he
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. [19] 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 [20] continued to dwell in the tents of their
ancestors; and, from the Oxus to the Euphrates, these military colonies
were protected and propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of
the court and city were refined by business and softened by pleasure:
they imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia; and the royal
palaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and magnificence of a
great monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians and Persians were
promoted to the honors of the state; and the whole body of the Turkish
nation embraced, with fervor and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet. The
northern swarms of Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have
been irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar conduct.
Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague and local
traditions have yielded to the reason and authority of the prevailing
system, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent of nations. But
the triumph of the Koran is more pure and meritorious, as it was not
assisted by any visible splendor of worship which might allure the
Pagans by some resemblance of idolatry. The first of the Seljukian
sultans was conspicuous by his zeal and faith: each day he repeated the
five prayers which are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, the
two first days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in
every city a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the
foundations of a palace. [21]

[Footnote 16: Willerm. Tyr. l. i. c. 7, p. 633. The divination by arrows
is ancient and famous in the East.]

[Footnote 17: D'Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his
posterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from the
great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar pedigree of the
house of Zingis gave a di