Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part III

The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the
person of Malek Shah. His vacant throne was disputed by his
brother and his four sons; 461 and, after a series of civil wars,
the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a
lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the eldest and
principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger
dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria, and of Roum: the first
of these commanded an extensive, though obscure, 47 dominion on
the shores of the Indian Ocean: 48 the second expelled the
Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third, our
peculiar care, invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The
generous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation: he
allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom he had
vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms worthy of their
ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the
more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed the tranquillity of
his reign. As the supreme head of his family and nation, the
great sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of his
royal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and
Damascus; the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia,
erected their standards under the shadow of his sceptre: 49 and
the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the Western Asia.

After the death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination
were relaxed and finally dissolved: the indulgence of the house
of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms;
and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the
dust of their feet. 50

461 (return) [ See Von Hammer, Osmanische Geschichte, vol. i. p.
16. The Seljukian dominions were for a time reunited in the
person of Sandjar, one of the sons of Malek Shah, who ruled “from
Kashgar to Antioch, from the Caspian to the Straits of
Babelmandel.”—M.]

47 (return) [ So obscure, that the industry of M. De Guignes
could only copy (tom. i. p. 244, tom. iii. part i. p. 269, &c.)
the history, or rather list, of the Seljukides of Kerman, in
Bibliotheque Orientale. They were extinguished before the end of
the xiith century.]

48 (return) [ Tavernier, perhaps the only traveller who has
visited Kerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous village,
twenty-five days’ journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from
Ormus, in the midst of a fertile country, (Voyages en Turquie et
en Perse, p. 107, 110.)]

49 (return) [ It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of
Asia Minor obeyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan,
(Alexias, l. vi. p. 170;) and that the two sons of Soliman were
detained in his court, (p. 180.)]

50 (return) [ This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie
de Gestis p. 160) from some poet, most probably a Persian.]

A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, 501 the son of Izrail, the
son of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan and the
humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons,
strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge,
unsheathed their cimeters against the son of Alp Arslan. The two
armies expected the signal when the caliph, forgetful of the
majesty which secluded him from vulgar eyes, interposed his
venerable mediation. “Instead of shedding the blood of your
brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your
forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and
his apostle.” They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his
rebellious kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted
the royal standard, which gave him the free conquest and
hereditary command of the provinces of the Roman empire, from
Arzeroum to Constantinople, and the unknown regions of the West.
51 Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates; the
Turkish camp was soon seated in the neighborhood of Kutaieh in
Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as
the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the
empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the
transient, though destructive, inroads of the Persians and
Saracens; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for
the Turkish sultan; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks,
who aspired to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the
captivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of Eudocia had
trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till the
provinces of the East and West were lost in the same month by a
double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the common name;
but the surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the
European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather their
promises, were weighed in the Divan; and, after some hesitation,
Soliman declared himself in favor of Botoniates, opened a free
passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, and
joined the banner of the Crescent to that of the Cross. After his
ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan was
hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari;
and a body of two thousand Turks was transported into Europe, to
whose dexterity and courage the new emperor was indebted for the
defeat and captivity of his rival, Bryennius. But the conquest of
Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia:
Constantinople was deprived of the obedience and revenue of the
provinces beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the regular
progress of the Turks, who fortified the passes of the rivers and
mountains, left not a hope of their retreat or expulsion. Another
candidate implored the aid of the sultan: Melissenus, in his
purple robes and red buskins, attended the motions of the Turkish
camp; and the desponding cities were tempted by the summons of a
Roman prince, who immediately surrendered them into the hands of
the Barbarians. These acquisitions were confirmed by a treaty of
peace with the emperor Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him
to seek the friendship of Soliman; and it was not till after the
sultan’s death that he extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty
miles from Constantinople, the eastern boundary of the Roman
world. Trebizond alone, defended on either side by the sea and
mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient
character of a Greek colony, and the future destiny of a
Christian empire.

501 (return) [ Wilken considers Cutulmish not a Turkish name.
Geschicht Kreuz-zuge, vol. i. p. 9.—M.]

51 (return) [ On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. De Guignes has
derived no assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who
produce a naked list of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are
unwilling to expose their shame, and we must extort some hints
from Scylitzes, (p. 860, 863,) Nicephorus Bryennius, (p. 88, 91,
92, &c., 103, 104,) and Anna Comnena (Alexias, p. 91, 92, &c.,
163, &c.)]

Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of
the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable loss
which the church and empire had sustained. By the propagation of
the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy
champion; and his new kingdoms, of the Romans, or of Roum, was
added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is described as
extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from the Black
Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and
iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and
productive of cattle and excellent horses. 52 The wealth of
Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendor of the Augustan age,
existed only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in
the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present decay,
Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities; and,
under the Byzantine empire, they were far more flourishing in
numbers, size, and opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice,
the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace and
fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted
one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity of Christ
was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been
pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unity
of God, and the mission of Mahomet, were preached in the moschs;
the Arabian learning was taught in the schools; the Cadhis judged
according to the law of the Koran; the Turkish manners and
language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps were
scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the hard
conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians might
enjoy the exercise of their religion; but their most holy
churches were profaned; their priests and bishops were insulted;
53 they were compelled to suffer the triumph of the Pagans, and
the apostasy of their brethren; many thousand children were
marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives
were devoted to the service or the pleasures of their masters. 54
After the loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive
allegiance to Christ and Caesar; but the solitary province was
separated from all Roman aid, and surrounded on all sides by the
Mahometan powers. The despair of Philaretus the governor prepared
the sacrifice of his religion and loyalty, had not his guilt been
prevented by his son, who hastened to the Nicene palace, and
offered to deliver this valuable prize into the hands of Soliman.
The ambitious sultan mounted on horseback, and in twelve nights
(for he reposed in the day) performed a march of six hundred
miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed and secrecy of his
enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea and the
confines of Aleppo, 55 obeyed the example of the metropolis. From
Laodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm of St. George, the
conquests and reign of Soliman extended thirty days’ journey in
length, and in breadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks of
Lycia and the Black Sea. 56 The Turkish ignorance of navigation
protected, for a while, the inglorious safety of the emperor; but
no sooner had a fleet of two hundred ships been constructed by
the hands of the captive Greeks, than Alexius trembled behind the
walls of his capital. His plaintive epistles were dispersed over
Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins, and to paint the
danger, the weakness, and the riches of the city of Constantine.
57

52 (return) [ Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the
Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of
Ramusio and Bergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p.
301-305.)]

53 (return) [ Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse
episcopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. l. i. p. 468.) It is
odd enough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same
people in the present age. “Il n’est point d’horreur que ces
Turcs n’ayent commis, et semblables aux soldats effrenes, qui
dans le sac d’une ville, non contens de disposer de tout a leur
gre pretendent encore aux succes les moins desirables. Quelque
Sipahis ont porte leurs attentats sur la personne du vieux rabbi
de la synagogue, et celle de l’Archeveque Grec.” (Memoires du
Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193.)]

54 (return) [ The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a
Turkish camp as if they had been present. Matres correptae in
conspectu filiarum multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus
vexabantur; (is that the true reading?) cum filiae assistentes
carmina praecinere saltando cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad
filias, &c.]

55 (return) [ See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna
Comnena, (Alexius, l. vi. p. 168, 169,) with the notes of
Ducange.]

56 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. i. c. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the
most authentic and deplorable account of these Turkish
conquests.]

57 (return) [ In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius
seems to fall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it
is approved by Ducange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &c.,) and
paraphrased by the Abbot Guibert, a contemporary historian. The
Greek text no longer exists; and each translator and scribe might
say with Guibert, (p. 475,) verbis vestita meis, a privilege of
most indefinite latitude.]

But the most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks was that
of Jerusalem, 58 which soon became the theatre of nations. In
their capitulation with Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated the
assurance of their religion and property; but the articles were
interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to dispute;
and in the four hundred years of the reign of the caliphs, the
political climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the vicissitudes of
storm and sunshine. 59 By the increase of proselytes and
population, the Mahometans might excuse the usurpation of three
fourths of the city: but a peculiar quarter was resolved for the
patriarch with his clergy and people; a tribute of two pieces of
gold was the price of protection; and the sepulchre of Christ,
with the church of the Resurrection, was still left in the hands
of his votaries. Of these votaries, the most numerous and
respectable portion were strangers to Jerusalem: the pilgrimages
to the Holy Land had been stimulated, rather than suppressed, by
the conquest of the Arabs; and the enthusiasm which had always
prompted these perilous journeys, was nourished by the congenial
passions of grief and indignation. A crowd of pilgrims from the
East and West continued to visit the holy sepulchre, and the
adjacent sanctuaries, more especially at the festival of Easter;
and the Greeks and Latins, the Nestorians and Jacobites, the
Copts and Abyssinians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintained
the chapels, the clergy, and the poor of their respective
communions. The harmony of prayer in so many various tongues, the
worship of so many nations in the common temple of their
religion, might have afforded a spectacle of edification and
peace; but the zeal of the Christian sects was imbittered by
hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a suffering Messiah,
who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command and
persecute their spiritual brethren. The preeminence was asserted
by the spirit and numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of
Charlemagne 60 protected both the Latin pilgrims and the
Catholics of the East. The poverty of Carthage, Alexandria, and
Jerusalem, was relieved by the alms of that pious emperor; and
many monasteries of Palestine were founded or restored by his
liberal devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest of the Abbassides,
esteemed in his Christian brother a similar supremacy of genius
and power: their friendship was cemented by a frequent
intercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph, without
resigning the substantial dominion, presented the emperor with
the keys of the holy sepulchre, and perhaps of the city of
Jerusalem. In the decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the
republic of Amalphi promoted the interest of trade and religion
in the East. Her vessels transported the Latin pilgrims to the
coasts of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by their useful
imports, the favor and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: 61 an
annual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary: and the Italian
merchants founded the convent and hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem, the cradle of the monastic and military order, which
has since reigned in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the
Christian pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of a prophet,
the disciples of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have
imitated, their piety: but these rigid Unitarians were
scandalized by a worship which represents the birth, death, and
resurrection, of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the
name of idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation 62 at the
miraculous flame which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the
holy sepulchre. 63 This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth
century, 64 was devoutly cherished by the Latin crusaders, and is
annually repeated by the clergy of the Greek, Armenian, and
Coptic sects, 65 who impose on the credulous spectators 66 for
their own benefit, and that of their tyrants. In every age, a
principle of toleration has been fortified by a sense of
interest: and the revenue of the prince and his emir was
increased each year, by the expense and tribute of so many
thousand strangers.

58 (return) [ Our best fund for the history of Jerusalem from
Heraclius to the crusades is contained in two large and original
passages of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c. 1-10, l. xviii.
c. 5, 6,) the principal author of the Gesta Dei per Francos. M.
De Guignes has composed a very learned Memoire sur le Commerce
des Francois dans le de Levant avant les Croisades, &c. (Mem. de
l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii. p. 467-500.)]

59 (return) [ Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque lucida
plerum que nubila recepit intervalla, et aegrotantium more
temporum praesentium gravabatur aut respirabat qualitate, (l. i.
c. 3, p. 630.) The latinity of William of Tyre is by no means
contemptible: but in his account of 490 years, from the loss to
the recovery of Jerusalem, precedes the true account by 30
years.]

60 (return) [ For the transactions of Charlemagne with the Holy
Land, see Eginhard, (de Vita Caroli Magni, c. 16, p. 79-82,)
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administratione Imperii, l. ii.
c. 26, p. 80,) and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. A.D. 800, No. 13,
14, 15.)]

61 (return) [ The caliph granted his privileges, Amalphitanis
viris amicis et utilium introductoribus, (Gesta Dei, p. 934.) The
trade of Venice to Egypt and Palestine cannot produce so old a
title, unless we adopt the laughable translation of a Frenchman,
who mistook the two factions of the circus (Veneti et Prasini)
for the Venetians and Parisians.]

62 (return) [ An Arabic chronicle of Jerusalem (apud Asseman.
Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 268, tom. iv. p. 368) attests the
unbelief of the caliph and the historian; yet Cantacuzene
presumes to appeal to the Mahometans themselves for the truth of
this perpetual miracle.]

63 (return) [ In his Dissertations on Ecclesiastical History, the
learned Mosheim has separately discussed this pretended miracle,
(tom. ii. p. 214-306,) de lumine sancti sepulchri.]

64 (return) [ William of Malmsbury (l. iv. c. 2, p. 209) quotes
the Itinerary of the monk Bernard, an eye-witness, who visited
Jerusalem A.D. 870. The miracle is confirmed by another pilgrim
some years older; and Mosheim ascribes the invention to the
Franks, soon after the decease of Charlemagne.]

65 (return) [ Our travellers, Sandys, (p. 134,) Thevenot, (p.
621-627,) Maundrell, (p. 94, 95,) &c., describes this extravagant
farce. The Catholics are puzzled to decide when the miracle ended
and the trick began.]

66 (return) [ The Orientals themselves confess the fraud, and
plead necessity and edification, (Memoires du Chevalier
D’Arvieux, tom. ii. p. 140. Joseph Abudacni, Hist. Copt. c. 20;)
but I will not attempt, with Mosheim, to explain the mode. Our
travellers have failed with the blood of St. Januarius at
Naples.]

The revolution which transferred the sceptre from the Abbassides
to the Fatimites was a benefit, rather than an injury, to the
Holy Land. A sovereign resident in Egypt was more sensible of the
importance of Christian trade; and the emirs of Palestine were
less remote from the justice and power of the throne. But the
third of these Fatimite caliphs was the famous Hakem, 67 a
frantic youth, who was delivered by his impiety and despotism
from the fear either of God or man; and whose reign was a wild
mixture of vice and folly. Regardless of the most ancient customs
of Egypt, he imposed on the women an absolute confinement; the
restraint excited the clamors of both sexes; their clamors
provoked his fury; a part of Old Cairo was delivered to the
flames and the guards and citizens were engaged many days in a
bloody conflict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous
Mussulman, the founder or benefactor of moschs and colleges:
twelve hundred and ninety copies of the Koran were transcribed at
his expense in letters of gold; and his edict extirpated the
vineyards of the Upper Egypt. But his vanity was soon flattered
by the hope of introducing a new religion; he aspired above the
fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visible image of the
Most High God, who, after nine apparitions on earth, was at
length manifest in his royal person. At the name of Hakem, the
lord of the living and the dead, every knee was bent in religious
adoration: his mysteries were performed on a mountain near Cairo:
sixteen thousand converts had signed his profession of faith; and
at the present hour, a free and warlike people, the Druses of
Mount Libanus, are persuaded of the life and divinity of a madman
and tyrant. 68 In his divine character, Hakem hated the Jews and
Christians, as the servants of his rivals; while some remains of
prejudice or prudence still pleaded in favor of the law of
Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Palestine, his cruel and wanton
persecution made some martyrs and many apostles: the common
rights and special privileges of the sectaries were equally
disregarded; and a general interdict was laid on the devotion of
strangers and natives. The temple of the Christian world, the
church of the Resurrection, was demolished to its foundations;
the luminous prodigy of Easter was interrupted, and much profane
labor was exhausted to destroy the cave in the rock which
properly constitutes the holy sepulchre. At the report of this
sacrilege, the nations of Europe were astonished and afflicted:
but instead of arming in the defence of the Holy Land, they
contented themselves with burning, or banishing, the Jews, as the
secret advisers of the impious Barbarian. 69 Yet the calamities
of Jerusalem were in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy
or repentance of Hakem himself; and the royal mandate was sealed
for the restitution of the churches, when the tyrant was
assassinated by the emissaries of his sister. The succeeding
caliphs resumed the maxims of religion and policy: a free
toleration was again granted; with the pious aid of the emperor
of Constantinople, the holy sepulchre arose from its ruins; and,
after a short abstinence, the pilgrims returned with an increase
of appetite to the spiritual feast. 70 In the sea-voyage of
Palestine, the dangers were frequent, and the opportunities rare:
but the conversion of Hungary opened a safe communication between
Germany and Greece. The charity of St. Stephen, the apostle of
his kingdom, relieved and conducted his itinerant brethren; 71
and from Belgrade to Antioch, they traversed fifteen hundred
miles of a Christian empire. Among the Franks, the zeal of
pilgrimage prevailed beyond the example of former times: and the
roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and of every
rank, who professed their contempt of life, so soon as they
should have kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and
prelates abandoned the care of their dominions; and the numbers
of these pious caravans were a prelude to the armies which
marched in the ensuing age under the banner of the cross. About
thirty years before the first crusade, the arch bishop of Mentz,
with the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, undertook
this laborious journey from the Rhine to the Jordan; and the
multitude of their followers amounted to seven thousand persons.
At Constantinople, they were hospitably entertained by the
emperor; but the ostentation of their wealth provoked the assault
of the wild Arabs: they drew their swords with scrupulous
reluctance, and sustained siege in the village of Capernaum, till
they were rescued by the venal protection of the Fatimite emir.
After visiting the holy places, they embarked for Italy, but only
a remnant of two thousand arrived in safety in their native land.

Ingulphus, a secretary of William the Conqueror, was a companion
of this pilgrimage: he observes that they sailed from Normandy,
thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed
the Alps, twenty miserable palmers, with the staff in their hand,
and the wallet at their back. 72

67 (return) [ See D’Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 411,)
Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 390, 397, 400, 401,)
Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 321-323,) and Marei, (p. 384-386,) an
historian of Egypt, translated by Reiske from Arabic into German,
and verbally interpreted to me by a friend.]

68 (return) [ The religion of the Druses is concealed by their
ignorance and hypocrisy. Their secret doctrines are confined to
the elect who profess a contemplative life; and the vulgar
Druses, the most indifferent of men, occasionally conform to the
worship of the Mahometans and Christians of their neighborhood.
The little that is, or deserves to be, known, may be seen in the
industrious Niebuhr, (Voyages, tom. ii. p. 354-357,) and the
second volume of the recent and instructive Travels of M. de
Volney. * Note: The religion of the Druses has, within the
present year, been fully developed from their own writings, which
have long lain neglected in the libraries of Paris and Oxford, in
the “Expose de la Religion des Druses, by M. Silvestre de Sacy.”
Deux tomes, Paris, 1838. The learned author has prefixed a life
of Hakem Biamr-Allah, which enables us to correct several errors
in the account of Gibbon. These errors chiefly arose from his
want of knowledge or of attention to the chronology of Hakem’s
life. Hakem succeeded to the throne of Egypt in the year of the
Hegira 386. He did not assume his divinity till 408. His life was
indeed “a wild mixture of vice and folly,” to which may be added,
of the most sanguinary cruelty. During his reign, 18,000 persons
were victims of his ferocity. Yet such is the god, observes M. de
Sacy, whom the Druses have worshipped for 800 years! (See p.
ccccxxix.) All his wildest and most extravagant actions were
interpreted by his followers as having a mystic and allegoric
meaning, alluding to the destruction of other religions and the
propagation of his own. It does not seem to have been the
“vanity” of Hakem which induced him to introduce a new religion.
The curious point in the new faith is that Hamza, the son of Ali,
the real founder of the Unitarian religion, (such is its boastful
title,) was content to take a secondary part. While Hakem was
God, the one Supreme, the Imam Hamza was his Intelligence. It was
not in his “divine character” that Hakem “hated the Jews and
Christians,” but in that of a Mahometan bigot, which he displayed
in the earlier years of his reign. His barbarous persecution, and
the burning of the church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem,
belong entirely to that period; and his assumption of divinity
was followed by an edict of toleration to Jews and Christians.
The Mahometans, whose religion he then treated with hostility and
contempt, being far the most numerous, were his most dangerous
enemies, and therefore the objects of his most inveterate hatred.
It is another singular fact, that the religion of Hakem was by no
means confined to Egypt and Syria. M. de Sacy quotes a letter
addressed to the chief of the sect in India; and there is
likewise a letter to the Byzantine emperor Constantine, son of
Armanous, (Romanus,) and the clergy of the empire. (Constantine
VIII., M. de Sacy supposes, but this is irreconcilable with
chronology; it must mean Constantine XI., Monomachus.) The
assassination of Hakem is, of course, disbelieved by his
sectaries. M. de Sacy seems to consider the fact obscure and
doubtful. According to his followers he disappeared, but is
hereafter to return. At his return the resurrection is to take
place; the triumph of Unitarianism, and the final discomfiture of
all other religions. The temple of Mecca is especially devoted to
destruction. It is remarkable that one of the signs of this final
consummation, and of the reappearance of Hakem, is that
Christianity shall be gaining a manifest predominance over
Mahometanism. As for the religion of the Druses, I cannot agree
with Gibbon that it does not “deserve” to be better known; and am
grateful to M. de Sacy, notwithstanding the prolixity and
occasional repetition in his two large volumes, for the full
examination of the most extraordinary religious aberration which
ever extensively affected the mind of man. The worship of a mad
tyrant is the basis of a subtle metaphysical creed, and of a
severe, and even ascetic, morality.—M.]

69 (return) [ See Glaber, l. iii. c. 7, and the Annals of
Baronius and Pagi, A.D. 1009.]

70 (return) [ Per idem tempus ex universo orbe tam innumerabilis
multitudo coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis,
quantum nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris
plebis.... mediocres.... reges et comites..... praesules .....
mulieres multae nobilis cum pauperioribus.... Pluribus enim erat
mentis desiderium mori priusquam ad propria reverterentur,
(Glaber, l. iv. c. 6, Bouquet. Historians of France, tom. x. p.
50.) * Note: Compare the first chap. of Wilken, Geschichte der
Kreuz-zuge.—M.]

71 (return) [ Glaber, l. iii. c. 1. Katona (Hist. Critic. Regum
Hungariae, tom. i. p. 304-311) examines whether St. Stephen
founded a monastery at Jerusalem.]

72 (return) [ Baronius (A.D. 1064, No. 43-56) has transcribed the
greater part of the original narratives of Ingulphus, Marianus,
and Lambertus.]

After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of the Fatimite
caliphs was invaded by the Turks. 73 One of the lieutenants of
Malek Shah, Atsiz the Carizmian, marched into Syria at the head
of a powerful army, and reduced Damascus by famine and the sword.
Hems, and the other cities of the province, acknowledged the
caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia; and the victorious
emir advanced without resistance to the banks of the Nile: the
Fatimite was preparing to fly into the heart of Africa; but the
negroes of his guard and the inhabitants of Cairo made a
desperate sally, and repulsed the Turk from the confines of
Egypt. In his retreat he indulged the license of slaughter and
rapine: the judge and notaries of Jerusalem were invited to his
camp; and their execution was followed by the massacre of three
thousand citizens. The cruelty or the defeat of Atsiz was soon
punished by the sultan Toucush, the brother of Malek Shah, who,
with a higher title and more formidable powers, asserted the
dominion of Syria and Palestine. The house of Seljuk reigned
about twenty years in Jerusalem; 74 but the hereditary command of
the holy city and territory was intrusted or abandoned to the
emir Ortok, the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose children,
after their expulsion from Palestine, formed two dynasties on the
borders of Armenia and Assyria. 75 The Oriental Christians and
the Latin pilgrims deplored a revolution, which, instead of the
regular government and old alliance of the caliphs, imposed on
their necks the iron yoke of the strangers of the North. 76 In
his court and camp the great sultan had adopted in some degree
the arts and manners of Persia; but the body of the Turkish
nation, and more especially the pastoral tribes, still breathed
the fierceness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem, the western
countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and domestic hostility;
and the shepherds of Palestine, who held a precarious sway on a
doubtful frontier, had neither leisure nor capacity to await the
slow profits of commercial and religious freedom. The pilgrims,
who, through innumerable perils, had reached the gates of
Jerusalem, were the victims of private rapine or public
oppression, and often sunk under the pressure of famine and
disease, before they were permitted to salute the holy sepulchre.
A spirit of native barbarism, or recent zeal, prompted the
Turkmans to insult the clergy of every sect: the patriarch was
dragged by the hair along the pavement, and cast into a dungeon,
to extort a ransom from the sympathy of his flock; and the divine
worship in the church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by
the savage rudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited the
millions of the West to march under the standard of the cross to
the relief of the Holy Land; and yet how trifling is the sum of
these accumulated evils, if compared with the single act of the
sacrilege of Hakem, which had been so patiently endured by the
Latin Christians! A slighter provocation inflamed the more
irascible temper of their descendants: a new spirit had arisen of
religious chivalry and papal dominion; a nerve was touched of
exquisite feeling; and the sensation vibrated to the heart of
Europe.

73 (return) [ See Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 349, 350) and
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 237, vers. Pocock.) M. De Guignes
(Hist. des Huns, tom iii. part i. p. 215, 216) adds the
testimonies, or rather the names, of Abulfeda and Novairi.]

74 (return) [ From the expedition of Isar Atsiz, (A. H. 469, A.D.
1076,) to the expulsion of the Ortokides, (A.D. 1096.) Yet
William of Tyre (l. i. c. 6, p. 633) asserts, that Jerusalem was
thirty-eight years in the hands of the Turks; and an Arabic
chronicle, quoted by Pagi, (tom. iv. p. 202) supposes that the
city was reduced by a Carizmian general to the obedience of the
caliph of Bagdad, A. H. 463, A.D. 1070. These early dates are not
very compatible with the general history of Asia; and I am sure,
that as late as A.D. 1064, the regnum Babylonicum (of Cairo)
still prevailed in Palestine, (Baronius, A.D. 1064, No. 56.)]

75 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 249-252. ]

76 (return) [ Willierm. Tyr. l. i. c. 8, p. 634, who strives hard
to magnify the Christian grievances. The Turks exacted an aureus
from each pilgrim! The caphar of the Franks now is fourteen
dollars: and Europe does not complain of this voluntary tax.]