In the Shadow of the Iron Gate

Dear readers,

Happy New Year!

I'm hopeful that the next year will bring you many happy moments that will overshadow all the sad ones.

My reading audience is growing; over 1500 people have visited this blog, which delves into my second project.

I have launched another blog on the Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/mikebisblog
where I will tell a broader history of my writing, starting with my first book, Dawn and Sunset.

You may visit my personal page on the Scriggler https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman
where I have uploaded 23 articles that cover my four projects.

As far as my second book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East, I have started working on Unit IV, In the Shadow of the Iron Gate. I would like to explore the image of Alexander's Gate as it took shape in the Latin West.

The draft copy of the unit comprises nine chapters; however, I will probably curtail one or two extracts for the sake of the consistency of reading. I will start by introducing the main characters of my story, Gog and Magog, as they appear in the Bible, mainly Ezekiel and the Revelation. I have already revised this chapter but won't upload it here because it extends to one page only and I rule out publishing the entire chapters in this blog; only lengthy extracts.

Then, I will review the birth of the legend of Alexander's Gate which came into circulation by the end of the first century CE across the Greko-Roman world. The location of the barrier against barbarians had shifted from the Elburz mountain range of northern Iran to the Caucasus. Later, I will show the first fusion of the yarn: Alexander locks the civilized world from the invasion of Gog-Magog. In the end, I will expose the second fusion: Gog-Magog blends with the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Sounds exciting? Wish me good luck in the coming year; maybe the end of my book?

The Swan Song of the Mongol Thrust

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) 

The Swan Song of the Mongol Conquests

The last great campaign of the unified Mongol Empire was spearheaded against the Muslim East. This onslaught brought forth the Ilkhanate, one of the four Tartar split polities, whose sway spread between the Indus and the Euphrates. The nomadic rulers of this new realm aspired to conquer the lands of Syria and Egypt governed by the novel Islamic power: the Mamluk Sultanate.

Since the balance of forces was close to a draw, the geopolitical confrontation between the rivals became locked in a stalemate. Following the classic paradigm, which they exerted from time to time in their turbulent history, the Mongols were seeking an ally to tempt him to open a second front against their foes. They thought they had found a partner among the crusader states of the Levant which struggled for their survival on the Holy Land. They also hoped to forge an alliance with the leading powers of the Latin West, promising to transfer Jerusalem under the Christian control.

My new chapter will focus on these futile attempts. That will be the last extract of Unit III. I have already completed the collection of materials and need to hatch a plan. The novel chapter will substitute two extracts in the draft. I won't do it to curtail page numbers of the book which will hopefully comprise about 90 K words. These extracts written five or six years ago, when I just launched my research, seem awfully outdated. Now I know better!

A few words about my research. When I use this word, I do not mean scientific research but a personal study of the subject. My aim is not to find an unexplored area but to write a fascinating story. My plots are always based on reality, as I see it, and sometimes I ask logical questions if I meet with awkward explanations. I like to follow new trends but only if they look promising.

When I finish this chapter, I am going to move to the realm of medieval legends, exploring the meaning of Alexander Wall designed to thwart the efforts of the enclosed nations to contaminate the "civilized" world.

The Swinging Bridge across the Abyss

Image: The Chinese envoys at the ger of Chinggis Khan

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Djengiz_Kh%C3%A2n_et_les_envoy%C3%A9s_chinois.jpeg 

The fear of a new Mongol onslaught stirred the search for a novel route to make a contact with a dangerous enemy.

Pope Innocent IV undertook a range of diplomatic overtures with the Great Khan. His clerical envoys managed to cross a bridge across the abyss separating the Latin Christendom and the steppe barbarians. The response that they had brought was very uncomforting. The Tartar emperor demanded unconditional submission, citing the divine mandate which raised him above all the other political authorities across the globe.

This is the topic of my new chapter on the relations between the Latin West and the bizarre East. I offer you to read an extract:

"The only European power which dared to take on the Mongol bully was the Apostolic See. Devoid of a mighty army to oppose the enemy, the newly-elected pontiff possessed the reliable weapon of mass destruction: a quill and vellum. 

In his heart, Pope Innocent IV treated the Tartars as the foes of the entire Christendom, referring to them as impious people and marauders, whose past atrocities foreshadowed a forthcoming assault against the faithful to the cross. As a far-sighted leader, he apprehended the imminence of the Mongol renewed incursion.

Unlike the pope, secular leaders were stricken with panic. The contemporary correspondence exposes West European dignitaries seized by the lack of hope. An English clerical chronicler acknowledges with a sigh that the steppe warriors “struck great fear and terror into all Christendom.” (1) Frederick, one the most powerful military commanders and statesmen of the time, buys rumors about the invincibility and numerical superiority of the Tartar host: “they… hope to destroy the rest of the human race and are endeavoring to rule and lord it alone, trusting to their immense power and unlimited numbers.” (2)

Juvayni explains that the Mongols deserved their international “bad press” through the repeated pattern of ultimate destruction of conquered territories and total annihilation of the settled population: “with one stroke a world which billowed with fertility was laid desolate… The regions thereof became a desert… the greater part of the living dead, and their skins and bones crumbling dust.” (3)  

The ecumenical council convened at Lyons in 1245 blasted the Mongols for defying the Gospel’s craving since their ultimate goal seemed to subjugate or even destroy the Latin West. Since the second nomadic invasion looked imminent, the rulers of the frontier states had to take urgent preventive measures, such as placing outposts on roads, constructing fortified places, and early announcing of the enemy’s advance. Pope Innocent promised to compensate the lords for all expenses, establishing a special fund to which every European power would contribute. (4)  

Even sixteen years later, the Tartar menace appeared real as the papal bulla, Clamat in auribus, issued by Pope Alexander IV shared the same anticipation of a broad Mongol onslaught: “they may yet attempt a hostile entrance into Europe with a mighty orgy of the massacre.” The pontiff suggests convoking a general council of ecclesiastic and lay authorities to consider a crusade against a new outburst of invaders and cautions against clinching a deal with the aggressors since “they observe no pact or pledge of faith, which in fact the infidels cannot make.” (5)

Pope Innocent’s main concern was to win the time by sending embassies to the leading Mongol commanders to check their stance and lure them into tiresome negotiations. Due to great urgency, the Apostolic See had dispatched his envoys even before the onset of the First Council of Lyons, where the Tartar menace figured out as one of the main topics on the agenda. The most celebrated of these delegations was headed by an Italian Franciscan John (Giovanni) of Plano Carpini, the first European envoy who won an audience with the Great Khan.