CHAPTER VII

HOW THE CALIF OF BAUDAS TOOK COUNSEL TO SLAY ALL THE CHRISTIANS IN HIS

LAND.





I will tell you then this great marvel that occurred between Baudas and

Mausul.



It was in the year of Christ[NOTE 1] ... that there was a Calif at Baudas

who bore a great hatred to Christians, and was taken up day and night with

the thought how he might either bring those that were in his kingdom over

to his own faith, or might procure them all to be slain. And he used daily

to take counsel about this with the devotees and priests of his

faith,[NOTE 2] for they all bore the Christians like malice. And, indeed,

it is a fact, that the whole body of Saracens throughout the world are

always most malignantly disposed towards the whole body of Christians.



Now it happened that the Calif, with those shrewd priests of his, got hold

of that passage in our Gospel which says, that if a Christian had faith as

a grain of mustard seed, and should bid a mountain be removed, it would be

removed. And such indeed is the truth. But when they had got hold of this

text they were delighted, for it seemed to them the very thing whereby

either to force all the Christians to change their faith, or to bring

destruction upon them all. The Calif therefore called together all the

Christians in his territories, who were extremely numerous. And when they

had come before him, he showed them the Gospel, and made them read the

text which I have mentioned. And when they had read it he asked them if

that was the truth? The Christians answered that it assuredly was so.

"Well," said the Calif, "since you say that it is the truth, I will give

you a choice. Among such a number of you there must needs surely be this

small amount of faith; so you must either move that mountain there,"--and

he pointed to a mountain in the neighbourhood--"or you shall die an ill

death; unless you choose to eschew death by all becoming Saracens and

adopting our Holy Law. To this end I give you a respite of ten days; if

the thing be not done by that time, ye shall die or become Saracens." And

when he had said this he dismissed them, to consider what was to be done

in this strait wherein they were.





NOTE 1.--The date in the G. Text and Pauthier is 1275, which of course

cannot have been intended. Ramusio has 1225.



[The Khalifs in 1225 were Abu'l Abbas Ahmed VII. en-Nassir lidini 'llah

(1180-1225) and Abu Nasr Mohammed IX. ed-Dhahir bi-emri 'llah

(1225-1226).--H. C.]



NOTE 2.--"_Cum sez regisles et cum sez casses._" (G. T.) I suppose the

former _expression to be a form of _Regules_, which is used in Polo's book

for persons of a religious _rule_ or order, whether Christian or Pagan.

The latter word (_casses_) I take to be the Arabic _Kashيsh_, properly a

Christian Presbyter, but frequently applied by old travellers, and

habitually by the Portuguese (_caxiz, caxix_), to Mahomedan Divines. (See

_Cathay_, p. 568.) It may, however, be _Kلzي_.



Pauthier's text has simply "à ses prestres de la Loi."









CHAPTER VIII.



HOW THE CHRISTIANS WERE IN GREAT DISMAY BECAUSE OF WHAT THE CALIF HAD SAID.







The Christians on hearing what the Calif had said were in great dismay,

but they lifted all their hopes to God, their Creator, that He would help

them in this their strait. All the wisest of the Christians took counsel

together, and among them were a number of bishops and priests, but they

had no resource except to turn to Him from whom all good things do come,

beseeching Him to protect them from the cruel hands of the Calif.



So they were all gathered together in prayer, both men and women, for

eight days and eight nights. And whilst they were thus engaged in prayer

it was revealed in a vision by a Holy Angel of Heaven to a certain Bishop

who was a very good Christian, that he should desire a certain Christian

Cobler,[NOTE 1] who had but one eye, to pray to God; and that God in His

goodness would grant such prayer because of the Cobler's holy life.



Now I must tell you what manner of man this Cobler was. He was one who led

a life of great uprightness and chastity, and who fasted and kept from all

sin, and went daily to church to hear Mass, and gave daily a portion of

his gains to God. And the way how he came to have but one eye was this. It

happened one day that a certain woman came to him to have a pair of shoes

made, and she showed him her foot that he might take her measure. Now she

had a very beautiful foot and leg; and the Cobler in taking her measure

was conscious of sinful thoughts. And he had often heard it said in the

Holy Evangel, that if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from

thee, rather than sin. So, as soon as the woman had departed, he took the

awl that he used in stitching, and drove it into his eye and destroyed it.

And this is the way he came to lose his eye. So you can judge what a holy, just, and righteous man he was.





NOTE 1.--Here the G. T. uses a strange word: "_Or te vais a tel_

cralantur." It does not occur again, being replaced by _chabitier_

(savetier). It has an Oriental look, but I can make no satisfactory

suggestion as to what the word meant.









CHAPTER IX.



HOW THE ONE-EYED COBLER WAS DESIRED TO PRAY FOR THE CHRISTIANS.





Now when this vision had visited the Bishop several times, he related the

whole matter to the Christians, and they agreed with one consent to call

the Cobler before them. And when he had come they told him it was their

wish that he should pray, and that God had promised to accomplish the

matter by his means. On hearing their request he made many excuses,

declaring that he was not at all so good a man as they represented. But

they persisted in their request with so much sweetness, that at last he

said he would not tarry, but do what they desired.









CHAPTER X.



HOW THE PRAYER OF THE ONE-EYED COBLER CAUSED THE MOUNTAIN TO MOVE.





And when the appointed day was come, all the Christians got up early, men

and women, small and great, more than 100,000 persons, and went to church,

and heard the Holy Mass. And after Mass had been sung, they all went forth

together in a great procession to the plain in front of the mountain,

carrying the precious cross before them, loudly singing and greatly

weeping as they went. And when they arrived at the spot, there they found

the Calif with all his Saracen host armed to slay them if they would not

change their faith; for the Saracens believed not in the least that God

would grant such favour to the Christians. These latter stood indeed in

great fear and doubt, but nevertheless they rested their hope on their God

Jesus Christ.



So the Cobler received the Bishop's benison, and then threw himself on his

knees before the Holy Cross, and stretched out his hands towards Heaven,

and made this prayer: "Blessed LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, I pray Thee by Thy

goodness that Thou wilt grant this grace unto Thy people, insomuch that

they perish not, nor Thy faith be cast down, nor abused nor flouted. Not

that I am in the least worthy to prefer such request unto Thee; but for

Thy great power and mercy I beseech Thee to hear this prayer from me Thy

servant full of sin."



And when he had ended this his prayer to God the Sovereign Father and

Giver of all grace, and whilst the Calif and all the Saracens, and other

people there, were looking on, the mountain rose out of its place and

moved to the spot which the Calif had pointed out! And when the Calif and

all his Saracens beheld, they stood amazed at the wonderful miracle that

God had wrought for the Christians, insomuch that a great number of the

Saracens became Christians. And even the Calif caused himself to be

baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,

Amen, and became a Christian, but in secret. Howbeit, when he died they

found a little cross hung round his neck; and therefore the Saracens would

not bury him with the other Califs, but put him in a place apart. The

Christians exulted greatly at this most holy miracle, and returned to

their homes full of joy, giving thanks to their Creator for that which He

had done.[NOTE 1]



And now you have heard in what wise took place this great miracle. And

marvel not that the Saracens hate the Christians; for the accursed law

that Mahommet gave them commands them to do all the mischief in their

power to all other descriptions of people, and especially to Christians;

to strip such of their goods, and do them all manner of evil, because they

belong not to their law. See then what an evil law and what naughty

commandments they have! But in such fashion the Saracens act, throughout

the world.



Now I have told you something of Baudas. I could easily indeed have told

you first of the affairs and the customs of the people there. But it would

be too long a business, looking to the great and strange things that I

have got to tell you, as you will find detailed in this Book.



So now I will tell you of the noble city of Tauris.





NOTE 1.--We may remember that at a date only three years before Marco

related this story (viz. in 1295), the cottage of Loreto is asserted to

have changed its locality for the third and last time by moving to the

site which it now occupies.



Some of the old Latin copies place the scene at Tauris. And I observe that

a missionary of the 16th century does the same. The mountain, he says, is

between Tauris and Nakhshiwan, and is called _Manhuc_. (_Gravina_,

_Christianita nell' Armenia_, etc., Roma, 1605, p. 91.)



The moving of a mountain is one of the miracles ascribed to Gregory

Thaumaturgus. Such stories are rife among the Mahomedans themselves. "I

know," says Khanikoff, "at least half a score of mountains which the

Musulmans allege to have come from the vicinity of Mecca."



Ramusio's text adds here: "All the Nestorian and Jacobite Christians from

that time forward have maintained a solemn celebration of the day on which

the miracle occurred, keeping a fast also on the eve thereof."



F. Gِring, a writer who contributes three articles on Marco Polo to the

_Neue Züricher-Zeitung_, 5th, 6th, 8th April, 1878, says: "I heard related

in Egypt a report which Marco Polo had transmitted to Baghdad. I will give

it here in connection with another which I also came across in Egypt.



"'Many years ago there reigned in Babylon, on the Nile, a haughty Khalif

who vexed the Christians with taxes and corvées. He was confirmed in his

hate of the Christians by the Khakam Chacham Bashi or Chief Rabbi of the

Jews, who one day said to him: "The Christians allege in their books that

it shall not hurt them to drink or eat any deadly thing. So I have

prepared a potion that one of them shall taste at my hand: if he does not

die on the spot then call me no more Chacham Bashi!" The Khalif

immediately sent for His Holiness the Patriarch of Babylon, and ordered

him to drink up the potion. The Patriarch just blew a little over the cup

and then emptied it at a draught, and took no harm. His Holiness then on

his side demanded that the Chacham Bashi should quaff a cup to the health

of the Khalif, which he (the Patriarch) should first taste, and this the

Khalif found only fair and right. But hardly had the Chacham Bashi put the

cup to his lips than he fell down and expired.' Still the Musulmans and

Jews thirsted for Christian blood. It happened at that time that a mass of

the hill Mokattani became loose and threatened to come down upon Babylon.

This was laid to the door of the Christians, and they were ordered to stop

it. The Patriarch in great distress has a vision that tells him summon the

saintly cobbler (of whom the same story is told as here)--the cobbler bids

the rock to stand still and it does so to this day. 'These two stories may

still be heard in Cairo'--from whom is not said. The hill that threatened

to fall on the Egyptian Babylon is called in Turkish _Dur Dagh_, 'Stay, or

halt-hill.' (L.c. April, 1878")--_MS. Note_, H. Y.