DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0112
102 THE MOHAMMEDAN RACES
These nomad Turkmen tribes are worthy the
historian's attention. It was they, and not the
Turkish armies, not even the terrible raids by
which the Turks harried Byzantine territory, that
destroyed the Roman civilisation and prosperity
and population in Asia Minor. The Arabs raided
all Asia Minor in as terrible a way for centuries,
and were for long lords undisturbed of some parts
of the country ; yet their conquest was ephemeral,
and left no visible trace behind it. They won
many battles, they destroyed cities, they lopped
off territories from the Empire of the Caesars, but
the fabric of Christian society was not affected by
them. That great organisation, the result of
Roman law and Christian teaching and ecclesi-
astical unity, defied all such assaults, and, like
the hydra in the fable, it put forth a new head
where one was lopped off; its flesh closed up and
healed as soon as the sword had passed through
it.
In like manner the fabric of Roman Christian
society would, in all probability, have defied and
outlasted the open attack of the Turks. After
the first fury of their inroad was spent in the end
of the eleventh century, it is obvious that the
Byzantine armies were stronger than the Turkish,
wherever they got a fair chance in the commanders
who were put over them. Yet in spite of many
These nomad Turkmen tribes are worthy the
historian's attention. It was they, and not the
Turkish armies, not even the terrible raids by
which the Turks harried Byzantine territory, that
destroyed the Roman civilisation and prosperity
and population in Asia Minor. The Arabs raided
all Asia Minor in as terrible a way for centuries,
and were for long lords undisturbed of some parts
of the country ; yet their conquest was ephemeral,
and left no visible trace behind it. They won
many battles, they destroyed cities, they lopped
off territories from the Empire of the Caesars, but
the fabric of Christian society was not affected by
them. That great organisation, the result of
Roman law and Christian teaching and ecclesi-
astical unity, defied all such assaults, and, like
the hydra in the fable, it put forth a new head
where one was lopped off; its flesh closed up and
healed as soon as the sword had passed through
it.
In like manner the fabric of Roman Christian
society would, in all probability, have defied and
outlasted the open attack of the Turks. After
the first fury of their inroad was spent in the end
of the eleventh century, it is obvious that the
Byzantine armies were stronger than the Turkish,
wherever they got a fair chance in the commanders
who were put over them. Yet in spite of many