mous (or rather infamous) Tamerlane,
early in the fifteenth century. By this time the western Mongols had
accepted Islam, but that made little difference in their conduct. To
show that Tamerlane was a true scion of his ancestor Jenghiz Khan, it
may be remarked that his foible was pyramids of human skulls, his prize
effort being one of 70,000 erected after the storming of the Persian
city of Ispahan. After the cessation of the Mongol incursions, the
ravaged and depopulated Moslem East fell under the sway of the Ottoman
Turks.

The Ottoman Turks, or "Osmanli," were originally merely one of the many
Turkish hordes which entered Asia Minor after the downfall of Byzantine
rule. They owed their greatness mainly to a long line of able sultans,
who gradually absorbed the neighbouring Turkish tribes and used this
consolidated strength for ambitious conquests both to east and west. In
1453 the Osmanli extinguished the old Byzantine Empire by taking
Constantinople, and within a century thereafter they had conquered the
Moslem East from Persia to Morocco, had subjugated the whole Balkan
Peninsula, and had advanced through Hungary to the walls of Vienna.
Unlike their Mongol cousins, the Ottoman Turks built up a durable
empire. It was a barbarous sort of empire, for the Turks understood very
little about culture. The only things they could appreciate were
military improvements. These, however, they thoroughly appreciated and
kept fully abreast of the times. In their palmy days the Turks had the
best artillery and the steadiest infantry in the world, and were the
terror of Europe.

Meantime Europe was awakening to true progress and higher civilization.
While the Moslem East was sinking under Mongol harryings and Turkish
militarism, the Christian West was thrilling to the Renaissance and the
discoveries of America and the water route to India. The effect of these
discoveries simply cannot be over-estimated. When Columbus and Vasco da
Gama made their memorable voyages at the end of the fifteenth century,
Western civilization was pent up closely within the restricted bounds of
west-central Europe, and was waging a defensive and none-too-hopeful
struggle with the forces of Turanian barbarism. Russia lay under the
heel of the Mongol Tartars, while the Turks, then in the full flush of
their martial vigour, were marching triumphantly up from the south-east
and threatening Europe's very heart. So strong were these Turanian
barbarians, with