before that event the well-known Spanish
traveller Ibn Jubair visited the empire of Saladin, and came to Bagdad
in 580, where he saw the caliph himself. Nasir was very ambitious; he
had added Khuzistan to his dominions, and desired to become also master
of Media (Jabal, or Persian Irak, as it was called in the time of the
Seljuks). Here, however, he came into conflict with the then mighty
prince of Khwarizm (Khiva), who, already exasperated because the caliph
refused to grant him the honours he asked for, resolved to overthrow the
Caliphate of the Abbasids, and to place a descendant of Ali on the
throne of Bagdad. In his anxiety, Nasir took a step which brought the
greatest misery upon western Asia, or at least accelerated its arrival.

In the depths of Asia a great conglomeration of east Turkish tribes
(Tatars or Mongols), formed by a terrible warrior, known under his
honorific title Jenghiz Khan, had conquered the northern provinces of
China, and extended its power to the frontiers of the Transoxianian
regions. To this heathen chief the Imam of the Moslems sent a messenger,
inducing him to attack the prince of Khwarizm, who already had provoked
the Mongolian by a disrespectful treatment of his envoys. Neither he nor
the caliph had the slightest notion of the imminent danger they conjured
up. When Nasir died, Ramadan 622 (October 1225), the eastern provinces
of the empire had been trampled down by the wild hordes, the towns
burned, and the inhabitants killed without mercy.

35. _Reign of Zahir_.--_Al-Zahir bi-amri'llah_ ("the victorious through
the orders of God") died within a year after his father's death, in
Rajab 623 (July 1226). He and his son and successor are praised as
beneficent and just princes.

36. _Reign of Mostansir_.--_Al-Mostansir billah_ ("he who asks help from
God") was caliph till his death in Jornada II. 640 (December 1242). In
the year 624 (1227) Jenghiz Khan died, but the Mongol invasion continued
to advance with immense strides. The only man who dared, and sometimes
with success, to combat them was Jelaleddin, the ex-king of Khwarizm,
but after his death in 628 (A.D. 1231) all resistance was paralysed.

37. _Reign of Mostasim_.--_Al-Mosta'sim billah_ ("he who clings to God
for protection"), son of Mostansir, the last caliph of Bagdad, was a
narrow-minded, irresolute man, guided moreover by bad counsellors. In
the last month of the year 653 (January 1256) Hulaku or Hulagu, the
brother of the g