of barbaric magnificence, while the sword of €harle-
maift spread the Catholic faith of Europe and of the
civilised world among the Obotrites and Saxons of the
North. Two centuries later the thrones of Charlemain
and of Haroun-al-Raschid retained! but- a shadow of their
power, which had been undermined or abridged by similar
causes. The Normans had wasted or iconquered the finest
provinces of the European empire, and the Turks at the
same time had begun to obtain an ascendency, over «the1
Arabian sovereigns of Asia. Just a thousand years after.
the Christian era, the first Turkish dynasty, ofelteljukiyan
princes was erected in the north of Persia, while at the
same time Mahmoud of GhaziSi^ also a Turk, made liist i
first inroads on the ancient empire of Hindustan, and
carried Islam and i devastation among. the-feeble worshippers
of Vishriu. In much earlier times contests had been
waged between Turks and Persians on the*" long boundary
line which runs from the Caspia-rHto the Hindmkfiuh ,and
separates Iran from Turan. The Mohammedan historian
Mirkhond identifies the Turks of Mawéra knahar, .withithe
old subjects of Afrasiab, who, in the time of the Kaianians
or Achsemenidse, and in the.earlierand fabulonsfeage of the-
Pishdadians, warred against the people of Djerashidbut it
would seem probable, from the accounts handed down by
Chinese historians, that the nomadic nations. known under
the name of Sac® and Scythians, were^of a race distinct
from and in hostility with the Thh-kiu and Ilkmg-nu and
the whole Turkish stock. The era when thé; Turks-first
really appeared on the borders of Persia seems to have been
the later period of the reign óf the Saskanidae. The wars
of the Khakan or Great Khan of the Turks, 'commence, in
the history of these middle ages, with the invasion of the dominion
of Babram-jür, son of Yezdejird I, who began his
reign a.d. 417.* The Turks make their appearance at this
period as a people differing from the ancient inhabitants of
Transoxiana. A second invasion of Persia by-the Turks took
place in the reign of Ilormuzd, son of Khosrfi Anushirvan.
* Téxeira’s Abstract of Mirkhond*» History, p. 108.—Modern tjnlrersal Hist.,
voi. 4$ : 5 o ; :
But these aggressions were repulsed and produced little effect
till shortly before the Mohammedan invasion, when all
Persia was suddenly overrun byTurkish hordes, by whom its
force was -sol weakened that :it;Tell an easy-prey to the Saracens
who'Ispeedily.'followed. The Saracens drove the Turks
out of Khurasan and Khavarezm, which remained under the
domMioniJ of the Arabs-, at first .under, the Khalifat until
*894, and afterwards under the-descendants of Sammfini* I
who became independent sovereigns of Bokhara, till the
dealthdof-the sixth princes of. that dynasty in-097* This
was the era-of the .-rise Sffthe famous Mahmoud Ghaznevi,
the son ’ oka Turkish *sluve, to the- throne of Ghazni, to
whom succeeded- the Turkish and .Affghan dynasties on
the borders of India* Ilek-khan was the contemporary
of Mahmoud, as sovereign of Turkistan. In has reign a vast
multitude of Turks passed the Oxus from Mawera’knahar,
among whom the famoup-f-Seljuk and hisghnrde, seated, themselves
inear Bokhara and Samarkand. This warlike clan
gradually increased-, in power till 1034,.when they,invaded
andMdhqueredi all Khorasan and established the empire of
Turks'«rSouthern Asia.
^iAfter tfeSdjukiyan Turks had acquired sovereign
power and had founded royal dynasties in Persia, in Kerman,
in,Bourn, and in-. Syria, it became an object of ambition
among -eastern writers to trace their, genealogy and
dferiv©>< them from, a noble ^origin. The vario»s:^ee«*unts
that were furnisheffdfstheir pedagrtee^sufficiently prove that
no authentic memorials of their history hadfbeen preserved.
In the Lebtarikh, a Persian -historical work often cited by
D’Herhelotjt the Seljukiyans are (lerived -from Afrasiab
and1 the old heroes of Turan, white by Mirkhond they are
deduced, like many Turkish houses^teom Alancova and the
Niroun Mongoles,: .and by Abul-ghasi from the fabulous
Oghuz-khan.J Great#, reliance may be placed on the
accounts which Be Guignes- obtained from his researches
inI Chinese history. The-empire ok-the Thu-kiu, founded
m Hindustan, ’'
t D’Herbeldt, BibUOrient. .
f h $ D’Ohsson. Hist, des Mongols.