same descent, and those impelled the first invaders on the countries conquered by the Saracens.

of the Christ.

In 1176 Gengis the Khan, or head Year Year of of the Mogul Tartars, settled on the Hegira.

north of China. His four sons made 572 1176 various conquests in China, Transox

ania, Syria, Asia Minor, Poland, Hun

gary and Siberia. Kara-Korum, called

Holim, at the mouth of the Onguin in Kalkas Tartary, was the seat of the empire of Gengis and his immédiate successors. On his decease, Octai, his son, was proclaimed his successor. Houlagou Khan, the dethroner of the caliph Mostassem, was the grandson of Octai, and greatgrandson and fifth in succession to Gengis.

Soon after the death of Gengis, the greatest part of his successors and their subjects, adopted the Mahometan religion. Samarcand in Boucharia, was

their residence.

On the death of Year Year of

of the Christ.

Abousaid, the 13th prince of that dy- Hegira.

nasty, several competitors claimed the throne, and threw the whole kingdom

into confusion. Here the Gengiskha

nidan dynasty is considered to expire. 736 1335 The house of Timour rose on its

ruins. Timour Beg, or, as he is generally called, Tamerlan, was of a noble family in Samarcand, related by females to the house of Gengis. He was the founder of the most extensive empire that has yet been known, extending from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian gulph, and from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archi- 807 1404 pelago. In his palace at Samarcand, he blended the Scythian festivities of Attila and Gengis with the splendor of the Ottoman court; the former predominated, but at the distance of 300 years they disappeared, in the moving camp of Aurengzebe.

Throughout the vast territories we have mentioned, Gengis and Timour were the Scourge of every Christian and Mahometan state which invited or resisted their ambition; but, with this difference, that the private religion of Gengis was the purest deism; and that, in every part of his dominions, he established the most unlimited toleration of religious opinion; but Timour was a bigotted Mahometan, and scarcely allowed the Christians, the choice, offered them by the Koran, of tribute or death.

VI.

WITH respect to THE ATTEMPTS OF THE PRINCES OF CHRISTENDOM TO REPEL THE MAHOMETANS:

VI. 1. The principal of these from Year Year of

of the Christ.

the nature of their object, have been Hegira.

called Crusades. The first was, in

The crusaders took the city of Jerusalem, in

Godfrey of Bouillon was elected

490 1096

493 1099

king of Palestine, but, from humility, Year Year of

of the Christ.

refused the name of royalty, and as- Hegira.
sumed the modest title of Defender
and Baron of the holy sepulchre. With
the advice of the most distinguished
of his followers, he composed for the
government of the new state, a code
of laws. When Jerusalem was retaken
from the Christians, the code was lost;
all the written fragments which re-
mained of it, and all that had been
preserved of it by tradition, were col-
lected together in the middle of the
13th century, by John d'Ibelin, count
of Jaffa and Ascalon, lord of Baruth
and Rames. A further revision of it
was made, in 1369, for the use of the
kingdom of Cyprus, by sixteen com-
missioners in the states of the island;
and was published under the title of
Assizes de Jerusalem.

The 2d Crusade was promoted by the exhortations of Saint Bernard,

of the Christ.

and supported by the Emperor Con- Year Year of rade the 3d, and the French King, Hegira.

Lewis the 7th.

The 3d was undertaken in 1189. It is remarkable for the feuds between

our Richard the first, and Philip Augustus of France.

By a strange fatality, the Crusaders gave up their object for the conquest of the Greek Empire, and, in 1204, they took Constantinople.

The 5th Crusade was conducted by several German princes, under Andrew king of Hungary.

St. Lewis was at the head of the

542 1147

585 1189

600 1203

601 1204

615 1218

6th and 7th Crusades, in 1248 and 649 1248

1270; and illustrated them by his

piety, valour and misfortunes.

The brilliant æra of the christian empire in the east, may be fixed towards the end of the 12th century. Their empire then extended from the Euphrates to Tyre: