All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated the royal sepulchres,* and explored the secret treasures of the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily.140 The young king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes, were sepa. rately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumor of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age under the name of Frederic the Second. Ten years after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations. ducing the Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather artifice than violence. 140 Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec, (l. iv. c. 20 :) Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum pretiosorum et gemmarum gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis, gloriose ad terram suam redierit. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions the violation of the roval tombs and corpses, computes the spoil of Salerno at 200,000 ounces of gold, (p. 746.) On these occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid in La Fontaine, “Je veudrois bien avoir ce qui manque." It is remarkable that at the same time the tombs of the Roman emperors, even of Constantine himself, were violated and ransacked by their degenerate successor Alexius Comnenus, in order to enable him to pay the "German tribute exacted by the menaces of the emperor Henry. Sec the end of the first book of the Life of Alexiu, in Nicetas, p. 632, edit Bonn, -M CHAPTER LVII. THE TURKS OF THE HOUSE OF SELJUK. THEIR REVOLT AGAINST MAHMUD CONQUEROR OF HINDOSTAN. -TOGRUL STATE PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. FROM the Isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond the Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since dissolved; but the name was still famous among the Greeks and Orientals; and the fragments of the nation, each a powerful and independent people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admitted into the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these northern shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia; their princes of the race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia Minor, till the victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia. One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud,1 the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern 1 I am indebted for his character and history to D'Herbelot, (Bibliothèque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533–537,) M. De Guignes, (Histoire des Huns, tom. iii. p. 155-173,) and our countryman Colonel Alexander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23-83.) In the two first volumes of his History of Hindostan, he styles himself the translator of the Persian Ferishta; but in his florid text, it is not easy to distinguish the version and the original.* The Europear reader now possesses a more accurate version of Ferish provinces of Persia, one thousand years after the birth of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful. But in this descent of servitude, the first degree was merely titular, since it was filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paid a nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad The second rank was that of a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step was a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supreme command of the city and province of Gazna,3 as the son-in-law and successor of his grateful master. The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. For him the title of Sultan 4 was first invented; and his kingdom was enlarged 2 The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A. D. 874999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin, in the Table: of M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 404-406.) They were followed by the Gaznevides, A. D. 999-1183, (see tom. i. p. 239, 240.) His division of nations often disturbs the series of time and place. 3 Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et domicilium mercaturæ Indicæ. Abulfedæ Geograph. Reiske, tab. xxiii. p. 349. D'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller. By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who employed an Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master, (D'Herbelot, p. 825. It is interpreted Αὐτοκράτωρ, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων, by the Byzantine writers of the xith century; and the name (Zovλravòs, Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after it had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p. 238–240. Gloss. Græc. et Latin.) labors to find the title of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia: but his proofs are mere shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11,) an anticipation of Zonaras. &c., and a medal of Kai Khosrou, not (as he believes) the Sassanide or the vith, but the Seljukide of Iconium of the xiiith century, (Ne Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 246.) ta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col. Dow's work, Col. Briggs observes, "that the author's name will be handed down to posterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our Oriental scholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere translation, he has filled his work with his own observations, which have been so embodied in the text that Gibbon declares it impossible to distinguish the translator from the original author." Preface, p. vii — M. from Transoxiana to the neighborhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the holy war which he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative I may not consume a page; and a volume would scarcely suffice to recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Never was the Mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy, or the formidable array of their elephants of war.5 The sultan of Gazna surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march of three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city of Kinnoge, on the Upper Ganges; and, in a naval combat on one of the branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan, were compelled to open their gates: the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people, their lives and fortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan the zealous Mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or pagodas, were 6 Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 49) mentions the report of a gun* in the Indian army. But as I am slow in believing this premature (A. D. 1008) use of artillery, I must desire to scrutinize first 'the text, and then the authority of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court in the last century. 6 Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra,†) is marked in lat itude 27° 3', longitude 80° 13'. See D'Anville, (Antiquité de l'Inde, p. 60-62,) corrected by the local knowledge of Major Rennel (in his excellent Memoir on his Map of Hindostan, p. 37-43 :) 300 jewellers, 30,000 shops for the arreca nut, 60,000 bands of musicians, &c. (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p. 274. Dow, vol. i. p. 16,) will allow an ample deduction. *This passage is differently written in the various manuscripts have Been; and in some the word tope (gun) has been written for nupth, (naphtha,) and toofung (musket) for khudung, (arrow.) But no Persian or Arabic history speaks of gunpowder before the time usually assigned for us invention, (A. D. 1317;) long after which, it was first applied to the purposes of war. Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 47, note. - M. Mr. Wilson (Hindu Drama, vol. iii. p. 12) and Schlegel (Indische Bib kothek, vol. ii. p. 394) concur in identifying Palimbothra with the Patali pura of the Indians; the Patna of the moderns.-M. levelled with the ground; many thousand idols were demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in the neighborhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese. It was endowed with the revenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the service of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or artificial precipice; and the city and adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian deity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the spear of the Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions* sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, that the destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos; and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. "Your reasons," replied the sultan," are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta, (Dow, vol. i. p. 66.) Consult Abulfeda. (p. 272,) and Rennel's Map of Hindostan. * Ferishta says, some "crores of gold." Dow says, in a note at the bottom of the page, " ten millions,” which is the explanation of the word "crore." Mr. Gibbon says rashly that the sum offered by the Brahmins was ten millions sterling. Note to Mill's India, vol. ii. p. 222. Col. Briggs's translation is "a quantity of gold." The treasure found in the temple, "perhaps in the image," according to Major Price's authorities, was twenty millions of dinars of gold, above uine millions sterling; but this was a hundred-fold the ransom offered by the Brahmins. Price, vol. ii. p. 290.-M. |