The immediate duty lying at our doors is to assist in relieving the distress even unto starvation, which hundreds of thousands of Armenians are now enduring. Many will perish before aid can reach them. What is to be done must be done quickly. This book while making little pretension to literary polish is the result of wide historical research and has been carefully written and edited, and is now cast upon the great tide of public opinion with the hope that it may stimulate permanent interest in the great problems which are at issue in the conflict between Christianity and Islam--that it may reach and move the springs of deepest sympathy for suffering Armenians; that it may rouse a more vigorous moral indignation against such crime and cruelty, and thereby assist in creating such a just and righteous public sentiment that our government may take such a stand as shall tell speedily for the bettering of the conditions of human existence in far off Armenia. Thus confiding in the kindly consideration of a generous public, I send forth this book on the mission to which it is hereby dedicated, viz:--to plead the cause of Bleeding Armenia which is being done to death under the Curse of Islam. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. A Martyr Nation--Need of a Voice--Historical Annals at Nineveh--Abgar's Letter to Jesus of Nazareth--Acceptance of Christianity--Council of Nice--Persian Conquests--Bible Translated--Great Persecutions--Dying for the Faith--Magi Driven Out--Saracens in Armenia--Fearful Tortures--Burned Alive--Bogha the Tyrant--Sultan of Turkey--Islam or Death --Yussuf the Persian--Great Horrors Repeated--Starvation --Peace Returns 21 CHAPTER II. THE RISE OF ISLAM. Arabia--Mecca--Idolatry--Mohammed's Birth--Carlyle on Islamism --The Hegira--Battle of Beder--Mecca Captured--Death of Mohammed --Golden Era of the Saracens--Khaled at Damascus--City Captured-- Jerusalem Besieged--Capitulates--Persia Conquered--Egypt Won in a Day--Constantinople Besieged 44 CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. Origin--Jerusalem Captured by the Turks--Peter the Hermit-- Pope Urban--Crusade of the Mob--Walter the Penniless--Battle of Nicomedia--300,000 Perished in all--Crusade of the Kings and Nobles--Godfrey of Bouillon--Europe Moves Westward-- Antioch--Jerusalem Captured July 14th, 1099--Godfrey Elected King 72 CHAPTER IV. THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS.