The earthquake of 1016 A. D., which caused the fall of the wooden dome over the Rock, was no doubt regarded by Christians as the revenge of Heaven on those who had destroyed the Holy Sepulchre. But six years later it was restored by Ed Ḍâher, and still stands with its fine Ḳarmathian text beginning, “In the name of God merciful and pitying: truly he who believes in God restores God’s places of prayer.” Another earthquake did damage to the mosque and to the walls of Jerusalem in 1034, and in 1060 the great lantern, hung from the dome and lighting the building with five hundred lamps, fell with a crash on the Ṣakhrah—an omen of new troubles falling on Islâm.[487]
Under El Mustanṣir, in 1047, Jerusalem was visited by the Persian pilgrim Nâṣr-i-Khosrau, who mentions the inscription still extant, giving actual measurements of the length and breadth of the Ḥaram enclosure. He says that there were no buildings along the south wall east of the Aḳṣa. In the city he found “an excellent hospital, which is provided for by considerable sums which were given for the purpose: great numbers of people are here served with draughts and lotions; for there are physicians who receive a fixed stipend to attend at this place for the sick.” This probably was Charlemagne’s Hospice. This Moslem pilgrim also says, “From all the countries of the Greeks, and also from other lands, the Christians and the Jews come up to Jerusalem in great numbers, in order to visit the church and the synagogue that is there.” The Jews prospered under Moslem rule, and the trade of the East was now to a great extent in their hands. In the twelfth century they deserted a Palestine under Christian rulers, but were found farther east in great numbers, wherever the Moslems remained dominant.
THE SELJUKS
In 1077 A. D. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Seljuk Turks, and was pillaged by Atsiz. The history of this fateful change of masters, which, within a generation, gave cause for the first Crusade, demands a brief notice. The history of Persia and Baktria, since 874 A. D., had been one of constantly reinforced Turkish aggression. The Saman family was said to be descended from the Sassanians, but their forces were Turkish Moslems. Bokhara, under Ism’aîl, in 895 A. D., was the capital of a kingdom stretching from the Tien-shan Mountains to the Persian Gulf, and from ’Irâḳ to the borders of India. It was said to be “the seat of all the sciences.” A century later (in 976) the Samanides were attacked by the Uigurs, and Ilik Khan entered the city in 999 A. D. Ilik (“the prince”) ruled from China to the Caspian in Central Asia, while the great Ghuznî dynasty was founded by Sebuktekin, who sought to aid the Samanides. Ilik, in turn, was attacked by an outlawed general of Bogu Khan (“the stag”), who was named Seljuk, son of Tokmak. It would seem that this family had been converted by the Jews of Central Asia, for among the names of early Seljuks we find those of Moses, Jonah, Israel, and Michael. But they now appeared as devout Moslems. Their tribesmen were still nomads when Togrul (“the slayer”) and Tchakar (“the brilliant”), grandsons of Seljuk, fought Ilik in Bokhara and Boghra Khan in Kashgar. On the death of the great Maḥmûd of Ghuznî in 1030 A. D. they attacked his heir, Mas’aûd, and Tchakar—ruling in Merv—totally defeated him nine years later. The united brothers then conquered Kharezm, and finally defeated the Buyîds, who had ruled in Azerbijân (or South Media) since 935 A. D., and who were all-powerful in Baghdâd. Thus in 1055 A. D. Togrul entered the Moslem capital, and was made “Emîr of Emîrs” as the protector of Kaîm, the twenty-sixth of the Abbaside khalifs. The ambition of the Seljuks aimed at establishing their empire over the whole of West Asia, and they thus at once came into collision with Byzantium.
MELEK SHAH
The great family of the Comneni, who were to play an important part in future history, came from Castamona, on the Euxine, but claimed Roman descent. They were the successors of the Macedonian emperors, Isaac Comnenos being elected by the army in 1057. On his death his brother John declined the throne, and it was given to his friend Constantine XI., Ducas, in 1059. The latter died eight years later, and his widow, Eudocia—left guardian of three sons—married Romanus Diogenes, who became emperor in 1068 A. D. Togrul had already sent an embassy to Byzantium demanding tribute. He died in 1063 at the age of seventy, his brother Tchakar having died five years before. In 1071 A. D. Alp-Arslân (“the brave lion”), the next sultân, son of Tchakar, crossed the Euphrates; and Diogenes, who had just taken Malazkerd, between Erzerûm and Van, was obliged to retreat to Cæsarea in Cappodocia. His army included Frank and Norman mercenaries, and the Byzantines were deserted by these.[488] The Byzantine phalanx was broken by the Turkish archers, and Diogenes was defeated and taken prisoner. He was well treated by Alp-Arslân, and released on promising an annual tribute of 60,000 aurei. But he never regained his throne at Constantinople, and his son Michael was deposed by Nicephorus III., who usurped power in 1078, but who was superseded by Alexius I. (Comnenos) in 1081. Alp-Arslân was fighting in Kharezm as early as 1065, and seven years later, while attacking Bokhara, he was stabbed by a certain Yûsef, whom he had ordered to be crucified. He died when only forty-four years old, and was succeeded by his famous son Melek Shah. This greatest of the Seljuks was at first involved in war with his father-in-law at Samarkand; after 1077 his empire extended from the Oxus to Yemen, and he bestowed Syria and Palestine as a fief on his brother Tutush, having organised eight great provinces under his relations. In 1075 Melek Shah had sent Atsiz, a Kharezmian, against the Fâṭemite khalîfah. He took Damascus, but was defeated near Cairo, and in his retreat he reached Jerusalem, which his mutinous soldiers pillaged. Tutush besieged Aleppo in 1078, gained Damascus by treachery, and—having conquered from Antioch to the borders of Egypt—was humbly received by Atsiz at the gate of the Holy City, but immediately ordered him to be beheaded. In 1083 Jerusalem was given by Tutush to his general Ortok, son of Eksek, and on the death of the latter, in 1091, his sons Elghâzi and Sukmân became rulers, Tutush himself being assassinated at Damascus in 1095. The Turks thus held Jerusalem for about twenty years, during which they greatly oppressed the native Christians and the pilgrims. About 1096, or rather later, when the advance of the Crusaders engaged all the Turkish forces in the north, while Radhwân and Dekak, sons of Tutush, disputed the succession, the Fâṭemite khalîfah El Must’aîla-bi-Allah took advantage of their weakness to seize Jerusalem and Damascus; the Holy City was thus in possession of the Egyptians when the Crusaders appeared before its walls in 1099 A. D., and the Seljuk princes and generals were at discord among themselves.
The great Melek Shah had then been dead seven years, and his kingdom split up—though his son at Baghdâd (Borḳiyaruk, “the very brilliant”) was nominal suzerain of the eight kingdoms, or provinces, which were practically independent. Melek Shah also fell a victim to an assassin, and such a fate appears to have been common in Turkish history. The sect of the Assassins (Ḥashshâshîn, or “hemp smokers”) was, indeed, founded in this reign by Ḥasan el Ḥomeiri, who was a friend of the celebrated poet ’Omar el Khâyyâm (“the tent maker”), and of Nizâm el Mulk, the prime minister of Melek Shah. These three were of the Ism’ailîyeh sect, and the scepticism of that school finds expression in the well-known quatrains of Omar.
“There was a door to which I found no key,
There was a veil past which I could not see,
Some little talk awhile of me and Thee