Saladin’s emirs, was leveled to the ground. The Mongols had a short time before taken possession of Baalbek and ruined that city and its citadel. Kita Buga now sent Nassir to Tebriz with his brother and Salih, son of the Hims prince. Mogith, Prince of Karak, sent his son Aziz, a boy six years of age, with him. When they passed through Damascus Nassir was greatly affected and when he saw the ruins of Aleppo he wept, unable to restrain his grief.