Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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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. ^*
[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 Cæsar of the East.
Major Stewart's work commences with the Book of Dreams and Omens -- a
wild, but characteristic, chronicle of Visions and Sortes Koranicæ.
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. Langlès, 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) Vitæ 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
Bibliothèque 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, Tamûrn." The Shaikh then
stopped and said, "We have named your son Timûr," p. 21. -- M.]
[Footnote *: 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 ^! 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 ^! 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. ^!! 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. ^* 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 !: In the memoirs, the title Gurgân 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 Satanæ, (pars i.
-
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,
(Chorasmiæ, &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.
-
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.
-
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 Getæ: they
were unconverted Turks. Col. Tod (History of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 166)
would identify the Jits with the ancient race. -- M.]
[Footnote !: 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 !!: 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 *: 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,
-
13--55.) Consult the excellent Indexes to the Institutions. *
- Note
- * Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer, Geschichte des
Osmanischen Reiches. -- M.]
-
For every war, a motive of safety or revenge, of honor or zeal, of
right or convenience, may be readily found in the jurisprudence of
conquerors. No sooner had Timour reunited to the patrimony of Zagatai
the dependent countries of Carizme and Candahar, than he turned his eyes
towards the kingdoms of Iran or Persia. From the Oxus to the Tigris,
that extensive country was left without a lawful sovereign since the
death of Abousaid, the last of the descendants of the great Holacou.
Peace and justice had been banished from the land above forty years; and
the Mogul invader might seem to listen to the cries of an oppressed
people. Their petty tyrants might have opposed him with confederate
- arms
- they separately stood, and successively fell; and the difference
of their fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission or the
obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan, or Albania, kissed
the footstool of the Imperial throne. His peace-offerings of silks,
horses, and jewels, were composed, according to the Tartar fashion, each
article of nine pieces; but a critical spectator observed, that there
were only eight slaves. "I myself am the ninth," replied Ibrahim, who
was prepared for the remark; and his flattery was rewarded by the smile
of Timour. ^14 Shah Mansour, prince of Fars, or the proper Persia, was
one of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of his enemies. In a
battle under the walls of Shiraz, he broke, with three or four thousand
soldiers, the coul or main body of thirty thousand horse, where the
emperor fought in person. No more than fourteen or fifteen guards
- remained near the standard of Timour
- he stood firm as a rock, and
received on his helmet two weighty strokes of a cimeter: ^15 the Moguls
rallied; the head of Mansour was thrown at his feet; and he declared his
esteem of the valor of a foe, by extirpating all the males of so
intrepid a race. From Shiraz, his troops advanced to the Persian Gulf;
and the richness and weakness of Ormuz ^16 were displayed in an annual
tribute of six hundred thousand dinars of gold. Bagdad was no longer the
city of peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the noblest conquest of
Holacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor. The whole
course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the sources of
those rivers, was reduced to his obedience: he entered Edessa; and the
Turkmans of the black sheep were chastised for the sacrilegious pillage
of a caravan of Mecca. In the mountains of Georgia, the native
Christians still braved the law and the sword of Mahomet, by three
expeditions he obtained the merit of the gazie, or holy war; and the
prince of Teflis became his proselyte and friend.
[Footnote 14: The reverence of the Tartars for the mysterious number of
nine is declared by Abulghazi Khan, who, for that reason, divides his
Genealogical History into nine parts.]
[Footnote 15: According to Arabshah, (P. i. c. 28, p. 183,) the coward
Timour ran away to his tent, and hid himself from the pursuit of Shah
Mansour under the women's garments. Perhaps Sherefeddin (l. iii. c. 25)
has magnified his courage.]
[Footnote 16: The history of Ormuz is not unlike that of Tyre. The old
city, on the continent, was destroyed by the Tartars, and renewed in a
neighboring island, without fresh water or vegetation. The kings of
Ormuz, rich in the Indian trade and the pearl fishery, possessed large
territories both in Persia and Arabia; but they were at first the
tributaries of the sultans of Kerman, and at last were delivered (A.D.
1505) by the Portuguese tyrants from the tyranny of their own viziers,
(Marco Polo, l. i. c. 15, 16, fol. 7, 8. Abulfeda, Geograph. tabul. xi.
-
261, 262, an original Chronicle of Ormuz, in Texeira, or Stevens's
History of Persia, p. 376--416, and the Itineraries inserted in the ist
volume of Ramusio, of Ludovico Barthema, (1503,) fol. 167, of Andrea
Corsali, (1517) fol. 202, 203, and of Odoardo Barbessa, (in 1516,) fol.
313--318.)]
-
A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of Turkestan, or
the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timour could not endure the impunity
- of the Getes
- he passed the Sihoon, subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and
marched seven times into the heart of their country. His most distant
camp was two months' journey, or four hundred and eighty leagues to the
north-east of Samarcand; and his emirs, who traversed the River Irtish,
engraved in the forests of Siberia a rude memorial of their exploits.
The conquest of Kipzak, or the Western Tartary, ^17 was founded on the
double motive of aiding the distressed, and chastising the ungrateful.
Toctamish, a fugitive prince, was entertained and protected in his
- court
- the ambassadors of Auruss Khan were dismissed with a haughty
denial, and followed on the same day by the armies of Zagatai; and their
success established Toctamish in the Mogul empire of the North. But,
after a reign of ten years, the new khan forgot the merits and the
strength of his benefactor; the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the
sacred rights of the house of Zingis. Through the gates of Derbend, he
entered Persia at the head of ninety thousand horse: with the
innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he passed
the Sihoon, burnt the palaces of Timour, and compelled him, amidst the
winter snows, to contend for Samarcand and his life. After a mild
expostulation, and a glorious victory, the emperor resolved on revenge;
and by the east, and the west, of the Caspian, and the Volga, he twice
invaded Kipzak with such mighty powers, that thirteen miles were
measured from his right to his left wing. In a march of five months,
they rarely beheld the footsteps of man; and their daily subsistence was
often trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies
encountered each other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer, who,
in the heat of action, reversed the Imperial standard of Kipzak,
determined the victory of the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I peak the
language of the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi to the wind of
desolation. ^18 He fled to the Christian duke of Lithuania; again
returned to the banks of the Volga; and, after fifteen battles with a
domestic rival, at last perished in the wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of
a flying enemy carried Timour into the tributary provinces of Russia: a
duke of the reigning family was made prisoner amidst the ruins of his
capital; and Yeletz, by the pride and ignorance of the Orientals, might
easily be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow
trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and the resistance would have
been feeble, since the hopes of the Russians were placed in a miraculous
image of the Virgin, to whose protection they ascribed the casual and
voluntary retreat of the conqueror. Ambition and prudence recalled him
to the South, the desolate country was exhausted, and the Mogul soldiers
were enriched with an immense spoil of precious furs, of linen of
Antioch, ^19 and of ingots of gold and silver. ^20 On the banks of the
Don, or Tanais, he received an humble deputation from the consuls and
merchants of Egypt, ^21 Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who
occupied the commerce and city of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth of the
river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence, and trusted
his royal word. But the peaceful visit of an emir, who explored the
state of the magazines and harbor, was speedily followed by the
destructive presence of the Tartars. The city was reduced to ashes; the
Moslems were pillaged and dismissed; but all the Christians, who had not
fled to their ships, were condemned either to death or slavery. ^22
Revenge prompted him to burn the cities of Serai and Astrachan, the
monuments of rising civilization; and his vanity proclaimed, that he had
penetrated to the region of perpetual daylight, a strange phenomenon,
which authorized his Mahometan doctors to dispense with the obligation
of evening prayer. ^23
[Footnote 17: Arabshah had travelled into Kipzak, and acquired a
singular knowledge of the geography, cities, and revolutions, of that
northern region, (P. i. c. 45--49.)]
[Footnote 18: Institutions of Timour, p. 123, 125. Mr. White, the
editor, bestows some animadversion on the superficial account of
Sherefeddin, (l. iii. c. 12, 13, 14,) who was ignorant of the designs of
Timour, and the true springs of action.]
[Footnote 19: The furs of Russia are more credible than the ingots. But
the linen of Antioch has never been famous: and Antioch was in ruins. I
suspect that it was some manufacture of Europe, which the Hanse
merchants had imported by the way of Novogorod.]
[Footnote 20: M. Levesque (Hist. de Russie, tom. ii. p. 247. Vie de
Timour, p. 64--67, before the French version of the Institutes) has
corrected the error of Sherefeddin, and marked the true limit of
Timour's conquests. His arguments are superfluous; and a simple appeal
to the Russian annals is sufficient to prove that Moscow, which six
years before had been taken by Toctamish, escaped the arms of a more
formidable invader.]
[Footnote 21: An Egyptian consul from Grand Cairo is mentioned in
Barbaro's voyage to Tana in 1436, after the city had been rebuilt,
(Ramusio, tom. ii. fol. 92.)]
[Footnote 22: The sack of Azoph is described by Sherefeddin, (l. iii. c.
55,) and much more particularly by the author of an Italian chronicle,
(Andreas de Redusiis de Quero, in Chron. Tarvisiano, in Muratori,
Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xix. p. 802--805.) He had conversed with
the Mianis, two Venetian brothers, one of whom had been sent a deputy to
the camp of Timour, and the other had lost at Azoph three sons and
12,000 ducats.]
[Footnote 23: Sherefeddin only says (l. iii. c. 13) that the rays of the
setting, and those of the rising sun, were scarcely separated by any
interval; a problem which may be solved in the latitude of Moscow, (the
56th degree,) with the aid of the Aurora Borealis, and a long summer
twilight. But a day of forty days (Khondemir apud D'Herbelot, p. 880)
would rigorously confine us within the polar circle.]
-
When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs the invasion of
India or Hindostan, ^24 he was answered by a murmur of discontent: "The
rivers! and the mountains and deserts! and the soldiers clad in armor!
and the elephants, destroyers of men!" But the displeasure of the
emperor was more dreadful than all these terrors; and his superior
reason was convinced, that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect was
safe and easy in the execution. He was informed by his spies of the
- weakness and anarchy of Hindostan
- the soubahs of the provinces had
erected the standard of rebellion; and the perpetual infancy of Sultan
Mahmoud was despised even in the harem of Delhi. The Mogul army moved in
three great divisions; and Timour observes with pleasure, that the
ninety-two squadrons of a thousand horse most fortunately corresponded
with the ninety-two names or epithets of the prophet Mahomet. ^* Between
the Jihoon and the Indus they crossed one of the ridges of mountains,
which are styled by the Arabian geographers The Stony Girdles of the
Earth. The highland robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great
numbers of men and horses perished in the snow; the emperor himself was
let down a precipice on a portable scaffold -- the ropes were one
hundred and fifty cubits in length; and before he could reach the
bottom, this dangerous operation was five times repeated. Timour crossed
the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attok; and successively traversed,
in the footsteps of Alexander, the Punjab, or five rivers, ^25 that fall
into the master stream. From Attok to Delhi, the high road measures no
more than six hundred miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the
south-east; and the motive of Timour was to join his grandson, who had
achieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of
the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desert, the Macedonian hero halted and
- wept
- the Mogul entered the desert, reduced the fortress of Batmir, and
stood in arms before the gates of Delhi, a great and flourishing city,
which had subsisted three centuries under the dominion of the Mahometan
kings. ^! The siege, more especially of the castle, might have been a
work of time; but he tempted, by the appearance of weakness, the sultan
Mahmoud and his vizier to descend into the plain, with ten thousand
cuirassiers, forty thousand of his foot-guards, and one hundred and
twenty elephants, whose tusks are said to have been armed with sharp and
poisoned daggers. Against these monsters, or rather against the
imagination of his troops, he condescended to use some extraordinary
precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron spikes and a rampart of
bucklers; but the event taught the Moguls to smile at their own fears;
and as soon as these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior species
(the men of India) disappeared from the field. Timour made his triumphal
entry into the capital of Hindostan; and admired, with a view to
imitate, the architecture of the stately mosque; but the order or
license of a general pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his
victory. He resolved to purify his soldiers in the blood of the
idolaters, or Gentoos, who still surpass, in the proportion of ten to
one, the numbers of the Moslems. ^* In this pious design, he advanced
one hundred miles to the north-east of Delhi, passed the Ganges, fought
several battles by land and water, and penetrated to the famous rock of
Coupele, the statue of the cow, ^! that seems to discharge the mighty
river, whose source is far distant among the mountains of Thibet. ^26
His return was along the skirts of the northern hills; nor could this
rapid campaign of one year justify the strange foresight of his emirs,
that their children in a warm climate would degenerate into a race of
Hindoos.
[Footnote 24: For the Indian war, see the Institutions, (p. 129--139,)
the fourth book of Sherefeddin, and the history of Ferishta, (in Dow,
vol. ii. p. 1--20,) which throws a general light on the affairs of
Hindostan.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon (observes M. von Hammer) is mistaken in the
correspondence of the ninety-two squadrons of his army with the
ninety-two names of God: the names of God are ninety-nine. and Allah is
the hundredth, p. 286, note. But Gibbon speaks of the names or epithets
of Mahomet, not of God. -- M.]
[Footnote 25: The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches of the
Indus, have been laid down for the first time with truth and accuracy in
Major Rennel's incomparable map of Hindostan. In this Critical Memoir he
illustrates with judgment and learning the marches of Alexander and
Timour. *
Note : See vol. i. ch. ii. note 1. -- M.]
[Footnote !: They took, on their march, 100,000 slaves, Guebers they
were all murdered. V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 286. They are called idolaters.
Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 491. -- M.]
[Footnote *: See a curious passage on the destruction of the Hindoo
idols, Memoirs, p. 15. -- M.]
[Footnote !: Consult the very striking description of the Cow's Mouth by
Captain Hodgson, Asiat. Res. vol. xiv. p. 117. "A most wonderful scene.
The B'hagiratha or Ganges issues from under a very low arch at the foot
of the grand snow bed. My guide, an illiterate mountaineer compared the
pendent icicles to Mahodeva's hair." (Compare Poems, Quarterly Rev. vol.
-
p. 37, and at the end of my translation of Nala.) "Hindoos of
research may formerly have been here; and f so. I cannot think of any
place to which they might more aptly give the name of a cow's mouth than
to this extraordinary debouche. -- M.]
[Footnote 26: The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter, rise in
Thibet, from the opposite ridges of the same hills, separate from each
other to the distance of 1200 miles, and, after a winding course of 2000
miles, again meet in one point near the Gulf of Bengal. Yet so
capricious is Fame, that the Burrampooter is a late discovery, while his
brother Ganges has been the theme of ancient and modern story Coupele,
the scene of Timour's last victory, must be situate near Loldong, 1100
miles from Calcutta; and in 1774, a British camp! (Rennel's Memoir, p.
7, 59, 90, 91, 99.)]
It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed, by his
speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on the confines
of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Christians, and the
ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His vigor of mind and 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 Asia. ^27
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 neighbors, the motives of quarrel will seldom be
wanting. The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in the
neighborhood of Erzeroum, 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 epistle ^28 of the Mogul
emperor must have provoked, instead of reconciling, the Turkish sultan,
whose family and nation he affected to despise. ^29 "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 prevents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark
of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; reflect; 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 labors 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 cimeters and battle-axes of my firm and
invincible 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 insult of a more domestic kind. "If
I fly from thy arms," 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." ^30 Any violation by word or deed of the secrecy of the harem
is an unpardonable offence among the Turkish nations; ^31 and the
political quarrel of the two monarchs was imbittered by private and
personal resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was satisfied
with the siege and destruction of Siwas or 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 Mussulman, 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 invasion of Syria
and Egypt. In these transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals,
and even by Timour, 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 Constantine. ^32
[Footnote 27: See the Institutions, p. 141, to the end of the 1st book,
and Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 1--16,) to the entrance of Timour into
Syria.]
[Footnote 28: We have three copies of these hostile epistles in the
Institutions, (p. 147,) in Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 14,) and in Arabshah,
(tom. ii. c. 19 p. 183--201;) 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. *
- Note
- * Von Hammer considers the letter which Gibbon inserted in the
text to be spurious. On the various copies of these letters, see his
note, p 116. -- M.]
[Footnote 29: The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his countrymen by
the name of Turks, and stigmatizes the race and nation of Bajazet with
the less honorable 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. *
Note: * Price translated the word pilot or boatman. -- M.]
[Footnote 30: According to the Koran, (c. ii. p. 27, and Sale's
Discourses, p. 134,) Mussulman 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 to, 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, l. ii. c. 21.)]
[Footnote 31: The common delicacy of the Orientals, in never speaking of
their women, is ascribed in a much higher degree by Arabshah to the
Turkish nations; and it is remarkable enough, that Chalcondyles (l. ii.
-
55) had some knowledge of the prejudice and the insult. *
Note: * See Von Hammer, p. 308, and note, p. 621. -- M.]
[Footnote !: Still worse barbarities were perpetrated on these brave
men. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 295. -- M.]
[Footnote 32: For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions, (p.
131, 147,) and for the Persians, the Bibliothèque Orientale, (p. 882;)
but I do not find that the title of Cæsar has been applied by the
Arabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves.]
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