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LXV.

could be expiated only by an equal destruction of CHA P. the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he might beft 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 before the battle of Angora; and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate youth, was burnt in a palace, after a million of Chinese had perished in the civil war. 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 atchieved 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.

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Synopsis Hist. Sinicæ, p. 74-76, (in the 4th 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. i. p. 71. 72.

CHAP.
LXV.

His triumph at Samarcand,

AD.

1404.

July-
A. D.

1405,

January S.

On the throne of Samarcand, he displayed, in a short repose, his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the people; distri buted 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, the last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the Oriental artists. The marriage 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 t. The public

joy

For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see Sherefeddin (1. vi. c. 1-30.), and Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 35-47.).

Sherefeddin (1. vi, c. 24.) mentions the ambassadors of one of the most 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. 1. xix.

C. II,

LXV.

joy was testified by illuminations and masquerades; CHAP. the trades of Samarcand 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 marriagecontracts 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 Turan; 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

c. 11. tom. ii. p. 329. 330. Advertissement 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.).

LXV.

On the

road to China, A. D. 1405,

April 1.

CHAP. 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 His death expected by the angel of death. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of Asia expired in the seventieth year of his age, thirty-five years after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His designs were lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen years after his decease, the most powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin *. The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West; his posterity is still invested with the ImTimour. perial title; and 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 t. 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,

Charac

ter and

merits of

was

See the translation of the Persian account of their embassy, a curious and original piece, (in the 4th 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.

From Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 96. The bright or softer colours are borrowed from Sherefeddin, d'Herbelot, and the Institutions.

43

LXV.

was corroborated by temperance and exercise. In CHAP. 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 *. In his religion, he was a zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, Mussulman t; but his sound understanding may tempt us to believe, that a superstitious reverence for omens and prophecies, 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 judgement. 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 sons and grandsons, of whom Timour left six-and-thirty at his decease, were his first and

most

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, with the victory of a subject; a chess-player will feel the value of this encomium !

+ See Sherefeddin, 1. 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 Sarokh had abolished the use and authority of that Pagan code.

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