Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/287

275 DEATHS OF HOULAGOU AND HIS WIFE. 275 with success, the Holy Land would have been given up to them by the Tartars, without any difficulty, as the latter could not accustom themselves to the excessive heat of its climate. They hoped also that they would have been exempted from all taxes and tributes, like the Christians of Armenia and Georgia ; but it is not pro- bable that the same favours would have been granted them, unless on the same conditions ; that is to say, they would have had to recognise the sovereign autho- rity of the Khan, and to follow him into whatever part of his empire he should choose to carry his arms. Houlagou died in his camp, on the banks of the Tchogatou, in the month of February, 1265, at the age of forty-eight, and was buried in an island in the midst of the Lake of Ormia, where he had built a fortress to contain his treasures. Some months afterwards followed the death of Doghouz-Khatoun, who had held the first rank amongst his wives. " This princess," says the historian Raschid, " was brought up in the Christianity professed by the Keraite nation to which she belonged, and she constantly protected her fellow believers ; it was through her influence that Houlagou was induced to show so much favour to the Christians, who, profiting by this period of prosperity, built churches in all the provinces of his dominions. At the entrance of the Ordou of Doghouz-Khatoun, there was always a church whence the sound of bells could be heard." The deaths of Houlagou and his wife were deeply deplored by the Christians of Asia. " At the beginning of Lent," exclaims Bar-Hebrasus *, " died Houlagou, whose wisdom, magnanimity, and great exploits have T 2
 * Bar-Hebrasus, Dyn. xi. p. 542.