But the downfall of that dynasty which had maintained its existence over a century and a half was not brought about by the hands of the merciless Arabs, nor even by those of the barbarous Turks, though cruel and savage they were. In those days, they did not often do with treachery what they could not with bravery. Even the Turks were somewhat more honest than they are now.
Cakig,[49] the last king of this dynasty, had made himself both popular and beloved on account of his just and wise administration of the government. The Greek Emperor, Monamaches, demanded from Cakig for some pretense the surrender of the Capital Ani. Cakig’s reply to the Emperor was “I can never be prevailed upon quietly to relinquish my paternal inheritance to any individual.” Hereupon the emperor sent a large force against the king; however, the troops were defeated. He again tried by force to accomplish his object, but his attempt was unsuccessful; he then entered into an alliance with the Mohammedan governor of the districts bordering on the provinces of Cakig to ruin the latter; but this also proved to be a failure. Then the emperor pretended to be appeased and entered into friendship, inviting the king on a visit to Constantinople. Cakig doubted the apparent friendship and the sincerity of the emperor, but alas, some of his chiefs who had conspired against him and were sharers of the guilt of the emperor prevailed upon him. Confiding in the solemn assurances of the emperor, and in compliance with the requests of his chiefs, he went to Constantinople. First he was exiled by this perfidious emperor to an island, then to Asia Minor. This dethroned king, deprived of his rightful crown and scepter and paternal inheritance, after a period of thirty-five years of exile, was assassinated by the Greeks.
While King Cakig was an exile the Greeks took possession of the capital, the City of Ani, and a large territory. The Seljukian Turks, who had settled themselves in Persia, were increasing in number and in power, finding the country in a defenseless condition, invaded Armenia. At this first incursion they desolated twenty-four provinces; at their second attack ruined many cities and towns and carried an immense number of the inhabitants into captivity. In the third, they laid siege to the city of Arzu, where many had taken refuge, it being a walled city. The inhabitants made a desperate resistance, but the enemy was too strong, and the Armenians, too fatigued to fight any longer, surrendered. The Seljukian Turks, after having taken possession of the city, displayed a barbarism which was a true example and an equal to those of later cruelties of the Mongolian Tatars. Of the one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and those who had taken refuge in the city, some were butchered in cold blood, some were roasted to death, and the rest carried into captivity. This doleful calamity, one of many, took place in the year of our Lord, 1049.
Several times during every year, the Seljukian Turks and Tatars repeated their incursions, devastated and plundered the country, and indiscriminately massacred the people or enslaved them. Togrul Beg, for fourteen years, before he went to meet the Judge of Nations, tormented, tortured and butchered the Christian Armenians, and dyed the land of Ararat crimson with the blood of her inhabitants. These persecutions and massacres compelled the people to migrate into safer districts. Some of the Armenian princes who were assuming royal titles, instead of uniting their forces against a common enemy, fell prey to the foe, or exchanged their vast territories with the Greek emperor for other provinces. Thus King Sennacherib transferred his immense estates of Vaspuragian and took instead of them the city of Sebastea (now Sivas) and the country about it, extending to the banks of the Euphrates on the east.
The Armenians were rapidly increasing in the provinces of Cappadocia and Cilicia on account of the frequent invasions and incursions of the Seljukian Turks. Alp Arslan, the nephew of Togrul Beg, succeeded him 1063. In the following year, Arp Arslan (valiant lion) invaded Armenia, laid siege to the royal city of Ami, and took it. “It is impossible to describe the destruction and slaughter wrought by the hands of these barbarians, the blood of thousands and ten thousands dyed the waters of Aphour (the river that runs through the city), and the magnificent buildings were set on fire, and numerous bodies, the carcasses, were covered under the ashes and ruins.”[50] Arp Arslan invaded Armenia, again, in battle against the Greeks and captured emperor Romanus Diogenes (1071) and wrested the entire country from the Greeks. His fearful career came to an end by the dagger of a captive enemy in the following year in Turkestan. His son, Malick Shah, succeeded him, and extended the empire from the shores of the Mediterranean on the west to the borders of China on the east. “In religion Seljukian sovereigns surpassed the other moslems of their age in fierce intolerance, and thereby inadvertently provoked the famous Crusades of the western nations. Upon wresting Jerusalem for a time from the dominion of the Egyptian Caliphs, they visited with such hardships the resident and pilgrim Christians, that Europe armed for their deliverance from oppression.”[51]
Many of the Armenians, driven by these powerful invaders and oppressors, had made their way into Cappadocia and Cilicia, and both in the plains and also in the Tauros Mountain districts they formed a strong colony. A young man, who was a relative and a companion with two others, of the unfortunate King Cakig, had made his escape from the plans of the assassins who intended to kill these also after they had done away with the king, found refuge in the mountains. This man, whose name was Reuben, was a center of attraction among the Armenians, a man of warlike disposition and personal prowess, and bent on vengeance. He resided with his son Constantine in Cilicia; his condition must have been very much like that of David when he was a fugitive from the face of Saul. Reuben cautiously avoided conflicts with the Greeks when he was not sure of success, but such contests that he had with them he was invariably victorious. He attacked and wrested the fortress of Parzherpert (lofty fort), and from this time (A.D. 1080) he styled himself Reuben the First, assuming independent reign over the Armenians, who were increasing year by year. Thus began the Reubenian dynasty of the Armenians in Cilicia.
It was during the reign of Constantine, the son and successor of Reuben I, that the immense army of the Crusaders for the first time marched into Western Asia, took the city of Nice and various other places, and laid siege to Antioch. But a terrible famine broke out in their camp. When Constantine and his chiefs were informed of the condition of the Crusaders, he sent an abundance of provisions to the army of the defenders of the Cross. This last dynasty of the Armenians in Cilicia covers a period of almost three centuries. It was by no means in a favorable condition, while Western Asia was in a fearful turmoil and agitation, the conflicting forces by no means disappearing.
The Seljukian Turks, after losing their capital, Nice, made Iconium (which over ten centuries before had listened to the famous missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, tell the story of the Cross) their capital, and made it resound with the “ezzen” of the “Muezzin” from the numerous minarets. It became a source of great trouble to the Armenians. The Greeks, inflamed with like hatred and malice as before, were more or less in constant conflict with them. The Armenians, over-exultant on account of the presence of the Christian forces of the Western nations in the East, were willing to enlist in aid of their cause by entering into an alliance with them, but by doing so they intensified the jealousy and hatred of the Greeks and the wrathful cruelty of the Turks. Moreover, the suspicions of some that these foreigners were anxious to bring the Armenian church under the control of the Pope of Rome were sustained by the facts revealed in due time.
It may be interesting to give a sample of the zeal of the Armenians in their effort to assist the Crusaders and the consequences: King Leo I of Cilicia was in an alliance with the Latin princes of Antioch. The emperor of Constantinople was bent on recovering that famous city from the Crusaders. Consequently to accomplish his purpose he marched on to Cilicia with a large army. The emperor and his generals seem to have been strategists and good warriors. They wrested the city of Antioch and reduced many Cilician provinces and took Leo and his two sons, Reuben and Toros, captives and carried them to Constantinople (1136). The cruel Greeks, after tormenting and torturing their captives, deprived the crown-prince, Reuben, of his eye-sight, then, still not satisfied, they put him to death in the presence of his father, the king. This barbarity so affected him that he died heart-broken in his dungeon (1141). The history of Armenia presents a melancholy picture to the friend of humanity and Christianity; especially when you find some so-called Christians worse than pagans, you still feel thankful that they are at least nominally Christians; what would have happened if they were heathen? Arp Arslan did not treat Emperor Romanus in that manner, because he was not a Greek Christian.
A new tremendous army of the Mongolians, under the command of Genghis Khan, made its appearance in Western Asia; and spread all over Persia, Armenia, Caucasus, Russia, and part of Asia Minor destruction, devastation, and death; committing wholesale massacres, consuming the cities and towns by fire, and carrying away hundreds and thousands into captivity. “Seven years in succession was the conqueror (Genghis Khan) busy in the work of destruction, pillage, and subjugation, and extended his ravages to the banks of the Dnieper.” Armenia has been, over and over, inundated with the blood of her inhabitants, enriched with the carcasses of her people upon her face; her beautiful and bright sky was often rendered dark by the smoke of the conflagrations of her immense cities and numerous towns, kindled by her enemies; her fair sons and graceful daughters were torn away from her maternal bosom, carried into captivity and sold for slaves; her magnificent churches and monasteries were converted into mosques and “tekes.” Yet the “The House of Togarmah” marches on through these tremendous seas of injustice, oppression, persecution, cruelty, and bloodshed, from a remote antiquity to the end of the fourteenth century of our era, lifting up the old, centuries-old flag of liberty, torn to pieces and ready to fall into an irreparable dissolution.