THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER LXV. Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane to the Throne of Samarcand.His Conquests in Persia, Georgia, Tartary, Russia, India, Syria, and Anatolia.-His Turkish War.-Defeat and Captivity of Bajazet.-Death of Timour.-Civil War of the Sons of Bajazet.-Restoration of the Turkish Monarchy by Mahomet the First.-Siege of Constantinople by Amurath the Second. Histories THE conquest and monarchy of the world was the CHAP. first object of the ambition of TIMOUR. To live in the LXV. memory and esteem of future ages was the second wish of his magnanimous spirit. All the civil and military of TItransactions of his reign were diligently recorded in the MOUR, or journals of his secretaries': the authentic narrative was revised by the persons best informed of each particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and family of Timour, that the monarch himself composed the commentaries' of his life, and the institu 1 These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or Cherefeddin Ali, a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian language a history of Timour Beg, which has been translated into French by M. Petis de la Croix (Paris, 1722, in 4 vols. 12mo). and has always been my faithful guide. His geogra phy and chronology are wonderfully accurate; and he may be trusted for public facts, though he servilely praises the virtue and fortune of the hero. Timour's attention to procure intelligence from his own and foreign countries, may be seen in the Institutions, p. 215. 217. 349. 351. 2 These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe: but Mr. White gives some hope that they may be imported and translated by his friend Major Davy, who had read in the East this "minute and faithful narrative of an "interesting and eventful period." VOL. VIII. B Tamer LXV. CHAP. tions of his government. But these cares were ineffeetual for the preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world, or at least from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which he vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and ignorance bas long repeated the tale of calumny', which had disfigured the birth and character, the person, and even the name of Tamerlane. Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than debased, by the elevation of a peasant to the throne of Asia; nor can his lameness be a theme of reproach, unless he had the weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honourable, infirmity. In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasible succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel subject; yet he sprang from the noble tribe of Berlass his fifth ancestor, Carashar Nevian, had been the vizir of Zagatai, in his new realm of Transoxiana ; and in the ascent of some generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at least by the females', with the Imperial stems. He was born forty miles to the 3 I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turkish or Mogu language, be still extant. The Persic version, with an English translation and most valuable index, was published (Oxford, 1783, in 4to)by the joint labours of Major Davy, and Mr. White the Arabic professor. This work has been since translated from the Persic into French (Paris, 1787) by M. Langles, a learned Orientalist, who has added the life of Timour, and many curious notes. 4 Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imitate, the institutions of his great ancestor. The English translator relies on their internal evidence: but if any suspicions should arise of fraud and fiction, they will not be dispelled by Major Davy's letter. The Orientals have never cultivated the art of criticism; the patronage of a prince, less honourable perhaps, is not less lucrative than that of a bookseller: nor can it be deemed incredible, that a Persian, the real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the value and price, of the work. 5 The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style: Ahmedis Arabsiada (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vitæ et Rerum gestarum Timuri. Arabicæ et Latine. Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger. Franequera, 1767, 2 tom. in 4to. This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an ignorant, enemy: the very titles of his chapters are injurious; as how the wicked, as how the impious, as how the viper, &c. The copious article of TIMUR, in Bibliothéque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as d'Herbelot indifferently draws his materials (p. 877-888.) from Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, and the Lebtarikh. 6 Demir or Timour, signifies in the Turkish language, Iron; and Beg is the appellation of a lord or prince. By the change of a letter or accent, it is changed into Lenc, or lame; and a European corruption confounds the two words in the name of Tamerlane. 7 After relating some false and foolish tales of Timour Lenc, Arabshah is compelled to speak truth, and to own him for a kinsman of Zingis, per mulieres (as he peevishly adds) laqueos Satane (pars i. c. 1. p. 25). The testimony of Abulghazi Khan (P. ii. c. 5. P. v. c. 4.) is clear, unquestionable, and decisive. 8 According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth ancestor of Zingis, and the adven A. D. 13611370. south of Samarcand, in the village of Sebzar, in the CHAP, fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the LXV. bereditary chiefs, as well as of a toman of ten thousand horse. His birth was cast on one of those periods of anarchy which announce the fall of the Asiatic dynasties, and open a new field to adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were extinct; the emirs aspired to independence; and their domestic feuds could only be suspended by the conquest and tyranny of the khans of Kashgar, who, with an army of Getes or Calmucks". His first invaded the Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth tures, year of his age, Timour had entered the field of action: in the twenty-fifth, he stood forth as the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of the people were turned towards an hero who suffered in their cause.The chiefs of the law and of the army had pledged their salvation to support him with their lives and fortunes; bat in the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the desert with only sixty horsemen. The fugitives were overtaken by a thousand Getes, whom he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies were forced to exclaim, "Timour is a "wonderful man: fortune and the divine favour are "with him." But in this bloody action his own followers were reduced to ten, a number which was soon diminished by the desertion of three Carizmians. He wandered in the desert with his wife, seven companions, and four horses; and sixty-two days was he plunged in ninth of Timour, were brothers; and they agreed, that the posterity of the elder should succeed to the dignity of khan, and that the descendants of the younger should fill the office of their minister and general. This tradition was at least convenient to justify the first steps of Timour's ambition (Insti tutions, p. 24, 25. from the MS. fragments of Timour's history). 9 See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Chorasmia, &c. Descriptio, p. 60, 61), in the iiid volume of Hudson's Minor Greek Geographers. 10 See his nativity in Dr. Hyde (Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 466), as it was cast by the astrologers of his grandson Ulugh Beg. He was born A. D. 1336, April 9,11° 57′ P. M lat. 36. I know not whether they can prove the great conjunction of the planets from whence, like other conquerors and prophets, Timour derived the surname of Saheb Keran, or master of the conjunctions (Bibliot. Orient. p. 878). 11 In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of the khan of Kashgar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or Uzbeks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of Tartars (Abulghazi, P v. c. 5. P. vii. c. 5). Could I be sure that this word is in the Turkish original, I would boldly pronounce, that the Institutions were framed a century after the death of 'fimour, since the establishment of the Uzbeks in Transoxjana. LXV. CHAP. a loathsome dungeon, from whence he escaped by his own courage, and the remorse of the oppressor. After swimming the broad and rapid stream of the Jihoon, or Oxus, he led during some months, the life of a vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent states. But his fame shone brighter in adversity; he learned to distinguish the friends of his person, the associates of his fortune, and to apply the various characters of men for their advantage, and above all for his own. On his return to his native country, Timour was successively joined by the parties of his confederates, who anxiously sought him in the desert; nor can I refuse to describe, in his pathetic simplicity, one of their fortunate encounters. He presented himself as a guide to three chiefs, who were at the head of seventy horse. "When their "eyes fell upon me," says Timour, "they were over"whelmed with joy; and they alighted from their "horses; and they came and kneeled; and they kissed 66 my stirrup. I also came down from my horse, and "took each of them in my arms. And I put my tur"ban on the head of the first chief; and my girdle, rich "in jewels and wrought with gold, I bound on the loins "of the second; and the third, 1 clothed in my own "coat. And they wept, and I wept also; and the hour "of prayer was arrived, and we prayed. And we "mounted our horses, and came to my dwelling; and I "collected my people, and made a feast." His trusty bands were soon increased by the bravest of the tribes; he led them against a superior foe; and after some vicissitudes of war, the Getes were finally driven from the kingdom of Transoxiana. He had done much for his own glory; but much remained to be done, much art to be exerted, and some blood to be spilt, before he could teach his equals to obey him as their master. The birth and power of emir Houssein compelled him to accept a vicious and unworthy colleague, whose sister was the best beloved of his wives. Their union was short and jealous; but the policy of Timour, in their frequent quarrels, exposed his rival to the reproach of injustice and perfidy: and, after a small defeat, Houssein was slain by some sagacious friends, who presumed, for the last time, to disobey the commands of their lord. At the age of thirty-four, and in a general diet or couroultai, he 12 The 1st book of Sherefeddin is employed on the private life of the hero; He as Zagatai, was invested with Imperial command, but he affected CHAP. to revere the house of Zingis; and while the emir Ti- LXV. mour reigned over Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a private officer in the armies of his ser- cends the vant. A fertile kingdom, five hundred miles in length throne of and in breadth, might have satisfied the ambition of a A.D. 1370. subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion of the' April. world; and before his death, the crown of Zagatai was one of the twenty-seven crowns which he had placed on his head. Without expatiating on the victories of thirtyfive campaigns; without describing the lines of march, which he repeatedly traced over the continent of Asia; I shall briefly represent his conquests in, I. Persia, II. Tartary, and, III. India13, and from thence proceed to the more interesting narrative of his Ottoman war. A D. 1370 sia, I. For every war, a motive of safety or revenge, of His conhonour or zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily quests, found in the jurisprudence of conquerors. No sooner-1400, had Timour re-united to the patrimony of Zagatai the 1 Of Perdependent countries of Carizme and Candahar, than he A. D. 1380 turned his eyes towards the kingdoms of Iran or Persia. -1393. From the Oxus to the Tigris, that extensive country was left without a lawful sovereign since the death of Abousaid, the last of the descendants of the great Holacou. Peace and justice had been banished from the land above forty years; and the Mogul invader might seem to listen to the cries of an oppressed people. Their petty tyrants might have opposed him with confederate arms: they separately stood, and successively fell; and the difference of their fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission or the obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan or Albania, kissed the footstool of the Imperial throne. His peace-offerings of silks, horses and jewels, were composed, according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine pieces; but a critical spectator observed, that there were only eight slaves. "I myself am the ninth," replied Ibrahim, who was prepared for the remark; and his flattery was re and he himself, or his secretary (Institutions, p. 3-77), enlarges with pleasure on the thirteen designs and enterprises which most truly constitute his personal merit. It even shines through the dark colouring of Arabshah, P. i. c. 1—12. 13 The conquests of Persia, Tartary, and India, are represented in the iid and iiid books of Sherefeddin, and by Arabshah, c. 13-55. Consult the excellent Indexes to the Institutions. |