In Arslan Kushad, the Ismailians surprised in the night a castle two leagues from Kazvin on the top of a high mountain. The people of that place were in despair at having such neighbors, and implored various princes to free them but in vain, till a certain Sheikh, Ali, persuaded the Kwaresmian Sultan, Tagash, to assist him. The Sultan laid siege to the castle, took it, allowed the Ismailians to withdraw, and placed a small garrison on the mountain. Barely had the investing troops gone when the Ismailians reëntered the stronghold at night through an underground passage known to them only and slew the whole garrison. The Sheikh Ali implored Tagash again and he came now in person. The people of Kazvin joined his forces and after a siege of two months the Ismailians yielded the castle on condition that they should be allowed to retire unmolested. They promised to leave in two divisions. If the first passed in safety the second would follow, if not it would keep up the struggle. The first party descended, rendered homage to the Sultan and vanished. The besiegers waited for the second division, waited long and discovered at last that the garrison had gone in one party. The castle was then razed at command of the Sultan. But the Ismailians took vengeance on Sheikh Ali. While returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca he was slain by one of their Assassins in a mosque at Damascus. Syria and Egypt at this time demand attention since it was there that the enemies of Saladin were acting. In Cairo was the Sultan’s great palace where for two hundred years the Fatimids had been collecting the wealth not only of Egypt, but of Syria and Arabia. When after the death of the Sultan, Saladin took possession of this palace, he found there jewels of a value beyond estimate. There were magnificent pearls; an emerald “a span long and as thick as a finger,” there was furniture of ebony and ivory, there were coffers inlaid with gold and ornamented with precious stones. There was wealth of every kind. There was also a splendid library containing, as some historians state, 2,600,000 volumes, others mention a much smaller number but it was, in any case, at that time the largest library in Europe. Some of those treasures Saladin gave to the officers of his army, some he sent to Nur ed din and others were disposed of to obtain sums needed for campaigns against the Crusaders and for erecting fortifications, mosques and schools.