Eagle Byzantium

It turns out that this palace is what Fatima usually calls the "Old Palace" and the "Crow Palace".

One hundred and thirty-five years ago, the Fatimid dynasty, which was still based in Mahdia (now a seaport city in southeastern Tunisia), launched a series of conquests against Egypt. Its leading general was a standard Greek from Sicily. Zhaohaier Surjili, he was a slave when he was a child, and was later promoted to the army Zhaohair, the general here, decisively defeated and destroyed the Ikhshed dynasty that originally occupied Egypt. And when he and his five thousand subordinates were stationed in the wasteland four miles away from Fustat, all the people were like white horses. The Bers, Saracens, and Greeks came to seek refuge with him one after another, and the original camp was suddenly not enough. So Zhaohaier asked his subordinates to bake bricks and stones, expand the camp to a large area, and named it Mansur.

When the foundation was laid and the construction started, according to tradition, a string of bells was to be ringed at the auspicious time of divination, but a black crow flew to the foundation of the city wall during the "Mars Ascension" - Four years later, Fatima After Muiz, the fourth caliph of the dynasty, moved his capital here, he believed that the arrival of the crow was a good omen, so he ordered the city of "Mansour" to be renamed "Gahira", which means "victory and triumph".

Later, Venetian merchants mistakenly pronounced Gahira as "Cairo". This mistake became the most famous name of this medieval city in later generations, but the original "Gahira" was completely forgotten.

But people did not forget the magical crow, so they also called the Caliphate Palace in Cairo "Crow Palace" from word of mouth.

Later, with the passage of time, a magnificent and huge mosque "Aizhar" was built on the south side of the Crow Palace (also called the Old Palace and the East Palace), and the northeastern part of the Aizhar Mosque was built by the fifth generation Caliph Aziz built a new palace, the "West Palace". The vast area between the Crow Palace and the West Palace was paved with a large square with a fountain, called "Between the Two Palaces" (Baynal-Kasrayn), in which stood the Guards barracks, the market and many official residences.

Among them, the Crow Palace has nine gates, and Ashot is in charge of the most important one, the "Hadab Gate". Because there is a window on the tower of this gate, the caliph often stands here for a short time on the day of gathering. , and the subjects met each other across the iron fence, allowing the people to see his face, showing that he was still alive and had not been replaced.

In the night, Ashot snatched the burnt letter from the Hadab Gate Tower. Inside, the Grand Vizier warned the Caliphate in the tone of a division commander: We will definitely not win against the Tarsus army. Did you know? Gawain led four brigades and swept through the entire Greater Armenia, destroyed the Kingdom of Georgia, and massacred the Eagle Castle of the Persian Ismailis (deserved! Who told the sects there to no longer submit to our rule) , in which the general Mahadzeri of the Kingdom of Georgia was captured and killed...

"Brother, brother!" Ashot's eyes darkened when he read this. As a younger brother, he could hardly suppress the fire in his heart.

When Avdel's father sent people to Greater Armenia to recruit people, you and I made an agreement in our hometown - I would cross the sea to Egypt to develop my career, and you would go to the Kingdom of Georgia to borrow troops, and we would work together to restore the country in the future, but Why did you die like this in the hands of the traitor Gawain?

As he continued reading, Ashot's eyes almost bulged from the violent blood, "What, Avdel, you are still a descendant of Ani, but you are actually talking about appeasement and peace, and you are talking about this to an enemy like a jackal? It is simply unreasonable. , I will definitely kill these number one national thieves!”

So in this dark night, the commander of the Armenian Forbidden Army in the palace, in order to avenge his brothers who died on the plateau thousands of miles away, or to vent his anger, tied the entire national destiny of Egypt to the bloody butcher knife.

In the early morning, Ashot led a group of armored janitors through "between the two palaces" and arrived at the audience room of the West Palace, requesting to see Caliph Musta Ali.

At this time, Musta Ali was about twenty-three years old. He was wearing a white turban. Although he was fair-skinned and tall, he looked weak. He slowly walked out of the door and sat on the ivory seat in the center. On the chair, his eyes were blue, very beautiful, crystal clear. Like gems, like the sky and the sea, darker than Gawain's eyes - because his ancestor (i.e., the sixth Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim) had intermarried with the Christian Patriarchate of Alexandria ( The two daughters of the Patriarch), and the other party actually has Ross blood.

"What's the matter, my dearest attendant?" Musta Ali, who had just woken up, was weak.

Ashot handed the letter over respectfully.

"Oh, it's a letter from the teacher." Musta Ali said happily. There was a bloody line under his eyes, which made him look not very strong, but with a sad beauty.

After opening and reading, "write me a reply letter, saying that I miss him very much and hope to talk to him about future state affairs in the palace on the next Jubilee day." Then, the Caliph asked his confidential secretary to write it. He wrote in reply, requesting that Avdel return from Ashkelon and that he would meet him at the Great Mosque of Al-Azhar.

At this time, a cold and strange smile appeared on Ashot's face at the foot of the steps.

Of course he had changed the letter.

He knew that the young and beautiful Caliph in front of him had grown up under the tutelage and guidance of the Vizier, and had already developed an abnormal obsession with him in his heart. In the past two years since Avdele left the palace, the Caliph had become completely obsessed with him. The six gods on the day have no master, and they are crazy about yearning.

After the matter was done, the Caliph was filled with joy. While asking Ashot to step aside, he took out a steel round mirror to reflect on himself, hoping to give the returning teacher the most magnificent impression.

Ashot turned around and left, stepping on the long brocade carpet in the palace arcade, step after step, holding the hilt of the sword in his hand, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth from time to time.

A few days later, in the temporary residence of the Grand Vizier in the port of Ashkelon, Evdel opened the letter from the palace in surprise, "This kid said that he had urgent matters and asked me to come back to the palace to discuss it? What is the reason? ”

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However, because it was the caliph's personal request, Efedele could not refuse, so he asked Al-Rumi, the commander of the fleet at the port, to prepare a ship and "send me to Cairo."

When Avdele entered the streets of Cairo a week later, he rode a horse, surrounded by attendants and clerks, and passed the straight road leading to the Crow Palace, slowly heading towards Aizhar. Walking towards the Grand Mosque, there are light towers (Khuza Towers) standing on both sides of the vestibule. They are as white as snow, with iron roosters hanging from the top, constantly shaking to indicate the direction of the wind.

Suddenly, a black bird the size of a grain of rice flew up from the light tower, and flashed across Everdler's eyes. It was a crow, shouting a sad tone, flapping its wings, and heading towards the anthill. It flew towards the civilian settlement, and soon disappeared without a trace among the rows of rooftops and tower ends.