When the Greek kingdom was divided in two, the iron scepter became a broken reed (just as the Assyrians insultingly styled the kingdom of Egypt), and the cauldron which was shown to Jeremiah, boiling and spilling over [afflicting] from north to south, now with its ferocious rolling boil spilled over, burning and destroying the Christian peoples from south to north. For, as is said in the Lord's command, "The kingdom divided against itself [122] cannot stand, but is destroyed," so, truly, did it occur. Because as soon as the Persians realized that [the Byzantine nobles] were fighting and opposing one another, they boldly arose and came against us, ceaselessly raiding, destructively ravaging.

From the very beginning of that year which we recalled above with woe, troops came from Persia resembling ravenous wolves which, upon encountering a flock unguarded by a shepherd, are not content merely with eating their fill, but try to kill all the flock, so the troops from Persia [g105] were not satiated by booty alone, but craved our deaths with voracious appetites. It was impossible for anyone they spotted to escape from their hands. They regarded that as a great deed of benevolence.

Now during the period of Byzantine warfare, Iwane, Liparit's son, [was alive]. A dwelling place, the great Erizay awan in the Hastenic' district, had been given to him as a gift together with the dastakerts ("estates") surrounding it. When [Iwane] learned that the [Byzantine] kingdom had been split in two, he went and deceitfully took the stronghold called Eghanc' Berd. After taking it, he turned back to the district of Aghor and the stronghold called Hawachich'. The city went before him in friendship. [123] There [Iwane] chanced to encounter the judge who was concerned with [the government] of the East. Instantly he ordered [the judge] arrested and he stripped him of inestimable treasure, horses, donkeys and everything else which he had amassed in the East, and then incarcerated him at Eghnut. [Iwane] hurriedly went against the secure city of Karin. For a while he attempted take it by deception, saying: "I have an edict from the king. The city belongs to me. Open the gates so that I may enter." When he was unable to subdue them in this manner, he fought, hoping to master the city through warfare. Now the prince of the city quickly informed the prince residing at Ani, who held the charge of magister. As soon as the latter heard what was going on, he sent one of his principals together with the troops against [Iwane]. But [Iwane] found out, pillaged that country, then returned to his own place. And he sent to the Persians to bring him auxiliary troops. This was the inception of unbelievable misfortunes which were visited upon us.

When the infidels heard this invitation, they notified one another, quickly assembled at one place, and speedily reached [Iwane]. Seeing the multitude of their troops, he was awed. [g106] For there was none to oppose them. That prince because of whom [the Saljuqs] had come, had secured himself [124] into a great fortress, at the first clamor of their arrival. Then the troops which had come said: "Show us a path of plunder; do not turn us away empty-handed." Having no way out, [Iwane] gave them a guide from among his own men. They went at night, passing over the desolate places, and reached the Xaghteac' district. Finding [the residents] uninformed, in accordance with their own blood-thirsty customs, they slaughtered all males [from Xaghteac'] as far as Xrt'i forest in Chanet'ia. Taking an unlimited amount of loot and captives, they turned back with great triumph. Then they went to that director of wickedness [Iwane], and thanked him with magnificent gifts for the success which they had encountered on the way. Thereafter they returned to their own land. But because they observed that the country was lordless and without a defender, those satelites of satan soon returned [to Armenia]. They descended into the Mananaghi district and divided into two parts. One detachment went to Ekegheac' and attacked the city there at night. The city was unprepared and not warned [of the Saljuqs' coming]. I am incapable of recording the disastrous, pitiful evils [visited upon that city]. When day dawned, such a lamentable spectacle of agitation was revealed that it even would have made the very stones and inanimate objects sigh. What spectator's heart [125] would not break, who would not be seized with trembling, whose eyes would not cloud over and grow dim? The squares, homes, and vast chambers, the lanes and vineyards were choking with corpses. Virtually the entire confines of the city were dyed red with the blood of the slain. There [g107] were many who yet lived, unable to speak, breathing with difficulty. As for the severely wounded, [the Saljuqs] mercilessly tore out their intestines and livers, stuck them in their mouths and forced them to eat while they yet lived. Oh God, for Your forgiveness then! Oh, the great number of our evil deeds! For this is the thirteenth year that the Christians have born such intolerable disasters, yet the Lord's wrathful anger has not been quenched. Still His hand is raised, with a cup of pure wine to make us drunk, in a foul drunkeness. No more does He forgive and pardon, but would requite us hateful people. Thus were the city, and the villages and fields surrounding it, besieged until there was no living human remaining except for those in the strongholds. The infidels, filled full and satiated with loot, set fire to the city, took captives and the pillage of that district, and then turned thence. Such is your grievous history, oh city! No longer shall you be a city of refuge, but rather an abyss of ruin for those dwelling within you. Here we have recorded but a few of the diverse misfortunes [visited upon Ekeleac' district].

[126] The infidels came to the Karin district, to a village called Blurs, Since the residents of that place had enclosed the hill with a wall whose foundations they had laid on the soil (as in the Lord's proverb), when the infidels came like a raging torrent and struck against that wall, it did not withstand even for a moment, but quickly collapsed. Its collapse was heard throughout the world, and shall be remembered for all time. For those who thought [the city] would be a place of salvation and refuge, it became a pit of ruin. For all the villages and religious establishments [g108] on this side of the Euphrates, as well as many people from the Arcn awan had assembled there. As soon as the enemy attacked, [the city's] fortifications collapsed, and they rushed in. The flashing of swords and the whizzing of bowstrings made everyone tremble with dread as if bound with chains. Since there was no prince nor leader there who, by threats and encouragement, might urge them to resist the enemy, urging them to be brave martyrs, as is meet for all warriors, the lordless citizens became horror-stricken at the mere sight [of the Saljuqs]. They lost their senses, they gave up hope and went crazy. And they commenced hiding from one another. Some descended the walls at nighttime and fled, others voluntarily surrendered. Those who remained inside, abandoning all thought of resistance, dug caverns and hid underground. [127] When the enemy attacked, they cut [the citizens] down, not after the fashion of a war, but as though they were slaughtering sheep penned up in a yard. Some [the Saljuqs] seized, brought forward and beheaded with the sword. They died a double death. More bitter than death was the scintillating of swords above them, then the death verdict. Swords in hand they came upon some, fell upon them like beasts, pierced their hearts and killed them instantly. As for the stout and corpulent, they were made to go down on their knees, and their hands were secured down by stakes. Then the skin together with the nails was pulled up on both sides over the forearm and shoulder as far as the tips of the second hand, forcibly removed, and [the Saljuqs] fashioned bowstrings out of them. Oh how bitter this narration is!

As for the presbyters and clerics, what ear could bear the unique tortures to which they were subjected? Their skin was flayed from the breast upward, over the face, and [g109] then twisted around the head. And only after so torturing them did [the Saljuqs] kill them. Who has heard of more bitter, unbelievable tortures? We have not encountered any in the martyrdoms of the saints.

[128] By such deeds did they kill everyone. They even hunted after those survivors who were buried [in hidden chambers], killing them after wickedly stabbing them through. The mountains all resounded with the screams of the tortured. When [most] of the people had been executed, [the Saljuqs] then split open the sides of the slain, drained the bile into pans, and made the slave women take that along. So ended that bad fortune. So were we betrayed into the hands of wicked, merciless men. Nor did the Lord visit us, since we did not heed Him when we dwelled in peace. He beseeched us through His prophets, saying: "Come, heed Me, and you shall dwell in goodness, and if you hear Me with joy, you shall enjoy the good things of the land" [Isaiah 1.18-19]. We neglected His words. Consequently He did not hear us in our time of need. No, He turned His face away from us. And we were betrayed into the hand of our enemies, and straitened by those who hated us. Their arrows drank our blood, and their swords ate the flesh of our fallen wounded fighting men. In such triumph they went off to their own land. It is said that seven thousand [men and women] were killed or captured, and sixty clerics.

Earlier we recalled and described what one detachment [of Saljuqs], which had come to the borders of Mananaghi [g110 ] and divided, accomplished. Now the second detachment raced its horses through Hanjet' and Xorjean [districts], turning neither right nor left but heading straight for its target like the powerful thrust of an arrow shot from the bowman's hand. So [the Saljuqs] went at nighttime, never resting, until suddenly, unexpectedly, they fell upon the residents of the southern city like hail mixed with stones. Because the city had no place of refuge, the residents could find no way out, like ocean waves, surging back and forth. Alas the deeds then performed in that city! The infidels put swords to work and killed the mother with her child, and the son before his father. And that gloriously fashioned city became a cistern full of blood. The extreme suddenness of it, the unexpected anguish caused people to forget their love for dear ones and sympathy for relatives. Each person thought of some way of escape, to perhaps save himself from the burning Gehenna of rage. Consequently, they fled to the vineyards which surrounded the city, and they concealed themselves under the thick leaves [130] of the vines. The infidels learned about this, searched [the vineyards], and stabbed and killed with lances all [those concealed]. The clusters of grapes were stained with their blood. Later on the surviving dregs [of the city] came forth, located their dead among the vines, and buried them under the earth. Yet their consciences would not allow them to gather or eat those grapes. For they said that those grapes [were filled with] human blood. Now when the infidels were finished killing, they returned to the city and started searching through the houses. If anyone anywhere or in a secret hiding place had concealed his belongings, [the Saljuqs] dug them out with great skill. Then they set the city on fire and burned it down, and then, taking booty and captives, they departed. They dealt [g111] similarly with the surrounding villages and awans, destroying all of them with fire, sword, and slavery until nowhere was anyone left alive to emit even a feeble cry.

Mustering many troops, they went against him. The two adversaries met and clashed. There was so much blood shed that people said that such carnage in one place had not occurred before in Byzantium. On the battleground even many of the principals fell, from both sides. But Comnenus' troops were victorious. And since the patriarch was on Comnenus' side, many of the principals of the city united with him. Leading Comnenus inside, they enthroned him. As for Michael, they made him become a monk and set him off to an island, though some say he went gladly. All this took place [g112] in that same world-destroying year [A.D. 1057].

Now Christ, in His envivifying evangelism, brought us closer to His heavenly Father, to become familiar with Him. And He commanded that [we] resemble him in all matters, and to preserve that relationship by means of good conduct. Yet we rebelled from our sweet and good Father and were alienated from His association. Therefore in the time of our need and of our torments, He ignored us, and we were betrayed into the hand of a foreign people. Our enemies grew strong against us, those who hated us ravished us; we were laid low, and our entrails congealed in the ground. It was among us as it was in the time of Moses when God said to Egypt (which had been struck ten times with [the Lord's] scepter): "This is my great might" [Hebrews 12.7].

[133] Their water turned to blood. Our rivers and cisterns and virtually all the soil of the country was dyed with our blood. Tumours formed all over their bodies. Our bodies were stabbed by swords, and then [g113] hacked apart, limb by limb. Dragonflies and mosquitoes rested upon [the Egyptians] which bit and blinded those lordly visages, but volleys of arrows were our fate, and they wounded more painfully. For three days, [the Egyptians'] day was turned to night. However [in Armenia] the light was entirely extinguished, for the eye itself died, nor in its lifetime shall it again see the goodness of the Lord. Horrible looking insects entered their homes, yet [these same pests] crept into our homes and churches—it terrifies me to say it—and polluted them not only with ravaging diseases, but also with an awful stench. The angel of death looked after their first born sons, while here [in Armenia] whole houses with their inhabitants were wiped out, one and all. The only thing we lacked was the Sea, yet if you judge things by their outcome, you will also find that we too had our Sea. For are there deeper abysses than Turkestan or lands at the ends of the earth, whither our captives were dragged, wherein they were swallowed [134] up as in the Red Sea, which was dyed with the blood of their captives? The [Egyptians] demanded as payment from the Israelites golden ornaments and clothing in place of serving them. Yet [the Saljuqs] totally stripped and pillaged whatever we had, even though we had done nothing to them. Alas and alack that unconsolable destruction! There was a double justice in chastising the Egyptians: first, God tried them for the bitter servitude by which they had straitened the Israelites; second, because they worshippcd created beings and not the Creator Who is blessed for eternity. Although we are devoid of good deeds, nonetheless we have the right belief and the tongue of confession. Why should we be punished the way they were? How much more pitiful are we, and [how much more] deserving of lamentation. Oh Lord, Creator, and God, why did You completely reject us, and cause us to be trampled under foot by pagans and make us the object of ridicule and derision by our enemies? Arise and awaken Your might, come and save us [g114], and requite our neighbors sevenfold!

Now it took ten days, more or less, [for the Saljuqs] to accomplish the destruction of other cities and districts. As for the city about which we are now speaking [Melitene/Malatya], [135] while it was still flourishing, it resembled a three-year-old heifer in the strength of its vigor and bravery, like Moab, it was tender and genteel. Its merchants were the glorious men of the country, while its shoppers were the kings of nations, who rested on ivory couches always drinking clarified wine, and anointing [themselves] with fragrant oils. All evils commence with this, just as Moses condemned the Israelites: "It waxed fat and grew thick, and became sleek, then it forsook Lord God its Creator" [II Deuteronomy 32.15]. The Sodomites, similarly, led such lives, and fell into unbelievable evils, as Ezekiel revealed, enraptured by the plentitude of bread and a rich existence. Even the first man was unable to enjoy the blessings of Paradise for a day untainted. Such is our nature: when growing poor, we grumble and blame God, while when growing rich we become insolent and like immortals subjugate the land. Therefore, constantly changing our condition, we are taught to know our limits and not to ascend above our bounds, so that our fall not be all the greater. Does anyone know anything more dishonored or lowly than the soil? Yet we originated from it and return to it. However, the creator of our [136] nature does not want anyone to be lost, and therefore does not allow any to live abandoned. As much as is possible and when it is appropriate, He advises us sweetly and with paternal counsel, but when we do not heed His counsel, He torments us with His lordly authority. Some [g115] sinners He tries in this world, so that in the next their torments will be the lighter, Others He keeps for the next world [to punish]. And there are those, like the Sodomites, who were punished both in this world and in the next. There are those, like Lazarus, who [are punished] in this world only; others such as the wealthy (mecatunn) are punished in the next world solely. Let this discussion be closed here. We now return to our narration.

During autumn of that grievous year, while the Byzantines were occupied with the clamor of kings [succession squabbles], when the month of Areg had come [October, 1057] once again another army arose from Persia, but whether it was the same one that had come before, or a new one, I do not know. They croseed the desert places with such caution that no one knew [they were coming] until they reached the district called Kamax. Then [the Saljuqs] divided up. One group went as far as Koghonia, and, as is their [137] wont, they ravaged the country. We learned about their passage subsequently. The other group headed for Melitene, and reached it at night. There was a brigade of Byzantine cavalrymen guarding the city, and so, when the brigands arrived, [the Byzantines] suddenly sallied forth to attack. When the two forces clashed, many were killed on both sides. Meanwhile, during the battle, those who left the city were able to save their lives. The warriors who remained to fight on [eventually] fled after the fugitives. As for those seized in the city, [the Saljuqs] put them all to the sword. They remained there for twelve days, digging through and ruining the city and its surrounding estates. This was the recompense of uncorruptable, righteous God for the arrogance [of the people of Melitene]. God requites each in accordance with his deeds.

Now when [the inhabitants of] the districts located below Ekegheac' (through which [the Saljuqs] passed by night) [g116 ] learned about the evils visited upon Melitene, they assembled numerous troops of archers and seized the passes of the road. Since the infidels did not know about any other road, [138] and since the mountains were covered with heavy snow, they were obliged to stay right where they were for five months of winter, from its inception until the month of Nawasard [November, 1057- March, 1058]. The country despaired of life. [The Saljuqs] left a remembrance forever of the unbelievable inequities they occasioned there. They took the young boys and other little children and used them as targets, wickedly piercing and killing them with lances and arrows. Nor did any feelings of pity find their way into their natures. I need not mention the children who were torn from their parents' embrace: the boys were hurled against rocks, while the attractive women and girls who had been reared in comfort were disgraced. Why should I record it? Do you see how unbearable the measure of tribulations are when God withdraws His hand from us?

Victuals for man and beast gave out. Therefore [the Saljuqs], driven by the severity of their need, went up toward Xorjean [district]. But because the roads were cut because of [the people's] fear of them, and since snow still thickly covered the country, they went twice as quickly as before. They allowed herds of horses and donkeys [139] to run ahead unimpeded, thus opening a path. Then the captives and baggage went. In this fashion they reached the edge of that district and the village named Mormreans. Now this village had a fortress, and for that reason all the inhabitants of the place had assembled there. When the Persians reached it, they encamped, since they thought that there was a cavalry force within the fortress. Packing down the snow, they commenced preparing for battle. Their chief went before the fortress and started saying something to the prince of the fortress. He had covered the snow with numerous pavilions [g117] and was sitting on [one of] them, with a shield before him speaking harsh words with arrogant conceit. The prince of the stronghold, who had been awaiting an opportune moment, [acted] when the shield curved over to one side. He shot at [the Saljuq's] throat with an arrow, and killed him instantly. Then a Byzantine army came up from behind, and immediately started sounding their horns. Hearing this, the infidel fled, while those within the fortress came out and took as many captives and as much loot as they could back inside. However, the Byzantines did not advance. Now when the Persian(s) saw that another army was not there, they turned around and killed whomever they encountered, gathered [140] up the loot, scooped up the rest, and turned back. Going close to the borders of Eghnut, [the people there] similarly sallied forth, battled with them, freed many captives, filled up with booty, and then went back inside the fortress. Having been defeated, the blood-thirsty beasts were thrown into confusion. When they entered the boundaries of the Taron [district], an army descended from Sim mountain, customarily styled Sanasunk' after their forebear. This army struck at them, vanquished, killed [virtually] all of them, retrieved captives and booty, and returned in joy, glorifying God.

During the same year, [the Saljuqs] burned down the beautiful residence of the blessed [monastery of] Karapet [the Precursor, John the Baptist] which had been built with great labor by a certain Hrahat, one of the colleagues of Vasak's son, the great Gregory, when he was lord of the country. They also burned the belfry located in front of St. Karapet (which had been built in a gorgeous style to the glory and honor of the great martyr and precursor of Christ), as well as other structures, and the wooden church called St. Gregory. This occurred in the year 507 of our [Armenian] era [1058] [g118].

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