Alp Arslan

“ Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the discipline, and the spirit, of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble under my feet; and I said in my heart, Surely thou art the king of the world, the greatest and most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an assassin." Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a Mussulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of mankind ”

“ He was succeeded by his nephew, Alp Arslan, who extended the empire of the Seljukides in Asia Minor and Armenia. R. D. Osborn, Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad, part 3, chapter 2. TURKS: A. D. 1063-1073. Conquests of Alp Arslan. "Alp Arslan, the nephew and successor of Togrul Beg, carried on the havoc and devastation which had marked the career through life of his uncle. Togrul Beg had on two or three occasions invaded the Asiatic territories of the Byzantine Emperor; Alp Arslan carried these partial conquests to completion. He invaded in person the northern parts of Armenia and Iberia. ”

“ Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. ”

“ Human blood flowed in torrents. So great was the carnage that the streets were literally choked up with dead bodies, and the waters of the river Akhurian flowed in crimson tides. After his first fury was somewhat abated, Alp Arslan gave orders to seize the most wealthy citizens still alive and torture them to make them reveal places where their treasures were hidden. Then he pillaged the thousand and one churches, murdered all the priests found therein,—some were drowned, some he flayed alive, others died under tortures as excruciating as most fiendish imagination could conceive or invent. ”

“ Dost know what awaits thee in the halls of thy master Eblis? Can a Jew be influenced even by false pride? Is not life sweet? Is it not better to be my slipper-bearer than to be impaled?’
‘Magnanimous Alp Arslan,’ replied Alroy in a tone of undisguised contempt; ‘thinkest thou that any torture can be equal to the recollection that I have been conquered by thee?’
‘By my beard, he mocks me!’ exclaimed the Karasmian monarch, ‘he defies me! Touch not my robe. I will parley with him. Ye see no farther than a hooded hawk, ye sons of a blind mother. ”

“ During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks. On his father’s death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory of Malek Shah 41 established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same passions, and occasioned the same disorders ”

“ There is no doubt they could have flung back the invaders had the Byzantine Empire come to their aid. But avarice was the dominant passion of the Emperor, Constantine X., and rather than disburse his loved hoards, he preferred to look idly on, while his fairest provinces were laid waste and overrun. The country was, in consequence, compelled to submit to the Seljuk Turks, and the invaders settling upon it, like a swarm of locusts, swiftly converted the happiest and most flourishing portion of Asia into a scene of poverty and desolation. From Iberia, Alp Arslan passed into Armenia. ”

“ The following anecdote, striking in itself, is the more interesting as an exception to a general rule: “In the year 1068 Alp Arslan, the second sultan of Persia, of the Seljukian dynasty, defeated and took prisoner Romanus Diogenes, husband of Eudocia, the reigning empress of Constantinople. He treated his prisoner with extreme kindness and distinction; he uttered no reproaches that could wound a humbled monarch, but gave vent to the honest indignation of a warrior at the base and cowardly conduct of those who had deserted and abandoned so brave a leader. ”

“ Alp Arslān, the son of Chakḳir Beg, succeeded his uncle and extended the rule of his family beyond the former frontiers. He made himself master, e.g. of the important city of Aleppo; and during his reign a Turkish amir, Atsiz, wrested Palestine and Syria from the hands of the Fātimites. He made successful expeditions against the Greeks, especially that of 1071, in which the Greek emperor Romanus Diogenes was taken prisoner and forced to ransom himself for a large sum (see Roman Empire, Later) . The foundation of the Seljūk empire of Rūm (q.v.) ”

“ The dominion of Alp Arslan now extended over the fairest part of Asia; 1200 princes or sons of princes surrounded his throne and 200,000 warriors were at his command. He now prepared to march to the conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of his ancestors. With a powerful army he advanced td the banks of the Oxus. Before he could pass the river with safety it was necessary to subdue certain fortresses, one of which was for several days vigorously defended by the governor, Yussuf Kothual, a Kharizmian. ”

“ Thus, for instance, in the history of the Ottoman Turks, to which I have not yet come, Soliman the Magnificent is at once the last and greatest of a series of great Sultans. So was it as regards this house of Seljuk. Malek Shah, the son of Alp Arslan, the third sovereign, in whom its glories ended, is represented to us in history in colours so bright and perfect, that it is difficult to believe we are not reading the account of some mythical personage. He came to the throne at the early age of seventeen ”

“ After his coronation he carried on three successful campaigns against the Saracens and Seljuk Turks, whom he drove beyond the Euphrates; in a fourth he was disastrously defeated by Alp Arslan on the banks of the Araxes and taken prisoner. ”

“ Cappadocia was already desolated from end to end, and the Turkish raids had reached as far as Amorium, in Phrygia.
In 1071 came the final disaster. In pursuing the Seljouk plunderers, Romanus was drawn far eastward, to Manzikert, on the Armenian frontier. There he found himself confronted, not by a flying foe, but by the whole force of the Seljouk sultanate, with Alp Arslan himself at its head. Though his army was harassed by long marches, and though two large divisions were absent, the Emperor was eager to fight. ”

“ The new territories were handed over to Greek eunuchs, to whom was entrusted their administration and defence.55 In the year 1055 the inhabitants were massacred outside the walls of Ani by an enemy which perhaps consisted of a detachment of Seljuks in concert with the forces of the emir of Karabagh.56 The final blow was delivered nine years later by the successor of Toghrul, the famous Alp Arslan. After a successful campaign in the Georgian country he arrived before Ani in the summer of 1064. ”

“ Moez eddin (according to others Jelal eddin, or Jelal daulet, “the glory of religion or of state”) Abu ’l fetah Malic-shah, son of Alp Arslan, although not the eldest, was declared by his father to be his successor, by the counsel of the above mentioned Nizam ul mulk, and mounted the throne after his father’s death, in the year of the Hejira 465 (A. D. 1072) . A reform of the Calendar made under his reign was called Tarikh Jelali.
[632] Mirkhond (p. 37, French transl.) ”

“ Nizam ul Mulk himself tells the story: “ ‘Men believe,’ remarked Hassan one day to us, ‘that the pupils of our master are sure to be fortunate; let us promise that should success visit one of us only, that favored one will share with the other two.’ We promised.” Years later when Nizam ul Mulk was grand vizir to Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Seljuks, he showed Omar Khayyam sincere honor and friendship, and offered him the dignity of second vizir, which the poet rejected, but at his request the vizir gave him one thousand gold pieces each year instead of the office. ”

“ The most renowned and most active were then divided into four parties, of about one hundred and fifty men each, who, throwing aside all incumbrances, retained only their swords and long broad daggers. The Hadji put himself at the head of one band, and his son Alp led the most daring and active of the Dehli Khans, who willingly followed him in consideration of his father’s renown. Arslan Gherrei led a third party of the bravest warriors, with whom Ivan was about to volunteer, when he was unanimously elected to lead the fourth band. ”

“ Sir Hugh grasped Arslan's shoulder.
“The gate is open,” he said quickly, “but ten thousand men are awake and armed. If Subotai has come he will have no more than a thousand. Go and find horses. Go swiftly to the highroad beyond the town and warn him. Take this for a token.”
He ripped the falcon tablet from his throat and thrust it into the Mongol's hand.
“I am going to the palace.”
Arslan and his ten melted into the hurrying throng and the crusader strode to the postern gate and caught the attention of the sentry by whirling him around with steel-meshed fingers that bruised his flesh. ”

“ Occasionally he would call a halt to change saddles to fresher beasts and to cast around for tracks. Whether he guided himself by the stars or had an animal's instinct for sniffing out the road, Hugh never knew. The crusader's wounds were troubling him in the damp night air, but he did not ask the Mongols to rein in, and by the time the crescent moon was out of sight he saw they were on the track of the Horde again.
When the sun forced its way into the gorges and the steady drip-drip began from the forest growth, Arslan saw no reason to halt. ”

“ Arslan scrutinized his companion shrewdly. Hugh's red-gold beard had been shaved and his long hair clipped. His gambeson and mail had been discarded for a wadded robe and a sheepskin shoulder cloak with a hood that could be drawn up over his head, but the poise of the long body, the stride of a man accustomed to spurs and authority, were not to be concealed, or the scar of the sword-cut that ran from eye to chin.
“Nay,” he said again, “in a boat there is no hiding. Have we come to the Chersonese to free a single woman or to prepare the way for Subotai? ”

“ Other cities had the Mongols taken in just such fashion, in the darkness.
“If he sees the signal he will return. But if he is taken by the emperor's men—” Arslan groaned and clutched his belt, trying to reason out what he should do.
The Mongols, after lighting the fires, would rest an hour, to make sure the signal was seen. In less than another hour they would be in the Chersonese. Arslan wondered how long the fires had been going before he saw them. ”

“ But the Khan of Almalyk, a handsome man, with the thin nose and square chin of an eastern Turk, slapped the curved saber at his hip and pointed to the side of the road.
A rough cross-piece of wood projected from a mound and beside it other objects peered out of the snow—a miniature shield, a tiny wooden horse. Arslan bent down to look at it.
“A grave. They have given him a shield to bear and a horse to ride in the world of the dead.”
The crusader held up his hand for silence. ”

“ There was Ben Arslan, with his crimson burnous wrapped round his towering stature, from whom Moor and Jew fled, as before a pestilence—the fiercest, deadliest, most voluptuous of all the Spahis; brutalized in his drink, merciless in his loves; all an Arab when once back in the desert; with a blow of a scabbard his only payment for forage, and a thrust of his saber his only apology to husbands; but to the service a slave, and in the combat a lion.
There was Beau-Bruno, a dandy of Turcos, whose snowy turban and olive beauty bewitched half the women of Algeria ”

“ Kilidj Arslan proved as faithless as Isaac.
Conrad of Feuchtwangen, leader of the vanguard, encountered Turkish troops at the very outset. As soon as he entered the mountain region he was harassed on all sides by swift, alert horsemen. Every grove and hill concealed them. As the Germans approached they dashed out, brandishing their scymitars or shooting arrows at them. Strong bands suddenly attacked them in ravines and narrow passes, and when the Germans attempted to resist in regular battle order, they disappeared like the wind in all directions. ”

“ Remembering his first visit, Hugh could well believe this, and he advised the Mongols to dismount and sit by him at the fire. The singing girl vanished into the forest, but Arslan came to gossip.
“Noyon,” quoth he, “it is true that some of this band are like to horse-lifting Gipsies; it is also true that others wear costly mail and are armed with heavy weapons. Look! Here are huts and a cart, but where are horses, goats, brats, crones and dogs? Ekh! It is too clean, this place.” ”

“ Arslan-bey again miraculously escaped, and owing to the speed of his horse soon left the place of carnage at a distance. But his flight had been observed from the kiosk from which the Grand Vizir had directed the massacre, and he was pursued; but putting spurs to his horse, he urged it up the precipitous side of the hill, making for the summit with furious speed. The top was almost reached when a shower of balls brought down man and horse; and they rolled down the steep hillside to join the bodies of their fellow-victims below. ”