Death.—Part II.
The military republic of the Mamalukes still reigned in Egypt and
Syria: but the dynasty of the Turks was overthrown by that of the
Circassians; 33 and their favorite Barkok, from a slave and a
prisoner, was raised and restored to the throne. In the midst of
rebellion and discord, he braved the menaces, corresponded with
the enemies, and detained the ambassadors, of the Mogul, who
patiently expected his decease, to revenge the crimes of the
father on the feeble reign of his son Farage. The Syrian emirs 34
were assembled at Aleppo to repel the invasion: they confided in
the fame and discipline of the Mamalukes, in the temper of their
swords and lances of the purest steel of Damascus, in the
strength of their walled cities, and in the populousness of sixty
thousand villages; and instead of sustaining a siege, they threw
open their gates, and arrayed their forces in the plain. But
these forces were not cemented by virtue and union; and some
powerful emirs had been seduced to desert or betray their more
loyal companions. Timour’s front was covered with a line of
Indian elephants, whose turrets were filled with archers and
Greek fire: the rapid evolutions of his cavalry completed the
dismay and disorder; the Syrian crowds fell back on each other:
many thousands were stifled or slaughtered in the entrance of the
great street; the Moguls entered with the fugitives; and after a
short defence, the citadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo,
was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Among the suppliants
and captives, Timour distinguished the doctors of the law, whom
he invited to the dangerous honor of a personal conference. 35
The Mogul prince was a zealous Mussulman; but his Persian schools
had taught him to revere the memory of Ali and Hosein; and he had
imbibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians, as the enemies of
the son of the daughter of the apostle of God. To these doctors
he proposed a captious question, which the casuists of Bochara,
Samarcand, and Herat, were incapable of resolving. “Who are the
true martyrs, of those who are slain on my side, or on that of my
enemies?” But he was silenced, or satisfied, by the dexterity of
one of the cadhis of Aleppo, who replied in the words of Mahomet
himself, that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes the martyr;
and that the Moslems of either party, who fight only for the
glory of God, may deserve that sacred appellation. The true
succession of the caliphs was a controversy of a still more
delicate nature; and the frankness of a doctor, too honest for
his situation, provoked the emperor to exclaim, “Ye are as false
as those of Damascus: Moawiyah was a usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and
Ali alone is the lawful successor of the prophet.” A prudent
explanation restored his tranquillity; and he passed to a more
familiar topic of conversation. “What is your age?” said he to
the cadhi. “Fifty years.”—“It would be the age of my eldest son:
you see me here (continued Timour) a poor lame, decrepit mortal.
Yet by my arm has the Almighty been pleased to subdue the
kingdoms of Iran, Touran, and the Indies. I am not a man of
blood; and God is my witness, that in all my wars I have never
been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always been the
authors of their own calamity.” During this peaceful conversation
the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood, and reechoed with the
cries of mothers and children, with the shrieks of violated
virgins. The rich plunder that was abandoned to his soldiers
might stimulate their avarice; but their cruelty was enforced by
the peremptory command of producing an adequate number of heads,
which, according to his custom, were curiously piled in columns
and pyramids: the Moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while
the surviving Moslems passed the night in tears and in chains. I
shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to
Damascus, where he was rudely encountered, and almost overthrown,
by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was imputed to his
distress and despair: one of his nephews deserted to the enemy;
and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his defeat, when the sultan was
driven by the revolt of the Mamalukes to escape with
precipitation and shame to his palace of Cairo. Abandoned by
their prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended their
walls; and Timour consented to raise the siege, if they would
adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom; each article of nine
pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into the city,
under color of a truce, than he perfidiously violated the treaty;
imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold; and animated his
troops to chastise the posterity of those Syrians who had
executed, or approved, the murder of the grandson of Mahomet. A
family which had given honorable burial to the head of Hosein,
and a colony of artificers, whom he sent to labor at Samarcand,
were alone reserved in the general massacre, and after a period
of seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a
Tartar was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an
Arab. The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timour to
renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his return
to the Euphrates he delivered Aleppo to the flames; and justified
his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two thousand
sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the tomb of his son.
I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes which mark the
character of the Mogul hero; but I shall briefly mention, 36 that
he erected on the ruins of Bagdad a pyramid of ninety thousand
heads; again visited Georgia; encamped on the banks of Araxes;
and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the Ottoman
emperor. Conscious of the importance of the war, he collected his
forces from every province: eight hundred thousand men were
enrolled on his military list; 37 but the splendid commands of
five, and ten, thousand horse, may be rather expressive of the
rank and pension of the chiefs, than of the genuine number of
effective soldiers. 38 In the pillage of Syria, the Moguls had
acquired immense riches: but the delivery of their pay and
arrears for seven years more firmly attached them to the Imperial
standard.
33 (return) [ See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M. De
Guignes, (tom. iv. l. xxii.,) who, from the Arabic texts of
Aboulmahasen, Ebn (Schounah, and Aintabi, has added some facts to
our common stock of materials.)]
34 (return) [ For these recent and domestic transactions,
Arabshah, though a partial, is a credible, witness, (tom. i. c.
64—68, tom. ii. c. 1—14.) Timour must have been odious to a
Syrian; but the notoriety of facts would have obliged him, in
some measure, to respect his enemy and himself. His bitters may
correct the luscious sweets of Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 17—29.)]
35 (return) [ These interesting conversations appear to have been
copied by Arabshah (tom. i. c. 68, p. 625—645) from the cadhi and
historian Ebn Schounah, a principal actor. Yet how could he be
alive seventy-five years afterwards? (D’Herbelot, p. 792.)]
36 (return) [ The marches and occupations of Timour between the
Syrian and Ottoman wars are represented by Sherefeddin (l. v. c.
29—43) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 15—18.)]
37 (return) [ This number of 800,000 was extracted by Arabshah,
or rather by Ebn Schounah, ex rationario Timuri, on the faith of
a Carizmian officer, (tom. i. c. 68, p. 617;) and it is
remarkable enough, that a Greek historian (Phranza, l. i. c. 29)
adds no more than 20,000 men. Poggius reckons 1,000,000; another
Latin contemporary (Chron. Tarvisianum, apud Muratori, tom. xix.
p. 800) 1,100,000; and the enormous sum of 1,600,000 is attested
by a German soldier, who was present at the battle of Angora,
(Leunclav. ad Chalcondyl. l. iii. p. 82.) Timour, in his
Institutions, has not deigned to calculate his troops, his
subjects, or his revenues.]
38 (return) [ A wide latitude of non-effectives was allowed by
the Great Mogul for his own pride and the benefit of his
officers. Bernier’s patron was Penge-Hazari, commander of 5000
horse; of which he maintained no more than 500, (Voyages, tom. i.
p. 288, 289.)]
During this diversion of the Mogul arms, Bajazet had two years to
collect his forces for a more serious encounter. They consisted
of four hundred thousand horse and foot, 39 whose merit and
fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may discriminate the
Janizaries, who have been gradually raised to an establishment of
forty thousand men; a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern
times; twenty thousand cuirassiers of Europe, clad in black and
impenetrable armor; the troops of Anatolia, whose princes had
taken refuge in the camp of Timour, and a colony of Tartars, whom
he had driven from Kipzak, and to whom Bajazet had assigned a
settlement in the plains of Adrianople. The fearless confidence
of the sultan urged him to meet his antagonist; and, as if he had
chosen that spot for revenge, he displayed his banner near the
ruins of the unfortunate Suvas. In the mean while, Timour moved
from the Araxes through the countries of Armenia and Anatolia:
his boldness was secured by the wisest precautions; his speed was
guided by order and discipline; and the woods, the mountains, and
the rivers, were diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who
marked his road and preceded his standard. Firm in his plan of
fighting in the heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided their
camp; dexterously inclined to the left; occupied Cæsarea;
traversed the salt desert and the River Halys; and invested
Angora: while the sultan, immovable and ignorant in his post,
compared the Tartar swiftness to the crawling of a snail; 40 he
returned on the wings of indignation to the relief of Angora: and
as both generals were alike impatient for action, the plains
round that city were the scene of a memorable battle, which has
immortalized the glory of Timour and the shame of Bajazet. For
this signal victory the Mogul emperor was indebted to himself, to
the genius of the moment, and the discipline of thirty years. He
had improved the tactics, without violating the manners, of his
nation, 41 whose force still consisted in the missile weapons,
and rapid evolutions, of a numerous cavalry. From a single troop
to a great army, the mode of attack was the same: a foremost line
first advanced to the charge, and was supported in a just order
by the squadrons of the great vanguard. The general’s eye watched
over the field, and at his command the front and rear of the
right and left wings successively moved forwards in their several
divisions, and in a direct or oblique line: the enemy was pressed
by eighteen or twenty attacks; and each attack afforded a chance
of victory. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccessful, the
occasion was worthy of the emperor himself, who gave the signal
of advancing to the standard and main body, which he led in
person. 42 But in the battle of Angora, the main body itself was
supported, on the flanks and in the rear, by the bravest
squadrons of the reserve, commanded by the sons and grandsons of
Timour. The conqueror of Hindostan ostentatiously showed a line
of elephants, the trophies, rather than the instruments, of
victory; the use of the Greek fire was familiar to the Moguls and
Ottomans; but had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention
of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder, in the hands of
either nation, must have turned the fortune of the day. 43 In
that day Bajazet displayed the qualities of a soldier and a
chief: but his genius sunk under a stronger ascendant; and, from
various motives, the greatest part of his troops failed him in
the decisive moment. His rigor and avarice 431 had provoked a
mutiny among the Turks; and even his son Soliman too hastily
withdrew from the field. The forces of Anatolia, loyal in their
revolt, were drawn away to the banners of their lawful princes.
His Tartar allies had been tempted by the letters and emissaries
of Timour; 44 who reproached their ignoble servitude under the
slaves of their fathers; and offered to their hopes the dominion
of their new, or the liberty of their ancient, country. In the
right wing of Bajazet the cuirassiers of Europe charged, with
faithful hearts and irresistible arms: but these men of iron were
soon broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit; and the
Janizaries, alone, without cavalry or missile weapons, were
encompassed by the circle of the Mogul hunters. Their valor was
at length oppressed by heat, thirst, and the weight of numbers;
and the unfortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands
and feet, was transported from the field on the fleetest of his
horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular khan of Zagatai;
and, after his capture, and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, the
kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who planted his
standard at Kiotahia, and dispersed on all sides the ministers of
rapine and destruction. Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and
best beloved of his grandsons, was despatched to Boursa, with
thirty thousand horse; and such was his youthful ardor, that he
arrived with only four thousand at the gates of the capital,
after performing in five days a march of two hundred and thirty
miles. Yet fear is still more rapid in its course; and Soliman,
the son of Bajazet, had already passed over to Europe with the
royal treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace and city was
immense: the inhabitants had escaped; but the buildings, for the
most part of wood, were reduced to ashes. From Boursa, the
grandson of Timour advanced to Nice, ever yet a fair and
flourishing city; and the Mogul squadrons were only stopped by
the waves of the Propontis. The same success attended the other
mirzas and emirs in their excursions; and Smyrna, defended by the
zeal and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone deserved the
presence of the emperor himself. After an obstinate defence, the
place was taken by storm: all that breathed was put to the sword;
and the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the
engines, on board of two carracks, or great ships of Europe, that
rode at anchor in the harbor. The Moslems of Asia rejoiced in
their deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe; and a
parallel was drawn between the two rivals, by observing that
Timour, in fourteen days, had reduced a fortress which had
sustained seven years the siege, or at least the blockade, of
Bajazet. 45
39 (return) [ Timour himself fixes at 400,000 men the Ottoman
army, (Institutions, p. 153,) which is reduced to 150,000 by
Phranza, (l. i. c. 29,) and swelled by the German soldier to
1,400,000. It is evident that the Moguls were the more numerous.]
40 (return) [ It may not be useless to mark the distances between
Angora and the neighboring cities, by the journeys of the
caravans, each of twenty or twenty-five miles; to Smyrna xx., to
Kiotahia x., to Boursa x., to Cæsarea, viii., to Sinope x., to
Nicomedia ix., to Constantinople xii. or xiii., (see Tournefort,
Voyage au Levant, tom. ii. lettre xxi.)]
41 (return) [ See the Systems of Tactics in the Institutions,
which the English editors have illustrated with elaborate plans,
(p. 373—407.)]
42 (return) [ The sultan himself (says Timour) must then put the
foot of courage into the stirrup of patience. A Tartar metaphor,
which is lost in the English, but preserved in the French,
version of the Institutes, (p. 156, 157.)]
43 (return) [ The Greek fire, on Timour’s side, is attested by
Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 47;) but Voltaire’s strange suspicion,
that some cannon, inscribed with strange characters, must have
been sent by that monarch to Delhi, is refuted by the universal
silence of contemporaries.]
431 (return) [ See V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 310, for the singular
hints which were conveyed to him of the wisdom of unlocking his
hoarded treasures.—M.]
44 (return) [ Timour has dissembled this secret and important
negotiation with the Tartars, which is indisputably proved by the
joint evidence of the Arabian, (tom. i. c. 47, p. 391,) Turkish,
(Annal. Leunclav. p. 321,) and Persian historians, (Khondemir,
apud d’Herbelot, p. 882.)]
45 (return) [ For the war of Anatolia or Roum, I add some hints
in the Institutions, to the copious narratives of Sherefeddin (l.
v. c. 44—65) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 20—35.) On this part only
of Timour’s history it is lawful to quote the Turks, (Cantemir,
p. 53—55, Annal. Leunclav. p. 320—322,) and the Greeks, (Phranza,
l. i. c. 59, Ducas, c. 15—17, Chalcondyles, l. iii.)]
The _iron cage_ in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Tamerlane, so
long and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected as
a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the vulgar credulity.
46 They appeal with confidence to the Persian history of
Sherefeddin Ali, which has been given to our curiosity in a
French version, and from which I shall collect and abridge a more
specious narrative of this memorable transaction. No sooner was
Timour informed that the captive Ottoman was at the door of his
tent, than he graciously stepped forwards to receive him, seated
him by his side, and mingled with just reproaches a soothing pity
for his rank and misfortune. “Alas!” said the emperor, “the
decree of fate is now accomplished by your own fault; it is the
web which you have woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself
have planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, the champion
of the Moslems; you braved our threats; you despised our
friendship; you forced us to enter your kingdom with our
invincible armies. Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am not
ignorant of the fate which you reserved for myself and my troops.
But I disdain to retaliate: your life and honor are secure; and I
shall express my gratitude to God by my clemency to man.” The
royal captive showed some signs of repentance, accepted the
humiliation of a robe of honor, and embraced with tears his son
Mousa, who, at his request, was sought and found among the
captives of the field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a
splendid pavilion; and the respect of the guards could be
surpassed only by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem
from Boursa, Timour restored the queen Despina and her daughter
to their father and husband; but he piously required, that the
Servian princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the
profession of Christianity, should embrace without delay the
religion of the prophet. In the feast of victory, to which
Bajazet was invited, the Mogul emperor placed a crown on his head
and a sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of restoring
him with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors. But
the effect of his promise was disappointed by the sultan’s
untimely death: amidst the care of the most skilful physicians,
he expired of an apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia,
about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear
over his grave: his body, with royal pomp, was conveyed to the
mausoleum which he had erected at Boursa; and his son Mousa,
after receiving a rich present of gold and jewels, of horses and
arms, was invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of
Anatolia.
46 (return) [ The scepticism of Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire
Générale, c. 88) is ready on this, as on every occasion, to
reject a popular tale, and to diminish the magnitude of vice and
virtue; and on most occasions his incredulity is reasonable.]
Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has been
extracted from his own memorials, and dedicated to his son and
grandson, nineteen years after his decease; 47 and, at a time
when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest falsehood
would have implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty indeed
is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian histories; 48 yet
flattery, more especially in the East, is base and audacious; and
the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet is attested by a
chain of witnesses, some of whom shall be produced in the order
of their time and country. _1._ The reader has not forgot the
garrison of French, whom the marshal Boucicault left behind him
for the defence of Constantinople. They were on the spot to
receive the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the
overthrow of their great adversary; and it is more than probable,
that some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp of
Tamerlane. From their account, the _hardships_ of the prison and
death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal’s servant and
historian, within the distance of seven years. 49 _2._ The name
of Poggius the Italian 50 is deservedly famous among the revivers
of learning in the fifteenth century. His elegant dialogue on the
vicissitudes of fortune 51 was composed in his fiftieth year,
twenty-eight years after the Turkish victory of Tamerlane; 52
whom he celebrates as not inferior to the illustrious Barbarians
of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline Poggius was informed
by several ocular witnesses; nor does he forget an example so
apposite to his theme as the Ottoman monarch, whom the Scythian
confined like a wild beast in an iron cage, and exhibited a
spectacle to Asia. I might add the authority of two Italian
chronicles, perhaps of an earlier date, which would prove at
least that the same story, whether false or true, was imported
into Europe with the first tidings of the revolution. 53 _3._ At
the time when Poggius flourished at Rome, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah
composed at Damascus the florid and malevolent history of Timour,
for which he had collected materials in his journeys over Turkey
and Tartary. 54 Without any possible correspondence between the
Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the fact of the iron
cage; and their agreement is a striking proof of their common
veracity. Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates another outrage, which
Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender nature. His
indiscreet mention of women and divorces was deeply resented by
the jealous Tartar: in the feast of victory the wine was served
by female cupbearers, and the sultan beheld his own concubines
and wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed without a veil
to the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity, it is
said that his successors, except in a single instance, have
abstained from legitimate nuptials; and the Ottoman practice and
belief, at least in the sixteenth century, is asserted by the
observing Busbequius, 55 ambassador from the court of Vienna to
the great Soliman. _4._ Such is the separation of language, that
the testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that of a
Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chalcondyles and Ducas,
who flourished in the latter period, and who speak in a less
positive tone; but more attention is due to George Phranza, 56
protovestiare of the last emperors, and who was born a year
before the battle of Angora. Twenty-two years after that event,
he was sent ambassador to Amurath the Second; and the historian
might converse with some veteran Janizaries, who had been made
prisoners with the sultan, and had themselves seen him in his
iron cage. 5. The last evidence, in every sense, is that of the
Turkish annals, which have been consulted or transcribed by
Leunclavius, Pocock, and Cantemir. 57 They unanimously deplore
the captivity of the iron cage; and some credit may be allowed to
national historians, who cannot stigmatize the Tartar without
uncovering the shame of their king and country.
47 (return) [ See the History of Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 49, 52,
53, 59, 60.) This work was finished at Shiraz, in the year 1424,
and dedicated to Sultan Ibrahim, the son of Sharokh, the son of
Timour, who reigned in Farsistan in his father’s lifetime.]
48 (return) [ After the perusal of Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, &c.,
the learned D’Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 882) may affirm,
that this fable is not mentioned in the most authentic histories;
but his denial of the visible testimony of Arabshah leaves some
room to suspect his accuracy.]
49 (return) [ Et fut lui-même (Bajazet) pris, et mené en prison,
en laquelle mourut de _dure mort!_ Mémoires de Boucicault, P. i.
c. 37. These Memoirs were composed while the marshal was still
governor of Genoa, from whence he was expelled in the year 1409,
by a popular insurrection, (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. xii.
p. 473, 474.)]
50 (return) [ The reader will find a satisfactory account of the
life and writings of Poggius in the Poggiana, an entertaining
work of M. Lenfant, and in the Bibliotheca Latina Mediæ et Infimæ
Ætatis of Fabricius, (tom. v. p. 305—308.) Poggius was born in
the year 1380, and died in 1459.]
51 (return) [ The dialogue de Varietate Fortunæ, (of which a
complete and elegant edition has been published at Paris in 1723,
in 4to.,) was composed a short time before the death of Pope
Martin V., (p. 5,) and consequently about the end of the year
1430.]
52 (return) [ See a splendid and eloquent encomium of Tamerlane,
p. 36—39 ipse enim novi (says Poggius) qui fuere in ejus
castris.... Regem vivum cepit, caveâque in modum feræ inclusum
per omnem Asian circumtulit egregium admirandumque spectaculum
fortunæ.]
53 (return) [ The Chronicon Tarvisianum, (in Muratori, Script.
Rerum Italicarum tom. xix. p. 800,) and the Annales Estenses,
(tom. xviii. p. 974.) The two authors, Andrea de Redusiis de
Quero, and James de Delayto, were both contemporaries, and both
chancellors, the one of Trevigi, the other of Ferrara. The
evidence of the former is the most positive.]
54 (return) [ See Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 28, 34. He travelled in
regiones Rumæas, A. H. 839, (A.D. 1435, July 27,) tom. i. c. 2,
p. 13.]
55 (return) [ Busbequius in Legatione Turcicâ, epist. i. p. 52.
Yet his respectable authority is somewhat shaken by the
subsequent marriages of Amurath II. with a Servian, and of
Mahomet II. with an Asiatic, princess, (Cantemir, p. 83, 93.)]
56 (return) [ See the testimony of George Phranza, (l. i. c. 29,)
and his life in Hanckius (de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40.)
Chalcondyles and Ducas speak in general terms of Bajazet’s
_chains_.]
57 (return) [ Annales Leunclav. p. 321. Pocock, Prolegomen. ad
Abulpharag Dynast. Cantemir, p. 55. * Note: Von Hammer, p. 318,
cites several authorities unknown to Gibbon.—M.]
From these opposite premises, a fair and moderate conclusion may
be deduced. I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has faithfully
described the first ostentatious interview, in which the
conqueror, whose spirits were harmonized by success, affected the
character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by
the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet; the complaints of his
enemies, the Anatolian princes, were just and vehement; and
Timour betrayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph
to Samarcand. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by digging a
mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul emperor to impose a
harsher restraint; and in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on
a wagon might be invented, not as a wanton insult, but as a
rigorous precaution. Timour had read in some fabulous history a
similar treatment of one of his predecessors, a king of Persia;
and Bajazet was condemned to represent the person, and expiate
the guilt, of the Roman Cæsar 58 581 But the strength of his mind
and body fainted under the trial, and his premature death might,
without injustice, be ascribed to the severity of Timour. He
warred not with the dead: a tear and a sepulchre were all that he
could bestow on a captive who was delivered from his power; and
if Mousa, the son of Bajazet, was permitted to reign over the
ruins of Boursa, the greatest part of the province of Anatolia
had been restored by the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns.
58 (return) [ Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner, and
enclosed in the figure of a cow’s hide by Maximian or Galerius
Cæsar. Such is the fable related by Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p.
421, vers. Pocock). The recollection of the true history (Decline
and Fall, &c., vol. ii. p 140—152) will teach us to appreciate
the knowledge of the Orientals of the ages which precede the
Hegira.]
581 (return) [ Von Hammer’s explanation of this contested point
is both simple and satisfactory. It originates in a mistake in
the meaning of the Turkish word kafe, which means a covered
litter or palanquin drawn by two horses, and is generally used to
convey the harem of an Eastern monarch. In such a litter, with
the lattice-work made of iron, Bajazet either chose or was
constrained to travel. This was either mistaken for, or
transformed by, ignorant relaters into a cage. The European
Schiltberger, the two oldest of the Turkish historians, and the
most valuable of the later compilers, Seadeddin, describe this
litter. Seadeddin discusses the question with some degree of
historical criticism, and ascribes the choice of such a vehicle
to the indignant state of Bajazet’s mind, which would not brook
the sight of his Tartar conquerors. Von Hammer, p. 320.—M.]
From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the
Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in the hand of
Timour: his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless,
and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert the Christian
kingdoms of the West, which already trembled at his name. He
touched the utmost verge of the land; but an insuperable, though
narrow, sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia;
59 and the lord of so many _tomans_, or myriads, of horse, was
not master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus
and Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed,
the one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great
occasion, they forgot the difference of religion, to act with
union and firmness in the common cause: the double straits were
guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately
withheld the transports which Timour demanded of either nation,
under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the same time,
they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant
embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honors
of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet, implored his clemency
for his father and himself; accepted, by a red patent, the
investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which he already held by
the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish, of casting himself in
person at the feet of the king of the world. The Greek emperor 60
(either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute which
he had stipulated with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the
treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his
conscience so soon as the Mogul arms had retired from Anatolia.
But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious
Tamerlane a new design of vast and romantic compass; a design of
subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic
Ocean, entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and, after
imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning
home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote, and
perhaps imaginary, danger was averted by the submission of the
sultan of Egypt: the honors of the prayer and the coin attested
at Cairo the supremacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a _giraffe_,
or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Samarcand the
tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less
astonished by the portrait of a Mogul, who, in his camp before
Smyrna, meditates, and almost accomplishes, the invasion of the
Chinese empire. 61 Timour was urged to this enterprise by
national honor and religious zeal. The torrents which he had shed
of Mussulman blood could be expiated only by an equal destruction
of the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he
might best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols
of China, founding mosques in every city, and establishing the
profession of faith in one God, and his prophet Mahomet. The
recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was an insult on the
Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire afforded the fairest
opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hongvou, founder of the
dynasty of _Ming_, died four years before the battle of Angora;
and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate youth, was burnt in his
palace, after a million of Chinese had perished in the civil war.
62 Before he evacuated Anatolia, Timour despatched beyond the
Sihoon a numerous army, or rather colony, of his old and new
subjects, to open the road, to subdue the Pagan Calmucks and
Mungals, and to found cities and magazines in the desert; and, by
the diligence of his lieutenant, he soon received a perfect map
and description of the unknown regions, from the source of the
Irtish to the wall of China. During these preparations, the
emperor achieved the final conquest of Georgia; passed the winter
on the banks of the Araxes; appeased the troubles of Persia; and
slowly returned to his capital, after a campaign of four years
and nine months.
59 (return) [ Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 25) describes, like a curious
traveller, the Straits of Gallipoli and Constantinople. To
acquire a just idea of these events, I have compared the
narratives and prejudices of the Moguls, Turks, Greeks, and
Arabians. The Spanish ambassador mentions this hostile union of
the Christians and Ottomans, (Vie de Timour, p. 96.)]
60 (return) [ Since the name of Cæsar had been transferred to the
sultans of Roum, the Greek princes of Constantinople
(Sherefeddin, l. v. c. 54) were confounded with the Christian
_lords_ of Gallipoli, Thessalonica, &c. under the title of
_Tekkur_, which is derived by corruption from the genitive tou
kuriou, (Cantemir, p. 51.)]
61 (return) [ See Sherefeddin, l. v. c. 4, who marks, in a just
itinerary, the road to China, which Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 33)
paints in vague and rhetorical colors.]
62 (return) [ Synopsis Hist. Sinicæ, p. 74—76, (in the ivth part
of the Relations de Thevenot,) Duhalde, Hist. de la Chine, (tom.
i. p. 507, 508, folio edition;) and for the Chronology of the
Chinese emperors, De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, (tom. i. p. 71,
72.)]