of fortune, he applauded the victory of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged this important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph Čayem, and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to his arins.22 In the palace of Bagdad, the commander of the faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or master, the prince of the Bowides, could no longer protect him from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian emirs. The presence of a conqueror was implored as a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword were excused as the sharp but salutary reme dies which alone could restore the health of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force, the sultan of Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the prostrate were spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of the most obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people of Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and the resto ration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of nis labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of religious prejudice over Barbarian power.23 The Turkish sultan embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his public entry on horseback. At the palace-gate he respectfully dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil the black garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he held in his hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror of the East kissed the ground, tood some time in a modest posture, and was led towards the throne by the vizier and an interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne, his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honor, and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the "Consult the Biothèque Orientale, in the articles of the Abbassides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elinacin and Abulpharagius. For this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. De Guignes (tom. iii. p. 197, 198,) and that learned author is obliged to Bondari, whe composed in Arabi the history of the Seljukides, tom. v. p. 366.1 I am ignorant of his age, country, and character. * seven climates of the Arabian empire. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns were placed on his head two cimeters were girded to his side, as the symbois of a double reign over the East and West. After this inauguration, the sultan was prevented from prostrating himself a second time but he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice of heralds and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad, the Seljukian prince again rescued the caliph from his enemies; and devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to the palace. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of Togrul's sister with the successor of the prophet. Without reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem; but Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shepherd; and protracted the negotiation many months, till the gradual diminution of his revenue admonished him that he was still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials were followed by the death of Togrul himself; 24+ as he left no children, his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On the throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty. Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome, which, by the victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far as Antioch and the eastern bounda ries of Armenia. Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, и Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus.... rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror corda mortalium invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad ipsum scriberent. Elmaein, Hist. Saracen. p. 342, vers. Erpenii. According to Von Hammer, "crowns are incorrect. They are an known as a symbol of royalty in the East. V Hammer, Osmanische Ge schichte, vol. i. p. 567.-M. † He died, being 76 years old. V. Hammer. — M. his successors were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united the Scythian valor with the fanati cism of new proselytes, and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy.25 The myriads of Turkish horse overspread & frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arzeroum, anc the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the oper country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the Conqueror of Asia.26 The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant 'ion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Cæsarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now covered by the venerable rust of antiquity. The inal conquest of Armenia and Georgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom, and the spirit of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial fortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by strangers without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and recruits without experience or discipline. The loss of this important 25 For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras a d Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Cæsar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter statesmen; yet such were the Greeks, that the difference of style and character is scarcely discerni ole. For the Orientals, I draw as usual on the wealth of D'Herbelo see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. Ì. x.) , 28 Εφέρετο γὰρ ἐν Τούρκοις λόγος, ὡς εἴη πεπρωμένον καταστραφήναι • Τούρκων γένος ὑπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης δυνάμεως, ὁποίαν ὁ Μακεδών Αλέξαν doos XV XαTEOтoivato Пiqous. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credu lity of the vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot, p. 317, &c.) 28 frontier was the news of a day; and the Catholics were neither surprised nor displeased, that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian and Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother into the hands of the infidels.27 The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus were more strenuously defended by the native Georgians or Ibe. rians; but the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were indefatigable in this holy war: their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual, as well as temporal, obedience; and, in. stead of their collars and bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who sti adhered to the worship of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and still more their practice, of Christianity is an empty name; and if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed.29 The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gazne. vide was not imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked with. out scruple the Greek empress Eudocia and her children His alarming progress compelled her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and Romanus Diogenes was * Οἱ τὴν ̓Ιβηρίαν καί Μεσοποταμίαν, καὶ τὴν παρακειμένην οἰκοῦσιν Αρμονίαν καὶ οἳ τὴν Ιουδαϊκὴν τοῦ Νεστοριοῦ καὶ τῶν ̓Ακεφάλων θρη oxevovoiv aïgeoir, (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834, whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that he confounded the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies.) He familiarly talks of the μήνις, χόλος, ὀργὴ, Θεοῦ, qualities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to confess, that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox Romans. 28 Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter, Memoriæ Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it from their agriculture, as the Exvdai yswoyo of Herodotus, (1. iv. c. 18, p. 28', edit. Wesseling.) But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals, (D'Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George of Cappadocia. Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in Chardin's Trav els, (tom. i. p. 171-174,) the manners and religion of this handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam to the present century in the tab es af M. De Guignes, (tom. i. p. 483-438.) invested with the Imperial purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople within two months after his accession; and the next campaign he most scandalously took the field during the holy festival of Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the husband of Eudocia in the camp, he was the emperor of the Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources and invincible courage. By his spirit and success, the soldiers were taught to act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war; and their numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. Laden with spoil, and careless of discipline, they were separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks: the activity of the emperor seemed to multiply his presence; and while they heard of his expe dition to Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebizond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks were driven beyond the Euphrates: in the fourth and last, Roma nus undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The desolation of the land obliged him to transport a supply of two months provisions; and he marched forwards to the siege of Malaz kerd,30 an important fortress in the midway between the mod ern cities of Arzeroum and Van. His army amounted, al the least, to one hundred thousand men. The troops of Con stantinople were reenforced by the disorderly multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia ; but the real strength was composed of the subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Mace donia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were themselves of the Turkish race; 31 and, above all, the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant 30 This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,) and the Byzantines of the xith century, under the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but Delisle, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the situation. Abulfela (Geograph. tab. xviii. P 310) describes Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with water, without trees, &c. The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. tom. iii. p 923 -948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. . 522, tom. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appear on the Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race. |