Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive ChristianityNewman, John Henry
HistoryHistory
Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive Christianity
Newman, John Henry
Apollonius, of Tyana; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Turkey -- History
veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns were set upon his head; two
scimitars were girded on his side, in token of his double reign over
East and West. He twice kissed the Caliph's hand; and his titles were
proclaimed by the voice of heralds and the applause of the Moslem.
Such was Togrul Beg, and such was his reward. After these exploits, he
marched against his brother (for these Turkish tribes were always
quarrelling over their prey), deposed him, strangled him and put to
death a number of his adherents, married the Caliph's daughter, and then
died without children. His power passed to his nephew Alp Arslan.
2. Alp Arslan, the second Sultan of the line of Seljuk, is said to
signify in Turkish "the courageous lion:" and the Caliph gave its
possessor the Arabic appellation of Azzaddin, or "Protector of
Religion." It was the distinctive work of his short reign to pass from
humbling the Caliph to attacking the Greek Emperor. Togrul had already
invaded the Greek provinces of Asia Minor, from Cilicia to Armenia,
along a line of 600 miles, and here it was that he had achieved his
tremendous massacres of Christians. Alp Arslan renewed the war; he
penetrated to Caesarea in Cappadocia, attracted by the gold and pearls
which encrusted the shrine of the great St. Basil. He then turned his
arms against Armenia and Georgia, and conquered the hardy mountaineers
of the Caucasus, who at present give such trouble to the Russians. After
this he encountered, defeated, and captured the Greek Emperor. He began
the battle with all the solemnity and pageantry of a hero of romance.
Casting away his bow and arrows, he called for an iron mace and
scimitar; he perfumed his body with musk, as if for his burial, and
dressed himself in white, that he might be slain in his winding-sheet.
After his victory, the captive Emperor of New Rome was brought before
him in a peasant's dress; he made him kiss the ground beneath his feet,
and put his foot upon his neck. Then, raising him up, he struck or
patted him three times with his hand, and gave him his life and, on a
large ransom, his liberty. At this time the Sultan was only forty-four
years of age, and seemed to have a career of glory still before him.
Twelve hundred nobles stood before his throne; two hundred thousand
soldiers marched under his banner. As if dissatisfied with the South, he
turned his arms against his own paternal wildernesses, with which his
family, as I have related, had a feud. New tribes of Turks seem to have
poured down, and were wresting Sogdiana from the race of Seljuk, as the
Seljukians had wrested it from the Gaznevides. Alp had not advanced far
into the country, when he met his death from the hand of a captive. A
Carismian chief had withstood his progress, and, being taken, was
condemned to a lingering execution. On hearing the sentence, he rushed
forward upon Alp Arslan; and the Sultan, disdaining to let his generals
interfere, bent his bow, but, missing his aim, received the dagger of
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