ndekan of D'Herbelot, (p. 1028,) the Dindaka of Dow
(vol. i. p. 97,) is probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda, (Geograph. p.
345, Reiske,) a small town of Chorasan, two days' journey from Maru, and
renowned through the East for the production and manufacture of cotton.]

[Footnote 15: The Byzantine historians (Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 766, 766,
Zonaras tom. ii. p. 255, Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21) have confounded,
in this revolution, the truth of time and place, of names and persons,
of causes and events. The ignorance and errors of these Greeks (which
I shall not stop to unravel) may inspire some distrust of the story of
Cyaxares and Cyrus, as it is told by their most eloquent predecessor.]

The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of a king;
and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian [16] 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. [17] 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 [18] 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 t