296 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. fused obedience to Ahmed. Kublai himself threatened him with his anger, for having wandered from the footsteps of his ancestors ; and his nephew Argoun, the son of Abaga, raised against him the standard of revolt ; defeated him in battle ; took him prisoner, and had him beheaded in the presence of the army. In the manifesto which Argoun published on this occasion, he states that the princes of the blood royal had, with one accord, driven Ahmed from the throne for having abandoned the ancient laws of the Mongols, to embrace the religion of the Arabs a religion unknown to their forefathers ; that they had sent to the Grand Khan to demand justice on this guilty man, and had placed him, Argoun, on the throne of Persia, to govern the countries situated between Djihoun, and the lands of the Franks. Ahmed had been in power only two years. It would seem that the Khan Argoun owed his victory, in a great measure, to the Christians, who were then very numerous in the Tartar armies ; and it is even said, that he had decorated his standards and his arms with the cross, and triumphed over his enemies in the name of Christ ; and that, moreover, he had had a coin struck which bore on one side the representation of the Holy Sepulchre, and on the other the words, " In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." * The apostacy of Ahmed, if it was not the cause of his fall, was at least the pretext for it, and likely to make his successor feel the necessity of following an opposite course ; and this, accordingly, Argoun did, as soon as he had seized on the throne of Persia. He had, in fact,
- Odor Raynald, aim. 1285, No. 78.
