We have now arrived at what may literally be called the turning point of Turkish history. We have seen them gradually descend from the north, 30 and in a certain degree become acclimated in the countries where they settled. They first appear across the Jaxartes in the beginning of the seventh century; they have now come to the beginning of the eleventh. Four centuries or thereabout have they been out of their deserts, gaining 5 experience and educating themselves in such measure as was necessary for playing their part in the civilized world. First they came down into Sogdiana and Khorasan, and the country below it, as conquerors; they continued in it as 10 subjects and slaves. They offered their services to the race which had subdued them; they made their way by means of their new masters down to the west and the south; they laid the foundations for their future supremacy in Persia, and 15 gradually rose upwards through the social fabric to which they had been admitted, till they found themselves at length at the head of it. The sovereign power which they had acquired in the line of the Gaznevides, drifted off to Hindostan; 20 but still fresh tribes of their race poured down from the north, and filled up the gap; and while one dynasty of Turks was established in the peninsula, a second dynasty arose in the former seat of their power. 25 Now I call the era at which I have arrived the turning point of their fortunes, because, when they had descended down to Khorasan and the countries below it, they might have turned to the East or to the West, as they chose. They were 30 at liberty to turn their forces eastward against their kindred in Hindostan, whom they had driven out of Ghizni and Afghanistan, or to face towards the west, and make their way thither through the Saracens of Persia and its neighboring countries. It was an era which determined the history of the 5 world....