LXV.

rope. The nations which he vanquished exercifed CHAP. a bafe and impotent revenge; and ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny", which had disfigured the birth and character, the perfon, and even the name, of Tamerlane. Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than debafed, by the elevation of a peafant to the throne of Afia; nor can his lamenefs be a theme of reproach, unlefs he had the weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honourable, infirmity.

In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeafible fucceffion of the houfe of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel fubject; yet he sprang from the noble tribe of Berlafs: his fifth ancestor, Carafhar Nevian, had been the vizir of Zagatai, in his new realm of Tranfoxiana; and in the afcent of fome generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at leaft by the females', with the Imperial

5 The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much efteemed for its florid elegance of style: Ahmedis Arabfiada (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vitæ et Rerum geftarum Timuri. Arabice et Latine. Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger. Franequera, 1757, 2 tom. in 4to. This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an ignorant, enemy: the very titles of his chapters are injurious; as how the wicked, as how the impious, as how the viper, &c. The copious article of TIMUR, in Bibliothéque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as d'Herbelot indifferently draws his materials (p. 877-888.) from Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, and the Lebtarikh.

6 Demir, or Timour, fignifies, in the Turkish language, Iron; and Beg is the appellation of a lord or prince. By the change of a letter or accent, it is charged into Lenc, or lame; and a European corruption confounds the two words in the name of Tamerlane.

7 After relating fome falfe and foolish tales of Timour Lenc, Arabshah is compelled to speak truth, and to own him for a kinsman of Zingis, per mulieres (as he peevishly adds) laqueos Satanæ (pars i. c. 1. p. 25.). The teftimony of Abulghazi Khan (P. ii. c. 5. P. v. c. 4.) is clear, unqueftionable, and decifive.

LXV.

CHAP. ftem. He was born forty miles to the fouth 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 thoufand horfe. His birth 10 was caft on one of thofe periods of anarchy which announce the fall of the Afiatic dynasties, and open a new field to adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were extinct; the emirs afpired to independence; and their domeftic feuds could only be fufpended by the conqueft and tyranny of the khans of Kafhgar, who, with an army of Getes or Calmucks ", invaded the Tranfoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had entered the 1361- field of action; in the twenty-fifth, he stood forth as the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and

His firft adven,

tures.

A. D.

1370.

8 According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth ancestor of Zingis, and the ninth of Timour, were brothers; and they agreed, that the pofterity of the elder fhould fucceed to the dignity of khan, and that the defcendants of the younger fhould fill the office of their minister and general. This tradition was at least convenient to justify the first steps of Timour's ambition (Inftitutions, p. 24, 25. from the MS. fragments of Timour's hiftory).

9 See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Chorafmiæ, &c. Defcriptio, p. 60, 61.), in the id volume of Hudfon's Minor Greek Geographers.

To See his nativity in Dr. Hyde (Syntagma Differtat. tom. ii. p. 466.), as it was caft by the aftrologers 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 furname of Saheb Keran, or mafter of the conjunctions (Bibliot. Orient. p. 878.).

In the Inftitutions of Timour, these fubjects of the khan of Kashgar are moft improperly ftyled Ouzbegs, or Uzbeks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of Tartars (Abulghai, P. v. c. 5. P. vii. c. 5.). Could I be fure that this word is in the Turkish original, I would bo'dly pronounce, that the Inftitutions were framed a century after the death of Timour, fince the establishment of the Uzbeks in Tranfoxiana.

wishes

LXV.

wishes of the people were turned towards an hero CHAP. who fuffered in their caufe. The chiefs of the law and of the army had pledged their falvation to fupport him with their lives and fortunes; but in the hour of danger they were filent and afraid; and, after waiting feven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the defert with only fixty horsemen. The fugitives were overtaken by at thousand Getes, whom he repulfed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies were forced to exclaim, "Timour is a wonderful man: fortune and the "divine favour are with him." But in this bloody action his own followers were reduced to ten, a number which was foon diminished by the defertion of three Carizmians. He wandered in the defert with his wife, feven companions, and four horses; and fixty-two days was he plunged in a loathfome dungeon, from whence he efcaped by his own courage, and the remorfe of the oppreffor. After fwimming the broad and rapid ftream of the Jihoon, or Oxus, he led, during fome months, the life of a vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent ftates. But his fame fhone brighter in adverfity; he learned to diftinguifh the friends of his person, the affociates 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 fucceffively joined by the parties of his confederates, who anxiously fought him in the defert; nor can I refuse to describe, in his pathetic fimplicity, one of their fortunate encounters. He prefented himfelf as a guide to three chiefs, who were at the head of feventy horse. "When their eyes fell B 3

"upon

CHAP. « upon me,' upon me," fays Timour, «< they were over

LXV.

1

"whelmed with joy; and they alighted from "their horfes; and they came and kneeled; and "they kiffed my stirrup. I also came down from

"coat.

my horfe, 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 fecond; and the third, I clothed in my own And they wept, and I wept alfo; and "the hour of prayer was arrived, and we prayed. "And we mounted our horfes, and came to my dwelling; and I collected my people, and made "a feaft." His trufty bands were foon encreased by the braveft of the tribes; he led them against a fuperior foe; and after fome viciffitudes of war, the Getes were finally driven from the kingdom of Tranfoxiana. He had done much for his own glory; but much remained to be done, much art to be exerted, and fome blood to be spilt, before he could teach his equals to obey him as their mafter. The birth and power of emir Houffein compelled him to accept a vicious and unworthy colleague, whofe fifter was the beft beloved of his wives. Their union was fhort and jealous; but the policy of Timour, in their frequent quarrels, expofed his rival to the reproach of injuftice and perfidy and, after a final defeat, Houffein was flain by fome fagacious friends, who prefumed, for the laft time, to difabey the commands of their lord. At the age of thirty-four 2, and in at general

12 The ist book of Sherefeddin is employed on the private life of the hero; and he himself, or his fecretary (Inftitutions, p. 3-77.),

enlarges

LXV.

the throne

of Zagatai,

A. D.

1370,

April.

general diet or couroultai, he was invefted with CHAP. Imperial command, but he affected to revere the houfe of Zingis; and while the emir Timour He afcends reigned over Zagatai and the Eaft, a nominal khan ferved as a private officer in the armies of his fervant. A fertile kingdom, five hundred miles in length and in breadth, might have fatiffied the ambition of a fubject; but Timour afpired to the dominion of the world; and before his death, the crown of Zagatai was one of the twentyfeven crowns which he had placed on his head. Without expatiating on the victories of thirtyfive campaigns; without defcribing the lines of march, which he repeatedly traced over the continent of Afia; I fhall briefly reprefent his conquests in, I. Perfia, II. Tartary, and, III. India 13, and from thence proceed to the more interefting narrative of his Ottoman war.

13

quests,

A. D.

1370

1400.

fia,

A. D.

I. For every war, a motive of fafety or revenge, His conof honour or zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily found in the jurifprudence of conquerors. No fooner had Timour re-united to the patrimony I. Of Perof Zagatai the dependent countries of Carizme and Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards the kingdoms of Iran or Perfia. From the Oxus to the Tigris, that extenfive country was left without a lawful fovereign fince the death of Aboufaid, the last of the defcendants of the great

enlarges with pleasure on the thirteen designs and enterprises which moft truly conftitute his perfonal merit. It even shines through the dark colouring of Arabhah, P. i. c. 1-12.

13 The conquefts of Perfia, Tartary, and India, are reprefented in the iid and iiid books of Sherefeddin, and by Arabfhah, c. 13—55. Confult the excellent Indexes to the Inftitutions.

13801393.