People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 496 Arrival in Baghdad

Zhang Youwei returned to the boat and told Tan Wenxue and Wang Shining what had happened.

When the two learned of the Seljuk Empire's attitude, there was nothing much to say, as the Song Dynasty's intention was already very clear.

If you want to be on good terms with the Song Dynasty, you can send an envoy so that the two sides can exchange culture and economy.

If you don’t want to, then forget it. The Song Dynasty won’t force you.

Since the Seljuk Empire had clearly shown its hostility, they naturally would not insist any longer.

Anyway, they have made the invitation, and the court’s mission has been accomplished.

The fleet set off immediately. They had been delayed in the port of Renger for too long, and the supplies on the ship were being consumed every day.

The food, clothing and other expenses for 6,000 people are not a small number. Although they brought enough supplies when they came, they still had to replenish them every time they arrived at a place, because sea travel is full of dangers.

If we accidentally encounter windy and rainy weather, if something goes wrong with the supply ship, or if water enters the cabin and wets the supplies, causing them to mold, the situation will be very bad.

So they must also leave the port of Renger immediately, go to the end of the Persian Gulf, and then go up the Shatt al-Arab River to Baghdad!

The journey was relatively smooth. Five days later, the group traveled more than 700 kilometers, crossed the Persian Gulf, and arrived at the port of Faw, the estuary of the Shatt al-Arab River.

The Port of Fao became the largest oil port in Iraq in later generations, and Iraq's oil exports were highly dependent on this port.

But in ancient times, since the commercial activities in the Middle East were mainly concentrated in Baghdad, the Port of Faow was just a small port for merchant ships to stop at sea.

Therefore, the local area is not prosperous.

However, there are still officials from the Buyid Dynasty here, and many ships are moored at the dock.

When they told the local officials their purpose, although the local officials had little interest in the dynasty's mission to the East, they still fulfilled their duties and took them to the dynasty's capital, Baghdad.

After all, the Buyid Dynasty is now afraid of the invasion of the Seljuk Empire, and the people are in panic. Naturally, they will not be interested in exchanges with the East like the relatively stable dynasties such as the Chola and the Later Chalukya.

Besides, no one can tell whether the country will be destroyed next year, so how can we have the mind to send an envoy abroad?
If the guide and translator on the ship had not been a big businessman of the Buyid Dynasty, who had many connections with the upper class and tried his best to persuade the local officials, I am afraid that the local officials would not have wanted them to go to Baghdad.

Baghdad was the last stop of the delegation.

Although their mission was to deliver the news as far as Europe, it was naturally more reliable to deliver the news from the Middle East than to go around the Cape of Good Hope to Europe via the ocean.

The fleet sailed up the Shatt al-Arab River in a mighty stream.

The Shatt al-Arab River is the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The river is wide and has a huge flow of water, making it the birthplace of ancient Babylonian civilization.

Almost all commercial activities in the Middle East are inseparable from it. In addition to connecting the Persian Gulf, it also connects the Anatolian Peninsula and the Armenian Plateau, radiating to most of the Middle East.

Therefore, in addition to the groups of ships traveling on the river, there are also large villages on both sides of the river, living on the vast plains, irrigating farmland and nourishing ancient civilizations.

Tan Wenxue, Zhang Youwei and others stood by the boat and looked out every day. The recorders on board wrote down everything along the way, which will become the material for Eastern civilization to study Western civilization.

After a few more days, it was late June. After nearly four months, with an average speed of about 100 kilometers per day and a travel distance of kilometers, they finally arrived at the final destination of the Song Dynasty delegation - Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Dynasty.

Yes.

This is still nominally the Abbasid Dynasty.

In the middle of the 11th century AD, the Middle East was divided among several major forces.

The Fatimid Empire covered both sides of the Red Sea and the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, mainly Egypt in later generations, and also included parts of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, as well as parts of the coasts of Libya and Tunisia.

Later, part of Iraq was controlled by the Buyid Dynasty. Saudi Arabia in the south did not establish a kingdom and was located in a deserted desert area. Some Bedouin nomadic tribes struggled to survive in it, and some of them established the two countries of Oman and Yemen.

In later generations, part of Iran originally belonged to the Buyid Dynasty, but was occupied by the newly emerging Seljuk Empire. At this time, most of the territories including Iran, Afghanistan and several northern Stans belonged to the Seljuk Empire.

The Pakistani part was once the Ghaznavid Empire, the overlord of the Middle East, which was driven to northern India by the rising Seljuk Empire.

To the east of the Mediterranean, which is later Turkey, was the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, followed by several small countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Mosul, and Aledun.

However, except for the Eastern Roman Empire in the north, these forces basically split from the Abbasid Empire. Nominally, they are led by the current Abbasid Caliph Qam, but in fact Qam only has the status of a religious leader and no real power.

Baghdad is now controlled by the Buyid Dynasty. Therefore, Baghdad currently has two meanings. One is the capital of the Buyid Dynasty, and the other is a famous cultural city of Islam.

There were a large number of religious factions active here, and various doctrines were spread here. The major factions taught each other, and there were more than 30 religious schools alone. At that time, it was listed as one of the three major cultural holy places of Islam along with Cairo and Cordoba.

The Song Dynasty envoys stood at the bow of the ship and looked out while listening to the translator's introduction.

I saw that Baghdad was indeed a majestic city with a very large area. The city was densely packed with countless rammed earth houses of all sizes, with pointed or round roofs.

The architectural style of the houses is quite Middle Eastern. Merchant ships can be seen everywhere along the Tigris River wharf. There are many stalls on the shore, and a large number of handicraft manufacturers are selling their own carpets, spices, scarves, and pottery.

The arrival of the fleet attracted many people to stop and watch. The dock was crowded with people for a while, and many people stood by the river, stretching their necks to look curiously.

Ever since the Seljuk Empire annexed the Buyid Dynasty's territory east of the Persian Gulf last year, the Buyid Dynasty's business has been declining, and such large-scale merchant ships have not appeared for a long time.

Many people speculated which big businessman could be so generous.

However, someone soon recognized that these were not Arab ships. Those with insight immediately discovered that these were all Song Dynasty ships. They were amazed and wondered if these were Song Dynasty's ocean-going merchants who had come to Baghdad.

Although the Arabs would purchase ships from the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's ships were very expensive and could only be used by ocean-going merchant caravans.

The caravans that were able to travel the oceans were among the wealthiest merchants in the Arab Empire, and those that could afford to buy the Song Dynasty's ships were even rarer. Even if they could buy Song Dynasty ships, they would only have a dozen or so at most.

All these ships were Song Dynasty ships, and one of them was even an ironclad ship. This was obviously not something that any big merchant in the Arab Empire could do.

Therefore, some smart people immediately realized that it was most likely the Song Dynasty fleet coming.

The pier is now even more lively.

"How come these ships haven't been seen before?"

"Those are the ships of the great Eastern powers. I once saw the great merchant Saladin bring these ships back from the far East, but that was more than ten years ago."

"Saladin? I know him. He was once the richest man in the kingdom. I heard that he left Baghdad ten years ago and went to the East, but he disappeared. Many people speculated that he was killed in a storm at sea. Could he be back this time?"

"It can't be him. Even Saladin only had three Song Dynasty ships before. Now there are at least fifty or sixty ships. I'm afraid even Saladin's entire wealth can't have that many. Maybe he is from an Eastern country."

"People from Eastern countries?"

"Yes, according to the sailors who came back with the merchants, there is a big country in the far east, which was once called Tang and is now called Song. I'm afraid these people are the people of Song." An old man sitting cross-legged on the street and preaching was looking at the huge ships in the distance and recounting ancient stories with some of his followers.

The Arab Empire once had physical exchanges with the Tang Empire.

But after the Battle of Talas, merchants from the Middle East Arab Empire never cut off ties with the Tang Empire, whether on the Silk Road or the Maritime Silk Road.

In fact, trade between the two sides was still very frequent. Even during the war-torn period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there were a large number of Arab merchants traveling to and from the Southern Han Kingdom that occupied the Guangzhou area, and many Arab merchants settled in the local area.

So strictly speaking, the East and the West were not unfamiliar to each other at that time. Just as the Tang Dynasty knew that there was a powerful Arab Empire in the West, the Arab Empire in the West also knew about the existence of the distant Eastern power.

However, with the decline of the Arab Empire, a large number of Arab merchants fled eastward and settled in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other places in the Song Dynasty. Due to the endless war in the Middle East, trade was once cut off, and exchanges between the two sides also decreased.

It was not until a few years ago when the Song Dynasty developed maritime trade on a large scale that trade between the East and the West rose again. In just a dozen years, the exchanges between the two sides became closer, and the locals also knew about the Eastern Song Empire.

This situation came to an abrupt end last year, when half of the territory of the Buyid Dynasty was annexed by the Seljuks, and commercial prosperity suddenly dropped by more than half. Since the beginning of this year, a large number of Arab merchants fled to the East for refuge, and no merchant ships have come to Baghdad for more than a month.

It can be seen how great an impact the Seljuk Empire had on the trade between the East and the West.

Soon, in front of the stunned citizens of Baghdad, the fleet slowly sailed into the port and anchored in the southern harbor.

In recent years, the Arab Empire's business has declined and many big businessmen have fled, so the docks in Baghdad have been built large and spacious. Now that there are so many vacant spaces, it doesn't seem crowded.

The only thing that surprised the people was that the Song Dynasty ships did not seem that exaggerated when viewed from a distance, but when they were up close, they were discovered to be truly majestic and magnificent.

"Step aside."

"Emile is here."

"Get out of the way!"

The situation here quickly alarmed Abu Mansur Frad Sotun, the Emir of the Buyid Dynasty.

A large group of Delamu guards escorted him to the dock.

The Buyid Dynasty was actually established by the Buyid family of the Daylam people. However, the Buyid family declined rapidly after its peak, and was plagued by internal conflicts and family infighting, which led to its disintegration.

In addition, the conflicts between the Daylam people and the local ethnic groups and the Turks have caused their rule to be on the verge of collapse, and the dynasty is now on the verge of extinction.

This was indeed the case. Three years later, the Seljuks marched all the way to Baghdad unimpeded and destroyed the Buyid Dynasty.

This shows that the Buyid Dynasty now has almost no resistance.

Now when he heard that a large fleet had arrived at the Baghdad dock, Abu Mansur Frad Sotun was naturally worried. He didn't know whether the newcomers were good or bad, so he immediately mobilized the remaining troops to be on guard.

When he arrived, the diplomatic fleet had just docked at the dock. The accompanying translator and guide was Saladin, a wealthy businessman who had left Baghdad ten years ago and settled in Guangzhou.

When Saladin got off the ship, there was a burst of exclamations. Many people in Baghdad remembered him and they thought this was really Saladin's fleet.

However, Saladin soon told Abu Mansur Frad Sotun about the situation. When he learned that it was a delegation from the Song Dynasty coming for a friendly visit, he breathed a sigh of relief and extended an invitation to the other party.

Then the people of Baghdad saw a group of Oriental people whose clothing style was completely different from that of Middle Eastern people getting off the boat.

It is the hot summer day, and people in the Middle East wear long robes for religious and practical reasons. This robe is not only a part of Islamic culture, but also can protect against the scorching sun and dry sand.

In contrast, the Orientals obviously did not expect the Middle East to be so hot. Although they all wore short-sleeved shirts, their skin had already become tanned due to the wind and sun on the sea.

Officials like Tan Wenxue and Zhang Youwei, who used to be somewhat plump in the Song Dynasty, are now dark and thin. They have to wear silk official uniforms for formal occasions, which are not adaptable to the local robes, and they are already sweating profusely.

"This is the envoy of the Song Dynasty, representing His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. This is Zhang Youwei, a doctor from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is Tan Wenxue, a doctor from the Ministry of Rites. This is Wang Shining, the commander of the Guangzhou Navy."

"This is our Buyid Emir Abu Mansur Frad Sotun."

Saladin communicated with Tan Wenxue and others in Chinese.

It would definitely not be possible to call Emir by his name, but Emir couldn't understand Chinese.

Besides, to be honest.

Many Orientals in later generations, seeing the advanced Western civilization, became spiritual Westerners and looked down on the East in every way.

However, in ancient times, during the Tang and Song dynasties, many foreigners were proud to be Orientals.

Since the Tang Dynasty, a large number of Arabs have settled in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other places. Among them, some who have made outstanding contributions have been given Chinese surnames by the rulers.

So Saladin lived in Guangzhou for nine years, witnessed the greatness of Eastern civilization, and had long regarded himself as an Oriental.

This time he took the initiative to come here to lead the way, hoping that the Song Dynasty court would grant him a surname so that he could settle down in the East.

In addition, the rulers of the Buyid Dynasty were Daylamites and Saladin was an Arab, so they naturally did not respect the Emir whose motherland was not of their own ethnic group.

"Meet Emile."

The envoys of the Song Dynasty saluted Abu Mansur one after another.

Abu Mansur also quickly responded with his own ethnic etiquette: "Dear guests from the distant East, on behalf of the Buyid Dynasty, I welcome you."

"Thank you, Emil."

Everyone saluted again.

"Quick, come to my palace."

Abu Mansur gave a warm welcome.

He is now desperate and is trying every possible means to cure his illness.

The Seljuk threat loomed.

Seeing the envoys from the Song Dynasty coming, I remembered that the Song Dynasty was said to be close to the border with the Seljuks.

It would be great if we could form an alliance with the Song Dynasty and fight against the Seljuks together.

So Abu Mansur was very enthusiastic.