[643] The author neglects to mention the date from which he begins his computation.
[644] Hassan Sabah, from the height of Alamut, commanded the country around, and terrified the inhabitants, high and low, by a set of devoted adherents, whom he sent about to propagate his religion, and to execute his commands, which were frequently the murder of his enemies.
[645] The edition of Calcutta has erroneously 508.
[646] Our author, regardless of order, reverts to events which took place during the life of Hassan.
[647] Refík, in general acceptation, “follower,” is a distinctive name given to the Ismâilahs, and particularly to men carrying arms, in opposition to the class of dáâis, or “missionaries,” and perhaps also to the fedáyis.—(Note of Silvestre de Sacy, in Jourdain’s French transl. of Mirkhond, p. 39).
[648] Mirkhond says the Amir Arslan-tash.
[649] Hassan, according to Mirkhond, had but seventy rafiks with him.
[650] Barkíarok, son of Malik shah, was the fourth sultan of the house of the Seljucides. He received at the circumcision the Muselman name of Kassem, and the title of Rokn-eddin, “the column of religion,” was given to him by Mectadi, the khalif of Baghdad. Barkiarok was the eldest son of Malik shah, whom he succeeded in the year of the Hejira 485 (A. D. 1092).
His stepmother, Turkan Khatun, had a son by Malik shah, called Mahmúd. At the death of the Sultan, being in the town of Baghdad, she obtained, by solicitations and presents, from the khalif Mortadi, letters of investiture in favor of her own son Mahmud, who, then only four years old, was proclaimed the legitimate heir of his father’s empire, whilst Barkiarok was at Ispahan, then the seat of the Seljucides, recognised, by right of primogeniture, the only legitimate successor of his father. But Turkan Khatun marched to Ispahan with an army, surprised Barkiarok, and seized the town, and the person of her step-son. The latter however, aided by the faithful servants of his father, escaped from her hands, and found a refuge at Shiraz, the residence of Takash-teghin the Atabek, or “lieutenant-general” of Persia. With this chief’s assistance, Barkiarok presented himself with an army of two hundred thousand men before Ispahan, and besieged Mahmud and his mother. A peace was concluded: the Sultana and her son were to possess the town and dependencies of Ispahan, but to divide Malik shah’s treasury with Barkiarok; he received five hundred thousand gold dinars for his share, and, having raised the siege, moved to Hamdan, where Ismâil, one of his uncles, commanded.
Ismâil had declared himself for the Sultana: a battle was fought in the plain of Hamdan, in the year of the Hejira 486 (A. D. 1093); Bakiàrok gained the victory: his uncle fell.