Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/264

252 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. favours on the Christians, it was thought from the influence of his wife Dhogouz-Katoun, who was of that faith. He even went so far as to have a chapel fitted up in his camp, in the plain of Moughan, where the Armenians, Georgians, and Syrians freely celebrated divine service. Having completed the conquest of Persia, Houlagou set out on a march towards Bagdad, whither he was proceeding, with the applause of all the Christians of the East, to destroy the Caliphate, then represented by Mostassim. This prince, from the day of his installation on the throne of the Caliphs, had done nothing but exhibit his absurd vanity and taste for puerile pomp, which he took for grandeur. When he went to the Mosque, he would only walk on cloth of gold ; and he would not alight from his horse at the gate of the Temple. He kept his face veiled, in order, he said, that his features might not be defiled by the looks of a vile populace ; and he required all who came to his palace to kiss its threshold, and also a piece of black velvet suspended at his door, for which he demanded the same honours as for the famous black stone in the temple of Mecca. He was a prince destitute of energy, judgment, and aptitude for business, who, with the exception of a little superficial employment in his library, passed his whole time in hearing music, visiting his aviaries, and seeing conjuring tricks ; and he was entirely governed by his women and his courtiers. Such was the last Caliph, the last Pope of the Mussul- mans, and such his occupations, when, on the 22nd of January, 1258, Houlagou appeared with his army before Bagdad. After various engagements, in all of which