was made “Emîr of Emîrs” as the protector of Kaîm, the twenty-sixth of the Abbaside khalifs. The ambition of the Seljuks aimed at establishing their empire over the whole of West Asia, and they thus at once came into collision with Byzantium. [Sidenote: MELEK SHAH] The great family of the Comneni, who were to play an important part in future history, came from Castamona, on the Euxine, but claimed Roman descent. They were the successors of the Macedonian emperors, Isaac Comnenos being elected by the army in 1057. On his death his brother John declined the throne, and it was given to his friend Constantine XI., Ducas, in 1059. The latter died eight years later, and his widow, Eudocia--left guardian of three sons--married Romanus Diogenes, who became emperor in 1068 A. D. Togrul had already sent an embassy to Byzantium demanding tribute. He died in 1063 at the age of seventy, his brother Tchakar having died five years before. In 1071 A. D. Alp-Arslân (“the brave lion”), the next sultân, son of Tchakar, crossed the Euphrates; and Diogenes, who had just taken Malazkerd, between Erzerûm and Van, was obliged to retreat to Cæsarea in Cappodocia. His army included Frank and Norman mercenaries, and the Byzantines were deserted by these.[488] The Byzantine phalanx was broken by the Turkish archers, and Diogenes was defeated and taken prisoner. He was well treated by Alp-Arslân, and released on promising an annual tribute of 60,000 aurei. But he never regained his throne at Constantinople, and his son Michael was deposed by Nicephorus III., who usurped power in 1078, but who was superseded by Alexius I. (Comnenos) in 1081. Alp-Arslân was fighting in Kharezm as early as 1065, and seven years later, while attacking Bokhara, he was stabbed by a certain Yûsef, whom he had ordered to be crucified. He died when only forty-four years old, and was succeeded by his famous son Melek Shah. This greatest of the Seljuks was at first involved in war with his father-in-law at Samarkand; after 1077 his empire extended from the Oxus to Yemen, and he bestowed Syria and Palestine as a fief on his brother Tutush, having organised eight great provinces under his relations. In 1075 Melek Shah had sent Atsiz, a Kharezmian, against the Fâṭemite khalîfah. He took Damascus, but was defeated near Cairo, and in his retreat he reached Jerusalem, which his mutinous soldiers pillaged. Tutush besieged Aleppo in 1078, gained Damascus by treachery, and--having conquered from Antioch to the borders of Egypt--was humbly received by Atsiz at the gate of the Holy City, but immediately ordered him to be beheaded. In 1083 Jerusalem was given by Tutush to his general Ortok, son of Eksek, and on the death of the latter, in 1091, his sons Elghâzi and Sukmân became rulers, Tutush himself being assassinated at Damascus in 1095. The Turks thus held Jerusalem for about twenty years, during which they greatly oppressed the native Christians and the pilgrims. About 1096,