teat khan of the Mongols, crossed the Oxus, and began by
destroying all the strongholds of the Isma'ilis. Then the turn of Bagdad
came. On the 11th of Muharram 656 (January 1258) Hulaku arrived under
the walls of the capital. In vain did Mostasim sue for peace. Totally
devoid of dignity and heroism, he ended by surrendering and imploring
mercy from the barbarian victor. On the 4th of Saphar (February 10th) he
came with his retinue into the camp. The city was then given up to
plunder and slaughter; many public buildings were burnt; the caliph,
after having been compelled to bring forth all the hidden treasures of
the family, was killed with two of his sons and many relations. With him
expired the eastern Caliphate of the Abbasids, which had lasted 524
years, from the entry of Abu'I-Abbas into Kufa.

In vain, three years later, did Abu'I-Qasim Ahmad, a scion of the race
of the Abbasids, who had taken refuge in Egypt with Bibars the Mameluke
sultan, and who had been proclaimed caliph under the title _al-Mostansir
billah_ ("he who seeks help from God"), make an effort to restore a
dynasty which was now for ever extinct. At the head of an army he
marched against Bagdad, but was defeated and killed before he reached
that city. Then another descendant of the Abbasids, who also had found
an asylum in Egypt, was proclaimed caliph at Cairo under the name of
_al-Hakim bi-amrillah_ ("he who decides according to the orders of
God"). His sons inherited his title, but, like their father, remained in
Egypt without power or influence (see EGYPT: _History_, "Mahommedan
period"). This shadow of sovereignty continued to exist till the
conquest of Egypt by the Turkish sultan Selim I., who compelled the last
of them, Motawakkil, to abdicate in his favour (see TURKEY: _History_).
He died at Cairo, a pensionary of the Ottoman government, in 1538.

Another scion of the Abbasid family, Mahommed, a great-grandson of the
caliph Mostansir, found at a later period a refuge in India, where the
sultan of Delhi received him with the greatest respect, named him
Makhdumzadeh, "the Master's son," and treated him as a prince. Ibn
Batuta saw him when he visited India, and says that he was very
avaricious. On his return to Bagdad the traveller found there a young
man, son of this prince, who gained a single dirhem daily for serving as
imam in a mosque, and did not get the least relief from his rich father.
It seems that this Mahommed, or his son, emigrated l