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266 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
and for three centuries the Cilician barons retained their
independence, although surrounded by enemies and continu
al]y engaged in warfare both against the rising power of the
Turks and against By2antium. In vain the Byzantine Greek
Church and the Church of Rome tried blandishments or
threats ; the Armenians of Cilicia, like their kinsmen, would
neither give up their Monophysite doctrine nor their Church.
The history of this Cilician kingdom is one succession of
the most romande and extraordinary occurrences. For any
people to be able, after so many terrible misfortunes, to
migrate elsewhere, and then establish and maintain a flourishing
new kingdom for three centuries on alien soil and among
hostile nations, is evidence of unique vitality. But in the
course of time it was weakened by inner dissensions, and
in 1375 Sis, the capital, was tåken by the Egyptian Mamelukes
after a romantically heroic defence led by its last king, Leon VI.
Nevertheless a free and independent remnant of this Cilician
kingdom, with its independent Armenian Church, survived
until our own times at Zeitun, up in the Taurus Mountains.
Mongolian, Persian, and Turkish Inroads.—About the year
1223 Jenghiz Khan’s Mongolians swept across the borders
of Armenia, plundering wherever they went, and for nearly
a hundred years they were more or less masters of the country.
In the middle of the fourteenth century East Armenia was
tåken by the Persians, while West Armenia fell into the hands of
Turkish beys. Then, in 1387, Timur Lenk’s savage Mongol
hordes fell upon the country and devastated it for a number
of years, burning towns and villages, and giving no quarter,
until they drew off again to Turkestan in 1403. Among all
the horrors of the early history of Armenia the memory of
Timur and his predatory bands stands out as the most sinister.
Armenia became once more a bone of contention between
two opposing Powers and the favourite field of battle in their
wars. These Powers were now the two chief Moslem States :
Persia on the east, and on the west Turkey, taking the place
of Byzantium. East Armenia was again mainly under Persia,
while West Armenia was under Turkish domination. In
order to increase this power in the depopulated areas, Sultan
Selim I summoned from Kurdistan, in 15 14, numbers of
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