DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0026
INTRODUCTION.
XXV
din sought refuge in Constantinople. But when at length
the tide of Mogul conquest rolled back towards the East,
the Seljukian dynasty of Iconium was extinct; Orthogrul,
one of the followers of Aladdin, the last of their Sultans,
pitched his camp of 400 families at Surghut, on the banks
of the Sangarius; and his immediate descendants, having
penetrated into Bithynia in 1299, established themselves
soon after in the city of Brusa. The division of Anatolia
amongst the Turkish Emirs was the immediate result of
this conquest; the remaining Asiatic provinces, with the
seven churches of Asia, were finally lost to the Christian
Emperor, and the Turkish rulers of Lydia and Ionia still
trample on the ruins of Christian monuments.
For above 150 years the Turks of the Ottoman line held
possession of Anatolia, and the frequent contests which took
place between them and the naval forces of the Christians
only tended to increase the power of the Ottomans;, to faci-
litate their passage into Europe, and to bring about their
establishment in Thrace and in the neighbourhood of
Adrianople. With the exception of the kingdom of Tre-
bizond, Bajazet I. had conquered all the Asiatic provinces
of the Emperor, and only a small extent of ground in the
neighbourhood of Constantinople remained to him in
Europe. From the Imperial residence at Brusa were
issued commands almost to the Indus, and Constantinople
itself appeared to be within the grasp of Bajazet. Already
he had prepared his expedition, and the capital of the Em-
pire was about to become his prey, when a temporary relief
appeared from a new quarter, and Bajazet himself was
overthrown by a stronger arm.
This rival power had sprung up in the wilds about
Samarcand, and the world was again to be conquered by
an army of Tartars and Moguls, under the command of
Timour or Tamerlane. Persia, Tartary, and India had
XXV
din sought refuge in Constantinople. But when at length
the tide of Mogul conquest rolled back towards the East,
the Seljukian dynasty of Iconium was extinct; Orthogrul,
one of the followers of Aladdin, the last of their Sultans,
pitched his camp of 400 families at Surghut, on the banks
of the Sangarius; and his immediate descendants, having
penetrated into Bithynia in 1299, established themselves
soon after in the city of Brusa. The division of Anatolia
amongst the Turkish Emirs was the immediate result of
this conquest; the remaining Asiatic provinces, with the
seven churches of Asia, were finally lost to the Christian
Emperor, and the Turkish rulers of Lydia and Ionia still
trample on the ruins of Christian monuments.
For above 150 years the Turks of the Ottoman line held
possession of Anatolia, and the frequent contests which took
place between them and the naval forces of the Christians
only tended to increase the power of the Ottomans;, to faci-
litate their passage into Europe, and to bring about their
establishment in Thrace and in the neighbourhood of
Adrianople. With the exception of the kingdom of Tre-
bizond, Bajazet I. had conquered all the Asiatic provinces
of the Emperor, and only a small extent of ground in the
neighbourhood of Constantinople remained to him in
Europe. From the Imperial residence at Brusa were
issued commands almost to the Indus, and Constantinople
itself appeared to be within the grasp of Bajazet. Already
he had prepared his expedition, and the capital of the Em-
pire was about to become his prey, when a temporary relief
appeared from a new quarter, and Bajazet himself was
overthrown by a stronger arm.
This rival power had sprung up in the wilds about
Samarcand, and the world was again to be conquered by
an army of Tartars and Moguls, under the command of
Timour or Tamerlane. Persia, Tartary, and India had