volume one

niSTORY OF THE CEUSADES. 129
the power of the Saracens, in the first age of the Hegira
it was afterwards retaken by the Greeks, under Nicephorus
Phocas and, ; fourteen years before, the Turks had rendered
themselves masters of it. At the approach of the Christians,
the greater part of the Saracens of the neighbouring cities
and provinces had sought security in Antioch for themselves,
their ^^dves, and treasures. Baghisian,* or Accien,
grandson of Malek-Scha, who had obtained the sovereignty
of the city, had shut himself up in it, with seven thousand
horse and twenty thousand foot-soldiers.
The siege of Antioch presented many difficulties and
dangers. The chiefs of the Crusaders deliberated upon the
propriety of imdertaking it ; and the first who spoke in the
council thought that it would be imprudent to commence a
siege at the beginning of wiater. They did not dread the
arms of the Saracens, but the rains, the tempests, and the
horrors of famine. Thev advised the Crusaders to await in
the provinces and neighboui'ing cities the arrival of the aid
promised by Alexius, and the return of spring, by which time
the army would have repaired its losses, and received beneath
its standards fresh reinforcements from the AYest. This
counsel was listened to ^ith much impatience by the greater
part of the leaders, among whom were conspicuous the
legate Adhemar and the duke of Lorraine. " Ought we
not, at once," said they, "to take advantage of the terror
spread among the enemy ? Is it right to leave them time
to rally and recover from their alarm ? Is it not well kno\vn
that they have implored the succour of the caliph of Bagdad
and the sultan of Persia ? Every moment of delay may
strengthen the armies
Christians of the fruits
of the Mussulmans, and rob the
of their victories. You talk of the
arrival of the Greeks ;
but do we stand in need of the Greeks
to attack enemies already many times conquered ? Was it
necessary to await for new Crusaders from the West, who
* The name of this Seljoucide prince has been disfigured by the greater
part of the Latin historians. Tudebode and the monk Robert call him
Cassianns; Foucher de Chartres, Gratianus ; William of Tyre, Acxianus;
Albert d'Aix, Darsianus : M. de Guignes, and the greater part of the
Orientalists, call him, after Abulfeda, Baghistan; but in oiher Oriental
historians he is named Akby Syran (brother of the black), which is more
conformable to the corrupt name of Accien, which he bears in our
" History of the Crusades."
;