34 CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 



ing that he was authorized to rule the seven reg-ions 

 subject to tlie Commander of the Faithful. He was 

 likewise adorned with a collar and bracelets ; a veil 

 of gold stuflf, scented with musk, was throw^n over 

 his head, on which tw^o crowns were placed, one for 

 Arabia, the other for Persia ; while two swords 

 were girt on his loins, to signify that he was ruler 

 both of the East and the V/est. 



To consolidate this copartnery of interests, the 

 caliph married the sister of his new ally ; Avhile the 

 latter shocked the pride of tlie house of Abbas by 

 espousing Zeida, the daughter of their spiritual chief. 

 The nuptials were celebrated at Rhe, the Suljuk 

 capital, with great splendour ; but as the royal bride- 

 groom had arrived at the age of seventy, their hap- 

 piness was only of a few months' duration. Togrul 

 and his successors, Alp Arslan and Malek Shah, were 

 zealous Moslems of the Sonnee sect ; and it was 

 ov/ing to this circumstance that the caliphs under 

 their administration enjoyed an ease and dignity far 

 superior to what fell to their lot while in the hands 

 of the Bowides, His victories over the Greeks, and 

 his cruel persecution of the Christians, on whose 

 necks he fixed a horseshoe, or large iron collar, as 

 a mark of ignominy, have placed Alp Arslan, accord- 

 ing to the judgment of the Mohammedans, among 

 the most distinguished sovereigns of Asia. 



The kingdom founded by Togrul, which extended 

 from the Mediterranean to the borders of China, 

 and the various principalities into which it was 

 divided, fell in their turn before that gi'eat destroyer 

 of the human race Zingis Khan (A. D^ 1202), and his 

 grandson Hoolaku. The former subdued the whole 

 of Tartary ; and before his death his vast territories 

 reached from the Indus to the Volga, and from tiie 

 shores of the Persian Gulf to the snowy Avastes 

 of Siberia. The carnage he committed was terrible ; 

 for his armies, which exceeded 600,000 men, or, in 

 the language of oriental liyp)erboie, " outnumbered 



