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 CÊsar [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.
[Footnote 58: Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner, and
enclosed in the figure of a cow's hide by Maximian or Galerius CÊsar.
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.]
[Footnote 581: 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.
[Footnote 59: 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.)]
[Footnote 60: Since the name of CÊsar 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.)]
[Footnote 61: 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.]
[Footnote 62: Synopsis Hist. SinicÊ, 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.)]
Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His Death.--Part III.
On the throne of Samarcand, [63] he displayed, in a short repose, his
magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the people;
distributed a just measure of rewards and punishments; employed his
riches in the architecture of palaces and temples; and gave audience to
the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the
last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of
the Oriental artists. The marriage of six of the emperor's grandsons was
esteemed an act of religion as well as of paternal tenderness; and the
pomp of the ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials. They were
celebrated in the gardens of Canighul, decorated with innumerable tents
and pavilions, which displayed the luxury of a great city and the spoils
of a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut down to supply fuel for the
kitchens; the plain was spread with pyramids of meat, and vases of
every liquor, to which thousands of guests were courteously invited: the
orders of the state, and the nations of the earth, were marshalled at
the royal banquet; nor were the ambassadors of Europe (says the haughty
Persian) excluded from the feast; since even the _casses_, the smallest
of fish, find their place in the ocean. [64] The public joy was testified
by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of Samarcand passed in
review; and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint device, some
marvellous pageant, with the materials of their peculiar art. After the
marriage contracts had been ratified by the cadhis, the bride-grooms and
their brides retired to the nuptial chambers: nine times, according to
the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and undressed; and at each
change of apparel, pearls and rubies were showered on their heads, and
contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A general indulgence
was proclaimed: every law was relaxed, every pleasure was allowed; the
people was free, the sovereign was idle; and the historian of Timour may
remark, that, after devoting fifty years to the attainment of empire,
the only happy period of his life were the two months in which he
ceased to exercise his power. But he was soon awakened to the cares of
government and war. The standard was unfurled for the invasion of China:
the emirs made their report of two hundred thousand, the select and
veteran soldiers of Iran and Touran: their baggage and provisions were
transported by five hundred great wagons, and an immense train of horses
and camels; and the troops might prepare for a long absence, since more
than six months were employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan from
Samarcand to Pekin. Neither age, nor the severity of the winter, could
retard the impatience of Timour; he mounted on horseback, passed the
Sihoon on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred miles,
from his capital, and pitched his last camp in the neighborhood of
Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of death. Fatigue, and the
indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated the progress of his fever;
and the conqueror of Asia expired in the seventieth year of his age,
thirty-five years after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His
designs were lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and
fourteen years after his decease, the most powerful of his children sent
an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin. [65]
[Footnote 63: For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see
Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 1--30) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 36--47.)]
[Footnote 64: Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 24) mentions the ambassadors of one
of the most potent sovereigns of Europe. We know that it was Henry III.
king of Castile; and the curious relation of his two embassies is still
extant, (Mariana, Hist. Hispan. l. xix. c. 11, tom. ii. p. 329, 330.
Avertissement ‡ l'Hist. de Timur Bec, p. 28--33.) There appears likewise
to have been some correspondence between the Mogul emperor and the
court of Charles VII. king of France, (Histoire de France, par Velly et
Villaret, tom. xii. p. 336.)]
[Footnote 65: See the translation of the Persian account of their
embassy, a curious and original piece, (in the ivth part of the
Relations de Thevenot.) They presented the emperor of China with an old
horse which Timour had formerly rode. It was in the year 1419 that they
departed from the court of Herat, to which place they returned in 1422
from Pekin.]
The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West: his posterity is
still invested with the Imperial _title_; and the admiration of his
subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be justified in
some degree by the praise or confession of his bitterest enemies. [66]
Although he was lame of a hand and foot, his form and stature were not
unworthy of his rank; and his vigorous health, so essential to himself
and to the world, was corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his
familiar discourse he was grave and modest, and if he was ignorant of
the Arabic language, he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian
and Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with the learned on
topics of history and science; and the amusement of his leisure
hours was the game of chess, which he improved or corrupted with new
refinements. [67] In his religion he was a zealous, though not perhaps
an orthodox, Mussulman; [68] but his sound understanding may tempt us to
believe, that a superstitious reverence for omens and prophecies, for
saints and astrologers, was only affected as an instrument of policy. In
the government of a vast empire, he stood alone and absolute, without
a rebel to oppose his power, a favorite to seduce his affections, or
a minister to mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim, that
whatever might be the consequence, the word of the prince should never
be disputed or recalled; but his foes have maliciously observed, that
the commands of anger and destruction were more strictly executed than
those of beneficence and favor. His sons and grandsons, of whom Timour
left six-and-thirty at his decease, were his first and most submissive
subjects; and whenever they deviated from their duty, they were
corrected, according to the laws of Zingis, with the bastinade, and
afterwards restored to honor and command. Perhaps his heart was not
devoid of the social virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving his
friends and pardoning his enemies; but the rules of morality are founded
on the public interest; and it may be sufficient to applaud the _wisdom_
of a monarch, for the liberality by which he is not impoverished, and
for the justice by which he is strengthened and enriched. To maintain
the harmony of authority and obedience, to chastise the proud, to
protect the weak, to reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness
from his dominions, to secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain
the depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labors of the
husbandman, to encourage industry and learning, and, by an equal and
moderate assessment, to increase the revenue, without increasing the
taxes, are indeed the duties of a prince; but, in the discharge of these
duties, he finds an ample and immediate recompense. Timour might boast,
that, at his accession to the throne, Asia was the prey of anarchy
and rapine, whilst under his prosperous monarchy a child, fearless and
unhurt, might carry a purse of gold from the East to the West. Such was
his confidence of merit, that from this reformation he derived an excuse
for his victories, and a title to universal dominion. The four following
observations will serve to appreciate his claim to the public gratitude;
and perhaps we shall conclude, that the Mogul emperor was rather the
scourge than the benefactor of mankind. _1._ If some partial disorders,
some local oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour, the remedy
was far more pernicious than the disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and
discord, the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict their subjects; but
whole nations were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. The
ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked
by his abominable trophies, by columns, or pyramids, of human heads.
Astracan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Boursa,
Smyrna, and a thousand others, were sacked, or burnt, or utterly
destroyed, in his presence, and by his troops: and perhaps his
conscience would have been startled, if a priest or philosopher had
dared to number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the
establishment of peace and order. [69] _2._ His most destructive wars
were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, Kipzak,
Russia, Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia, without a
hope or a desire of preserving those distant provinces. From thence he
departed laden with spoil; but he left behind him neither troops to awe
the contumacious, nor magistrates to protect the obedient, natives. When
he had broken the fabric of their ancient government, he abandoned them
to the evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were these
evils compensated by any present or possible benefits. _3._ The kingdoms
of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper field which he labored to
cultivate and adorn, as the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his
peaceful labors were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the
absence of the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges,
his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master and their duty. The
public and private injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigor
of inquiry and punishment; and we must be content to praise the
_Institutions_ of Timour, as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy.
_4._ Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they
evaporated with his life. To reign, rather than to govern, was the
ambition of his children and grandchildren; [70] the enemies of each
other and of the people. A fragment of the empire was upheld with some
glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after _his_ decease, the scene
was again involved in darkness and blood; and before the end of a
century, Transoxiana and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the
north, and the Turkmans of the black and white sheep. The race of Timour
would have been extinct, if a hero, his descendant in the fifth degree,
had not fled before the Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindostan. His
successors (the great Moguls [71]) extended their sway from the mountains
of Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar to the Gulf of Bengal.
Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their empire had been dissolved; their
treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the richest
of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company of Christian merchants,
of a remote island in the Northern Ocean.
[Footnote 66: From Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 96. The bright or softer colors
are borrowed from Sherefeddin, D'Herbelot, and the Institutions.]
[Footnote 67: His new system was multiplied from 32 pieces and 64
squares to 56 pieces and 110 or 130 squares; but, except in his court,
the old game has been thought sufficiently elaborate. The Mogul emperor
was rather pleased than hurt with the victory of a subject: a chess
player will feel the value of this encomium!]
[Footnote 68: See Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 15, 25. Arabshah tom. ii. c. 96,
p. 801, 803) approves the impiety of Timour and the Moguls, who
almost preferred to the Koran the _Yacsa_, or Law of Zingis, (cui Deus
maledicat;) nor will he believe that Sharokh had abolished the use and
authority of that Pagan code.]
[Footnote 69: Besides the bloody passages of this narrative, I must
refer to an anticipation in the third volume of the Decline and Fall,
which in a single note (p. 234, note 25) accumulates nearly 300,000
heads of the monuments of his cruelty. Except in Rowe's play on
the fifth of November, I did not expect to hear of Timour's amiable
moderation (White's preface, p. 7.) Yet I can excuse a generous
enthusiasm in the reader, and still more in the editor, of the
_Institutions_.]
[Footnote 70: Consult the last chapters of Sherefeddin and Arabshah,
and M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. l. xx.) Fraser's History of
Nadir Shah, (p. 1--62.) The story of Timour's descendants is imperfectly
told; and the second and third parts of Sherefeddin are unknown.]
[Footnote 71: Shah Allum, the present Mogul, is in the fourteenth degree
from Timour, by Miran Shah, his third son. See the second volume of
Dow's History of Hindostan.]