a the modern depopulation of Asia, the regular operation of government and agriculture is confined to the neighborhood of cities; and the distant country is abandoned to the pastoral tribes of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans.11 Of the last-mentioned people, two considerable branches extend on either side of the Caspian Sea: the western colony can muster forty thousand soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the traveller, but more strong and populous, has increased to the number of one nundred thousand families. In the midst of civilized nations, they preserve the manners of the Scythian desert, remove their encampments with the change of seasons, and feed their cattle among the ruins of palaces and temples. Their flocks and herds are their only riches; their tents, either black or white, according to the color of the banner, are covered with felt, and of a circular form; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin; a robe of cloth or cotton their summer garment the features of the men are harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft and pleasing. Their wandering life inaintains the spirit and exercise of arms they fight on horseback; and their courage is displayed in fre quent contests with each other and with their neighbors. For the license of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the sover eign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration of the Eastern Turkmans, the most ancient of their race, may be abscribed to the tenth century of the Christian æra.12 In the decline of the caliphs, and the weakness of their lieutenants, the barrier of the Jaxartes was often violated; in each invasion. after the victory or retreat of their countrymen, some wan dering tribe, embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who aspired

11 See a just and natural picture of these pastoral manners, in the history of William archbishop of Tyre, (1. i. c. vii. in the Gesta De: per Francos, p. 633, 634,) and a valuable note by the editor of the Histoire Généalogique des Tatars, p. 535–538.

12 The first emigrations of the Turkmans, and doubtful origin of the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History of the Huns by M. De Guignes, (tom. i. Tables Chronologiques, 1. v. tom. iii. 1. vii ix. x.,) and the Bibliothèque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (p. 799--80% 897-901,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 331-333,) and Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 221, 222.)

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to the throne encouraged these emigrations, which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his error by a chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The sultan had inquired what supply of men he could furnish for mi itary service. "If you send," replied Ismael, one of these arrows into our camp, fifty thousand of your servants will mount on horseback." "And if that number," continued Mahmud, "should not be sufficient?". "Send this second arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand more." But," said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, "if I should stand in need of the whold force of your kindred tribes? Despatch my bow," was the last reply of Ismael, "and as it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two hundred thousand horse." The apprehension of such formidable friendship induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes into the heart of Chorasan, where they would be separated from their brethren by the River Oxus, and enclosed on all sides by the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the country was an object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigor of government was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of Gazna. The shepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of robbers were collected into an army of conquerors: as far as Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was afflicted by their predatory inroads; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to measure their courage and numbers with the proudest sover. eigns of Asia. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmu Fad too long neglected the advice of his wisest Omrahs. Your enemies," they repeatedly urged, "were in their origin a swarm of ants; they are now little snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents." After some alternatives of truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, whe attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular onset. "Massoud," says the Persian historian, 13" plunged

13 Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95-98. I have copied this passage as a specimen of the Pe sian manner; but I suspect that,

singly to oppose the torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of gigantic force and valor as never king had before dis played. A few of his friends, roused by his words and actions, and that innate honor which inspires the brave, seconded their lord so well, that wheresoever he turned his fata' sword, the enemies were mowed down, or retreated before him. But now, when victory seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was active behind it; for when he looked round, he beheld almost his whole army, excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths of flight." The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or treachery of some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable day of Zendecan 14 founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd kings. 15

The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of a king; and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian 16 deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice of their new master. A number of arrows were successively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a family, and a candidate they were drawn from the bundle by the hand of a child and the important prize was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michael, the son of Seljuk, whose surname was immortalized in the greatness of his posterity. The sultan Mahmud who valued himself on his skill in national genealogy, pro fessed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk; yet the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power and re

by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has been improved by that of Ossian.*

The Zendekan of D'Herbelot, (p. 1028,) the Dindaka of Dow, (vol. i. p. 97,) is probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda, (Geograph. p. 345, Reiske,) a small town of Chorasan, two days' journey from Marû, and renowned through the East for the production and manufacture of cotton.

15 The Byzantine historians (Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 766, 767, Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 255, Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21) have confounded, in this revolution, the truth of time and place, of names and persons, of causes and events. The ignorance and errors of these Greeks (which I shall not stop to unravel) may inspire some distrust of the story of Cyaxares and Cyrus, as it is told by their most eloquent predecessors. Willerm. Tyr. 1. i. c. 7, p. 633. The divination by arrows is an cient and famous in the East.

Gibbon's conjecture was well founded. Compare the more sober and genuine version of Col Briggs, vol. i. p. 110. — M.

nowr.." For a daring intrusion into the harein of his prince, Seljuk was banished from Turkestan: with a numerous tribe of his friends and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the neighborhood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war against the infidels. His age of a hundred and seven years, surpassed the life of his son, and Seljuk adopted the care of his two grandsons, Togrul anc Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age of forty-five, was invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city of Nishabur. The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues of the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the valor of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul 18 was equal to his valor. By his arms, the Gaznevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms of Persia, and gradually driven to the banks of the Indus, in search of a softer and more wealthy conquest. In the West he annihilated the dynasty of the Bowides; and the sceptre of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation. The princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media, he approached the Roman confines; and the shepherd presumed to despatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and obedience of the emperor of Constantinople.19 In his own dominions, Togrul was the father of his soldiers and people; by a firm and equal administration, Persia was relieved from the evils of anarchy; and the same hands which had been imbrued in blood became the guardians of justice and the public peace. The more rustic, perhaps the

17 D'Herbelot. p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his posterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from the great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar pedigree of the house of Zingis gave a different cast to flattery and fable; and the historian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from Alankavah, the virgin mother, (p. 801, col. 2.) If they be the same as the Zalzuts of Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist. Généalogique, p. 148,) we quote in their favor the most weighty evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the descendant of Zingis, Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan.

18 By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the Tangroli-pix of the Greeks. His reign and character are faithfully exhibited by D'Herbelot (Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 189-201.)

"Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 257. With their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they describe the ambassador as a sherif, who, like the syncellus of the patriarch, was the vioar and successor of the caliph.

wisest, portion of the Turkmans 20 continued to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to the Euphrates, these military colonies were protected and propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of the court and city were re fined by business and softened by pleasure: they imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia; and the royal pal aces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and magnifi cence of a great monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians and Persians were promoted to the honors of the state; and the whole body of the Turkish nation embraced, with fervor and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet. The northern swarms of Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have been irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar conduct. Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague and local traditions have yielded to the reason and authority of the prevailing system, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent of nations. But the triumph of the Koran is more pure and meritorious, as it was not assisted by any visible splendor of worship which might allure the Pagans by some resemblance of idolatry. The first f the Seljukian sultans was conspicuous by his zeal and faith: eac day he repeated the five prayers which are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, the two first days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in every city a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the foundations of a palace.21

With the belief of the Koran, the son of Seljuk imbibed a lively reverence for the successor of the prophet. But that sublime character was still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt, and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove his title in the judgment of the strong, though illiterate, Barbarians. Mahmud the Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of Abbas; and had treated with indignity the robe of honor which was presented by the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the change

* From William of Tyre I have borrowed this distinction of Turks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and convenient. The names are the same, and the addition of man is of the same import in the Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics will adopt the etymology of James de Vitry, (Hist. Hierosol. 1. i. c. 11, p. 1061,) of Turcomani quasi Turci et Comani, a mixed people.

"Hist. Générale des Huns, tom. iii. p. 165, 163, 167. M. Da Guignes quotes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt.