We may note in conclusion the influence of the crusades in staying the progress of that gigantic power which for two centuries had contested with Christendom the possession of western Asia. So rapid had been the rise and spread of the new Mohammedan tide of Turkish invasion that, but for the barrier presented by the crusaders, it would have quickly submerged the Balkan peninsula, as it had already done the plains of Asia Minor; and possibly it would have poured its desolation into central Europe at a time when Europe was not prepared to resist, as it did four hundred years later when the Turks besieged Vienna. The appeal of the Greek emperors for the help of their Western Christian brethren in the eleventh century was warranted by the seriousness of the menace. The empire was then too demoralized to withstand alone the onset of these daring hordes, who possessed superior powers of physical endurance, great mental activity quickened by the enterprises they planned for their swords, and courage as yet undaunted by defeat. What they might have speedily accomplished but for their enforced halt of two hundred years on the eastern shores of the Marmora is suggested by what they did almost immediately after the crusaders withdrew their wall of swords. The same decade that witnessed the fall of Acre saw the founding of the present dynasty of Ottoman Turks in Nicomedia (1299). In 1355 they crossed the sea and planted their first European stronghold at Gallipoli. In the next century (1452) Mohammed II. was enthroned as sultan in Constantinople, where his successors have for four hundred years repelled the arms, and still baffle the diplomacy, of Europe. INDEX. Abélard, 8, 162, 163. Accian, 103, 106, 109; death, 111. Acre, 123; capture, 148; by Saladin, 190; siege of, 215 sq.; fall, 297; divisions in, 366; final fall, 367. Adela, 148. Adhemar of Puy, 83, 105, 113; death, 120. Afdhal, 135, 137. Afdhal, son of Saladin, 236. Aibek, 356, 361. Albigenses, 298, 322, 375. Aleppo, 154. Aletta, 8. Alexander II., 49. Alexander III., 15. Alexander IV., 363. Alexandria, captured, 180. Alexius I., 74, 79, 81; treachery, 85; vengeance of Godfrey, 86; character and policy, 88 sq., 244; at Nicæa, 95; refuses help, 113, 139; jealousy, 147. Alexius III., reply to Innocent III., 254; protests against Venetian invasion, 271; cowardice, 276, 277. Alexius IV., son of Isaac Angelus, 258, 263; plea, 266; joins Dandolo, 268; at Constantinople, 271, 279; breach with crusaders, 281; imprisonment and death, 283. Alexius Ducas, 282. Alfonso VI., 83. Algazzali, 60. Alhazan, 60. Alice, French princess, 222. Almoadam Turan Shan, 343, 353-355, 361, 362. Alp-Arslan, 62. Amalric, 152, 179, 180; death, 182. Amaury I. See Amalric. Amaury II., 297. Amaury de Montfort, 333. Andrew II., Hungary, 303, 305. Andronicus, 244, 247.