children in a warm climate would degenerate into a race CHAP. of Hindoos. LXV. His war Lember 1. It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed, by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances agnst which had arisen on the confines of Georgia and Ana-sutn Bajazet, tolia, of the revolt of the Christians, and the ambitious design of the sultan Bajazet. His vigour of mind and 1400, Sep, 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 Asia27. 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 neighbours, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. The Mogul and Ot toman conquests now touched each other in the neighbourhood of Erzerum, 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 epis 27 See the Institutions, p. 141. to the end of the first book, and Sherefeddin (1. v. c. 1-16), to the entrance of Timour into Syria. CHAP. tle" of the Mogul emperor must have provoked, instead LXV. of reconciling the Turkish sultan; whose family and nation he affected to despise". "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 pre"vents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and "bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; re flect; 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 labours 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 scymetars and battle-axes of my firm and invinci"ble 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 28 We have three copies of these hostile epistles in the Institutions (p. 147), in Sherefeddin (i. v. c. 14), and in Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 19. p. 183201); 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. 29 The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his countrymen by the name of Turks, and stigmatises the race and nation of Bajazet with the less bonourable 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. LXV. insult of a more domestic kind. "If I fly from my arms," CHAP. 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." Any violation by word or deed of the secrecy of the Haram is an unpardonable offence among the Turkish nations; and the political quarrel of the two monarchs was embittered by private and personal resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was satisfied with the siege and destruction of Siwas of 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. As a Musulman 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 Timour invasion of Syria and Egypt. In these transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals, and even by Ti- .D. 1400. mour, 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 Constantine32. 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; and their fa vourite 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 30 According to the Koran (c. ii. p. 27. and Sale's Discourses, p. 134), a Musulman 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 te, 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, 1. ii. c. 21). 31 The common delicacy of the Orientals, in never speaking of their wo men, is ascribed in a much higher degree by Arabshah to the Turkish na, tions; and it is remarkable enough, that Chalcondyles (l. ii, p. 55.) had some knowledge of the prejudice, and the insult. 32 For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions (p. 131. 147), and for the Persians, the Bibliotheque Orientale (p. 882): but I do not find that the title of Cæsar has been applied by the Arrabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves. 53 See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M. de Guignes (tom. iv. 1. Ixii), who, from the Arabic texts of Aboulmahasen, Ebn Schounah, and Aintabi, ahs added some facts to our common stock of materials. invades Syria, CHAP. the enemies, and detained the ambassadors, of the Mogul, LXV. who patiently expected his decease, to revenge the crimes of the father on the feeble reign of his son Farage. The Syrian emirs 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 fugi tives; and, after a short defence, the citadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Among the suppliants and capAlppo tives, Timour distinguished the doctors of the law, whom Nov. 11, he invited to the dangerous honour of a personal conference. The Mogul prince was a zealous Musulman; 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 par Sacks 34 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 (I. v. c. 17-29). 35 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)? 66 66 LXV. ty, who fight only for the glory of God, may deserve CHAP. 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 an 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 re-echoed 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 retrogade 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 colour of a truce, than he perfidiously violated the treaty; imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold; and Damascus, animated his troops to chastise the posterity of those Sy-A rians who had executed, or approved, the murder of the nuary 23, 1401, Ja |