Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/84

78 Armenia was invaded by the Saracens, the Mohametan warriors, for about 200 years. The history of this time was not brighter than any period of religious persecutions the Armenians had suffered. In the choice of Islam, or sword, or low subjection, Armenians have always chosen one of the last two proposals. While the fury of Islam was overwhelming Persia, Turkey and India were progressing with wholesale conversions of races and tribes. The Armenians proved themselves to be the only exception, and to break off these rapid and sure conquests. If they could not be permitted to live for their friends and country they would prefer death to Islam, hence the saying prevailed among Mohametans as a proverb that, "The old obstinate Armenian will not become Musliman."

After the withdrawal of the Saracens, owing to the fall of the caliphate in Bagdad, the Armenians gained their independence under the third period of their kingdom. But the land could not gain her rest from the repeated invasions of proselyted Moslem tribes, especially the Tartars. By the short-sighted policy of the Greek emperors, the Armenian kingdom was overthrown in 1045 A.D., and thus the whole eastern frontier was laid open to the invasion of the Seljouk Tartars, who might have been successfully resisted by the hardy mountaineers of Armenia. The result was fatal, both to Armenia, which was overrun, and to the Greek empire; for in the battle of 1071 A.D. the Emperor Romanus IV. was defeated and made prisoner by Alp Arslan, and the