Death.—Part I.
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.
The conquest and monarchy of the world was the 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 his reign were diligently
recorded in the journals of his secretaries: 1 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_ 2 of his life, and the _institutions_ 3 of his
government. 4 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_. 6 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 honorable,
infirmity. 606
1 (return) [ 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. Petit de la Croix, (Paris, 1722, in 4 vols. 12 mo.,)
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 (return) [ 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.” * Note: The manuscript of Major Davy has been
translated by Major Stewart, and published by the Oriental
Translation Committee of London. It contains the life of Timour,
from his birth to his forty-first year; but the last thirty years
of western war and conquest are wanting. Major Stewart intimates
that two manuscripts exist in this country containing the whole
work, but excuses himself, on account of his age, from
undertaking the laborious task of completing the translation. It
is to be hoped that the European public will be soon enabled to
judge of the value and authenticity of the Commentaries of the
Cæsar of the East. Major Stewart’s work commences with the Book
of Dreams and Omens—a wild, but characteristic, chronicle of
Visions and Sortes Koranicæ. Strange that a life of Timour should
awaken a reminiscence of the diary of Archbishop Laud! The early
dawn and the gradual expression of his not less splendid but more
real visions of ambition are touched with the simplicity of truth
and nature. But we long to escape from the petty feuds of the
pastoral chieftain, to the triumphs and the legislation of the
conqueror of the world.—M.]
3 (return) [ I am ignorant whether the original institution, in
the Turki 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 labors of Major
Davy and Mr. White, the Arabic professor. This work has been
since translated from the Persic into French, (Paris, 1787,) by
M. Langlès, a learned Orientalist, who has added the life of
Timour, and many curious notes.]
4 (return) [ 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
honorable, 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 (return) [ The original of the tale is found in the following
work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style:
_Ahmedis Arabsiad_ (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) _Vitæ et Rerum gestarum
Timuri. Arabice et Latine. Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger.
Franequer_, 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 Bibliothèque
Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as D’Herbelot indifferently
draws his materials (p. 877—888) from Khondemir Ebn Schounah, and
the Lebtarikh.]
6 (return) [ _Demir_ or _Timour_ signifies in the Turkish
language, Iron; and it 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. * Note: According to the memoirs he was so
called by a Shaikh, who, when visited by his mother on his birth,
was reading the verse of the Koran, “Are you sure that he who
dwelleth in heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you up,
and behold _it shall shake_, Tamûrn.” The Shaikh then stopped and
said, “We have named your son _Timûr_,” p. 21.—M.]
606 (return) [ He was lamed by a wound at the siege of the
capital of Sistan. Sherefeddin, lib. iii. c. 17. p. 136. See Von
Hammer, vol. i. p. 260.—M.]
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 vizier 607 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, 7 with
the Imperial stem. 8 He was born forty miles to the south of
Samarcand in the village of Sebzar, in the fruitful territory of
Cash, of which his fathers were the hereditary chiefs, as well as
of a toman of ten thousand horse. 9 His birth 10 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 kingdom.
From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had entered the field of
action; in the twenty-fifth 111 he stood forth as the deliverer
of his country; and the eyes and wishes of the people were turned
towards a 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 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
favor 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. 112 He wandered in the desert with
his wife, seven companions, and four horses; and sixty-two days
was he plunged in a loathsome dungeon, from whence he escaped by
his own courage and the remorse of the oppressor. After swimming
the broad and rapid steam 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 overwhelmed with joy;
and they alighted from their horses; and they came and kneeled;
and they kissed my stirrup. I also came down from my horse, and
took each of them in my arms. And I put my turban 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 I 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
final defeat, Houssein was slain by some sagacious friends, who
presumed, for the last time, to disobey the commands of their
lord. 113 At the age of thirty-four, 12 and in a general diet or
_couroultai_, he was invested with _Imperial_ command, but he
affected to revere the house of Zingis; and while the emir Timour
reigned over Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a
private officer in the armies of his servant. A fertile kingdom,
five hundred miles in length and in breadth, might have satisfied
the ambition of a subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion of
the 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 thirty-five 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. India, 13 and from thence
proceed to the more interesting narrative of his Ottoman war.
607 (return) [ In the memoirs, the title Gurgân is in one place
(p. 23) interpreted the son-in-law; in another (p. 28) as Kurkan,
great prince, generalissimo, and prime minister of Jagtai.—M.]
7 (return) [ 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. i. p. 25.) The testimony of
Abulghazi Khan (P. ii. c. 5, P. v. c. 4) is clear,
unquestionable, and decisive.]
8 (return) [ According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth
ancestor of Zingis, and the 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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, 11º 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 (return) [ In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of
the khan of Kashgar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or
Usbeks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of
Tartars, (Abulghazi, P. v. c. v. 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 Usbeks in
Transoxiana. * Note: Col. Stewart observes, that the Persian
translator has sometimes made use of the name Uzbek by
anticipation. He observes, likewise, that these Jits (Getes) are
not to be confounded with the ancient Getæ: they were unconverted
Turks. Col. Tod (History of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 166) would
identify the Jits with the ancient race.—M.]
111 (return) [ He was twenty-seven before he served his first
wars under the emir Houssein, who ruled over Khorasan and
Mawerainnehr. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 262. Neither of these
statements agrees with the Memoirs. At twelve he was a boy. “I
fancied that I perceived in myself all the signs of greatness and
wisdom, and whoever came to visit me, I received with great
hauteur and dignity.” At seventeen he undertook the management of
the flocks and herds of the family, (p. 24.) At nineteen he
became religious, and “left off playing chess,” made a kind of
Budhist vow never to injure living thing and felt his foot
paralyzed from having accidentally trod upon an ant, (p. 30.) At
twenty, thoughts of rebellion and greatness rose in his mind; at
twenty-one, he seems to have performed his first feat of arms. He
was a practised warrior when he served, in his twenty-seventh
year, under Emir Houssein.]
112 (return) [ Compare Memoirs, page 61. The imprisonment is
there stated at fifty-three days. “At this time I made a vow to
God that I would never keep any person, whether guilty or
innocent, for any length of time, in prison or in chains.” p.
63.—M.]
113 (return) [ Timour, on one occasion, sent him this message:
“He who wishes to embrace the bride of royalty must kiss her
across the edge of the sharp sword,” p. 83. The scene of the
trial of Houssein, the resistance of Timour gradually becoming
more feeble, the vengeance of the chiefs becoming proportionably
more determined, is strikingly portrayed. Mem. p 130.—M.]
12 (return) [ The ist book of Sherefeddin is employed on the
private life of the hero: 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 coloring of
Arabshah, (P. i. c. 1—12.)]
13 (return) [ 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. * Note: Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer,
Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches.—M.]
I. For every war, a motive of safety or revenge, of honor or
zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily found in the
jurisprudence of conquerors. No sooner had Timour reunited to the
patrimony of Zagatai the dependent countries of Carizme and
Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards the kingdoms of Iran or
Persia. 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 rewarded by the smile of Timour.
14 Shah Mansour, prince of Fars, or the proper Persia, was one of
the least powerful, but most dangerous, of his enemies. In a
battle under the walls of Shiraz, he broke, with three or four
thousand soldiers, the _coul_ or main body of thirty thousand
horse, where the emperor fought in person. No more than fourteen
or fifteen guards remained near the standard of Timour: he stood
firm as a rock, and received on his helmet two weighty strokes of
a cimeter: 15 the Moguls rallied; the head of Mansour was thrown
at his feet; and he declared his esteem of the valor of a foe, by
extirpating all the males of so intrepid a race. From Shiraz, his
troops advanced to the Persian Gulf; and the richness and
weakness of Ormuz 16 were displayed in an annual tribute of six
hundred thousand dinars of gold. Bagdad was no longer the city of
peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the noblest conquest of
Holacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor. The
whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the
sources of those rivers, was reduced to his obedience: he entered
Edessa; and the Turkmans of the black sheep were chastised for
the sacrilegious pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the mountains
of Georgia, the native Christians still braved the law and the
sword of Mahomet, by three expeditions he obtained the merit of
the _gazie_, or holy war; and the prince of Teflis became his
proselyte and friend.
14 (return) [ The reverence of the Tartars for the mysterious
number of _nine_ is declared by Abulghazi Khan, who, for that
reason, divides his Genealogical History into nine parts.]
15 (return) [ According to Arabshah, (P. i. c. 28, p. 183,) the
coward Timour ran away to his tent, and hid himself from the
pursuit of Shah Mansour under the women’s garments. Perhaps
Sherefeddin (l. iii. c. 25) has magnified his courage.]
16 (return) [ The history of Ormuz is not unlike that of Tyre.
The old city, on the continent, was destroyed by the Tartars, and
renewed in a neighboring island, without fresh water or
vegetation. The kings of Ormuz, rich in the Indian trade and the
pearl fishery, possessed large territories both in Persia and
Arabia; but they were at first the tributaries of the sultans of
Kerman, and at last were delivered (A.D. 1505) by the Portuguese
tyrants from the tyranny of their own viziers, (Marco Polo, l. i.
c. 15, 16, fol. 7, 8. Abulfeda, Geograph. tabul. xi. p. 261, 262,
an original Chronicle of Ormuz, in Texeira, or Stevens’s History
of Persia, p. 376—416, and the Itineraries inserted in the ist
volume of Ramusio, of Ludovico Barthema, (1503,) fol. 167, of
Andrea Corsali, (1517) fol. 202, 203, and of Odoardo Barbessa,
(in 1516,) fol. 313—318.)]
II. A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of
Turkestan, or the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timour could
not endure the impunity of the Getes: he passed the Sihoon,
subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and marched seven times into the
heart of their country. His most distant camp was two months’
journey, or four hundred and eighty leagues to the north-east of
Samarcand; and his emirs, who traversed the River Irtish,
engraved in the forests of Siberia a rude memorial of their
exploits. The conquest of Kipzak, or the Western Tartary, 17 was
founded on the double motive of aiding the distressed, and
chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, a fugitive prince, was
entertained and protected in his court: the ambassadors of Auruss
Khan were dismissed with a haughty denial, and followed on the
same day by the armies of Zagatai; and their success established
Toctamish in the Mogul empire of the North. But, after a reign of
ten years, the new khan forgot the merits and the strength of his
benefactor; the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the sacred
rights of the house of Zingis. Through the gates of Derbend, he
entered Persia at the head of ninety thousand horse: with the
innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he
passed the Sihoon, burnt the palaces of Timour, and compelled
him, amidst the winter snows, to contend for Samarcand and his
life. After a mild expostulation, and a glorious victory, the
emperor resolved on revenge; and by the east, and the west, of
the Caspian, and the Volga, he twice invaded Kipzak with such
mighty powers, that thirteen miles were measured from his right
to his left wing. In a march of five months, they rarely beheld
the footsteps of man; and their daily subsistence was often
trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies
encountered each other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer,
who, in the heat of action, reversed the Imperial standard of
Kipzak, determined the victory of the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I
speak the language of the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi
to the wind of desolation. 18 He fled to the Christian duke of
Lithuania; again returned to the banks of the Volga; and, after
fifteen battles with a domestic rival, at last perished in the
wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a flying enemy carried Timour
into the tributary provinces of Russia: a duke of the reigning
family was made prisoner amidst the ruins of his capital; and
Yeletz, by the pride and ignorance of the Orientals, might easily
be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow
trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and the resistance would
have been feeble, since the hopes of the Russians were placed in
a miraculous image of the Virgin, to whose protection they
ascribed the casual and voluntary retreat of the conqueror.
Ambition and prudence recalled him to the South, the desolate
country was exhausted, and the Mogul soldiers were enriched with
an immense spoil of precious furs, of linen of Antioch, 19 and of
ingots of gold and silver. 20 On the banks of the Don, or Tanais,
he received an humble deputation from the consuls and merchants
of Egypt, 21 Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who occupied
the commerce and city of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth of the
river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence, and
trusted his royal word. But the peaceful visit of an emir, who
explored the state of the magazines and harbor, was speedily
followed by the destructive presence of the Tartars. The city was
reduced to ashes; the Moslems were pillaged and dismissed; but
all the Christians, who had not fled to their ships, were
condemned either to death or slavery. 22 Revenge prompted him to
burn the cities of Serai and Astrachan, the monuments of rising
civilization; and his vanity proclaimed, that he had penetrated
to the region of perpetual daylight, a strange phenomenon, which
authorized his Mahometan doctors to dispense with the obligation
of evening prayer. 23
17 (return) [ Arabshah had travelled into Kipzak, and acquired a
singular knowledge of the geography, cities, and revolutions, of
that northern region, (P. i. c. 45—49.)]
18 (return) [ Institutions of Timour, p. 123, 125. Mr. White, the
editor, bestows some animadversion on the superficial account of
Sherefeddin, (l. iii. c. 12, 13, 14,) who was ignorant of the
designs of Timour, and the true springs of action.]
19 (return) [ The furs of Russia are more credible than the
ingots. But the linen of Antioch has never been famous: and
Antioch was in ruins. I suspect that it was some manufacture of
Europe, which the Hanse merchants had imported by the way of
Novogorod.]
20 (return) [ M. Levesque (Hist. de Russie, tom. ii. p. 247. Vie
de Timour, p. 64—67, before the French version of the Institutes)
has corrected the error of Sherefeddin, and marked the true limit
of Timour’s conquests. His arguments are superfluous; and a
simple appeal to the Russian annals is sufficient to prove that
Moscow, which six years before had been taken by Toctamish,
escaped the arms of a more formidable invader.]
21 (return) [ An Egyptian consul from Grand Cairo is mentioned in
Barbaro’s voyage to Tana in 1436, after the city had been
rebuilt, (Ramusio, tom. ii. fol. 92.)]
22 (return) [ The sack of Azoph is described by Sherefeddin, (l.
iii. c. 55,) and much more particularly by the author of an
Italian chronicle, (Andreas de Redusiis de Quero, in Chron.
Tarvisiano, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xix. p.
802—805.) He had conversed with the Mianis, two Venetian
brothers, one of whom had been sent a deputy to the camp of
Timour, and the other had lost at Azoph three sons and 12,000
ducats.]
23 (return) [ Sherefeddin only says (l. iii. c. 13) that the rays
of the setting, and those of the rising sun, were scarcely
separated by any interval; a problem which may be solved in the
latitude of Moscow, (the 56th degree,) with the aid of the Aurora
Borealis, and a long summer twilight. But a _day_ of forty days
(Khondemir apud D’Herbelot, p. 880) would rigorously confine us
within the polar circle.]
III. When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs the
invasion of India or Hindostan, 24 he was answered by a murmur of
discontent: “The rivers! and the mountains and deserts! and the
soldiers clad in armor! and the elephants, destroyers of men!”
But the displeasure of the emperor was more dreadful than all
these terrors; and his superior reason was convinced, that an
enterprise of such tremendous aspect was safe and easy in the
execution. He was informed by his spies of the weakness and
anarchy of Hindostan: the soubahs of the provinces had erected
the standard of rebellion; and the perpetual infancy of Sultan
Mahmoud was despised even in the harem of Delhi. The Mogul army
moved in three great divisions; and Timour observes with
pleasure, that the ninety-two squadrons of a thousand horse most
fortunately corresponded with the ninety-two names or epithets of
the prophet Mahomet. 241 Between the Jihoon and the Indus they
crossed one of the ridges of mountains, which are styled by the
Arabian geographers The Stony Girdles of the Earth. The highland
robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great numbers of men and
horses perished in the snow; the emperor himself was let down a
precipice on a portable scaffold—the ropes were one hundred and
fifty cubits in length; and before he could reach the bottom,
this dangerous operation was five times repeated. Timour crossed
the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attok; and successively
traversed, in the footsteps of Alexander, the _Punjab_, or five
rivers, 25 that fall into the master stream. From Attok to Delhi,
the high road measures no more than six hundred miles; but the
two conquerors deviated to the south-east; and the motive of
Timour was to join his grandson, who had achieved by his command
the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of the Hyphasis, on
the edge of the desert, the Macedonian hero halted and wept: the
Mogul entered the desert, reduced the fortress of Batmir, and
stood in arms before the gates of Delhi, a great and flourishing
city, which had subsisted three centuries under the dominion of
the Mahometan kings. 251 The siege, more especially of the
castle, might have been a work of time; but he tempted, by the
appearance of weakness, the sultan Mahmoud and his vizier to
descend into the plain, with ten thousand cuirassiers, forty
thousand of his foot-guards, and one hundred and twenty
elephants, whose tusks are said to have been armed with sharp and
poisoned daggers. Against these monsters, or rather against the
imagination of his troops, he condescended to use some
extraordinary precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron spikes and
a rampart of bucklers; but the event taught the Moguls to smile
at their own fears; and as soon as these unwieldy animals were
routed, the inferior species (the men of India) disappeared from
the field. Timour made his triumphal entry into the capital of
Hindostan; and admired, with a view to imitate, the architecture
of the stately mosque; but the order or license of a general
pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his victory. He
resolved to purify his soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or
Gentoos, who still surpass, in the proportion of ten to one, the
numbers of the Moslems. 252 In this pious design, he advanced one
hundred miles to the north-east of Delhi, passed the Ganges,
fought several battles by land and water, and penetrated to the
famous rock of Coupele, the statue of the cow, 253 that _seems_
to discharge the mighty river, whose source is far distant among
the mountains of Thibet. 26 His return was along the skirts of
the northern hills; nor could this rapid campaign of one year
justify the strange foresight of his emirs, that their children
in a warm climate would degenerate into a race of Hindoos.
24 (return) [ For the Indian war, see the Institutions, (p.
129—139,) the fourth book of Sherefeddin, and the history of
Ferishta, (in Dow, vol. ii. p. 1—20,) which throws a general
light on the affairs of Hindostan.]
241 (return) [ Gibbon (observes M. von Hammer) is mistaken in the
correspondence of the ninety-two squadrons of his army with the
ninety-two names of God: the names of God are ninety-nine. and
Allah is the hundredth, p. 286, note. But Gibbon speaks of the
names or epithets of Mahomet, not of God.—M.]
25 (return) [ The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches
of the Indus, have been laid down for the first time with truth
and accuracy in Major Rennel’s incomparable map of Hindostan. In
this Critical Memoir he illustrates with judgment and learning
the marches of Alexander and Timour. * Note See vol. i. ch. ii.
note 1.—M.]
251 (return) [ They took, on their march, 100,000 slaves, Guebers
they were all murdered. V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 286. They are
called idolaters. Briggs’s Ferishta, vol. i. p. 491.—M.]
252 (return) [ See a curious passage on the destruction of the
Hindoo idols, Memoirs, p. 15.—M.]
253 (return) [ Consult the very striking description of the Cow’s
Mouth by Captain Hodgson, Asiat. Res. vol. xiv. p. 117. “A most
wonderful scene. The B’hagiratha or Ganges issues from under a
very low arch at the foot of the grand snow bed. My guide, an
illiterate mountaineer compared the pendent icicles to Mahodeva’s
hair.” (Compare Poems, Quarterly Rev. vol. xiv. p. 37, and at the
end of my translation of Nala.) “Hindoos of research may formerly
have been here; and if so, I cannot think of any place to which
they might more aptly give the name of a cow’s mouth than to this
extraordinary debouche.”—M.]
26 (return) [ The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter,
rise in Thibet, from the opposite ridges of the same hills,
separate from each other to the distance of 1200 miles, and,
after a winding course of 2000 miles, again meet in one point
near the Gulf of Bengal. Yet so capricious is Fame, that the
Burrampooter is a late discovery, while his brother Ganges has
been the theme of ancient and modern story Coupele, the scene of
Timour’s last victory, must be situate near Loldong, 1100 miles
from Calcutta; and in 1774, a British camp! (Rennel’s Memoir, p.
7, 59, 90, 91, 99.)]
It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed, by
his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on
the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the
Christians, and the ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His
vigor of mind and body was not impaired by sixty-three years, and
innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some tranquil months in
the palace of Samarcand, he proclaimed a new expedition of seven
years into the western countries of Asia. 27 To the soldiers who
had served in the Indian war he granted the choice of remaining
at home, or following their prince; but the troops of all the
provinces and kingdoms of Persia were commanded to assemble at
Ispahan, and wait the arrival of the Imperial standard. It was
first directed against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong
only in their rocks, their castles, and the winter season; but
these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and perseverance of
Timour: the rebels submitted to the tribute or the Koran; and if
both religions boasted of their martyrs, that name is more justly
due to the Christian prisoners, who were offered the choice of
abjuration or death. On his descent from the hills, the emperor
gave audience to the first ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the
hostile correspondence of complaints and menaces, which fermented
two years before the final explosion. Between two jealous and
haughty neighbors, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting.
The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in the
neighborhood of Erzeroum, and the Euphrates; nor had the doubtful
limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each of these
ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his
territory, of threatening his vassals, and protecting his rebels;
and, by the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes,
whose kingdoms he had usurped, and whose life or liberty he
implacably pursued. The resemblance of character was still more
dangerous than the opposition of interest; and in their
victorious career, Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet
was ignorant of a superior. The first epistle 28 of the Mogul
emperor must have provoked, instead of reconciling, the Turkish
sultan, whose family and nation he affected to despise. 29 “Dost
thou not know, that the greatest part of Asia is subject to our
arms and our laws? that our invincible forces extend from one sea
to the other? that the potentates of the earth form a line before
our gate? and that we have compelled Fortune herself to watch
over the prosperity of our empire. What is the foundation of thy
insolence and folly? Thou hast fought some battles in the woods
of Anatolia; contemptible trophies! Thou hast obtained some
victories over the Christians of Europe; thy sword was blessed by
the apostle of God; and thy obedience to the precept of the
Koran, in waging war against the infidels, is the sole
consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the
frontier and bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time;
reflect; repent; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is
yet suspended over thy head. Thou art no more than a pismire; why
wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! they will trample
thee under their feet.” In his replies, Bajazet poured forth the
indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by such unusual
contempt. After retorting the basest reproaches on the thief and
rebel of the desert, the Ottoman recapitulates his boasted
victories in Iran, Touran, and the Indies; and labors to prove,
that Timour had never triumphed unless by his own perfidy and the
vices of his foes. “Thy armies are innumerable: be they so; but
what are the arrows of the flying Tartar against the cimeters and
battle-axes of my firm and invincible Janizaries? I will guard
the princes who have implored my protection: seek them in my
tents. The cities of Arzingan and Erzeroum are mine; and unless
the tribute be duly paid, I will demand the arrears under the
walls of Tauris and Sultania.” The ungovernable rage of the
sultan at length betrayed him to an insult of a more domestic
kind. “If I fly from thy arms,” said he, “may _my_ wives be
thrice divorced from my bed: but if thou hast not courage to meet
me in the field, mayest thou again receive _thy_ wives after they
have thrice endured the embraces of a stranger.” 30 Any violation
by word or deed of the secrecy of the harem is an unpardonable
offence among the Turkish nations; 31 and the political quarrel
of the two monarchs was imbittered by private and personal
resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was satisfied
with the siege and destruction of Siwas or Sebaste, a strong city
on the borders of Anatolia; and he revenged the indiscretion of
the Ottoman, on a garrison of four thousand Armenians, who were
buried alive for the brave and faithful discharge of their duty.
311 As a Mussulman, he seemed to respect the pious occupation of
Bajazet, who was still engaged in the blockade of Constantinople;
and after this salutary lesson, the Mogul conqueror checked his
pursuit, and turned aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt. In
these transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals, and
even by Timour, is styled the _Kaissar of Roum_, the Cæsar of the
Romans; a title which, by a small anticipation, might be given to
a monarch who possessed the provinces, and threatened the city,
of the successors of Constantine. 32
27 (return) [ See the Institutions, p. 141, to the end of the 1st
book, and Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 1—16,) to the entrance of Timour
into Syria.]
28 (return) [ We have three copies of these hostile epistles in
the Institutions, (p. 147,) in Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 14,) and in
Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 19 p. 183—201;) which agree with each
other in the spirit and substance rather than in the style. It is
probable, that they have been translated, with various latitude,
from the Turkish original into the Arabic and Persian tongues. *
Note: Von Hammer considers the letter which Gibbon inserted in
the text to be spurious. On the various copies of these letters,
see his note, p 116.—M.]
29 (return) [ The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his
countrymen by the name of _Turks_, and stigmatizes the race and
nation of Bajazet with the less honorable epithet of _Turkmans_.
Yet I do not understand how the Ottomans could be descended from
a Turkman sailor; those inland shepherds were so remote from the
sea, and all maritime affairs. * Note: Price translated the word
pilot or boatman.—M.]
30 (return) [ According to the Koran, (c. ii. p. 27, and Sale’s
Discourses, p. 134,) Mussulman who had thrice divorced his wife,
(who had thrice repeated the words of a divorce,) could not take
her again, till after she had been married _to_, and repudiated
_by_, another husband; an ignominious transaction, which it is
needless to aggravate, by supposing that the first husband must
see her enjoyed by a second before his face, (Rycaut’s State of
the Ottoman Empire, l. ii. c. 21.)]
31 (return) [ The common delicacy of the Orientals, in never
speaking of their women, is ascribed in a much higher degree by
Arabshah to the Turkish nations; and it is remarkable enough,
that Chalcondyles (l. ii. p. 55) had some knowledge of the
prejudice and the insult. * Note: See Von Hammer, p. 308, and
note, p. 621.—M.]
311 (return) [ Still worse barbarities were perpetrated on these
brave men. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 295.—M.]
32 (return) [ For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions,
(p. 131, 147,) and for the Persians, the Bibliothèque Orientale,
(p. 882;) but I do not find that the title of Cæsar has been
applied by the Arabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves.]