s worthy of their ambition; nor was he displeased that they
should draw away the more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed the
tranquillity of his reign. As the supreme head of his family and nation,
the great sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of his
royal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus;
the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia, erected their standards
under the shadow of his sceptre: and the hordes of Turkmans overspread
the plains of the Western Asia. After the death of Malek, the bands
of union and subordination were relaxed and finally dissolved: the
indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their slaves with the
inheritance of kingdoms; and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes
arose from the dust of their feet.

A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, the son of Izrail, the son of
Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan and the humane victor
had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons, strong in arms,
ambitious of power, and eager for revenge, unsheathed their cimeters
against the son of Alp Arslan. The two armies expected the signal when
the caliph, forgetful of the majesty which secluded him from vulgar
eyes, interposed his venerable mediation. "Instead of shedding the blood
of your brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your
forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and his
apostle." They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his rebellious
kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royal
standard, which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of the
provinces of the Roman empire, from Arzeroum to Constantinople, and the
unknown regions of the West. Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed
the Euphrates; the Turkish camp was soon seated in the neighborhood of
Kutaieh in Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far
as the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the empire,
the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the transient, though
destructive, inroads of the Persians and Saracens; but the fruits of a
lasting conquest were reserved for the Turkish sultan; and his arms were
introduced by the Greeks, who aspired to reign on the ruins of their
country. Since the captivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of
Eudocia had trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till the
provinces of the East and West were lost in the