These ruthless conquerors destroyed, wherever they went, the fair fruits that had arisen from the labours of the missionaries, extirpated the religion of Jesus from several cities and provinces where it had flourished, and substituted the Mohammedan superstition in its place. The Armenian churches, in particular, experienced the most deplorable evils from the ruthless and vindictive spirit of Timur Bec, or Tamerlane, the Tartar chief. This implacable warrior, having overrun a great part of northern and western Asia, exerted all his influence and authority to compel the Christians to apostatize from their faith. To the stern dictates of unlimited power he united the compulsory violence of persecution, and treated the disciples of Christ with the most unrelenting severity; subjecting such as magnanimously adhered to their religion, to the most cruel forms of death, or to the horrors of unmitigated slavery. Under the successors of Timur they were subjected to many vicissitudes, being alternately protected and oppressed, according as the caprice of the reigning sovereign seemed to dictate. Nevertheless, under the rod of oppression their zeal was intrepid and fervent, nor could the sunshine of prosperity warm in their hearts an undue love of the world, and render them careless or indifferent to the interests of Christianity. In numberless instances they preferred the crown of martyrdom to the turban of Mohammed, and have sacrificed the dearest of temporal interests,—fame, wealth, and preferments, to a scrupulous adherence to the Christian profession, and a strict regard for its duties. Once only within the last thirteen centuries has Armenia aspired to the rank of an independent kingdom, and even then her Christian kings, who arose and fell, in the thirteenth century, on the confines of Cilicia, were the creatures and vassals of the Turkish sultans of Iconium. About the commencement of the seventeenth century their state experienced a considerable change in consequence of the incursions of Shah Abbas, the great king of Persia.