Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of Islam

by Augustus Warner Williams; M. Smbat Gabrielean

On the morning of July 14, 1099, all the Crusaders flew to arms at the sound of the trumpets to make their first grand assault.

The great war machines were pushed close to the walls. Showers of stones were hurled upon the ramparts. Archers and crossbowmen kept up a continual fire from their towers. Scaling ladders were planted. The great leaders were everywhere. For twelve long hours the Crusaders maintained the unequal fight, and then nightfall covered their first repulse. The morning saw the renewal of the conflict more furious and desperate than before. It was carried on with demoniac obstinacy for half a day. Their courage began to fail; nearly all their machines were on fire and there was no water to quench the flames; even their leaders began to waver.

While the battle was in this desperate shape a mysterious knight made his appearance on the Mount of Olives waving his sword and signalling them to renew the assault. They accepted the omen as from heaven and in the fury of their faith rushed again to the attack—dragged their machines still nearer the walls, caught them with their grappling hooks, lowered their drawbridges, let fly showers of flaming arrows which set on fire sacks of wool and bundles of hay that had been used for protection on the inner walls. The wind fanned the flames, driving smoke and heat upon the doomed Saracens. The Crusaders sprang upon the walls with lance and spear in hand. Godfrey, Baldwin, Raymond and Tancred followed by their knights and soldiers were soon in the streets and beating down the gates with their battle-axes opened the way for the great body of Crusaders to enter. Their battle cry rang through the streets of the Holy City.

The miracle-monger places the entry of the Crusaders at the very hour Friday, 3 P. M., at which Christ expired on the cross. But even this could not move their hearts to mercy. We throw a veil of silence over the awful massacre that followed, until Godfrey throwing aside his arms walked barefooted to the church of the Holy Sepulchre. His example was contagious. The army ceased its bloody fury, cast aside its blood-stained vestments, gave vent to its contrition in groans and sobs, and marched with uncovered heads and bare feet following their priests to the Church of the Resurrection. We marvel at the sudden transformation. The devotion of the Crusaders seemed profoundly tender after such horrible carnage. We do not excuse it. We do not condemn it in bitter speech recalling some terrible experiences during our late Civil War, when Christian men sometimes seemed possessed. The demon of war has never yet been baptized with the Spirit of Him who gave up His life for the salvation of the very men who crucified Him.

The last chapter in the history of this first Crusade ends with the establishment of a kingdom of Jerusalem and the selection of the pious Godfrey as King. With its fortunes we may not here concern ourselves. We shall touch upon it as we sketch the resistless march of the warriors of Islam to the conquest of Constantinople and the overthrow of the Empire of Eastern Europe.

CHAPTER IV.

THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS.

From Jerusalem the reader must now transport himself beyond the Caspian Sea eastward if he would visit the early home of the Turks or Turcomans, or Turkmans, against which the first crusade was chiefly directed. Their Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since dissolved, the tribes of the nations, each a powerful and independent kingdom, were scattered over the deserts of Central Asia from China to the Oxus and the Danube. Hordes of these wandering shepherds were about to overspread the kingdoms of Persia, shake the thrones of China and India, and erect a solid and splendid empire from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt. Their conquests were not to cease till their victorious crescents had been planted on the walls of Constantinople, and unfurled to the breeze from the dome of the most magnificent Christian temple of the world—the dome of St. Sophia.

One of the greatest of Turkish princes was Mahmood, who reigned over the eastern provinces of Persia one thousand years after the birth of Christ, (A. D. 997–1028.) For him the title of Sultan was first invented—a word that signifies Lord or Master. His kingdom stretched from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the mouth of the river Indus.