The Successors of Genghis Khan - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
thence to Egypt. In the year 648/1250 the Sultanate of Egypt was
settled upon him, and he gave battle to the army of Franks, who had
seized Damietta and various regions of Egypt. He defeated them,
nearly thirty thousand Franks being killed and Afridis,159 one of their
rulers, being taken prisoner along with an immense number of others;
and Damietta was liberated. The Bahri Turks'60 then conspired to kill
the Sultan. Ai-Beg the Turcoman,151 who was the leader of the emirs,
presented himself to the Sultan at table. While he was addressing the
Sultan, the latter spoke harshly to him. Ai-Beg stood up, drew his
sword, and struck at the Sultan. The Sultan warded off the blow with
his arm, but he received a severe wound and fled into a wooden
house.162 The Turks said to Ai-Beg: "Finish the work thou hast
begun." They fetched a naphtha-thrower to discharge a pot of naphtha
on to the house. [The house] caught fire and the Sultan went up on to
the roof. Ai-Beg shot an arrow at him. He flung himself into the river
and made for the bank. They went after him, caught him, kicked him
to death, and threw him into the river. When the Prankish prisoners
learnt of this, they broke the bonds on their feet and began to slaughter
the Muslims. The Turcoman nokers came in and surrounded them;
and, drawing their swords, in a single moment they killed thirteen
thousand Franks. The Arabs now withdrew to their homes, and the
Kurds returned to Cairo, while the Turks remained in Mansura
and took possession of Damietta after completely freeing it from the
hands of the Franks. They set a price of 200,000 dinars163 on Afridis,
and, leaving his brother, son, and some of his kinsmen164 as securities,
he took a Muslim with him to hand the money over to him. And in the
year 652/1254-1255 Ai-Beg the Turcoman made himself master of
155 A corruption of the normal Raid Ifrans, "roi de France," that is, here Louis
IX. See Blochet, p. 346, note k, and Mostaert-Cleaves, p. 471 and note 57.
160 The Bahri Mamluks, the baharis of Joinville, were so called (bahri "of the river")
because of their barracks on the island of Rauda in the Nile.
161 This was al-Mu'izz 'Izz al-DIn Ai-Beg, the second (1250—1257) of the Bahri
line of the Mamluk dynasty.
162 Joinville (Hague, p. no) describes this building as "a tower of firpoles covered
with dyed cloth."
163 Two hundred thousand livres (pounds), according to Joinville (Hague, pp. 122
and 280), the actual amount paid being £ 167,102 i8s. 8d.
164 Joinville (Hague, pp. 119 and 122) speaks only of Louis' brother, the Count
of Poitiers, as being held by the Egyptians.
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