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The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1

Marco Polo · c. 1298 (Book of Marco Polo) primary

passage 313 of 683 · C.S.I., Major-General KEYES, C.B., Dr. GEORGE BIRDWOOD, Mr. BURGESS, of > book.

in brief
Continuing the note and introduction of the topic, the text argues about whether “Old Man of the Mountain” refers to the Alamút prince, and surveys related scholarly opinions and name correspondences (Mulehet vs Alamút).

Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the name Mulehet represents Alamút. But the resemblance is much closer and more satisfactory to Mulhid or Muláhidah. Mulhet is precisely the name by which the kingdom of the Ismailites is mentioned in Armenian history, and Mulihet is already applied in the same way by Rabbi Benjamin in the 12th century, and by Rubruquis in the 13th. The Chinese narrative of Hulaku’s expedition calls it the kingdom of Mulahi. (Joinville, p. 138; J. As. sér. II., tom. xii. 285; Benj. Tudela, p. 106; Rub. p. 265; Rémusat, Nouv. Mélanges, I. 176; Gaubil, p. 128; Pauthier, pp. cxxxix.–cxli.; Mon. Hist. Patr. Scriptorum, III. 1559, Turin, 1848.) [Cf. on Mulehet, melahideh, Heretics, plural of molhid, Heretic, my note, pp. 476–482 of my ed. of Friar Odoric.—H. C.]

Old Man of the Mountain” was the title applied by the Crusaders to the chief of that branch of the sect which was settled in the mountains north of Lebanon, being a translation of his popular Arabic title Shaikh-ul-Jibal. But according to Hammer this title properly belonged, as Polo gives it, to the Prince of Alamút, who never called himself Sultan, Malik, or Amir; and this seems probable, as his territory was known as the Balad-ul-Jibal. (See Abulf. in Büsching, V. 319.)


[1] Elliot, II. 290.

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topics: counsel and advisers to rulers · language, naming, and meaning · religious persecution and toleration

The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 · Marco Polo · 1298