Note 9 — Chapter XVI · AKHLAT

The Byzantine Empire, however, was successful in wresting it from the Mohammedans, but only for a short time. It paid tribute to Leo VI., a successor of the Cæsars (A.D. 886–911);9 and it was annexed to the Empire under Basil the Second (in 993). But it fell to the Seljuk Turks in the eleventh century, from whose hands it passed into those of the Merwanids, a line of Kurdish princes which had arisen from the debris of the caliphate, and whom the Seljuks had dispossessed of their seats about Diarbekr.10 The rule of these Kurds appears to have been so harsh that they were driven out by the inhabitants; a warrior of Turkish descent, who had been the slave of the Seljuk governor of Marand in Azerbaijan, was called in as their Prince. This individual, by name Sokman, founded a so-called Seljuk dynasty, which, under the pompous title of Shahs of Armenia, reigned at Akhlat for upwards of a hundred years (1100–1207).11 They were succeeded by the Ayubids, descendants of the renowned Saladin, and of Kurdish extraction. The great siege of Akhlat by the Sultan of Kharizme (Khwarazm) falls within this period. The event still forms the centre of the slight historical knowledge which is possessed by the least uneducated of the present inhabitants. They attribute to it the present condition of the walls. After two attempts which were unsuccessful, the sultan made desperate efforts to reduce this strong place. Twenty siege machines were brought against it from the side of the sea; and, so complete was the investiture, that the besieged were compelled to kill their dogs for food. It was at last taken by storm (in A.D. 1229). But the triumph of Jelal-ud-Din was not of long duration; his successes aroused the alarm of the Seljuk sultan of Iconium; and the bloody battle of Akhlat at once decided the fate of his prize and sounded the death-knell of the Kharizmian empire.