LVII. "the most contemptible foe. I have neglected these lessons; CHAP. 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 Arsian possessed the virtues of a Turk and a Musulman; 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 66 "HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF ALP ARSLAN EXALTED TO 66 THE HEAVENS, REPAIR TO MARU, AND YOU WILL BE66 HOLD IT BURIED IN THE DUST!" The annihilation of the inscription, and the tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness. of Malek A. D. 1072 ...1092. During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been Reign and acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks. On his Prosperity father's death, the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a Shah, cousin, and a brother: they drew their scymetars, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory of Malek Shah 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 a saying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his de 39 This interesting death is told by d'Herbelot (p. 103, 104), and M. de Gugues (tom i p. 212, 213), from their Oriental writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elinacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 344, 345). 40 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. 41 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 these two learned Frenchmen, I should be blind indeed in the Eastern world. LVII. CHAP. Votions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizir Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret petition: "That your arms may be crowned with victo"ry" 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 favourable 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 smiled at the artful flattery of his vizir. "It was not to post"pone 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 sove"reign." 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 hords 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 neighbourhood of Constantinople, the holy city of Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of resigning himself to the luxury of his Haram, 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 LVII. have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his do- CHAP. minions, 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 desart 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 an hundred poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the reformation of the calendar, which was affected 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; 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 Spring was removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was illustrated by the Gelalæan æra; and all errors, either past or future, were corrected by a computa 42 See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir William Jones's History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschadi, &c. in the Bibliotheque Orientale. 43 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 æra of his reign. 44 See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235. CHAP. tion of time, which surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style.45 LVII. 1092. His death, In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barA. D. barism, the light and splendour 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 vizir, who ruled the empire under the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam one of the most illustrious ministers of the East, was honoured 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 vizir, his wealth, and even his services, were transformed into crimes. He was overthrown by the insiduous 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: 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 this 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 45 The Gelalæan æra (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, was one of the names or titles of Matek 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). 46 She speaks of this Persian royalty as απατης κακοδαιμονέσερον πενίας. Anna Comnena was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah (A. D. 1992), and when she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the Sultan with the vizir (Alexius, 1. vi. p. 177, 178). and concubines, he should for ever confine himself to this CHAP. bonourable alliance. LVII. jukian em pire. The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired Division of in the person of Malek Shah. His vacant throne was dis- the Selputed by his brother and his four sons; 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 hords 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 47 So obscure, that the industry of M. de Guignes could only copy (tom. i. p.2 . 244. tom. iii. part. i. p. 269, &c.) the history, or rather list, of the Seljukides of Kermen, in Bibliotheque Orientale. They were distinguished before the end of the xiith century. 48 Tavernier, perhaps the only traveller who has visited Kerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous village, twenty-five days jour..ey from Is ahan, and twenty-seven from Ormus, in the midst of a fertile country (Voyages en Turquie et en Perse, p. 107. 110). 49 It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of Asia Minor obeyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan (Alexias, 1. vi. p. 170) ; and that the two sons of Soliman were detained in his court (p. 180). 50 This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengiscan, p. 161), from some poet, most probably a Persian. |