CHAPTER XXIII.
CONCERNING THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.
Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the Mountain dwelt in
former days; and the name means “_Place of the Aram_.” I will tell you
his whole history as related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from
several natives of that region.
The Old Man was called in their language ALOADIN. He had caused a
certain valley between two mountains to be enclosed, and had turned
it into a garden, the largest and most beautiful that ever was seen,
filled with every variety of fruit. In it were erected pavilions and
palaces the most elegant that can be imagined, all covered with
gilding and exquisite painting. And there were runnels too, flowing
freely with wine and milk and honey and water; and numbers of ladies
and of the most beautiful damsels in the world, who could play on all
manner of instruments, and sung most sweetly, and danced in a manner
that it was charming to behold. For the Old Man desired to make his
people believe that this was actually Paradise. So he had fashioned it
after the description that Mahommet gave of his Paradise, to wit, that
it should be a beautiful garden running with conduits of wine and milk
and honey and water, and full of lovely women for the delectation of
all its inmates. And sure enough the Saracens of those parts believed
that it _was_ Paradise!
Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those whom he intended
to be his ASHISHIN. There was a Fortress at the entrance to the Garden,
strong enough to resist all the world, and there was no other way to
get in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country,
from 12 to 20 years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering, and to
these he used to tell tales about Paradise, just as Mahommet had been
wont to do, and they believed in him just as the Saracens believe in
Mahommet. Then he would introduce them into his garden, some four, or
six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion
which cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to be lifted
and carried in. So when they awoke, they found themselves in the
Garden.{1}
NOTE 1.—Says the venerable Sire de Joinville: “_Le Vieil de la
Montaingne ne créoit pas en Mahommet, ainçois créoit en la Loi
de Haali, qui fu Oncle Mahommet._” This is a crude statement,
no doubt, but it has a germ of truth. Adherents of the family
of ’Ali as the true successors of the Prophet existed from the
tragical day of the death of Husain, and among these, probably
owing to the secrecy with which they were compelled to hold their
allegiance, there was always a tendency to all manner of strange
and mystical doctrines; as in one direction to the glorification
of ’Ali as a kind of incarnation of the Divinity, a character
in which his lineal representatives were held in some manner to
partake; in another direction to the development of Pantheism, and
release from all positive creed and precepts. Of these Aliites,
eventually called _Shiáhs_, a chief sect, and parent of many
heretical branches, were the Ismailites, who took their name, from
the seventh Imam, whose return to earth they professed to expect
at the end of the World. About A.D. 1090 a branch of the Ismaili
stock was established by Hassan, son of Sabah, in the mountainous
districts of Northern Persia; and, before their suppression by the
Mongols, 170 years later, the power of the quasi-spiritual dynasty
which Hassan founded had spread over the Eastern Kohistan, at
least as far as Ḳáïn. Their headquarters were at Alamút (“Eagle’s
Nest”), about 32 miles north-east of Ḳazwin, and all over the
territory which they held they established fortresses of great
strength. De Sacy seems to have proved that they were called
_Hashíshíya_ or _Hashíshín_, from their use of the preparation
of hemp called _Hashísh_; and thence, through their system of
murder and terrorism, came the modern application of the word
Assassin. The original aim of this system was perhaps that of a
kind of _Vehmgericht_, to punish or terrify orthodox persecutors
who were too strong to be faced with the sword. I have adopted
in the text one of the readings of the G. Text _Asciscin_, as
expressing the original word with the greatest accuracy that
Italian spelling admits. In another author we find it as _Chazisii_
(see _Bollandists_, May, vol. ii. p. xi.); Joinville calls
them _Assacis_; whilst Nangis and others corrupt the name into
_Harsacidae_, and what not.
The explanation of the name MULEHET as it is in Ramusio, or
_Mulcete_ as it is in the G. Text (the last expressing in
Rusticiano’s Pisan tongue the strongly aspirated _Mulhĕtĕ_), is
given by the former: “This name of Mulehet is as much as to say
in the Saracen tongue ‘_The Abode of Heretics_,’” the fact being
that it does represent the Arabic term _Mulhid_, pl. _Muláhidah_,
“Impii, heretici,” which is in the Persian histories (as of
Rashíduddín and Wassáf) the title most commonly used to indicate
this community, and which is still applied by orthodox Mahomedans
to the Nosairis, Druses, and other sects of that kind, more or
less kindred to the Ismaili. The writer of the _Tabakat-i-Násiri_
calls the sectarians of Alamút _Muláhidat-ul-maut_, “Heretics
of Death.”[1] The curious reading of the G. Text which we have
preserved “_vaut à dire des_ Aram,” should be read as we have
rendered it. I conceive that Marco was here unconsciously using one
Oriental term to explain another. For it seems possible to explain
_Aram_ only as standing for _Harám_, in the sense of “wicked” or
“reprobate.”
In Pauthier’s Text, instead of _des aram_, we find “_veult dire en
françois_ Diex Terrien,” or Terrestrial God. This may have been
substituted, in the correction of the original rough dictation,
from a perception that the first expression was unintelligible. The
new phrase does not indeed convey the meaning of _Muláhidah_, but
it expresses a main characteristic of the heretical doctrine. The
correction was probably made by Polo himself; it is certainly of
very early date. For in the romance of Bauduin de Sebourc, which I
believe dates early in the 14th century, the Caliph, on witnessing
the extraordinary devotion of the followers of the Old Man (see
note 1, ch. xxiv.), exclaims:
“Par Mahon ...
Vous estes _Diex en terre_, autre coze n’i a!” (I. p. 360.)
So also Fr. Jacopo d’Aqui in the _Imago Mundi_, says of the
Assassins: “Dicitur iis quod sunt in Paradiso magno _Dei
Terreni_”—expressions, no doubt, taken in both cases from Polo’s
book.
Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the
name _Mulehet_ represents _Alamút_. But the resemblance is much
closer and more satisfactory to _Mulhid_ or _Muláhidah_. _Mulhet_
is precisely the name by which the kingdom of the Ismailites is
mentioned in Armenian history, and _Mulihet_ is already applied
in the same way by Rabbi Benjamin in the 12th century, and by
Rubruquis in the 13th. The Chinese narrative of Hulaku’s expedition
calls it the kingdom of _Mulahi_. (_Joinville_, p. 138; _J. As._
sér. II., tom. xii. 285; _Benj. Tudela_, p. 106; _Rub._ p. 265;
_Rémusat_, _Nouv. Mélanges_, I. 176; _Gaubil_, p. 128; _Pauthier_,
pp. cxxxix.–cxli.; _Mon. Hist. Patr. Scriptorum_, III. 1559,
Turin, 1848.) [Cf. on _Mulehet_, _melahideh_, Heretics, plural
of _molhid_, Heretic, my note, pp. 476–482 of my ed. of Friar
Odoric.—H. C.]
“Old Man of the Mountain” was the title applied by the Crusaders
to the chief of that branch of the sect which was settled in the
mountains north of Lebanon, being a translation of his popular
Arabic title _Shaikh-ul-Jibal_. But according to Hammer this title
properly belonged, as Polo gives it, to the Prince of Alamút,
who never called himself Sultan, Malik, or Amir; and this seems
probable, as his territory was known as the _Balad-ul-Jibal_. (See
_Abulf._ in _Büsching_, V. 319.)
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[1] Elliot, II. 290.