Soon myriads of Turkish horse went forth to conquest, overspreading the frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Erzeroum: and the blood of hundreds of thousands of Christians were a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet.
The first invasion of poor Armenia was with more than a hundred thousand men and twenty-four provinces were laid waste. The second was with two hundred thousand and they completed the utter ruin of those provinces, carrying into captivity all the inhabitants. In the year 1049 the armies of Togrul made a third invasion, besieging the city of Ardzan, which had a population of three hundred thousand souls, and contained eight hundred churches with schools and hospitals. Notwithstanding their utmost resistance it was taken and a hundred and forty thousand people were massacred, the remnant were carried into captivity and the city was burned. Many other cities were treated in the same way.
At the same time there were in Armenia sixty thousand Greek Christian troops from Constantinople, ostensibly for the protection of Armenia, yet they did not take a single step to repel the invaders, preferring to see the Armenians slaughtered. Verily history repeated itself as the great “Christian” powers of Europe stood by witnessing the “reform of Armenia.”
There is some small sense of satisfaction in the fact that before the Turks left Armenia they utterly defeated and dispersed these miserable “Defenders of the Faith.”
Again in the year 1053 Togrul appeared in Armenia, destroying many cities, among them the capital city of Kars and then marched to the city of Manazguerd and laid siege to it.
Basilius, the Chief of the city, was a man of great bravery and military skill. He was assisted in the defence of the city by a skillful Armenian priest who, by his inventions rendered the machines raised by the Persians against the walls entirely useless. Then they planned to undermine the fortifications; but this new design was revealed by a soldier who, smarting under some grievous and unjust punishment, shot an arrow into the city to which was fastened a letter making known their plans. A countermine was dug, and the Persian miners being captured they were taken into the city and beheaded on the battlements.
In his rage Togrul caused a huge wooden ballista to be erected,—so large that it required four hundred men to drag it before the walls. Basilius offered a great reward to the man who should succeed in burning it. There was a very ingenious Gaul in the city who, having composed an inflammable mixture, mounted a swift horse and proceeded to the Persian camp holding a letter in his outstretched hand. He went directly to the spot where the ballista stood and while the guards fancied him a messenger sent to the King he hurled the bottles filled with the combustible material into the machine and in the confusion that attended the burning of the ballista escaped back to the city.
The siege was soon raised but other cities felt the fury of his baffled rage as leaving a trail of fire and blood behind him, Togrul returned to Persia. The native historian whom we are consulting, in simplest yet most telling pathos, writes: “Armenia, after this, enjoyed no repose.”
“The Turks are Upon Us”—The Panic in Stamboul.