nge in the Turks, which I have
mentioned before, and which had as important a bearing as any other of
their changes upon their subsequent fortunes. It was a change in their
physiognomy and shape, so striking as to recommend them to their masters
for the purposes of war or of display. Instead of bearing any longer the
hideous exterior which in the Huns frightened the Romans and Goths, they
were remarkable, even as early as the ninth century, when they had been
among the natives of Sogdiana only two hundred years, for the beauty of
their persons. An important political event was the result: hence the
introduction of the Turks into the heart of the Saracenic empire. By
this time the Caliphs had removed from Damascus to Bagdad; Persia was
the imperial province, and into Persia they were introduced for the
reason I have mentioned, sometimes as slaves, sometimes as captives
taken in war, sometimes as mercenaries for the Saracenic armies: at
length they were enrolled as guards to the Caliph, and even appointed to
offices in the palace, to the command of the forces, and to
governorships in the provinces. The son of the celebrated Harun al
Raschid had as many as 50,000 of these troops in Bagdad itself. And thus
slowly and silently they made their way to the south, not with the pomp
and pretence of conquest, but by means of that ordinary intercommunion
which connected one portion of the empire of the Caliphs with another.
In this manner they were introduced even into Egypt.

This was their history for a hundred and fifty years, and what do we
suppose would be the result of this importation of barbarians into the
heart of a flourishing empire? Would they be absorbed as slaves or
settlers in the mass of the population, or would they, like mercenaries
elsewhere, be fatal to the power that introduced them? The answer is not
difficult, considering that their very introduction argued a want of
energy and resource in the rulers whom they served. To employ them was a
confession of weakness; the Saracenic power indeed was not very aged,
but the Turkish was much younger, and more vigorous;--then too must be
considered the difference of national character between the Turks and
the Saracens. A writer of the beginning of the present century,[35]
compares the Turks to the Romans; such parallels are generally fanciful
and fallacious; but, if we must accept it in the present instance, we
may complete the picture by likening the Saracens and Persi