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CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 265
century it was for short periods under the protection of the
Georgian kings David the Renovator and George 111. On
several different occasions they took Ani, but it was recaptured
by the Kurds. Then, in the reign of Thamara, the city was
attacked unexpectedly by the Emir Ardebil of Azerbaijan, and
its inhabitants put to the sword. Even after this, Ani seems
to have recovered ; but a crowning disaster occurred in 1239,
when Jenghiz Khan’s ferocious Mongolian bands sacked
the place, while in 13 19 an earthquake wrecked many of
its splendid buildings. The complete desertion of the city,
however, only happened at a somewhat later date.
To-day the beautiful ruins of Ani, steeped in memories of
a proud era in Armenia’s history, and slowly crumbling into
dust in the stillness of the desert, are a symbol of man’s love
of building up and pulling down—relics of a highly gifted
race forgotten in the hustle of the Western world.
Armenia under the Turks and the Persians to the
Close of the Eighteenth Century.
In the critical times which recurred so often in Armenia,
even as far back as the fifth century, bodies of Armenians
emigrated to various parts of Asia Minor or still farther to
the coast towns of the Mediterranean and Europe, where
they founded colonies. Emigration increased during the
Seljuk inroads of the eleventh century. Small new Armenian
kingdoms, as wc have seen, sprang up in Sivas and Cappa
docia ; and the king of Kars settled with his people farther to
the north, close to the stronghold of Tramentov, near Amasia.
The Kingdom of Cilicia (1080-1375).—Many of the nobles
made their way to the Taurus Mountains in the west and
south-west, and to the country west of the Euphrates. Here,
in Cilicia, where the fertile country had been partially depopu
lated on account of the Arab devastations, they founded in
1080, under their chief Ruben, an independent kingdom
hostile to Byzantium, which sought to suppress their heretical
State and reduce their Church to subjection. Strengthened
by new contingents of Armenians and by a friendly alliance
with the Crusaders, who came to Cilicia in 1097, this new
kingdom of capable Armenian colonists grew and flourished ;
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