Chapter X.

THE DEATH OF RABBAN SAWMA AND OF THE KINGS KAIKHATO AND BAID0

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RABBAN SAWMA toiled by night and by day in the church which he had built, and he arranged everything in it in a perfect manner. And the expenses incurred in building the church, and in providing the endowment, that is to say, Wakf, which was assigned to it, amounted to (94) one hundred and five thousand zuze (about Ј8,250?)) more or less. And he performed the service and recited the Offices regularly, and he was exceedingly zealous in performing the Eucharistic Service, which he had established in that church, continually. And he had great repose in the Cell which he had built by the side of the church, of which until now he himself is the ornament, and prayers and celebrations of the Eucharist are constant therein. May our Lord give him as the reward of his labour the happiness of the heavenly kingdom, and a portion with the saints in the exalted regions of highest heaven. And having finished the church which we have described above, RABBAN SAWMA came down in the service of Mar Catholicus to Baghdad, in the year of the Greeks, one hundred six hundred and five, in the month of the first Teshri (October) of that year [A.D. 1293].

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And King BAIDAR (read BAIDO), the son of the brother of King ABHGHA, made a great feast in a place called SIRZUR (SHAHARZUR, in KURDISTAN) in (95) honour of the Catholic and he gathered together all the officials of his Court to the banquet. And RABBAN SAWMA rose up with his temperament disordered and he fell down, being seized with fever. On the following day he bade farewell to King BIDAR (BAIDU), and he arrived in the city of ARBIL to settle urgent affairs, and [enjoy] the kindness (?) of the church folk. And the sickness of RABBAN SAwMA increased, and he was seized with severe pains, but he prolonged his life until the Catholicus arrived in the city of BAGHDAD. And his disease waxed heavy, healing took to flight, his life was despaired of, and he departed from this world of nothingness and tribulation to the world of holiness and to the City of the Saints, Jerusalem which is in the heavens, on the night of the first Sunday after Epiphany when the prayer beginning " Le'edtakh lukdam" (i.e. "to Thy Church") is said, on the tenth day of the month Kanon' Khrai (January) of that same year (A.D. 1294). And his holy body was buried in the Darath Rhomaye, on the north side of the altar, outside the inner court, on the south side (96) of the house of prayer. May his portion be with the Patriarchal Fathers among whom he was laid! And may our Lord

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give him rest and set him on His right hand on the great Day of Retribution wherein, with the reward of justice and the Scales of Truth, He will reward every man according to his labour!

Now MAR AHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, suffered very great affliction at the death of RABBAN SAWMA, and his weeping reached the heavens; he mourned with the people in their grief so that none might say that he constrained himself to mourn apart from them. And the nobles and chiefs, that is to say governors, and all the Fathers of the city of Baghdad came to offer him consolation, and he received consolation only with the greatest difficulty on the third day, when he returned to his Throne. And it was meet that he should suffer, and the law of nature commanded it, for the deceased was a man of courage, for he was the strong arm and support of the Gate of the Patriarchal Cell (i.e. palace), not only of the Catholicus himself but of every Christian who came to him.

And the Catholicus passed that winter in Baghdad (97). On the day of the great festival he set out, and met the victorious King KAIKHATO at ALA TAK, where the royal Camp was. And the king honoured him with many gifts, that is to say he gave him a cloak of great price, and two splendid riding mules, and he assigned to him a "Sukur," that is to say, a parasol, and

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he gave him sixty thousand zuze [Ј2,500 or 5,000 dinars]. He refused nothing which MAR Catholicus asked for whenever he open his mouth. Then MAR Catholicus returned from the Camp of the victorious king, and he laid foundations of the holy monastery of Saint Mar John the Baptist, on the north side of the city of MARAGHAH, at a distance of about [two] thirds of a parasang, more or less [about two miles] from the city, in the year mentioned (A.D. 1294), at the end of the month of Khaziran (June). He built up the wall nearly to the top and the nave up as far as the spring of the roof.

Then suddenly storms broke, and the waves of confusion rose high in the kingdom; the Amirs acted treacherously towards (98) the king and the tempests of suffering waxed strong on the world, and turmoil fell on creation. And men were slain without sufficient cause, and very many villages were looted by the soldiery with violence. And in the winter of the year one thousand six hundred and six, according to [the Era of] YAWAN [1295], the road from ADHORBIJAN to BAGHDAD and to DIARBAKR were cut, and the fighters did not cease from the quarrels which they had set afoot, and at length they destroyed King KAIKHATO by violent death, and delivered the kingdom to King BAIDO. This unhappy [prince] only accepted the kingdom through fear for his life.

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He remained on the throne from the 24th day of the month of NISAN (April) until the 25th day of the month of Ilul (September) of the same year, more or less. He governed and reigned in a state of perturbation, and prolonged his days in perpetual fear. Now without making over long [our] narrative, and making [our] History, which has a definite object, become somewhat different, it is impossible to describe completely the plots, and the trickeries, and the crafty devices, and the treacherous works which the enemies [of the kingdom] set on foot during the five months of the struggle which went on between BAIDO and the victorious King KAZAN, the son of the deceased King Arghon (99). To speak briefly the murderers of the blessed King Khaikato, plotted the murder of his successor BAIDU. Then division fell (i.e. took place), and the world was in turmoil. The peoples of the Arabs roused themselves to take vengeance on the Church and its children for the destruction which the father of these kings had inflicted upon them. Then suddenly, on the Sunday [of the prayer] "la-mese puma," (i.e. "the mouth is unable") of that year (A.D. 1295), on the 25th day of the month of Ilul (September), a rumour was heard of the flight of King BAIDU and of his destruction, and with it came the proofs, that in very truth the abandonment of [the Church by] God had taken place (100).

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