or rather later, when the advance of the Crusaders engaged all the Turkish forces in the north, while Radhwân and Dekak, sons of Tutush, disputed the succession, the Fâṭemite khalîfah El Must’aîla-bi-Allah took advantage of their weakness to seize Jerusalem and Damascus; the Holy City was thus in possession of the Egyptians when the Crusaders appeared before its walls in 1099 A. D., and the Seljuk princes and generals were at discord among themselves. The great Melek Shah had then been dead seven years, and his kingdom split up--though his son at Baghdâd (Borḳiyaruk, “the very brilliant”) was nominal suzerain of the eight kingdoms, or provinces, which were practically independent. Melek Shah also fell a victim to an assassin, and such a fate appears to have been common in Turkish history. The sect of the Assassins (Ḥashshâshîn, or “hemp smokers”) was, indeed, founded in this reign by Ḥasan el Ḥomeiri, who was a friend of the celebrated poet ’Omar el Khâyyâm (“the tent maker”), and of Nizâm el Mulk, the prime minister of Melek Shah. These three were of the Ism’ailîyeh sect, and the scepticism of that school finds expression in the well-known quatrains of Omar. “There was a door to which I found no key, There was a veil past which I could not see, Some little talk awhile of me and Thee There seemed--and then no more of Thee and me.” The friendship of the three sceptics did not long endure. The vizier found out that Ḥasan was bent on supplanting him, and the latter was exiled to Ḳasbîn, near which was the castle of the “Eagle’s Nest,” where--according to Marco Polo--Ḥasan’s earthly Paradise was established, to lure the youths who vowed implicit obedience to his commands. The first victims of the new order were Nizâm el Mulk (who fell into disgrace), and Melek Shah himself. The Assassins organised a huge secret society which, in the twelfth century, spread from Khorasan to Syria, and was feared by Moslem and Christian alike. It was suppressed in 1254 A. D. by Mengku Khan, but yet later the “Sheikh of the Mountain” was powerful in the Lebanon. Saladin and Edward I. alike were marked as victims, and to the present day the Nuṣeirîyeh of Syria retain the mystic beliefs of the order founded by Ḥasan in 1090 A. D. [Sidenote: ITALIAN TRADE]