The Crusades Author:Edward Gibbon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE CRUSADES. Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable loss which the church... more » and empire had sustained. By the propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman the sultan, deserved the name of Gazi, a holy champion ; and his new kingdom of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses. The wealth of Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendour of the Augustan age, existed only in books and in ruins, which were equally obscure in the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet in the present decay, Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities ; and, under the Byzantine empire, they were far more flourishing in numbers, size, and opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace and fortress : the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted 100 miles from Constantinople; and the Divinity of Christ was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unity of God, and the mission of Mahomet, were preached from the mosques, the Arabian learning was taught in the schools ; the Cadis judged according to the law of the Koran : the Turkish manners and language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps were scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the hard conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians might enjoy the exercise of their religion ; but their most holy churches were profaned; the...« less