On the death of Ogotáy his widow, Turákína, carried on the government until her eldest son, Kuyúk, could return to Reign of Kuyúk. Mongolia from the campaign against Russia and Poland in which he was engaged at the time of his father's death. The great quriltáy at which he was formally elected was remarkable for the number of repre­sentatives of foreign and more or less subject nations who attended it, amongst whom were included representatives of the Caliph of Baghdád, the Shaykhu'l-fabal, or Grand Master of the Assassins of Alamút, and two monks sent by the Pope, one of whom was John of Planocarpini (Jean de Plan Carpin), to whose memoirs we have already alluded. The latter, who presented letters from the Pope dated August, 1245, were well received, for two of Kuyúk's Ministers, Kadak and Chingáj, professed the Christian religion, which their influence caused their master to regard with some favour; but the representa­tives of the orthodox Caliph and of the heretical Shaykhu'l-fabal were dismissed with menaces which were soon to be made good. The Christians, indeed, were already inclined to overlook the atrocities committed on their co-religionists in Russia and Poland, and to hail the Mongols as the destroyers of Saracen power; * besides the Papal representatives sent to the great quriltáy, a Dominican mission was sent to Baydú, in Persia, in A.D. 1247, while a mission headed by Rubruquis (Guillaume de Ruysbroek) was despatched by St. Louis from Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, on February 10, 1249. This last did not arrive at Qaráqorum until the end of A.D. 1253, when Kuyúk had been succeeded by Mangú.

Kuyúk died in April, 1248, and was succeeded by his cousin Mangú, the son of Tulúy, the son of Chingíz, who Reign of Mangú. was crowned on July 1, 1251. The grandsons of Ogotáy, greatly incensed at the passing of the supreme power out of their branch of the family, conspired against him, but were captured ere they could effect anything, and put to death. Two great expeditions were resolved on at this same quriltáy of 1251, against China and against Persia. The former was entrusted to Qubiláy, the latter to Hulágú, both brothers of the Emperor Mangú. With the arrival of Hulágú in Persia we enter the second of the three periods of Mongol dominion (A.D. 1256-95), that, namely, of the heathen Il-Kháns, when Persia and Western Asia were assigned to a particular branch of the Mongol royal family, who, though subject to the Great Khán, became practically independent even before their conversion to Islám finally identified them with their subjects and cut them off from their heathen kinsmen in Mongolia and China. We may, there­fore, for our purposes, ignore the glories of “Kubla Khan” and the splendours of his capital, “Xanadu” or “Kambalu” (Khán-báligh—i.e., Pekin), made familiar to English readers by Coleridge and Longfellow, and confine our attention to the doings of Hulágú (“the great captain Aläu” of Longfellow) and his descendants, the Íl-Kháns of Persia.

Hulágú started from Qaráqorum in July, 1252, having received special instructions to exterminate the Assassins and to destroy the Caliphate of Baghdád. He was accompanied by a number of Chinese engineers and artillerymen * to assist Hulágú. him in his siege operations. He proceeded slowly at first, spent the summer of 1254 in Turkistán, and only reached Samarqand, where he remained for forty days, in September, 1255. At Kesh he was met, in January, 1256, by Arghún, who had been re-appointed Governor-General of Persia by Mangú in A.D. 1253, and who was accompanied by his chief secretary, or ulúgh-bitikji, Bahá'u'd-Dín Juwayní, and his son, 'Aṭá Malik Juwayní. The latter was attached to Hulágú in the capacity of secre­tary, accompanied him through this momentous campaign, was present at the sack of Alamút, the chief stronghold of the Assassins, and was thus in a position to make use of the most authentic and authoritative materials for composing his great history, the fahán-gushá, to which we have repeatedly had occasion to allude.

Of the earlier history of the Assassins, or Isma'ílís of Alamút, we have already spoken. The first of them was Résumé of the history of the Assassins. the celebrated Ḥasan-i-Ṣabbáḥ, the contempo­rary of 'Umar Khayyám and originator of the “New Propaganda,” whose power may be said to date from his capture of the fortress of Alamút on Rajab 6, A.H. 483 (= September 4, A.D. 1090), and who died on May 23, A.D. 1124. * He was a stern man, and, having put to death both his sons for disobedience to the religious law, he appointed to succeed him his colleague, Kiyá Buzurg-ummíd, from whom the remaining six Grand Masters of the Order were directly descended. This man's son Muḥammad succeeded him on his death on January 20, A.D. 1138, and died on February 21, A.D. 1162. He in turn was followed by his son Ḥasan, called by his followers Ḥasan 'alá dhikrihi's-salám, or “Ḥasan, on whose mention be peace.” This Ḥasan boldly declared himself to be, not the descendant of Kiyá Buzurg-ummíd, but of the Fáṭimid Imám Nizár b. al-Mustansir, in whose name the “New Pro­paganda” had been carried on: in other words, the Imám himself, not merely his representative. He had already in his father's lifetime shown signs of such ambitions, which had been sternly repressed, some two hundred and fifty of his partisans being put to death and an equal number expelled from Alamút. But on his father's death he was in a position to give effect to his designs, and on Ramaḍán 17, A.H. 559 (= August 8, A.D. 1164), he held a great assembly of all the Isma'ílís, which he called 'Íd-i-Qiyámat, or “The Feast of the Resurrection,” and, in a khuṭba or homily which he preached, not only declared himself to be the Imám, but announced that the letter of the Law was henceforth abro­gated, and that all the prescriptions of Islám were intended not in a literal, but in an allegorical sense. This announce­ment, being favourably received and generally acted on by his followers, greatly added to the horror with which the orthodox Muslims regarded them, and it was from this time, according to Rashídu'd-Dín Faḍlu'lláh, that they began to be called Maláḥida, i.e., the heretics par excellence, though Ḥasan chose to name his new abode Mú'min-ábád, or “the Believer's Town.” He greatly elaborated the Isma'ílí doctrine in its philosophical aspects, and instituted a fresh propaganda, which he called Da'wat-i-Qiyámat, or “the Propaganda of the Resurrection.” Finally he was assassinated by his brother-in-law, Ḥusayn ibn Námáwar, a scion of the once great house of Buwayh or Daylam, at Lamsar, on January 10, A.D. 1166. He was succeeded by his son, Núru'd-Dín Muḥammad, who began by extirpating all the surviving Buwayhids, including his father's murderer, as an act of vengeance. He followed his father's doctrines and practices, and possessed, it is said, considerable literary ability and know­ledge of philosophy. He it was who converted the great philosopher, Fakhru'd-Dín Rází by “weighty and trenchant arguments”—in other words, gold and the dagger—if not to his doctrines, at least to a decent show of respectfulness towards the formidable organisation of which he was the head, and this was, indeed, the beginning of the philosopher's good fortune, since the handsome allowance which he received from Alamút on condition that he refrained from speaking ill of the Isma'ílís, as had formerly been his wont, enabled him to present himself in a suitable manner to the princes of Ghúr, Shihábu'd-Dín and Ghiyáthu'd-Dín, and even to the great Muḥammad Khwárazmsháh himself.