and, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the
East, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished
nations.

Chapter LVII: The Turks.--Part I.

The Turks Of The House Of Seljuk.--Their Revolt Against
Mahmud Conqueror Of Hindostan.--Togrul Subdues Persia, And
Protects The Caliphs.--Defeat And Captivity Of The Emperor
Romanus Diogenes By Alp Arslan.--Power And Magnificence Of
Malek Shah.--Conquest Of Asia Minor And Syria.--State And
Oppression Of Jerusalem.--Pilgrimages To The Holy Sepulchre.

From the Isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond the
Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom
the first crusade was principally directed. Their Scythian empire of the
sixth century was long since dissolved; but the name was still famous
among the Greeks and Orientals; and the fragments of the nation, each
a powerful and independent people, were scattered over the desert from
China to the Oxus and the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admitted
into the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by
slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and Sicily
were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these northern shepherds
overspread the kingdoms of Persia; their princes of the race of Seljuk
erected a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the confines of
Greece and Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia
Minor, till the victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St.
Sophia.

One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud, the
Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia, one thousand
years after the birth of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of
the slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful. But in this
descent of servitude, the first degree was merely titular, since it was
filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paid a
nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank was that of
a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, who broke, by his
revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step was a state
of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; from which
Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supreme command
of the city and provinces of Gazna, as the son-in-law and successor of
his grateful master. The falling dynasty of the Samanides w