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 136 AIFIISTORY OFTHE CRUSADES I 
 There had long been Turks within the Moslem world. Some tribal groups had
established themselves, well before the eleventh century, on the eastern
confines of the Islamic domain, cut off from the main body of their relatives.'
From the ninth century on, especially heavy recruiting of Turkish slaves
had been undertaken in order to enlarge or replace the former unreliable
indigenous armies, and from their ranks had emerged numerous governors of
provinces, some of whom had become autonomous, as had the Tülünids
of Egypt and the Ghaznavids of eastern Iran. It is unlikely that these men
had retained no Turkish elements in their memories or, especially, in their
characters. Since, however, they had been removed at an early age from their
original environments and integrated into the structure of Moslem society,
they cannot be considered as representing a real penetration by the Turkish
world into that of Islam. When the true Turkish conquest occurred, these
elements were no less opposed to it than were the natives, just as "barbarian"-born
chieftains had defended the Roman empire against the "barbarians". And even
though they may unconsciously have facilitated certain transitions, nothing
would have been more foreign to them than any concept of Turkish solidarity.
It was the same with the many Turkish mercenaries introduced into the Byzantine
army during the eleventh century. During the First Crusade, for example,
the troops of the basileus were led by a commander of Turkish origin in their
effort to reconquer Anatolia from the Turks. 
 In order to avoid misunderstanding, however, it should be stated immediately
that, in our judgment, the Turkish conq~s~ was achieved as much from within
as from without. This was done, as we shall try to make clear, in another
fashion. 
 On their side the Turks were not, in the eleventh century, novices in politics.
Almost certainly Turkish in all save name were the Huns who, having been
forced towards Europe at the time of Attila, were the indirect forerunners
of the Bulgar states on the Volga and the Danube and of the Khazars between
the Black Sea and the Aral Sea. In the sixth century, Turks — by this
time even in name — founded around the Altai range an empire which
formed a link between Byzantium and China and left splendid memories in Central
Asia, of which we have an eighth-century record in the first of the famous
Orkhon inscriptions. Likewise Turkish, in the same region, were the eighth-century
Uyghur 
 1 R. N. Frye and Ayd?n Sayll!, "Turks in the Middle East before the Saljuqs,"
Journal of the American Oriental Society, LXIII (i~~.3), 894—207.