[818] The nineteenth century should have been excepted, so far as the influence of modern civilisation has reacted on Arabic literature.
[819] These Ismál‘ílís are the so-called Assassins, the terrible sect organised by Ḥasan b. Ṣabbáḥ (see Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. ii, p. 201 sqq.), and finally exterminated by Húlágú. They had many fortresses, of which Alamút was the most famous, in the Jibál province, near Qazwín.
[820] The reader must be warned that this and the following account of the treacherous dealings of Ibnu ’l-‘Alqamí are entirely contradicted by Shí‘ite historians. For example, the author of al-Fakhri (ed. by Derenbourg, p. 452) represents the Vizier as a far-seeing patriot who vainly strove to awaken his feeble-minded master to the gravity of the situation.
[821] Concerning the various functions of the Dawídár (literally Inkstand-holder) or Dawádár, as the word is more correctly written, see Quatremère, Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks, vol. i, p. 118, n. 2.
[822] The MS. writes Yájúnas.
[823] Al-kalb, the Arabic equivalent of the Persian sag (dog), an animal which Moslems regard as unclean.
[824] By Shamsu ’l-Dín al-Dhahabí († 1348 a.d.).
[825] Mameluke (Mamlúk) means 'slave.' The term was applied to the mercenary troops, Turks and Kurds for the most part, who composed the bodyguard of the Ayyúbid princes.
[826] There are two Mameluke dynasties, called respectively Baḥrí (River) Mamelukes and Burjí (Tower) Mamelukes. The former reigned from 1250 to 1390, the latter from 1382 to 1517.
[827] See Lane, The Modern Egyptians, ch. xxii.