LXV. Death of 1403. CHAP. 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.s 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 Mursa, 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. March 9. Term of the conquests of Timour, A. D. 1403. 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 streights 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 honours of victory. Soliman, the son of Ba 58 A Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner and inclosed 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. i. p. 416...424.) will teach us to appreciate the knowledge of the Orientals of the ages which precede the Hegira. 59 Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 25.) describes, like a curious traveller, the streights 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). LXV. jazet, implored his clemency for his father and himself; CHAP. 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 as 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 Streights of Gibraltar, and, after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning home by the desarts of Russia and Tartary. This remote, and perhaps imaginary, danger was averted by the submission of the sultan of Egypt; the honours 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 honour and religious zeal. The torrents which he shed of Musulman 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 moschs 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 60 Since the name of Cæsar had been transferred to the sultans of Roum, the Greek princes of Constantinople (Sherefeddin, I. 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 78 x2p18 (Cantemir, p. 51). 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 colours. VOL. VIII. E LXV. CHAP. 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 dispatched 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 desart; 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. His triumph at Samar cand, A. D. 1404, July... A. D. 1405, 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, January 8. the last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the Oriental artists. The marriages 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 62 Synopsis Hist. Sinica, 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. p. 71, 72. i. 63 For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see Sherefeddin (1. vi. c. 1...30.) and Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 35...47). 64 Sherefeddin (1. vi. c. 24.) mentions the ambassadors of one of the most LXV. by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of Samarcand CHAP. 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 bridegrooms 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 waggons, 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 neighbourhood of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of death. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated His death the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of Asia expir- to China, ed in the seventieth year of his age, thirty-five years after A.D. 1405, he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His designs were April 1. lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen years after his decease, the most powerful of his 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. I. xix. c. 11. tom. ii. p. 329, 330. Avertissement à 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). on the road CHAP. children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin.65 LXV. Character The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West; and merits his posterity is still invested with the Imperial title; and of Timour, 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 an 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, Musulman; 68 but his sound understanding may tempt us to believe, that a superstitious reverence for omens and prophesies, 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 favourite to seduce his affections, or a minister to mislead his judg ment. 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 favour. His 65 See the translation of the Persian account of their embassy, a curious and original piece (in the fourth 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. 66 From Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 96. The bright or softer colours are bor. rowed from Sherefeddin, d'Herbelor, and the Institutions. 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, by the victory of a subject: a chess-player will feel the value of this encomium! 68 See Sherefeddin, I. v. c. 15. 25. Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 96. p. 801. 803.) reproves the impiety of Timour and the Moguls, who almost preferred to the Koran, the Tacsa, or Law of Zingis (cui Deus maledicat): nor will he believe that Sharokh had abolished the use and authority of that Pagan code. |