LVI.

king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes, CHAP. were separately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumour of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of their 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 Final exyears after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to the Nor their crown the dutchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her mans, ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a grand-daughter 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.

tinction of

Nor

A. D.

1204.

CHAP. LVII.

The Turks of the House of Seljuk....Their Revolt against Mahmud Conqueror of Hindostan.... Togrul subdues Persia, and protects the Caliphs....Defeat and Captivity of the Emperor Romanus Diogenes by Alp Arslen....Power and Magnificence of Malek Shah....Conquest of Asia Minor and Syria....State and Oppression of Jerusalem....Pilgrimages to the holy Sepulchre.

LVIL

FROM the isle of Sicily, the reader must transport CHAP. himself beyond the Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was THE principally directed. Their Scythian empire of the sixth cen- TURKS. tury 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 desart 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

almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid in La Fontaine, "Je vou"drois bien avoir ee qui manque."

LVII.

CHAP. 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.

Mahmud the Gaznevide,

...1028.

One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud,' the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern A. D. 997 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 was first invented; and his kingdom

1 I am indebted for his character and history to d'Herbelot (Bibliotheque 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.

2 The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A. D. 874...999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin, in the Tables 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 IndiAbulfedæ Geograph. Reiske. tab. xxiii. p. 349. d'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller.

cæ.

4 By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who employed an Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master (d'Herbelt, p. 825). It is interpreted Αυτοκράτωρ. Βασιλευς Βασιλέως, by the Byzantine writers of the eleventh century; and the name (28λravos, Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after it had passed from the Gaz nevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange

LVII.

into Hin

was enlarged from Transoxiana to the neighbourhood of CHAP. 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; His twelve and a volume would scarcely suffice to recapitulate the bat- expeditions tles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Never was the dostan. Musulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the barrenness of the desart, the multitudes of the enemy, or the formidable array of their elephants of war. 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 Kinnouge," 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. Dehli, 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 Musulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or pagodas, were 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 neighbourhood of Diu, one of the last re

(Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p. 238...240. Gloss. Græc. et Latin.) labours 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 of the sixth, but the Seijukide of Iconium of the thirteenth century (de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 246).

5 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 latitude 27 deg. 3 min. longitude 80 deg. 13 min. 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 Hindoostan, p. 37...43): 300 jewellers, 30,000 shops for the arecca nut, 60,000 hands of musicians, &c. (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. Iv. p. 274. Dow, vol. i. p. 16), will allow an ample deduction.

LVII.

CHAP. maining 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 Kinnouge and Dehli; 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 spears 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 counsellers, 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 merchant of idols." He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet.

His character.

From the paths of blood, and such is the history of nations, I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in the East: his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace; his vices were concealed by the

7 The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta (Dow, vol. i. p. 66). Consult Abulfeda (p. 272), and Rennel's map of Hindoostan.

LVII.

veil of religion ; and two familiar examples will testify his CHAP. justice and magnanimity. I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier who had driven him from his house and bed. "Suspend your clamours," said Mahmud, "inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will judge "and punish the offender." The sultan followed his guide, invested the house with his guards, and extinguishing the torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who had been seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execu tion of his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man, whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity: and the courteous monarch condescended to explain the motives of this singular behaviour. "I had reason to sus"pect that none except one of my sons could dare to perpe"trate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, that แ my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was "a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so "painful was my anxiety, that I had passed three days with"out food since the first moment of your complaint." II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty of the Bowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia: he was disarmed by an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his invasion till the manhood of her son. "During "the life of my husband," said the artful regent, "I was

ever apprehensive of your ambition: he was a prince and แ a soldier worthy of your arms. He is now no more; his "sceptre has passed to a woman and a child, and you dare "not attack their infancy and weakness. How inglorious "would be your conquest, how shameful your defeat! and "yet the event of war is in the hand of the Almighty." Avarice was the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmud; and never has that passion been more richly satiated. The Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the account of millions of gold and silver, such as the

8 D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet these letters, apothegms, kc. are rarely the language of the heart, or the motives of public action.