Image: The Ilkhan Hulegu and his chief wife Doquz Hatun
modeled as modern Constantine and Helen in a thirteenth-century Syriac Bible
This is the beginning of the third and the last chapter of Unit III, Unveiling the Alien. With the three parts of my book finished, I have covered from one third to half of the entire project.
Units IV and V will focus on medieval western legends relating to the East. In Unit IV, I will try to crack the code of Alexander's Gate and reveal both its historical development and historical background.
"Eljigidei, the new commander of the Mongol forces stationed in Persia, was harboring an ambitious scheme to invade Iraq. However, he realized that his master plan could be derailed by the joint forces of the Caliph of Baghdad and the Sultan of Egypt, the preeminent rulers in the Muslim East. To defuse this perilous scenario, the trusted general requested the support of King Louis who engaged in the preparation for a new crusade.
In his letter, that caught the addressee at Nicosia, Cyprus in 1248, the writer resorted to the Christian rhetoric to lull his counterpart to a proposed agreement. He emphasized that both the Franks and the Mongols confronted the same enemy, “those who hold the cross in contempt”, and should attune their military designs. The commander endorsed the Frankish advance on Egypt, wishing the crusaders an ultimate victory in the land of pharaohs and pyramids. (1)
Eljigidei anticipated that the French monarch would raise the ticklish issue of the Great Khan’s conversion to the Latin Christendom as a precondition for cooperation. The sender reminded his correspondent that the Mongol emperor had decreed the freedom of conscience which entailed all Christians: “in the law of God there is no difference between Latins and Greeks, and Armenians and Nestorians and Jacobites, and all those who worship the cross. All of them are one to us.” (2)
The writer provided King Louis with a new insight on the position of the adepts of the apostolic faith in the Mongol Empire. The followers of the cross were guaranteed freedom from any form of forced labor and tax immunity (“All Christians be liberated from servitude and from tribute”) in addition to economic safety (“nobody lay hands on their property”) and the unrestricted public cult (“the churches that were destroyed be rebuilt.” (3)
The embassy that submitted this game-changer comprised the members of the Church of the East, who answered the palatable names of Mark and David. The envoys were never at a loss to add spicy details, like the solemn promise to assist the Franks in regaining their lost holdings in the Holy Land and releasing “Jerusalem out of the hand of the Saracens.” (4) Even the Mongol project of capturing Baghdad was presented as retaliation to the recent Muslim hostilities against the worshippers of the cross. The Nestorians also claimed that the Great Khan’s benevolence to the Christians owed to the influence of his mother, the daughter of the mysterious Eastern king, Prester John.
The mysterious envoys were well-behaved: they accompanied King Louis to Mass on Christmas and displayed flawless table manners while dining with His Majesty, “where they showed that they knew how to behave like Christians.” (5)
