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mense army of Sultan Bayazid, or Bajazet, in the plains round the city of Angora, and gained a complete victory. After displaying, in vain, both military skill and personal valour, Bayazid beheld the irremediable rout of his 400,000 trained warriors, and was himself taken prisoner while fleeing from the fatal field. Timour's grandson, Meerza Mohammed Sooltan, with a chosen body of horse, followed up this brilliant success. Boursa was pillaged and burnt to the ground, and the Mogul squadrons were only stopped by the waves of the Propontis.' Smyrna was taken by Timour himself after a gallant resistance, and 'all that breathed were put to the sword.'

There seems no reason to doubt that the captive Sultan was at first treated with the consideration due to his exalted rank and pitiable reverse of fortune. It is more than probable that he would even have been restored to power had he borne himself with less arrogance, and abstained from idle attempts to escape from confinement. To destroy all hope of immediate deliverance, and to facilitate his conveyance to Samarkand, Timour placed his royal captive on a Moghul cart fenced round with iron bars, but the sense of humiliation and disappointment speedily released the unhappy Sultan from the shame and misery of his situation. Within nine months after the overthrow of his empire at Angora, Bayazid was carried off by an apoplectic stroke at Akshuhr-White Town-in Anatolia, and his body was interred with royal honours in the Mausoleum built by himself at Boursa.

His eldest son Soliman was confirmed in his government of Roumania, while a patent in red ink bestowed upon Bayazid's younger son, Mousa, the province of Anatolia. The Byzantine emperor now avowed allegiance to the victorious Tatar, and engaged to pay an annual tribute in token of subjection. Finally, the Sultan of Egypt, trembling for his rich possessions, acknowledged the supremacy of the Moghul conqueror, and

sent him a peace-offering of nine ostriches and a giraffe. The winter of 1403 was passed on the banks of the Araxes, but in the following spring Timour set out on his return to Samarkand, after an absence of four years and nine months. His sovereign power now extended, at least in name, from the western boundary of China to the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, and from the northernmost extremity of the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, Egypt and Hindostan being also his tributaries.

CHAPTER VI.

TIMOUR-LUNG.

MARRIAGE OF JEHANGHEER-EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO-KESH-FESTIVITIES AT SAMARKAND TIMOUR'S MAGNIFICENCE- HARD DRINKING-DRESS OF THE KHANUM-BADAKHSHAN-BALAS RUBIES-LAPIS LAZULI-SAMARKANDLAWS AND REGULATIONS-CLAVIJO'S JOURNEY ACROSS THE DESERTDEATH OF TIMOUR.

On his return from his work of destruction in Western Asia, Timour entered Samarkand for the ninth time. Although on each previous occasion he had come to his capital city laden with the spoils of the conquered, never had he exhibited such magnificence, marred, though it might be, by revolting coarseness and brutality. And yet it could have been no easy matter to surpass the barbaric splendour that had shed lustre on the espousal of Timour's eldest son, Jehangheer, to the lovely princess Khan Sadah, daughter of the Khan of Khwarezm.

'The bride's outfit,' says Dr Wolff, 'consisted of rich crowns, of golden thrones, of precious armlets and ear-rings, of girdles of diamonds and pearls, of beds, tents, and palanquins. As a welcome, the grandees of the empire threw over the head of the bride gold pieces and pearls, the air was filled with the odour of ambra, the ground was covered with carpets and gold; throughout all the towns which they passed, the Sheikhs and Cadis, the Imaums and Mollahs, came out to meet them, and all these festivities were doubled on their arrival in Samarkand. The tent in which the espousal took place, represented in its interior the dome of heaven, covered with stars and sown

with diamonds.

Shawls, cloths, and stuffs, were distributed among the guests, and in the nuptial chamber the astronomers placed the horoscope of the happy and lucky moment of the espousal.' They failed, however, to foresee, or at least to predict, the early death of the bridegroom, Timour's most beloved and favourite son.

Of the savage debauchery that testified to the power and wealth of the Tatar monarch on the conclusion of his Western campaigns, a picturesque description is given in Mr Markham's vigorous translation of the 'Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at Samarkand.' The battle of Angora had been witnessed by two Spanish knights, Pelayode Sotomayor and Fernando de Palaznelos, ambassadors from Henry III. of Castile, to the formidable. Timour. On their return they were accompanied by a Tatar envoy, Mohammed Al Kazi, charged to present the Spanish monarch with some costly jewels, and as a more delicate attention-with several beautiful women, among whom were two Christian ladies found in the harem of the captive Bayazid, the one, Angelina, daughter of Count John of Hungary, the other a Greek lady named Maria.

On the 22nd May, 1403, Mohammed Al Kazi sailed from Seville for Constantinople, in company with Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, a knight of Madrid, Gomez de Salazar, and Fray Alonzo Paez de Santa Maria, a Master of Theology. From Europe the travellers entered Asia at Trebizond, whence they proceeded by Tabriz, Teheran, Damghan, and Nishapoor, to Meshed, where they admired the tomb of the Imam Ali Reza, which was at that time covered with silver gilt. They also observed that posting-houses were established from Khorassan to Samarkand, at some of which as many as two hundred horses were kept, while couriers were travelling to and fro day and night. In the desert, large staging stations were built and

amply stored with provisions. Ambassadors journeying to the Tatar court were empowered to impress as many horses as they required, and could take them from the greatest in the land. The old league was divided by Timour into two, at each of which was placed a small pillar to mark the road and the distance.

The melons grown in the well-watered plain between Meshed and Merv are pronounced by those envoys the finest in the world, but on this point their evidence is opposed to that of Ibn Batuta, the famous traveller and theologian from Tangiers. 'They have in Khwarezm,' he says, 'a melon to which none, except that of Bokhara, can be compared: the nearest to it is that of Ispahan. The peel of this melon is green, the interior red. It is perfectly sweet, and rather hard. Its most remarkable property is that it may be cut in oblong pieces and dried, and then put into a case, like a fig, and carried to India or China. Among dried fruits there is none superior to this.'

But, however exquisite the flavour of the melons of Khorassan, the ambassadors were painfully struck with the large proportion of women and children to men, and were informed that Timour had deported upwards of a hundred thousand males to till the lands of Samarkand, together with sheep, cattle, and asses beyond computation. The country through which they passed seemed generally well cultivated. The town of Anchoy —evidently, Andkhooee—is described as being surrounded for two leagues in every direction with gardens, vineyards, rural houses, and canals of irrigation.

Three days from the Oxus, or Amou-called by them Viadme and Biamo—they came to Vaeq-their synonym for Balkh. The town proper was girt with three walls of earth, the outermost of which was thirty paces in thickness, but nevertheless breached in many places. The space between this and the middle wall was planted with cotton, while that between the middle and

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