ape from the dangers of a formidable
invasion, he was at first overjoyed, and he resolved at once on making
war upon the rebellious sultan. In forming his plans for the campaign,
the idea occurred to him of endeavoring to incite Genghis Khan to
invade the sultan's dominions from the east while he himself attacked
him from the west; for Bagdad, the capital of the calif, was to the
westward of the sultan's country, as the empire of the Monguls was to
the eastward of it.

But when the calif proposed his plan to his counselors, some of them
objected to it very strenuously. The sultan and the people of his
country were, like the calif himself, Mohammedans, while the Monguls
were of another religion altogether, or, as the Mohammedans called
them, unbelievers or infidels; and the counselors who objected to the
calif's proposal said that it would be very wrong to bring the enemies
of God into the country of the faithful to guard against a present and
temporary danger, and thereby, perhaps, in the end occasion the ruin
both of their religion and their empire. It would be an impious deed,
they thought, thus to bring in a horde of barbarian infidels to wage
war with them against their brethren.

To this the calif replied that the emergency was so critical that they
were justified in availing themselves of any means that offered to
save themselves from the ruin with which they were threatened. And as
to the possibility that Genghis Khan, if admitted to the country as
their ally, would in the end turn his arms against them, he said that
they must watch, and take measures to guard against such a danger.
Besides, he would rather have an open unbeliever like Genghis Khan for
a foe, than a Mohammedan traitor and rebel like the sultan. He added,
moreover, that he did not believe that the Mongul emperor felt any
animosity or ill will against the Mohammedans or against their faith.
It was evident, indeed, that he did not, for he had a great many
Mohammedans in his dominions, and he allowed them to live there
without molestation. He even had Mohammedan officers of very high rank
in his court.

So it was finally decided to send a message and invite him to join the
calif in making war on the sultan.

The difficulty was now to contrive some means by which this message
could be conveyed through the sultan's territories, which, of course,
lay between the dominions of the calif and those of Genghis Khan. To
accomplish this purpose the calif