Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/246

 224 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAPTEE LVII The TiirJcs of the House of Seljuk — Tlwir Revolf against Mahniud, CoiKjueror of Hindostan — Tognil subdues Persia, and protects the Caliphs — Defeat and Captivity of the Emperor llonuinus Diogenes by Alp Arslan — Power a?id Magnificence of Malek Shah — Conquest of Asia Minor and Si/ria — State and Oppres- sion oj Jerusalem — Pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre TheTurks From the islc of Sicily the reader must transport himself beyond the Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their Scj'thian empire of the sixth century 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 indepen- dent people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and the Danube : the colony of Hungarians was ad- mitted into the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish exti-action. 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. Mahmnd. the One of the ffrcatcst of the Turkish princes was Mamood or Gszncvide. AD. 997-1028 Mahmud,^ the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces 1 1 am indebted for his character and history to d'Herbelot (BibHoth^que Orien- tale, MahMuid, p. 533-537), M. de Guignes (Histoiredes Huns, torn. iii. p. 155-173): and our countrviiian, 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 Horid text it is not easy to distinguish the version and the ori- ginal. [This work of Dow has been superseded by the translation of Colonel Briggs : " History of the Mahomedan Power in India till the year 1612, trans- lated from the original Persian of Mohamed Kasini Ferishta," in 4 vols., 1829. Cp. his remarks on Dows work in the Preface, vol. i. p. vi. vii.]