CHAP. Conquest of Asia Minor by ...1084. A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, the son of Izrail, the son of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan; and the humane victor had dropt a tear over his grave. His five sons, strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for the Turks, revenge, unsheathed their scymetars against the son of A. D. 1074 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 an holy war 66 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 neighbourhood 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 favour of Botoniates, opened a free passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, 51. 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. 168, Sc). LVII. and joined the banner of the crescent to that of the cross. CHAP. After his ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan was hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis of 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. Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment The Seljukian kingof the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most de- dom of plorable loss which the church and empire had sustained. Roum. By the propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved. the name of Gazi, a holy champion; and his new kingdom 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 allum 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 splendour of the Augustan age, ex 52 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. clinat. xvii. p, 301...305). CHAP. isted only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in LVII. the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present de cay, 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 prefer red 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 Tur kish 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 com pelled to suffer the triumphs of the Pagans, and the apostaof 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 mas ters.54 After the loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive allegiance to Christ and Cæsar; 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 ambi cy 53 Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse episcopum (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. 1. i. p. 468). It is odd enough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same people in the present age. "Il ne'est point "d'horreur que ces Turcs n'ayent commis, et semblables aux soldats effrenés, "qui dans la sac d'une ville non contens de disposer de tout à leur gré preten "dent encore aux succès les moins desirables. Quelque Sipahis on porté leurs "atten ats sur la personne du vieux rabbi de la synagogue, et celle de l'Arche "vêque Grec." (Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193). 54 The emperor, or abbot, describe the scenes of a Turkish camp as if they had been present. Matres correptæ in conspectù filiarum multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus vexabantur; (is that the true reading ?) cum filia assis tentes carmina præcinere saltando cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad filias, &c. LVII. tious sultan mounted on horseback, and in twelve nights CHAP. (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 dependant 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. 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 be hind the walls of his capital. His plaintive epistles were dispersed over Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins, and to paint the danger, and weakness, and the riches, of the city of Constantine.57 A. D. 638 But the most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks, State and pilgrimage was that of Jerusalem,58 which soon became the theatre of of Jerusa nations. In their capitulation with Omar, the inhabitants lem. had stipulated the assurance of their religion and property; ...1099. 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 storms and sunshine.59 By the increase of proselytes and population, the Mahomet 55 See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna Comnena (Alexias, 1. vi. p. 168, 169), with the notes of Ducange 56 William of Tyre (1. i. c. 9, 10. p. 635.) gives the most authentic and deplorable account of these Turkish conquests. 57 In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius seems to fall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it is opposed 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. 58 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 Levant avant les Croisades, &c. (Mem. de 'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii. p. 467...500). 59 Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque lucida plerumque nubila recepit intervalla, et ægrotantium more temporum præsentium gravabatur aut respirabat qualitate (1. 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, he exceeds the true account by thirty years. VOL. VII. BB CHAP. ans might excuse their usurpation of three-fourths of the LVII. city but a peculiar quarter was reserved 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 embittered 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 pre-eminence was asserted by the spirit and numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of Charlemagne 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 Abassides, 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 60 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, 1. ii. c. 26. p. 80), and Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. A. D 800, No. 13, 14, 15). |