sons best informed of each particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and family of Timour, that the monarch himself composed the commentaries* of his life, and the Institutions † of his government. But these cares were 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. 12mo.), 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.

*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." [Major Davy brought this MS. with him in 1784, but dying on his passage, it remained unpublished till 1830, when it was translated by Col. Stewart, and printed by the Oriental Translation Committee. It is entitled Mulfuzut Timury, or Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timur. Omitting what had been already given by White the work commences with Book IV. (Omens) and ends with the 41st (Arabian) year of Timour's age (A.H. 777) or his 39th according to our computation (A.D. 1375). They do not therefore include the transactions of his last 30 years, the most important part of his life. Col. Stewart, in his Addenda (p. 9) says that he had received two transcripts of the Delhi MS., which is continued to the close of Timour's career; but it came too late and was too voluminous for translation, nor has this portion yet been published. The authenticity of the whole composition has been questioned, because Timour appears to have recorded his own death. But this was added by one of his attendants, in conformity with his concluding desire, that everything to the last moment of his existence should be written in his Memoirs as if proceeding from his own mouth.-ED.]

I am ignorant whether the original Institutions, 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 labours 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. [Col. Stewart says (p. vi) that Mr. Erskine, in his Preface to the Memoirs of Baber, 1826, informs us "that the original of Timour's autobiography was found in the library of Jaafer Pasha of Yemen about 1610," at which time Shah Jehan reigned, to whom Abu Talib Hussyny dedicated his Persian Translation. There is no mention of the original at any subsequent period.-ED.]

Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imitate,

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,* which had disfigured the birth and character, the person, and even the name, of Tamerlane.† 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 honourable, infirmity.

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 vizir of Zagatai, in his new realm of Transoxiana; and in the ascent of some generations, the branch of Timour is confounded,

the Institutions of his great ancestor. The English translator relies on their internal evidence; but if any suspicion 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 honourable 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. *The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style; Ahmedis Arabsiada (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vitæ et Rerum gestarum Timuri. Arabice et Latine edidit Samuel Henricus Manger. Franequerc, 1767, 2 tom. in quarto. 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.

+ Demir or Timur, signifies, 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 changed into lenc or lame; and a European corruption confounds the two words in the name of Tamerlane. [This is the meaning according to Arabshah, whose History Col. Stewart condemns as a coarse satire, little worthy of credit." Timour himself (p. 21) derives his name from tamuru (it shall shake) a word in the 67th chapter of the Koran, applied to him when an infant by a celebrated saint.-ED.]

66

at least by the females,* with the imperial stem.† 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. His birth § 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 Calmucs, ¶ invaded the

*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 Satanae (pars 1, c. 1, p. 25). The testimony of Abulghazi Khan (p. 2, c. 5 ; p, 5, c. 4), is clear, unquestionable, and decisive.

+ 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.) [Timour's own history of his family, received from his father, confirms this. Memoirs, p. 27-30.-ED.]

See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Chorasmiæ, &c. Descriptio, p. 60, 71), in the third volume of Hudson's Minor Greek Geographers.

§ See his nativity in Dr. Hyde (Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. 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.) [Timour does not mention clearly the place or year of his birth. In the translation of his memoirs he is made (p. 30) to quote from an astrologer, that he was born on the 9th of the month Rejeb, a.h. 730. But Col. Stewart considers this to be a mistake either of the Persian translator or the copyist, as all other authorities fix the birth of Timour on the 25th Shaban, A.H. 736, corresponding with the 7th May, 1336. At p. 49, he says also that he was twenty-six in A.H. 762; and all his subsequent dates concur with this.-ED.]

In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of the khan of Kashgar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or Uzbecks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of Tartars. (Abulghazi, P. 5, c. 5; p. 7, 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 Uzbecks in Transoxiana. [These Getes must not be mistaken

VOL. VII.

M

Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had entered the field of action;* in the twentyfifth, 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 thou sand Getes, whom he repulsed 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 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 opfor descendants of the ancient Getæ. In Timour's Memoirs they are called Jetes and the Desht Jitteh, of whom "Tugbeck Timûr Khân, the descendant of Jengyz Khân, was absolute sovereign" (p. 46). They dwelt to the north of the Aral Sea, and were not allies or mercenaries of the khan of Cashgar, but principals in the war against Timour for eleven years, till their subjection in A.H. 771 (A.D. 1378). Colonel Stewart says that the Persian translator sometimes called them Uzbeks "by anticipation." It is remarkable that their name has never appeared in history either before or since their contest with Timour. It is most likely that from their progenitors descended the present Jâts or Jaûts of Bhurtpore, who have been made known to us since Gibbon's time, through our wars in northern India. These appear to have emigrated originally from Turkestan, and to have settled to the northward of Moultan, where they became a low Hindoo caste, and were early distinguished among the most numerous and warlike tribes of that people. In 1026, according to Colonel Stewart (Hist. of Bengal, p. 14), they were the natives who manned four thousand vessels in an unsuccessful effort to arrest Sultan Mahmoud's descent of their river (see ch. 57 of this History, vol. vi. p. 360), and from the same authority (p. 35), we learn that in 1192, they invaded the dominions of Mohammed Ghorug, which lay between Balkh and Delhi.-ED.]

* [Timour was not so prematurely active. At the age of eighteen he still employed a master to teach him the art of riding, and how to manœuvre an army. On the attainment of his twentieth year, his father made over to him flocks and slaves, and he was occupied in managing his private affairs. At twenty-one he was ordered to lead a detachment against the Irakians who had invaded Maveral naher (Transoxiana), and this was the commencement of his military career.-ED.]

pressor. After swimming the broad and rapid stream 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

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,† and in a general

* [Timour says (Memoirs, p. 63) that he and his wife were confined fifty-three days and nights "in a cow-house, swarming with fleas and vermin." His belief in the predictions of his rising to sovereignty encouraged him to attempt and effect his escape.-ED.]

The first book of Sherefeddin is employed on the private life of the