IQ THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. the six centuries which preceded the final conquest of Con- stantinople by the division of the race known as the Otto- man Turks, caused a constant movement of the populations in the north and in the east of the empire. Two great routes were open to them in their progress westward. The first, a broad strip of country lying on the nortli shores of the Black Sea, and bounded on the north by Little Eussia, was the way in which the Bulgarians, the Hungarians, and, at a later period, the Comans, the Patchinaks, and the IJzes had entered into Europe. The second was to the south of the Black Sea, and was the way by which the larger division of the Turks harassed the empire and ultimately reached Constantinople. Eeturning, however, to the Turks before their emigration TheSeijn- ^^^^ commeuccd, the most famous division among kiau Turks them at the end of the tenth century was that of the Seljuks. The traditional story of Seljuk, the founder of the tribe bearing his name, is that he was banished from Turkestan in consequence of his having forced his way into the harem of his father. Subsequently he and his followers, who travelled as easily as the inhabitants of the same region do now^, went southwards. After crossing the Jaxartes they pitched their tents in the country around Samarcand. They were a nomad race, terrible as fighters, and but slightly ad- vanced in civilization. They had neither towns nor fortifica- tions, and little knowledge of agriculture. They pitched their tents wherever they found a place convenient for their flocks and horses. When they moved they struck their tents, drove away their cattle, and settled down, as their descendants of pure blood do to this day in Central Asia.' The fact of their emi- the land of darkness. This derivation is on the supposition that they arc of Aryan origin. Dr. Koelle ("On Tartar and Turk," Journal of R. Asintic Society, XIV., Part 2), liowevcr, suggests that Turan is of Tartar- Turk origin, from indeed the same root as these words, and would there- fore signify "rising," mountainous. 1 The account given by William of Tyre, writing circa 1180 ("Recueil des Ilistor. Occidentaux," p. 22) of the Turks whom he had seen in Asia Minor, would be singularly accurate as a description of the Turcomans of to-day.
