III. Of

A. D. 1398.

1399.

strange phenomenon, which authorised his Mahometan CHAP. doctors to dispense with the obligation of evening prayer.23 LXV. III. When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs the invasion of India or Hindostan,24 he was answered by a Hindosmurmur of discontent: "The rivers! and the mountains tan, "and desarts! and the soldiers clad in armour! and the ele"phants, 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 Mahmood was despised even in the haram 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 correspond with the ninetytwo 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 foot-steps 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 grand

23 Sherefeddin only says (1. 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.

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.

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 his Critical Memoir, he illustrates with judgment and learning the marches of Alexander and Timour.

VOL. VIII.

C

LXV.

CHAP. son, who had achieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desart, the Macedonian hero halted and wept: the Mogul entered the desart, reduced the fortress of Batnir, 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 vizir to descend into the plain, with tem 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 mosch; but the order or licence 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 childrenin a warm climate would degenerate into a race of Hindoos.

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, im 1774, a British camp! (Rennel's Memoirs, p. 7. 59. 90, 91. 99).

LXV.

His war

sultan

1400, Sep

tember 1.

It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was in- CHAP. formed, 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 design of the sul-against tan Bajazet. His vigour of mind and body was not impaired Bajazet, by sixty-three years, and innumerable fatigues; and, after A. D. 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 neighbours, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. The Mogul and Ottoman 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 epistle 28 of the Mogul emperor must have provoked, instead

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.

28 We have three copies of these hostile epistles in the Institutions (p.147),

LXV.

CHAP. 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 infi"dels, is the sole consideration that prevents us from de"stroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark of the Mos"lem 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 desart, 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 ar"mies are innumerable; be they so; but what are the arrows "of the flying Tartar against the scymetars 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 arแ rears 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,"

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.

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 honourable 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.

31

LXV.

said he, “may my wives be thrice divorced from my bed: CHAP. "but if thou hast not courage to meet me in the field, may"est thou again receive thy wives after they have thrice en“dured the embraces of a stranger."3 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 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 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 invasion of Syria and Egypt. In these transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals, Timour and even by Timour, is styled the Kaissar of Roum, the Cæsar of the Romans: a title which, by a small anticipation, A. D. might be given to a monarch who possessed the provinces, and threatened the city, of the successors of Constantine.32 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; 33 and their favourite 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 the enemies, and detained

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 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).

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 (1. 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 Arabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves.

33 See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M. de Guignes (tom. iv. l. xxii), who, from the Arabic texts of Aboulmahasen, Ebn Schounah, and Aintabi, has added some facts to our common stock of materiais.

invades

Syria,

1400.