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CHAP. to purfue the fugitiye Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious conqueft of Turkeftan, the original feat of the house of Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was thrown over the river; and twenty days were confumed in the paffage of his troops. But the progrefs of the great king was retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Jofeph the Carizmian prefumed to defend his fortrefs against the powers of the Eaft. When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the fultan, inftead of praifing his valour, feverely reproached his obftinate folly; and the infolent replies of the rebel provoked' a fentence, that he fhould be faftened to four stakes and left to expire in that painful fituation. At this command the defperate Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rufhed headlong towards the throne: the guards raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arflan, the most skilful archer of the age; he drew his bow, but his foot flipped, the arrow glanced afide, and he received in his breaft the dagger of Jofeph, who was inftantly cut in pieces. The wound' was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying admonition to the pride of kings. "In my youth,” said Alp Arflan," I was advised by a fage, to humble myfelf before God; to distrust my own strength; and never to defpife the most contemptible foe, "I have neglected thefe leffons; and my neglect

66.

has been deservedly punifhed, Yesterday, as "from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the difcipline, and the fpirit, of my armies, the "earth feemed to tremble under my feet; and "I faid in my heart, furely thou art the king " of

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of the world, the greatest and most invincible of CHA P. "warriors. These armies are no longer mine; "and in the confidence of my perfonal ftrength,

I now fall by the hand of an affaffin "." Alp Arflan poffeffed the virtues of a Turk and a Mufulman; his voice and ftature commanded the reverence of mankind; his face was fhaded with long whiskers; and his ample turban was fafhioned in the fhape of a crown. The remains of the fultan were depofited in the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and the paffenger might read and meditate this useful infcription 40: "O YE "WHO HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF ALP ARSLAN "EXALTED TO THE HEAVENS, REPAIR TO MARU, "AND YOU WILL BEHOLD IT BURIED IN THE

"DUST" The annihilation of the infcription, and the tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the. inftability of human greatness.

A.D. 1072

During the life of Alp Arflan, his eldest fon: Reign and had been acknowledged as the future fultan of the f Malek profperity Turks. On his father's death, the inheritance Shah, was difputed by an uncle, a coufin, and a brother: -iog. they drew their fcymetars, and affembled their followers; and the triple victory of Malek Shah 4a established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture.

39 This interesting death is told by d'Herbelot (p. 103, 104.), and M. de Guignes (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.), from their Oriental writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin (Hift. Saracen. p. 344, 345.).

4o A critic of high renown (the late Dr. Johnson), who has severely fcrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in this fublime infcription at the words, " repair to Maru," fince the reader muft» already be at Maru before he could peruse the inscription.

41 The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of the reign of Malek (P. 542, 543, 544. 654, 655,); and the Hiftoire Generale

des

CHAP. mogeniture. In every age, and more efpecially LVII. in Afia, the thirft of power has infpired the fame

paffions and occafioned the fame diforders; but, from the long series of civil war, it would not be eafy to extract a fentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in a faying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the fultan rofe from the ground, he asked his vizir Nizam, who had knelt befide him, what had been the object of his fecret petition: "That your arms may be "crowned with victory," was the prudent, and most probably the fincere answer of the minifter. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored the Lord of hofts, that he would "take from me my life and crown, if my bro"ther be more worthy than myfelf to reign over "the Moflems." The favourable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and for the first time, the facred title of commander of the faithful was communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his perfonal merit, and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince of his age. After the fettlement of Perfia and Syria, he marched at the head of innumerable armies, to atchieve the conqueft of Turkestan, which had been undertaken by his father. In his paffage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had been employed in transporting fome troops, complained, that

des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214–224.) has added the ufual measure of repetition, emendation, and fupplement. Without these two learned Frenchmen, I should be blind indeed in the Eastern world.

LVIL

their payment was affigned on the revenues of CHA P. Antioch. The fultan frowned at this preposterous choice; but he smiled at the artful flattery of his vizir. "It was not to poftpone their reward, "that I felected those remote places, but to leave

. a memorial to pofterity, that under your reign, "Antioch and the Oxus were fubject to the fame "fovereign." But this defcription of his limits was unjust and parfimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crufhed each rebellious flave, or independent favage, who dared to refift. Malek paffed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the laft boundary of Perfian civilization: the hords of Turkeftan yielded to his fupremacy: his name was inferted on the coins, and in the prayers of Cafhgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurifdiction or feudatory fway to the weft and fouth, as far as the mountains of Georgia, the neighbourhood of Conftantinople, the holy city of Jerufalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Fœlix. Inftead of refigning himself to the luxury of his Haram, the fhepherd king, both in peace and war, was in action and in the field. By the perpetual motion of the royal camp, each province was fucceffively bleffed with his prefence; and he is faid to have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions, which furpaffed the Afiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of thefe expeditions, the most pious and fplendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca: the freedom and fafety of the caravans were protected

19

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CHAP. tected by his arms; the citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profufion of his alms; and the defert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, which he instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleafure, and even the paffion, of the fultan, and his train confifted of forty-feven thousand horses; but after the maffacre of a Turkish chafe, for each piece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a flight atonement, at the expence of the people, for the coft and mifchief of the amufement of kings. In the peaceful profperity of his reign, the cities of Afia were adorned with palaces and hofpitals, with mofchs and colleges; few departed from his divan without reward, and none without juftice. The language and literature of Perfia revived under the house of Seljuk "; and if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk lefs potent than himself, his palace might refound with the fongs of an hundred poets. The fultan beftowed a more ferious and learned care on the reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general affembly of the aftronomers of the Eaft. By a law of the prophet, the Moslems are confined to the irregular courfe of the lunar months; in

42

42 See an excellent difcourfe at the end of Sir William Jones's Hiftory of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak, Anvari, Rafchadi, &c. in the Bibliotheque Orientale.

43 His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed round his fopha, and as he listened to the fong, he caft handfuls of gold and filver to the poets (d'Herbelot, p. 107.). All this may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in Transoxiana in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder could furpefs him in power and pomp. I fufpect that the beginning, not the end, of the xith century, is the true era of his reign.

Perfia,

1