[35] Matthew of Edessa, op. cit. x. p. 8. [↑]
[36] Matthew of Edessa and Aristakes of Lastivert. [↑]
[37] When Senekerim of Van ceded his kingdom in A.D. 1021 it had been harried for twenty-two years. Such is the statement of Samuel of Ani (op. cit. p. 723). It is true he attributes these incursions to the “Saracens”; but he must mean the Turks, unless we are to discredit altogether the detailed statement of Matthew of Edessa (ch. xxxviii.), that it was a horde of Turks that defeated the forces of Senekerim. I shall not attempt to reconcile the Armenian accounts with the information which we have received from other sources concerning the early incursions of the Seljuks. The Byzantine writers do not appear to mention the invasions of 1021 and preceding years, or the invasion of 1042 (Brosset ap. Lebeau, Hist. du Bas Empire, vol. xiv. p. 353). [↑]
[38] Matthew of Edessa and Aristakes of Lastivert. [↑]
[39] Samuel of Ani, Thomas Artsruni (quoted by Dulaurier, Recherches sur la Chronologie Arménienne, pp. 282 seq.), and Chamchean. I prefer to translate oppida by villages and urbes by towns in the Latin version of Samuel of Ani, feeling sure that these terms, as understood in modern times, will be more in accordance with the facts. [↑]
[40] Vardan (quoted by Dulaurier, notes to Matthew of Edessa, op. cit. p. 378), and Matthew of Edessa, ch. xi. If Toghrul Bey was over seventy years old when he died in A.H. 455, he would be in the flower of his age at the time of this expedition. [↑]
[41] Matthew of Edessa, ch. lx. p. 71; and Chamchean, vol. ii. pp. 127 seq. [↑]
[42] Matthew of Edessa, ch. lxix. p. 80. See also Lebeau, op. cit. vol. xiv. p. 351. [↑]
[43] The campaigns of this period are narrated by Matthew of Edessa (ch. lxxiii. pp. 83 seq.) and Aristakes (op. cit. pp. 268–82 and p. 285), as well as by the Greek and Arab historians. The subject is discussed by Saint-Martin (Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 201 seq.). [↑]
[44] Matthew of Edessa, ch. lxxviii. pp. 98 seq., and Aristakes, op. cit. 1863, ch. xvi. p. 289. Melazkert owed its deliverance largely to the intrepidity of a Frankish adventurer. It did not fall to the Turks until A.D. 1069, when it was taken after a siege of a single day by Alp Arslan (Matthew of Edessa, ch. cii.). [↑]