remained thirty-six years, the helpless, and, as it should seem, the
careless spectator of the public ruin. [66] Love, or rather lust, was his
only vigorous passion; and in the embraces of the wives and virgins of
the city, the Turkish slave forgot the dishonor of the emperor of the
_Romans_ Andronicus, his eldest son, had formed, at Adrianople, an
intimate and guilty friendship with Sauzes, the son of Amurath; and the
two youths conspired against the authority and lives of their parents.
The presence of Amurath in Europe soon discovered and dissipated their
rash counsels; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight, the Ottoman
threatened his vassal with the treatment of an accomplice and an enemy,
unless he inflicted a similar punishment on his own son. PalÊologus
trembled and obeyed; and a cruel precaution involved in the same
sentence the childhood and innocence of John, the son of the criminal.
But the operation was so mildly, or so unskilfully, performed, that the
one retained the sight of an eye, and the other was afflicted only with
the infirmity of squinting. Thus excluded from the succession, the two
princes were confined in the tower of Anema; and the piety of Manuel,
the second son of the reigning monarch, was rewarded with the gift of
the Imperial crown. But at the end of two years, the turbulence of the
Latins and the levity of the Greeks, produced a revolution; [661] and the
two emperors were buried in the tower from whence the two prisoners were
exalted to the throne. Another period of two years afforded PalÊologus
and Manuel the means of escape: it was contrived by the magic or
subtlety of a monk, who was alternately named the angel or the devil:
they fled to Scutari; their adherents armed in their cause; and the two
Byzantine factions displayed the ambition and animosity with which CÊsar
and Pompey had disputed the empire of the world. The Roman world was now
contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black
Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth; a space of
ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or
Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the
wealth and populousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace, it
was found necessary to divide this fragment of the empire; and while
PalÊologus and Manuel were left in possession of the capital, almost
all that lay without the walls was ceded to the blind princes, who fixed
their residence at Rhodosto and Selybria. In the tranquil slumber of
royalty, the passions of John PalÊologus survived his reason and his
strength: he deprived his favorite and heir of a blooming princess
of Trebizond; and while the feeble emperor labored to consummate his
nuptials, Manuel, with a hundred of the noblest Greeks, was sent on a
peremptory summons to the Ottoman _porte_. They served with honor in
the wars of Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Constantinople excited
his jealousy: he threatened their lives; the new works were instantly
demolished; and we shall bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit of
PalÊologus, if we impute this last humiliation as the cause of his
death.
[Footnote 66: For the reigns of John PalÊologus and his son Manuel, from
1354 to 1402, see Ducas, c. 9--15, Phranza, l. i. c. 16--21, and the ist
and iid books of Chalcondyles, whose proper subject is drowned in a sea
of episode.]
[Footnote 661: According to Von Hammer it was the power of Bajazet, vol.
i. p. 218.]
The earliest intelligence of that event was communicated to Manuel,
who escaped with speed and secrecy from the palace of Boursa to the
Byzantine throne. Bajazet affected a proud indifference at the loss of
this valuable pledge; and while he pursued his conquests in Europe and
Asia, he left the emperor to struggle with his blind cousin John of
Selybria, who, in eight years of civil war, asserted his right of
primogeniture. At length, the ambition of the victorious sultan pointed
to the conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to the advice of his
vizier, who represented that such an enterprise might unite the powers
of Christendom in a second and more formidable crusade. His epistle to
the emperor was conceived in these words: "By the divine clemency, our
invincible cimeter has reduced to our obedience almost all Asia,
with many and large countries in Europe, excepting only the city of
Constantinople; for beyond the walls thou hast nothing left. Resign
that city; stipulate thy reward; or tremble, for thyself and thy unhappy
people, at the consequences of a rash refusal." But his ambassadors
were instructed to soften their tone, and to propose a treaty, which
was subscribed with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten years was
purchased by an annual tribute of thirty thousand crowns of gold; the
Greeks deplored the public toleration of the law of Mahomet, and Bajazet
enjoyed the glory of establishing a Turkish cadhi, and founding a royal
mosque in the metropolis of the Eastern church. [67] Yet this truce was
soon violated by the restless sultan: in the cause of the prince of
Selybria, the lawful emperor, an army of Ottomans again threatened
Constantinople; and the distress of Manuel implored the protection of
the king of France. His plaintive embassy obtained much pity and some
relief; and the conduct of the succor was intrusted to the marshal
Boucicault, [68] whose religious chivalry was inflamed by the desire of
revenging his captivity on the infidels. He sailed with four ships of
war, from Aiguesmortes to the Hellespont; forced the passage, which was
guarded by seventeen Turkish galleys; landed at Constantinople a supply
of six hundred men-at-arms and sixteen hundred archers; and reviewed
them in the adjacent plain, without condescending to number or array the
multitude of Greeks. By his presence, the blockade was raised both by
sea and land; the flying squadrons of Bajazet were driven to a more
respectful distance; and several castles in Europe and Asia were stormed
by the emperor and the marshal, who fought with equal valor by each
other's side. But the Ottomans soon returned with an increase of
numbers; and the intrepid Boucicault, after a year's struggle, resolved
to evacuate a country which could no longer afford either pay or
provisions for his soldiers. The marshal offered to conduct Manuel to
the French court, where he might solicit in person a supply of men and
money; and advised, in the mean while, that, to extinguish all domestic
discord, he should leave his blind competitor on the throne. The
proposal was embraced: the prince of Selybria was introduced to the
capital; and such was the public misery, that the lot of the exile
seemed more fortunate than that of the sovereign. Instead of applauding
the success of his vassal, the Turkish sultan claimed the city as his
own; and on the refusal of the emperor John, Constantinople was more
closely pressed by the calamities of war and famine. Against such an
enemy prayers and resistance were alike unavailing; and the savage
would have devoured his prey, if, in the fatal moment, he had not been
overthrown by another savage stronger than himself. By the victory of
Timour or Tamerlane, the fall of Constantinople was delayed about
fifty years; and this important, though accidental, service may justly
introduce the life and character of the Mogul conqueror.
[Footnote 67: Cantemir, p. 50--53. Of the Greeks, Ducas alone (c. 13,
15) acknowledges the Turkish cadhi at Constantinople. Yet even Ducas
dissembles the mosque.]
[Footnote 68: MÈmoires du bon Messire Jean le Maingre, dit _Boucicault_,
MarÈchal de France, partie ire c. 30, 35.]
Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His 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]
[Footnote 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.
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.]
[Footnote 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." * 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 CÊsar of the East. Major Stewart's work commences
with the Book of Dreams and Omens--a wild, but characteristic, chronicle
of Visions and Sortes KoranicÊ. 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.]
[Footnote 3: 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. LanglËs, a learned Orientalist, who
has added the life of Timour, and many curious notes.]
[Footnote 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 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.]
[Footnote 5: 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) _VitÊ 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 BibliothËque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as D'Herbelot
indifferently draws his materials (p. 877--888) from Khondemir Ebn
Schounah, and the Lebtarikh.]
[Footnote 6: _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_, Tam˚rn." The Shaikh then
stopped and said, "We have named your son _Tim˚r_," p. 21.--M.]
[Footnote 606: 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.
[Footnote 607: In the memoirs, the title Gurg‚n 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.]
[Footnote 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 SatanÊ,
(pars i. c. i. p. 25.) The testimony of Abulghazi Khan (P. ii. c. 5, P.
v. c. 4) is clear, unquestionable, and decisive.]
[Footnote 8: 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.)]
[Footnote 9: See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography,
(ChorasmiÊ, &c., Descriptio, p. 60, 61,) in the iiid volume of Hudson's
Minor Greek Geographers.]
[Footnote 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.)]
[Footnote 11: 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 GetÊ: they were unconverted Turks. Col. Tod (History of
Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 166) would identify the Jits with the ancient
race.--M.]
[Footnote 111: 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.]
[Footnote 112: 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.]
[Footnote 113: 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.]
[Footnote 12: 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.)]
[Footnote 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. *
Note: Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer, Geschichte des
Osmanischen Reiches.--M.]