The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

Triumph of the Turkmens
The barely controllable,plunder-hungry lurknen
element which formed the mainstay of the armies of the
Saljuq conquerors of the llth century also participated
in all subsequent Turco-Mocgol invasions. It had no
interest in good government or the maintenance of order.
On the contrary, the nomadic Turkmans solely were concerned
with the aggrandizement of portable wealth. The lives
of despoiled populations were of no value to them, unless
such populations could be sold into slavery. Yet, as
was pointed out earlier, all Saljuqa and all Mongols did
not share these alms. Consequently, centralizing forces
within both the Saljuq and Mongol governments were obliged
to support a very delicate balance. On the one hand, the
warlike Turkmens were the best, most determined fighters
and so were necessary for victorious expeditions. On
the other hand, the Turkmens' impulse to destroy all and
move on had to be fought—sometimes literally— in order
for the more sedentary elements to impose taxation on the
conquered peoples, and exploit them in a more systematic
fashion. But eventually the Turkmens were victorious,
destroying both organized Turkish and Mongol states.
Destructive nomadism of the Turkmen type (essentially a
type of economic parasitism) also was practised by some
Kurdish and Arab groups operating in southern and south-
western Armenia.
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