Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part II

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 boundaries of Armenia.

Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were
suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united
the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the
art and riches of a powerful monarchy. 25 The myriads of Turkish
horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to
Arzeroum, and 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 open 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 lion, 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 Caesarea, 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 final 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 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
28 or Iberians; 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, instead
of their collars and bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a badge of
ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still 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

25 (return) [ For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in
general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus,
Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius
Caesar. 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 discernible. For the Orientals, I draw
as usuul on the wealth of D’Herbelot (see titles of the first
Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
iii. l. x.)]

26 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the
vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the
Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D’Herbelot,
p. 213 &c.)]

27 (return) [ (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 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 (return) [ Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks,
(Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it
from their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, 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.]

29 (return) [ Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in
Chardin’s Travels, (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 tables of M. De
Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433-438.)]

The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was not
imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without 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 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 expedition 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, Romanus
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 Malazkerd, 30 an important
fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and
Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand
men. The troops of Constantinople 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 Macedonia, 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 Ursel of
Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings, 32 and were
allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to the
Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance.

30 (return) [ 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. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes
Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with
water, without trees, &c.]

31 (return) [ The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant.
tom. iii. p. 923-948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des
Huns, tom. ii. p. 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.]

32 (return) [ Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is
distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman
conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Baliol: and our own
historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to
Durham, built Bernard’s castle on the Tees, married an heiress of
Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4)
has labored the subject in honor of the president de Bailleul,
whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.]

On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his
hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at
the head of forty thousand horse. 33 His rapid and skilful
evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the
Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal
generals, he displayed the first example of his valor and
clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces
after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he
attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey
his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of
the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against
the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and
decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the
sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace;
but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the
enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and
defiance. “If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate
the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans,
and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his
sincerity.” Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he
wept the death of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout
prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of
retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his
horse’s tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and
cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body
with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot
should be the place of his burial. 34 The sultan himself had
affected to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of
victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose
squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent.
Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian
tactics, Romulus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and
pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and yielding
resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless
combat he spent the greater part of a summer’s day, till prudence
and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is
always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had
the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken
by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a
rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the
Caesars. 35 The Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on
this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their
formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks. In the
destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, it would be
needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The
Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they
forgot to mention, that in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces
of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.

33 (return) [ Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number,
which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by
D’Herbelot (p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives
300,000 met to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum
centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa
instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.]

34 (return) [ The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of
the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch,
had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or
truth?]

35 (return) [ He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the
emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus
Bryennius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i.
p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus.
Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason.]

As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save
the relics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial station,
was left naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious
Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight
till the close of day, at the head of the brave and faithful
subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around him; his
horse was slain; the emperor was wounded; yet he stood alone and
intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the strength of
multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputed by a
slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne of
Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been
excused on the promise of some signal service.

Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent
a dreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a
disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the
royal captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his
fortune, till the identity of the person was ascertained by the
report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of
Basilacius, who embraced with tears the feet of his unhappy
sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a plebeian habit, was
led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the ground
before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan,
starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the
neck of the Roman emperor. 36 But the fact is doubtful; and if,
in this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with the
national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise
of his bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most
civilized ages. He instantly raised the royal captive from the
ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy,
assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolate in the
hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of his
equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus
was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp
and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day,
seated him in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and
familiar conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of
insult escaped from the conqueror; but he severely censured the
unworthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince in the
hour of danger, and gently admonished his antagonist of some
errors which he had committed in the management of the war. In
the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what
treatment he expected to receive, and the calm indifference of
the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. “If you are cruel,”
said he, “you will take my life; if you listen to pride, you will
drag me at your chariot-wheels; if you consult your interest, you
will accept a ransom, and restore me to my country.” “And what,”
continued the sultan, “would have been your own behavior, had
fortune smiled on your arms?” The reply of the Greek betrays a
sentiment, which prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught
him to suppress. “Had I vanquished,” he fiercely said, “I would
have inflicted on thy body many a stripe.” The Turkish conqueror
smiled at the insolence of his captive; observed that the
Christian law inculcated the love of enemies and forgiveness of
injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitate an
example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan
dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million,
361 an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces
of gold, 37 the marriage of the royal children, and the
deliverance of all the Moslems, who were in the power of the
Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so
disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; he was immediately
invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles and patricians
were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after a
courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a
military guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the
empire, than he was informed that the palace and provinces had
disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of two hundred
thousand pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch
transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his
impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition,
of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause of his ally; but his
designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death, of
Romanus Diogenes. 38

36 (return) [ This circumstance, which we read and doubt in
Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by
Nicephorus and Zonaras.]

361 (return) [ Elmacin gives 1,500,000. Wilken, Geschichte der
Kreuz-zuge, vol. l. p. 10.—M.]

37 (return) [ The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and
the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but
Nicephorus Bryennius dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and
that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful
treaty.]

38 (return) [ The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be
found in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 835-843.
Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 281-284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. i. p.
25-32. Glycas, p. 325-327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin,
Hist. Saracen. p. 343 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227.
D’Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207-211. Besides
my old acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the historian of
the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah,
a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen of Egypt, and Novairi
of Africa.]

In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan
extorted any province or city from the captive emperor; and his
revenge was satisfied with the trophies of his victory, and the
spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest
part of Asia was subject to his laws: twelve hundred princes, or
the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred
thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained
to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious
conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the house of Seljuk.
He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was
thrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in the
passage of his troops. But the progress of the great king was
retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian
presumed to defend his fortress against the powers of the East.
When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan,
instead of praising his valor, severely reproached his obstinate
folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence,
that he should be fastened to four stakes, and left to expire in
that painful situation. At this command, the desperate Carizmian,
drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: the guards
raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan,
the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his bow, but his foot
slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast
the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces.

The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying
admonition to the pride of kings. “In my youth,” said Alp Arslan,
“I was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust
my own strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe.
I have neglected these lessons; and my neglect has been
deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the
numbers, the discipline, and the spirit, of my armies, the earth
seemed to tremble under my feet; and I said in my heart, Surely
thou art the king of the world, the greatest and most invincible
of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the
confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an
assassin.” 39 Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a
Mussulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of
mankind; his face was shaded with long whiskers; and his ample
turban was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The remains of the
sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and
the passenger might read and meditate this useful inscription: 40
“O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the
heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold it buried in the
dust.” The annihilation of the inscription, and the tomb itself,
more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness.

39 (return) [ This interesting death is told by D’Herbelot, (p.
103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their
Oriental writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit
of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345.)]

40 (return) [ A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,)
who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in
this sublime inscription at the words “repair to Maru,” since the
reader must already be at Maru before he could peruse the
inscription.]

During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been
acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks. On his father’s
death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a
brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their followers;
and the triple victory of Malek Shah 41 established his own
reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more
especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same
passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the long
series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a sentiment
more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the saying of the
Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his
devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the
sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had
knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret
petition: “That your arms may be crowned with victory,” was the
prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of the minister.
“For my part,” replied the generous Malek, “I implored the Lord
of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my
brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems.”
The favorable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and
for the first time, the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful
was communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his
personal merit, and the extent of his empire, was the greatest
prince of his age. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he
marched at the head of innumerable armies to achieve the conquest
of Turkestan, which had been undertaken by his father. In his
passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had been employed in
transporting some troops, complained, that their payment was
assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at this
preposterous choice; but he miled at the artful flattery of his
vizier. “It was not to postpone their reward, that I selected
those remote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity, that,
under your reign, Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same
sovereign.” But this description of his limits was unjust and
parsimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the
cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crushed each
rebellious slave, or independent savage, who dared to resist.
Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundary of Persian
civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded to his supremacy:
his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers of
Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From
the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or
feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as the mountains of
Georgia, the neighborhood of Constantinople, the holy city of
Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of
resigning himself to the luxury of his harem, the shepherd king,
both in peace and war, was in action and in the field. By the
perpetual motion of the royal camp, each province was
successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to have
perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions, which
surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these
expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of
Mecca: the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by
his arms; the citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the
profusion of his alms; and the desert was cheered by the places
of relief and refreshment, which he instituted for the use of his
brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and even the passion, of the
sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand horses;
but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each piece of
game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight
atonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and
mischief of the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of
his reign, the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and
hospitals with moschs and colleges; few departed from his Divan
without reward, and none without justice. The language and
literature of Persia revived under the house of Seljuk; 42 and if
Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less potent than himself,
43 his palace might resound with the songs of a hundred poets.
The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the
reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general
assembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet,
the Moslems are confined to the irregular course of the lunar
months; in Persia, since the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of
the sun has been known and celebrated as an annual festival; 44
but after the fall of the Magian empire, the intercalation had
been neglected; the fractions of minutes and hours were
multiplied into days; and the date of the springs was removed
from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was
illustrated by the Gelalaean aera; and all errors, either past or
future, were corrected by a computation of time, which surpasses
the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style.
45

41 (return) [ The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of
the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the
Histoire Generale des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214-224) has added the
usual measure of repetition emendation, and supplement. Without
those two learned Frenchmen I should be blind indeed in the
Eastern world.]

42 (return) [ See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir
William Jones’s History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the
poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschidi, &c., in the Bibliotheque
Orientale. ]

43 (return) [ His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed
round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls
of gold and silver to the poets, (D’Herbelot, p. 107.) All this
may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in
Transoxiana in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder
could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the
beginning, not the end, of the xith century is the true aera of
his reign.]

44 (return) [ See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235.]

45 (return) [ The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith,
was one of the names or titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the
xvth of March, A. H. 471, A.D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the
original testimonies of the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione
veterum Persarum, c. 16 p. 200-211.)]

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the
light and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather
than the knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of
their wisdom and virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the
empire under the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of
the most illustrious ministers of the East, was honored by the
caliph as an oracle of religion and science; he was trusted by
the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of his power and justice.
After an administration of thirty years, the fame of the vizier,
his wealth, and even his services, were transformed into crimes.
He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival;
and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that his cap and
ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine
decree with the throne and diadem of the sultan. At the age of
ninety-three years, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his
master, accused by his enemies, and murdered by a fanatic: 451
the last words of Nizam attested his innocence, and the remainder
of Malek’s life was short and inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene
of this disgraceful transaction, the sultan moved to Bagdad, with
the design of transplanting the caliph, and of fixing his own
residence in the capital of the Moslem world. The feeble
successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten days; and before
the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the
angel of death. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in
marriage a Roman princess; but the proposal was decently eluded;
and the daughter of Alexius, who might herself have been the
victim, expresses her abhorrence of his unnatural conjunction. 46
The daughter of the sultan was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi,
with the imperious condition, that, renouncing the society of his
wives and concubines, he should forever confine himself to this
honorable alliance.

451 (return) [ He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan
Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der
Assassinen, p. 95.—M.]

46 (return) [ She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena
was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah,
(A.D. 1092,) and when she speaks of his assassination, she
confounds the sultan with the vizier, (Alexias, l. vi. p. 177,
178.)]