ion of the royal camp, each
province was successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to
have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions,
which surpassed the _Asiatic_ reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these
expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca:
the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by his arms; the
citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profusion of his alms; and
the desert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, which
he instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and
even the passion, of the sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven
thousand horses; but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each
piece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight
atonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and mischief of
the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of his reign, the
cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and hospitals with moschs and
colleges; few departed from his Divan without reward, and none without
justice. The language and literature of Persia revived under the house
of Seljuk; and if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less potent
than himself, his palace might resound with the songs of a hundred
poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the
reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general assembly
of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet, the Moslems are
confined to the irregular course of the lunar months; in Persia, since
the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has been known and
celebrated as an annual festival; but after the fall of the Magian
empire, the intercalation had been neglected; the fractions of minutes
and hours were multiplied into days; and the date of the springs was
removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was
illustrated by the _Gelalan_ aera; and all errors, either past or future,
were corrected by a computation of time, which surpasses the Julian, and
approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style.

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the light
and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather than the
knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of their wisdom and
virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the empire under the reigns
of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the most illustrious minister