76 THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OF [book i.

What could opposethetorrentrushingforward? NotArabs are they, or any of the milder and more civilizedMoslem; but the Turks, Turcomans, or Seljukides,as some call them, from one of their chiefs of thename of Seljuk, the wildest of the savages of Tur-kestan, that region of Scythia which stretches north-ward from the Caspian in one frightful waste, thatonly terminates with the Polar Sea. Nor will theyrecede; but as they already had mastered Indiaand Persia, and the Caliphs, they at present pouringdestruction on Asia Minor, are to do the same withConstantinople at last, and all Greece.

In Hindostan it was a Turk that surpassed theconquests of Alexander, and the title of Sultan wasinvented about 1000 a.d. for him; whom a wildertribe of his own countrymen soon vanquished.Tie had invited them with suspicion, but was notsuspicious enough. Nor after that could the Tigris,or Euphrates, or Nile stay them; nor the Persianmountains, nor Taurus. Had they not passed thesnowy Caucasus and the eternal Imaus? ATogrul from the throne of Darius sent a messengerto the Emperor of Constantinople, to require tributeand obedience. To Togrul succeeded his nephew,Alp-Arslan, who found some resistance from theunfortunate but heroic Romanus; not unworthy ofthe Empire of the East—nor of his French allies,