the triple victory of Malek Shah *^ estabUshed his own reputa- tion and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same passions and occasioned the same disorders ; but, from the long series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in a saying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed [Tus] his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizir Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret petition : "That your arms may be crowned with victory," was the prudent and most probably the sincere answer of the minister. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored the Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems." The favourable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph ; and for the first time the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful was communicated to a barbarian.* But this barbarian, by his personal merit and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince of his age. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he marched at the head of innumerable armies to achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been under- taken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had been employed in transporting some troops, complained that their payment was assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at this preposterous choice, but he smiled at the artful flattery of his vizir. "It was not to postpone their reward that I selected those remote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity that under your reign Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same sovereign." But this description of his limits was unjust and parsimonious : beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crushed each i-ebellious slave, or independent savage, who dared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last bound;iry of Persian civilisation : the lords of Turkestan yielded to his supre- macy ; his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers, of Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as the
- 6 The Biblioth^ue Orientale has given the text of the reign of Malek (p. 542,
543, 544, 654, 655), and the Histoire Genifrale des Huns (toni. iii. p. 214-224) has added the usu.1l measure of rop)etition, emendation, and supplement. Without these two learned Frenchmen, I should be blind indeed in the Eastern world.
- [Not Commander of the Faithful (title reserved for Caliphs); but "Partner of the Commander of the Faithful".]
