[287] We refer the reader to Gibbon’s 57th chapter for a vivid account of Alp Arslān’s dealings with the Romans (see also Malcolm, op. cit. i. 209–213).
[288] This was a chief named Yūsuf, who had long held out against the Sultan in his fortress of Berzem in Khwārazm. Cf. Malcolm, op. cit. i. 213; and De Guignes, iii. 213.
[289] Notably his uncle Kāwurd (see Müller, op. cit. ii. 94),—whom Vambéry calls Kurd; and Vüllers (in Mīrkhwānd’s Seljūks), Kādurd; and Malcolm (op. cit. i. 216), Cawder.
[290] Müller, op. cit. ii. 94.
[292] Vambéry (op. cit. p. 100) qualifies these statements as the “mere fabrications of partial Arab and Persian writers.”
[293] Op. cit. ii. 95.
[294] This assassin was one of the emissaries (or fadāwi) of Hasan ibn Sabbāh, Nizām ul-Mulk’s old school friend. For an account of the Assassins we refer the reader to the article under that heading in the Encyclopædia Britannica. For more than a century the devotees of the Old Man of the Mountain played a part in politics not dissimilar to that of the Jesuits at certain periods in Europe. See J. von Hammer’s Hist. de l’Ordre des Assassins (Paris, 1833); S. Guyard’s “Un Grand Maître des Assassins,” Journal Asiatique, 1877; and an article by Mr. E. G. Browne in St. Bartholomew’s Hosp. Journ., March 1897.
[295] The history of the remaining Seljūk kings (of the original branch) is so admirably epitomised by Malcolm that it was considered unnecessary in this place to do more than quote from his well-known History of Persia (vol. ii. p. 222 et seq.). These sons were Berkiyāruk, Mohammad, Sanjar, and Mahmūd.
[296] He was himself but fourteen years of age at the time of his father’s death.