he shepherd
kings.

The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of a king;
and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian deserves any credit, they
determined by lot the choice of their new master. A number of arrows
were successively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a family, and a
candidate; they were drawn from the bundle by the hand of a child; and
the important prize was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michael the
son of Seljuk, whose surname was immortalized in the greatness of
his posterity. The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill in
national genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk;
yet the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power and
renown. For a daring intrusion into the harem of his prince. Seljuk
was banished from Turkestan: with a numerous tribe of his friends
and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the neighborhood of
Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and acquired the crown of
martyrdom in a war against the infidels. His age, of a hundred and seven
years, surpassed the life of his son, and Seljuk adopted the care of
his two grandsons, Togrul and Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age of
forty-five, was invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city of
Nishabur. The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues
of the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the valor
of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul was equal to his valor. By his
arms, the Gasnevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms of Persia,
and gradually driven to the banks of the Indus, in search of a softer
and more wealthy conquest. In the West he annihilated the dynasty of the
Bowides; and the sceptre of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish
nation. The princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows,
bowed their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media,
he approached the Roman confines; and the shepherd presumed to despatch
an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and obedience of the
emperor of Constantinople. In his own dominions, Togrul was the father
of his soldiers and people; by a firm and equal administration, Persia
was relieved from the evils of anarchy; and the same hands which had
been imbrued in blood became the guardians of justice and the public
peace. The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans
continued to dwell in the tents of their ancestor