the Arabs." (_Assemani_,
_u.s._ p. 116.) The same historian says that Ahmad was kind and liberal to
the Christians, though Hayton speaks differently.

[Illustration: Facsimile of the Letters sent to Philip the Fair King of
France, by Arghun Khan in A.D. 1289 and by Oljaitu in A.D. 1305.]

NOTE 2.--Arghun obtained the throne on Ahmad's death, as just related, and
soon after named his son Ghazan (born in 1271) to the Government of
Khorasan, Mazanderan, Kumis, and Rei. Buka was made Chief Minister. The
circumstances of Arghun's death have been noticed already (supra, p. 369).

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOW KIACATU SEIZED THE SOVEREIGNTY AFTER ARGON'S DEATH.

And immediately on Argon's death, an uncle of his who was own brother[1]
to Abaga his father, seized the throne, as he found it easy to do owing to
Casan's being so far away as the _Arbre Sec_. When Casan heard of his
father's death he was in great tribulation, and still more when he heard
of KIACATU'S seizing the throne. He could not then venture to leave the
frontier for fear of his enemies, but he vowed that when time and place
should suit he would go and take as great vengeance as his father had
taken on Acomat. And what shall I tell you? Kiacatu continued to rule, and
all obeyed him except such as were along with Casan. Kiacatu took the wife
of Argon for his own, and was always dallying with women, for he was a
great lechour. He held the throne for two years, and at the end of those
two years he died; for you must know he was poisoned.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1.--KAIKHATU, of whom we heard in the Prologue (vol. i. p. 35), was
the brother, not the uncle, of Arghun. On the death of the latter there
were three claimants, viz., his son Ghazan, his brother Kaikhatu, and his
cousin Baidu, the son of Tarakai, one of Hulaku's sons. The party of
Kaikhatu was strongest, and he was raised to the throne at Akhlath, 23rd
July 1291. He took as wives out of the Royal Tents of Arghun the Ladies
Bulughan (the 2nd, not her named in the Prologue) and Uruk. All the
writers speak of Kaikhatu's character in the same way. Hayton calls him "a
man without law or faith, of no valour or experience in arms, but
altogether given up to lechery and vice, living like a brute beast,
glutting all his disordered appetites; for his dissolute life hated by his
own people, and lightly regarded by foreigners." (_Ram._ II. ch. xxiv.)
The continuator of Abulfaraj, and Abulfeda in his Annals, speak in like
te