Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/40

 PREFACE. XXXIZ

and the rack. In shorty a general gloom overspread Armenia till the rise of the Bagratian kings.

The fifth part comprises 160 or 220 years, commencing at the reign of Ashot, the first king of the race of the Bagratians. Ashot was elevated to the royal dignity under the auspices of the Caliph of Bagdad. During the reigns of the Bagratian kings, Armenia was for a time allowed to taste the sweets of peace and consequent prosperity, yet she was soon disturbed by internal factions and dissensions, by the incursions of foreign enemies, and by the cruelties of those powers lo which she was tributary. The calamities of Armenia were finally crowned by the barbarous oppression of the Greeks, who being actuated by a spirit of inveterate enmity excited by religious differences, committed such dreadful enormities in this unhappy land, as caused the destruction of the Bagratian monarchy, which was followed by the most horrid invasions.

The sixth part embraces a period of 300 years» commencing with the reign of Reuben the First. The Reubenian princes usually held their court in the country of Ciiicia, and were not invested with the absolute power of kings. A political intercourse was maintained with the Crusaders, whom the Armenians assisted with provisions during the time of a sore famine. Notwithstanding the wisdom and valour of the Reube^ nian prinpes, Armenia was constantly distressed by internal commotions, by hordes of invaders, by the ineursions of Jenkhiz Khan and the other mc^archf who wielded the sceptre of Scythia, by the crueljties of

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