volume one

158
msTOEY or the ceusades.
East, from Damascus and the sea-coast to Jerusalem and
Arabia, had arisen at once to attack the Christians.* Kerhoo-ha,
sultan of Mossoul, commanded this army of the
^lussulmans. This warrior had fought for a length of time,
at one period for the sultan of Persia (Barkiarok), at others
for the various princes of the family of Malek-Scha, who
contended for the empire. Often defeated, and twice a
prisoner, he had grown old amidst the tumults of ci\'il war.
As full of contempt for the Christians as of confidence in
himself, a true model of the fierce Circassian celebrated by
Tasso, he considered himself the liberator of Asia, and traversed
Mesopotamia with all the pomp and splendour of a
conqueror. The sultans of Xice, Aleppo, and Damascus,
with the sovernor of Jerusalem and twentv-eis^ht emirs from
Persia, Palestine, and Syria, marched under his command.
The Mussulman soldiers were animated by a thirst for vengeance,
and swore by their prophet to exterminate all the
Christians. On the third day after the taking of Antioch,
the army of Kerbogha pitched its tents on the banks of the
Orontes.
The Christians were made aware of its arrival by a
detachment ot three hundred horsemen, who came to
reconnoitre the place, and advanced even under the walls.
Inquietude and alarm succeeded immediately to festivity
and rejoicing. They found that they had not stores to sustain
a sie2:e : and several of their leaders were sent with
their troops towards the port of St. Simeon, and into the
neighbouring country, to collect all the provisions they could
find ; but the territory of Antioch had been so completely
ravaged during many months, that they could not procure
anything like enough for the maintenance of a numerous
army. The return of all who had been sent in quest of
provisions completed the terror of the Christians. At the
verv moment of their arrival the infidels attacked the advanced
posts of the Crusaders ; and, even in these early
contests, the Christian armv had to lament the loss of
several of its bravest warriors. Bohemond was wounded in
* Matthew of Edessa estimates this army at a hundred thousand horse
and three hundred thousand foot. Abulfaradge speaks of " mille mille "
horse. The Latin historians do not exaggerate so much, but do not at all
agree in their accounts.