volume one

HISTOET OF THE CRUSADES. 325
faithful whom the horrors of war had spared, could not support
the sight of such profanations, and died with despair. *
Thus a city, whose citadel, ramparts, and position on two
mountains, rendered one of the strongest places in Asia, fell
into the power of the Mussulmans. The traditions of religion
and history carry back its origin to the highest anti-
quity. Narses, in a path^ic elegy, deplores the faU of this
celebrated city, and makes itself speak of its ancient splendour.t
" I was," says she, " as a queen in the midst of her
court ;
my numerous children passed their days in pleasures ;
sixty towns standing around me formed my train
the
fertility of my fields, the freshness of my limpid waters, and
the beauty of my palaces were admired ; my altars, loaded
with treasures, shed their splendour afar, and appeared to be
the abode of angels. I surpassed in magnificence the proudest
cities of Asia, and I was as a celestial edifice built upon
the bosom of the earth."
The conquest of Edessa exalted the pride of the Saracens.
The caliph of Bagdad ordered that the barbarous destroyer of
the Christians should be named in the public prayers of the
* The greater part of the Arabian historians assert that Zengui sought
to repair the evils his army had caused to the inhabitants of Edessa.
Keinaleddin relates the following anecdote on this subject, which makes
us at the same time acquainted with the Mussulman spirit of history and
manners. We will transcribe the Latin extract from Dom. Berthereau :
—Norredinus ingressus est urbem, diripuit earn, incolas jugo captivitatis
submisit ; illis evacuata fuit urbs, pauci tantum remanserunt. Ex captivis
unam misit ancillam Norredinus ad Zeineddinum Ali Koudgoucum,
pro rege, patris sui in Mosula inter muneraquse ad eum misit quamcum
;
vidisset ille, statim ilia usus est ;
quid mihi hac die accident ?
lavit se postea, dixitque suis : Nostisne
Dixerunt, non. Dixit : Cum Roham
cepimus, regnante Zengui, inter res raptas in manus meas incidit ancilla
pulchra, ejusque pulchritudo mihi admodiim placuit ; ad earn declinavit
cor meum, statimque jussu Zengui martyris fuit inclamatum : Redde
servos opesque raptas. Metuendus porro erat et reverendus ; ancillam
reddidi, ei vero semper adhaesit cor meum : nove vero misit mihi dona
Norredinus, quae inter, ancillas misit plures, quas inter eamdem ancillam.
Coitu earn subegi, ne adhuc etiam toUetur.
p. 62, translation of Dom. Berthereau.
Kemaleddin, Hist, de Halep.
t M. Cerbied has translated this piece into French, which for several
reasons deserves to be known. This poem, in seven cantos, was composed
by Narses-le-Beau, the Armenian patriarch of the city of Edessa,
to console his fellow-citizens in their misfortune, and arouse the zeal of
the defenders of the Christian religion against the Turks.
—
;