Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/252

 230 THE DECLINE AND FALL of their countiymen, some wandering tribe^ embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who aspired to the throne encouraged these emi- grations, which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his error by a chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The sultan had enquired what supply of men he could furnish for military service. " If you send," replied Ismael, " one of these arrows into our camp, fifty thousand of your servants will mount on horseback." " And' if that number," continued Mahmud, "should not be sufficient ? " " Send this second arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand more." " But," said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, " if I should stand in need of the whole force of your kindred tribes ? " " Dis- patch my bow," was the last reply of Ismael, "and, as it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two hundred thousand horse." The apprehension of such formidable friend- ship induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes into the heart of Chorasan, where they would be separated from their brethren by the river Oxus, and inclosed on all sides by the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the country was an ob- ject of temptation rather than terror ; and the vigour of govern- ment was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of Gazna. The shepherds were converted into robbers ; the bands of robbers were collected into an army of conquerors ; as far as Ispahan and the Tigris, Pei-sia was afflicted by their preda- tory inroads ; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to measure their courage and numbers with the proudest sovereigns of Asia. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too [Emirs] long ncglcctcd the addce of his wisest Omrahs. " Your enemies," they repeatedly urged, " were in their origin a swarm of ants ; they are now little snakes ; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents." After some alternatives of truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, who attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular onset. " Massoud,"' says the Persian historian,^* 1^ Dow, Hist, of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95-98. I have copied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner ; but I suspect that by some odd fataUty the