The Sultan and His PeopleOscanyan, C. (Christopher)
History
The Sultan and His People
Oscanyan, C. (Christopher)
Turkey -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Social life and customs
Bagarat, the founder of this Jewish line of princes, was distinguished
in the reign of Valarsace, and was appointed by him to the hereditary
office of placing the crown upon the king's head, and all his
descendants were known as the Bagratians. Now it happened that Ashot,
one of their number, so pleased the caliph in his administration of the
affairs of his own tribe, that in the year 859 A. D., he appointed him
governor of Armenia, and dispatched Aali-Ermeny, an apostate Armenian,
to invest him with magnificent robes of state. Although the nation
was again restored to comparative tranquillity under this race of
princes, yet internal disunion and foreign oppression did not cease
to harass the country, and the Greeks finally destroyed the Bagratian
monarchy. But Melik-Shah, of Persia, regained his sway over Armenia,
and the power of the Greeks was thenceforth annihilated.
The Armenian princes of the line of Reuben now governed the country,
and it was during their reign that the Crusaders took Jerusalem;
and while they were besieging Antioch, Constantine, the second of
these Armenian princes, supplied the army with provisions. He was in
return made a marquis, and received the order of knighthood, besides
many valuable presents. This line of princes was extirpated by the
Egyptians, who poured an immense and devastating army into their
country, and after besieging Leo, the last king, for nine months,
took him and all his family to Cairo, with all the royal treasures.
They remained in prison seven years, because they refused to renounce
Christianity. By the intervention of king Juan, of Spain, they were
set at liberty, and received from him many valuable possessions,
such as houses and lands.
King Leo even appealed to England and France to assist him in regaining
the throne of Armenia, but without any good success. He died in Paris,
A. D. 1393, and was buried in the convent of Celestine.
His wife Mary, who belonged to the family of Lewis Charles, king of
Hungary, died at Jerusalem.
The Armenians next fell into the power of the Ottomans; with their
last king their glory perished.
The sunrise over Mount Ararat, the meridian brightness over the fairest
portion of Asia, and the last departing rays shed over the regions
of Silicia, are all merged into the dark pages of history--where but
few ever seek to read the tale.
The ancient religion of the Armenians was that of the Magi, but the
introduction of Christianity among them was coeval with Christ.
Abgar, one of their kings, having had occasion to send ambassadors to
the Roman general Marinus, in Syria, upon the return of his messengers,
was apprised of the wonderful and miraculous performances of the
Messiah.
Giving a ready credence to the report that this was indeed the Son of
God, a second embassy was sent to entreat the great healer of the sick
to visit the king Abgar, who was laboring under a distressing malady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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