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Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5




[Footnote 16: Willerm. Tyr. l. i. c. 7, p. 633. The divination
by arrows is ancient and famous in the East.]

[Footnote 17: D'Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his
posterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from
the great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar
pedigree of the house of Zingis gave a different cast to flattery
and fable; and the historian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from
Alankavah, the virgin mother, (p. 801, col. 2.) If they be the
same as the Zalzuts of Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist.
Genealogique, p. 148,) we quote in their favor the most weighty
evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the descendant of Zingis,
Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan.]

[Footnote 18: By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the
Tangroli-pix of the Greeks. His reign and character are
faithfully exhibited by D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 189 -
201.)]

[Footnote 19: Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. ii.
p. 257. With their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they
describe the ambassador as a sherif, who, like the syncellus of
the patriarch, was the vicar and successor of the caliph.]

[Footnote 20: From William of Tyre I have borrowed this
distinction of Turks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and
convenient. The names are the same, and the addition of man is
of the same import in the Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few
critics will adopt the etymology of James de Vitry, (Hist.
Hierosol. l. i. c. 11 p. 1061,) of Turcomani, quesi Turci et
Comani, a mixed people.]

[Footnote 21: Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. iii. p. 165, 166,
167. M. DeGognes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt.]

With the belief of the Koran, the son of Seljuk imbibed a
lively reverence for the successor of the prophet. But that
sublime character was still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and
Egypt, and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove his title
in the judgment of the strong, though illiterate Barbarians.
Mahmud the Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of
Abbas; and had treated with indignity the robe of honor which was
presented by the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful
Hashemite had changed with the change of fortune; he applauded
the victory of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his
temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed
and enlarged this important trust, he was called to the
deliverance of the caliph Cayem, and obeyed the holy summons,
which gave a new kingdom to his arms. ^22 In the palace of
Bagdad, the commander of the faithful still slumbered, a
venerable phantom. His servant or master, the prince of the
Bowides, could no longer protect him from the insolence of meaner
tyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris were oppressed by the
revolt of the Turkish and Arabian emirs. The presence of a
conqueror was implored as a blessing; and the transient mischiefs
of fire and sword were excused as the sharp but salutary remedies
which alone could restore the health of the republic. At the
head of an irresistible force, the sultan of Persia marched from
Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the prostrate were spared; the
prince of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of the most
obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he
inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people of Mosul and
Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and the
restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of
his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of
religious prejudice over Barbarian power. ^23 The Turkish sultan
embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his
public entry on horseback. At the palace-gate he respectfully
dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without
arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil: the black
garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he
held in his hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror
of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest
posture, and was led towards the throne by the vizier and
interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne,
his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal
lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively
invested with seven robes of honor, and presented with seven
slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire.
His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns ^* were placed
on his head; two cimeters were girded to his side, as the symbols
of a double reign over the East and West. After this
inauguration, the sultan was prevented from prostrating himself a
second time; but he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the
faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice of heralds
and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad,
the Seljukian prince again rescued the caliph from his enemies
and devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison
to the palace. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of
Togrul's sister with the successor of the prophet. Without
reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem; but
Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to
mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian
shepherd; and protracted the negotiation many months, till the
gradual diminution of his revenue admonished him that he was
still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials were followed
by the death of Togrul himself; ^24 ^! as he left no children,
his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of
sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in
the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the
Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On
the throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the
domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the
faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which
they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian
dynasty.

[Footnote 22: Consult the Bibliotheque Orientale, in the articles
of the Abbassides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin
and Abulpharagius.]

[Footnote 23: For this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. De
Guignes (tom. iii. p. 197, 198,) and that learned author is
obliged to Bondari, who composed in Arabic the history of the
Seljukides, tom. v. p. 365) I am ignorant of his age, country,
and character.]

[Footnote *: According to Von Hammer, "crowns" are incorrect.
They are unknown as a symbol of royalty in the East. V. Hammer,
Osmanische Geschischte, vol. i. p. 567. - M.]

[Footnote 24: Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus
.... rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror
corda mortalium invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad
ipsum scriberent. Elma cin, Hist. Saracen. p. 342, vers. Erpenii.

Note: He died, being 75 years old. V. Hammer. - M.]



Chapter LVII: The Turks.

Part II.

Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of
the Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by
the victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been
extended as far as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia.

Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were
suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united
the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the
art and riches of a powerful monarchy. ^25 The myriads of Turkish
horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to
Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand
Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet
the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on
the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country;
the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an
Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or
suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the
Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. ^26
The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the
popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of
Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal
animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish
cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to
which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple
of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he
carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and
pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose
mortal frailties were now covered by the venerable rust of
antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and Georgia was
achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom, and
the spirit of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial
fortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople;
by strangers without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and
recruits without experience or discipline. The loss of this
important frontier was the news of a day; and the Catholics were
neither surprised nor displeased, that a people so deeply
infected with the Nestorian and Eutychian errors had been
delivered by Christ and his mother into the hands of the
infidels. ^27 The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus were more
strenuously defended by the native Georgians ^28 or Iberians; but
the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were indefatigable in this
holy war: their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual,
as well as temporal, obedience; and, instead of their collars and
bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on
the infidels who still adhered to the worship of their fathers.
The change, however, was not sincere or universal; and, through
ages of servitude, the Georgians have maintained the succession
of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, whom nature has
cast in her most perfect mould, is degraded by poverty,
ignorance, and vice; their profession, and still more their
practice, of Christianity is an empty name; and if they have
emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate
to remember a metaphysical creed. ^29

[Footnote 25: For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in
general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus,
Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius
Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter
statesmen; yet such were the Greeks, that the difference of style
and character is scarcely discernible. For the Orientals, I draw
as usuul on the wealth of D'Herbelot (see titles of the first
Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
iii. l. x.)]

[Footnote 26: Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the
vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the
Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot,
p. 213 &c.)]

[Footnote 27: (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834,
whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that
he confounded the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies,) He
familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should apprehend, very
foreign to the perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to
confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox
Romans.]

[Footnote 28: Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks,
(Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it
from their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.)
But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a
Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals,
(D'Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George
of Cappadocia.]

[Footnote 29: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in
Chardin's Travels, (tom. i. p. 171 - 174,) the manners and
religion of this handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree
of their princes from Adam to the present century, in the tables
of M. De Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433 - 438.)]

The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was
not imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the
Greek empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress
compelled her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a
soldier; and Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial
purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from
Constantinople within two months after his accession; and the
next campaign he most scandalously took the field during the holy
festival of Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the
husband of Eudocia: in the camp, he was the emperor of the
Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources and
invincible courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were
taught to act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear.
The Turks had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the
sultan himself had resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the
war; and their numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in
the security of conquest. Laden with spoil, and careless of
discipline, they were separately surprised and defeated by the
Greeks: the activity of the emperor seemed to multiply his
presence: and while they heard of his expedition to Antioch, the
enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebizond. In three
laborious campaigns, the Turks were driven beyond the Euphrates;
in the fourth and last, Romanus undertook the deliverance of
Armenia. The desolation of the land obliged him to transport a
supply of two months' provisions; and he marched forwards to the
siege of Malazkerd, ^30 an important fortress in the midway
between the modern cities of Arzeroum and Van. His army
amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand men. The troops
of Constantinople were reenforced by the disorderly multitudes of
Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real strength was composed of the
subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the
squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were
themselves of the Turkish race; ^31 and, above all, the mercenary
and adventurous bands of French and Normans. Their lances were
commanded by the valiant Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father
of the Scottish kings, ^32 and were allowed to excel in the
exercise of arms, or, according to the Greek style, in the
practice of the Pyrrhic dance.

[Footnote 30: This city is mentioned by Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,)
and the Byzantines of the xith century, under the name of
Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but
Delisle, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the
situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes
Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with
water, without trees, &c.]

[Footnote 31: The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant.
tom. iii. p. 923 - 948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des
Huns, tom. ii. p. 522, tom. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appear on the
Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the
name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.]

[Footnote 32: Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is
distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman
conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Baliol: and our own
historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to
Durham, built Bernard's castle on the Tees, married an heiress of
Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No.
4) has labored the subject in honor of the president de Bailleul,
whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.]

On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his
hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at
the head of forty thousand horse. ^33 His rapid and skilful
evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the
Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal
generals, he displayed the first example of his valor and
clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces
after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he
attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey
his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of
the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against
the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and
decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the
sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace;
but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the
enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and
defiance. "If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate
the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans,
and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his
sincerity." Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he
wept the death of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout
prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of
retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his
horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and
cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body
with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot
should be the place of his burial. ^34 The sultan himself had
affected to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of
victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose
squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent.
Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian
tactics, Romulus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and
pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and yielding
resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless
combat he spent the greater part of a summer's day, till prudence
and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat
is always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner
had the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx was
broken by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of
Andronicus, a rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the
purple of the Caesars. ^35 The Turkish squadrons poured a cloud
of arrows on this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the
horns of their formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the
Greeks. In the destruction of the army and pillage of the camp,
it would be needless to mention the number of the slain or
captives. The Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an
inestimable pearl: they forgot to mention, that in this fatal day
the Asiatic provinces of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.

[Footnote 33: Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number,
which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by
D'Herbelot (p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives
300,000 met to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum
centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa
instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.]

[Footnote 34: The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of
the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch,
had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or
truth?]

[Footnote 35: He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the
emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus
Bryennius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i.
p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus.
Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason.]

As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and
save the relics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial
station, was left naked on all sides, and encompassed by the
victorious Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained
the fight till the close of day, at the head of the brave and
faithful subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around
him; his horse was slain; the emperor was wounded; yet he stood
alone and intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the
strength of multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was
disputed by a slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on
the throne of Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme
deformity had been excused on the promise of some signal service.

Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent
a dreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a
disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the
royal captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his
fortune, till the identity of the person was ascertained by the
report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of
Basilacius, who embraced with tears the feet of his unhappy
sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a plebeian habit,
was led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the ground
before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan,
starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the
neck of the Roman emperor. ^36 But the fact is doubtful; and if,
in this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with the
national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise
of his bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most
civilized ages. He instantly raised the royal captive from the
ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy,
assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolate in the
hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of his
equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus
was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp
and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day,
seated him in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and
familiar conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of
insult escaped from the conqueror; but he severely censured the
unworthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince in the
hour of danger, and gently admonished his antagonist of some
errors which he had committed in the management of the war. In
the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what
treatment he expected to receive, and the calm indifference of
the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. "If you are
cruel," said he, "you will take my life; if you listen to pride,
you will drag me at your chariot-wheels; if you consult your
interest, you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my
country." "And what," continued the sultan, "would have been your
own behavior, had fortune smiled on your arms?" The reply of the
Greek betrays a sentiment, which prudence, and even gratitude,
should have taught him to suppress. "Had I vanquished," he
fiercely said, "I would have inflicted on thy body many a
stripe." The Turkish conqueror smiled at the insolence of his
captive observed that the Christian law inculcated the love of
enemies and forgiveness of injuries; and nobly declared, that he
would not imitate an example which he condemned. After mature
deliberation, Alp Arslan dictated the terms of liberty and peace,
a ransom of a million, ^* an annual tribute of three hundred and
sixty thousand pieces of gold, ^37 the marriage of the royal
children, and the deliverance of all the Moslems, who were in the
power of the Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this
treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; he was
immediately invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles and
patricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan,
after a courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a
military guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the
empire, than he was informed that the palace and provinces had
disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of two hundred
thousand pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch
transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his
impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition,
of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause of his ally; but his
designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death, of
Romanus Diogenes. ^38

[Footnote 36: This circumstance, which we read and doubt in
Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by
Nicephorus and Zonaras.]

[Footnote *: Elmacin gives 1,500,000. Wilken, Geschichte der
Kreuz-zuge, vol. l. p. 10. - M.]

[Footnote 37: The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and
the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but
Nicephorus Bryennius dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and
that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful
treaty.]

[Footnote 38: The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be
found in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 835 - 843.

Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 281 - 284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. i. p.
25 - 32. Glycas, p. 325 - 327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134.
Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 343 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227.
D'Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207 - 211.
Besides my old acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the
historian of the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer
Benschounah, a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen of Egypt,
and Novairi of Africa.]

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