

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Mohammedan empire had been formed under the 

 dynasty of the Fatintites, claiming descent from 

 Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet. They 

 built Cairo (970), which became the capital of 

 their dominions ; conquered Palestine, and con- 

 tested the possession of Syria with the Byzantine 

 emperors, who, taking advantage of the decrepi- 

 tude of the califate of Bagdad, had begun to 

 re-extend their power over part of their former 

 dominions. 



About this time a new power made its appear- 

 ance on the arena of the oriental world namely, 

 that of the Turks. The name Turks was a general 

 appellation for the numerous tribes inhabiting the 

 region to the east of the Caspian Sea, now called 

 Independent Tatary. Many of these tribes had 

 embraced the religion of the Koran, and from 

 them the califs drew their best soldiers. These 

 Turkish mercenaries, introduced as servants of 

 the califate, soon found that they could become 

 its masters. One of them, Alepteghin, originally 

 a slave, became an independent military chief 

 (961) ; took the town of Ghuznee in the east of 

 Persia ; and founded the dynasty of the sultans 

 of Ghuznee. Mahmoud, the son of Sabactagi 

 (successor to Alepteghin), carried his arms into 

 Hindustan (1001), and led the way to the Moham- 

 medan conquest of that country. Another race, 

 called Seljuk Turks, from the name of the founder 

 of the dynasty, established themselves in Khorasan, i 

 and under Togrul Beg, the grandson of Seljuk, 

 overthrew the power of the Bowides (1055), and 

 assumed their place as administrators of the I 



pire in the name of the califs of Bagdad. 



The career of Eastern conquest which had been ! 



:gun by Togrul Beg, was continued by his 

 immediate successors, Alp- Arslan (1063-1073) and 

 Malek-Shah (1073-1093). Alp- Arslan carried on 

 a vigorous warfare against the Greek Empire, 

 from which he wrested not only what remained 

 to it in Syria, but also the greater part of Asia 

 Minor, called by the Turks ' Roum ' that is, the 

 country of the Romans. From the Fatimite califs 

 of Egypt he also wrested Palestine (1070). These 

 conquests were confirmed and increased by Malek- 

 Shah, an able and even cultivated prince, in whose 

 reign the empire of the Seljuks extended from the 

 yEgaean and the Levant to the confines of Chinese 

 Tatary. On his death (1093), the empire of the 

 Seljuks fell asunder, different dynasties of the 

 Seljuk stock establishing themselves in different 

 parts of it. Of these, the most powerful were the 

 sultans of Iran, who were masters of Upper Asia, 

 and the sultans of Roum, who retained all the 

 Turkish conquests in Asia Minor, and continued 

 the wars against the Greeks on the one hand, and 

 the Fatimite califs of Egypt on the other. The 

 first sultan of Roum was Soliman, called also 

 Kilidge Arslan, the great-grandson of Seljuk. 

 After securing his power by his own military 

 activity, he established his headquarters at Nice, 

 in Bithynia, within one hundred miles of Con- 

 stantinople. He was unable, however, to retain 

 Palestine, which again (1096) passed into the 

 hands of the Fatimites of Egypt. 



In the midst of these wars and revolutions with 

 which the East was distracted, Palestine had fared 

 worse than almost any other country. No sooner 

 had the Fatimite califs of Cairo become its 

 masters, than the Christian inhabitants found 

 the difference between their rule and that of the 



ass 



; 



mild Abbaside califs of Bagdad. But even the 

 cruelties of the Fatimite califs were insignificant, 

 compared with those which had to be endured 

 when Palestine came into the hands of the Turks. 

 Full of ferocious zeal for the religion to which 

 they were but recent converts, the Turks delighted 

 in persecuting the Christians of Palestine, whether 

 residents or pilgrims, and in committing outrages 

 on the shrines and holy places which the Christians 

 frequented. 



The news of the cruelties perpetrated by the 

 Turks on the Christians of Palestine, produced 

 a deep feeling of indignation among the Christian 

 nations of the West, and a desire to arrest the 

 progress of the hated religion of Mohammed, and 

 recover the Holy Land from the desecration of the 

 infidel. At the same time, the Greek emperors, 

 the very existence of whose empire was menaced 

 by the Turks, sent repeated embassies to the popes 

 and temporal potentates, imploring the Christian 

 powers of the West to come to their aid. 



By the enthusiasm of a monk, called Peter the 

 Hermit, a native of Amiens, in France, who had 

 made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and witnessed 

 the cruelties perpetrated by the Turks, and the 

 help of the pope, the Crusade fever spread over 

 Europe like an epidemic. After some preliminary 

 failures on the part of undisciplined rabbles, the 

 chivalry of Europe mustered for the enterprise 

 in 1096. The feudal chiefs, each at the head of 

 his own vassals, ranged themselves under distin- 

 guished leaders Godfrey of Bouillon ; Robert, 

 Duke of Normandy, son of William the Con- 

 queror ; Count Robert of Flanders ; Bohemond, 

 Prince of Tarentum, second in command to whom 

 was Tancred, the flower of chivalry, and the 

 favourite hero of the Crusade ; Count Raymond 

 of Toulouse ; and others. Six separate armies 

 were thus formed, which marched separately by 

 different routes to the common rendezvous, Con- 

 stantinople. The appearance of this vast force 

 amounting to at least 600,000 men, exclusive of 

 women and priests alarmed the Greek emperor, 

 who, though he had repeatedly invoked the aid of 

 the West, was now afraid lest the Latin princes 

 might seek to secure the mastery of the East for 

 themselves, and not for him. It was only by the 

 threat of attacking Constantinople that he was 

 made to withdraw his opposition, and further the 

 transit of the Crusaders into Asia Minor. Here 

 their first step was the siege and capture of Nice, 

 the capital of Soliman, sultan of Roum (1097), and 

 the defeat of his army in a great battle. They 

 then marched on to Antioch, the capital of Syria, 

 the siege of which consumed seven months, and 

 melted away the army of the Crusaders. No 

 sooner was Antioch captured (1098), than the 

 Crusaders were in their turn besieged by an army 

 of 200,000 Mohammedans, sent by the Persian 

 sultan ; but this host was defeated, and the way 

 was now open to Jerusalem. It was on a morning 

 in the summer of 1099 that the 40,000 Crusaders 

 who were all that war, famine, pestilence, and 

 desertion had left out of the 600,000 who, two 

 years before, had crossed from Europe into Asia 

 first came in sight of the Holy City. The 

 emotion produced by the sight was intense. Some 

 leaped and shouted ; some threw themselves on the 

 earth and kissed it ; some gazed and wept ; ' all 

 had much ado,' says an old historian, ' to manage 

 so great a gladness.' The siege of Jerusalem 



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