Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

n6 HISTORY OF PERSIA CHAP.
remnant which escaped into a fort and was rescued by
troops from Constantinople.
The Capture of Nicaea and of Antioch by the
Crusaders.
The next effort was much better organized, men of
higher rank and position, such as Raymond of Toulouse
and Duke Robert of Normandy, taking part
in it. The
army avoided the Mediterranean Sea which was in
Moslem hands, and marching by various routes united
outside the walls of Constantinople. Crossing into Asia
Minor, the vanguard attacked Nicaea, and was in turn
assaulted by Kilij-Arslan, who probably expected another
encounter with a mob. But these Crusaders were a very
different force, and in this, their first battle, they won a
complete victory. Nicaea surrendered in the end to
Alexius, and the crusading army marched across the heart
of Asia Minor towards Syria.
But it was no military
promenade ; for at Dorylaeum, two or three stages to the
south-east of Nicaea, they were again fiercely attacked,
and with some difficulty
beat off the enemy. Asia Minor
had been devastated by the Turkish hordes, and the
Crusaders suffered terribly from lack of water and
supplies, but at last they descended into Syria, and in
October A.D. 1097 besieged Antioch, which was captured
after extraordinary vicissitudes of fortune.
The Storming of Jerusalem^ A.H. 492 (1099). It is of
interest to note that the Crusaders had opened negotiations
in advance with the Fatimid Caliph, who sent a
return embassy to the camp at Antioch. Jerusalem was
in his possession, and he apparently refused any concession
except that he would admit three hundred unarmed
pilgrims to worship at the
Holy Sepulchre. This
offer was rejected with scorn, and in A.H. 492 (1099)
Jerusalem was stormed, when the deplorable fanaticism
of Christendom was vented on the Moslem and Jewish
inhabitants, who were slain in thousands. News of the
capture of the city,
which was sacred in Islam as the scene
of the Prophet's heavenly flight
and as containing the
mosque of Omar, reached Baghdad, and after it came
crowds of refugees who clamoured for war against the
infidel. But, as we have already seen, the Seljuks were