Page images
PDF
EPUB

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. 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.

LXV.

Histories

THE conquest and monarchy of the world was the CHAP. first object of the ambition of TIMOUR. To live in the memory and esteem of future ages was the second wish of his magnanimous spirit. All the civil and military transactions of TIof his reign were diligently recorded in the journals of his MOUR, or 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

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 geography 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 in"teresting and eventful period."

[blocks in formation]

Tamerlane,

XLV.

CHAP. the institutions3 of his government. But these cares were ineffectual 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 has long repeated the tale of calumny,5 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 stem. He was born forty

3 I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turkish or Mogul 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 of 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 Satanæ (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

10

tures,

A. D.

1370.

miles to the south of Samarcand, in the village of Sebzar, in CHAP. the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the LXV. hereditary 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,11 invaded the Transoxian His first kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had advenentered the field of action: in the twenty-fifth, he stood forth as the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of 1361... 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; but in the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the desart 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 di"vine 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 desart with his wife, seven companions, and four horses; and sixty-two days was he plunged in a loath

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 (Institutions, p. 24, 25. from the MS. fragments of Timour's history).

9 See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Chorasmiæ, &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 Timour, since the establishment of the Uzbeks in Transoxiana.

« PreviousContinue »