T I M 



468 



I M 



liv Tcknt, lloha or Edei*,Ho-s<i, and Keif, nil situ- 



.imia. lit- laid niece to Mardin, H 

 plant in (In- movintnin-pHwes south-. -,.~i < .'. but 



.Mi- In t.lke It. l\<- contented himself with the 



>oof an annual tribute which Sullnn Iza, thr 



..red tn ]iay. ami In- marrhril In Divaibckir. 

 Tills town \\ii-. taken and plundered. From Diyarbckir 

 Tiiiuir mar. !.! to Akhlat, north ol ,. eroding 



the mountains, a.- it seems, by tin- passes of the Hedhs. or 

 Cfiitnt--.-. [Ti(.n \MK-KKTA.]' Alter having rabdued all 

 Armenia and Georgia, Timur rearhed the 1 river Terek in 

 ills, and there fought another bloody battle willi 

 the khan ol Kiptshak. In v.iv l:t'i:> and 1 :!)<; Timur con- 

 quered all Kiptshak. and pep. ;ar as M. 

 whereupon lie left the ronitnaml of these countries to his 

 lieutenants, and returned to Samarkand, in order to pre- 



'..ir a. campaign ilia. 



i-r the deatli of I'irus-Shah. the master of India 

 iie Indus and the Ganges, several pretenders 

 made claims to the vacant throne. At last Mahmud suc- 

 making himself master of Delhi, and in esta- 

 blishing his authority all over the empire of r'irns-Shah. 

 I'nder the ]iretext of supporting the ii\a!s of Mahmud, 

 Timur declared war against India ; and such was the re- 

 nown of his name, that ambassadors from all the countries 

 of the East arrived at Samarkand and congratulated him 

 on his new conquests before he had obtained any triumph. 

 Timur left his capital in A.M. 801 (A.D. 1398). He took 

 his way through the passes in the Ghur Mountains, or the 

 western part of the Hindu-Kush ; and on the Klh of Mo- 

 harrem. A.M. X01 (19th of September, 1398), he < 

 the Indus at Attock, where Alexander had entered India 

 f ALEXANPKK THE GREAT], and where Genghis Khan had 

 been compelled to give ii]) his plan of advancing farther. 

 Timur traversed the Punjab in a direction from north-west 

 to south-east, crossing the rivers Uchut. Chunab. Ra\ee, the 

 Beeali, the Hyphasis of the antienls, where Alexander ter- 

 minated his conquests, and the Sutlej, the easternmost of 

 the five treat rivers of the Punjab. Although no great 

 battle had been fought, the Tartars had already made 

 mere than 100,000 prisoners ; and as their number daily- 

 increased, Timur ordered them all to be massacred, to pre- 

 vent any mutiny, which might have become fatal to him 

 in case of a defeat. At last the Indian army was defeated 

 in a battle near Delhi, and this town, with all its immense 

 treasures, fell into the hands of the conqueror. Delhi was 

 plundered, and a part of it was destroyed, the inhabitants 

 having set fire to their houses, and thrown themselves 

 with their wives and children into the flames. Several 



inds of artists and skilful workmen were transplanted 

 to Samarkand. Timur pin-sued the army of Mahmud as 

 far as the sources of the Ganges, and after having esta- 

 blished his authority in the conquered countries, returned 



markand in the same year in which he had set out 

 for the conquest of India. 



Meanwhile troubles had broken out between the vassal 

 princes in Persia and the countries west of it ; and Timur's 

 own sons, who were (fovernore of this part of his empire, 

 had attacked each other, and one of them was accused of 

 having made an attempt to poison his brother. These 

 events became as many occasions of new conquests for 

 Timur, who overran the whole country between Persia and 

 Syria. Siwas Scha-ste), one of the strongest towns of 

 Asia Minor, which belonged to the Osmanlis. was taken 

 after a siege of eighteen days. The Mohammedan 

 inhabitants were spared ; the Christians, among whom 

 were more than 4(HKI Armenian horsemen, were in- 



I alive. \.ii.sut; A.D. 1400.) Among tl>. 

 oners was Krtoghrul. the son of !iaya/id. sultan of the 

 Osmanlis, who defended the town for "his father, and who 

 wai put to death after a short captivity. The fall of 

 Siwas and the murder of Krtoghrul were the signals for 

 war i imur and Baya/id. who had filled I- 



with the terror of hin name, and who was tin 



mtinoplc. The rapidity of his marches and the 1111- 



-ity of his charges |iad procured him the surname of 

 1 lid. Tim,' or the ' Lightning ' and accustomed to \u 

 over the knights of Hungary, Poland, France, an.! 

 many, he did not dread the Tatars of Timur. 



he h.id negotiated withTimnr about 



Turkish emirs in Asia Minor, and especially about 



(Armenia, a vassal of Timur, who hi'i.i 

 deprived by IJayazid of several of their bust towns, and 



whom Timur protected. To humble his pride, Bayazid 

 imprisoned the Tatarian ambassadors, and Timur in rev 

 carried de\astation into the dominion-- of the Osmanlis. 



lieforc Baya/id had crossed the Ho-|>oni-, Timur. otl'cnded 

 by Fcrruj. Sultan of Kvypt. 'hen a depend- 



ence of Kgypt. The aimy of Fcrmj was routed with dread- 

 ful slaughter at Haleb, and this populous town was taken 

 by tin -ho entered it with the flying F.gypt. 



Plunder, blood-hed, and cruelties -ignali/.cd this new con- 

 que-t(llth to 14th of Kebuil-ew \val, A.H. Sl>:t : 3Olh of 

 October to 2nd of November. 1400 A.!).", which wa- 

 lowed by the fall of Damascus (9th of Sha'ban, A.H. 

 tilth of March. Mill . Aiti1s and workmen w<- 

 earned off to Samarkand and other towns of Turk. 

 Ferruj became a vassal of the Tatars. Bagdad having 

 revolted, Timur took it by storm on the 27th of /ilkide, 

 suj v.ic. i !Hh iif.luly. 1 !<>l" A.H. , and 00,000 human 1 



.led up on the public places of the town. 

 Hitherto negotiations had still been earned on be' 

 Timur and Baya/id, who had adv. -meed into Asia Minor 

 with a well-disciplined although not very numerous army. 

 But Baya/id having discovered that lirnur had bribed 

 several regiments of Turkomans that were in the army of 

 tin- Osmanlis. the negotiations were broken oil', and the 

 two greatest conquerors of their time advanced to meet 

 each other in the field. 



After the fate of Haleb, Damascus, and Bagdad, Timur 

 had assembled his army near Haleb, and. cro--mg the 

 range of the Taurus, he had proceeded north-wcstwaids 

 to the northern part of Anatolia. At Angora he met with 

 Baya/id. The battle, one of '.he moM eventful which 

 ever been fought, took place on the 1'Jth of Xilhiji 

 \.H. JHh of .Inly, 1402 A.D.). After an ob>tinatc : 

 ance the Osmanlis, who were much less numerous than the 

 Tatars, were routed. Old l!aya/id, to whom flight was un- 

 known, dcspUcd every opportunity of saving himself, and 

 so strong was the habit of victory in him, that he could 

 not conceive his defeat even when he saw the general rout 

 of his warriors. At the head of his janU-:irie. H, 

 maintained himself on the top of a hill; his soldiers died 

 of thirst or fell by the sword and the arrows of the T 

 at last he was almost alone. When the niirht came her 

 tried to escape ; his horse fell, and Bayazid t 

 prisoner by the hand of Mahmud Khan, a descendant 

 of Genghis Khan, and who was umler-khan of Jauatai'. 

 One of his sons. Mu/a. was likewise made prisoner: another, 

 Mustafa, fell most probably in the battle, for he was never 

 more heard of; three others, Soliman, Mohammed, and 

 Iza, escaped with part of their troops. Timur received his 

 royal prisoner with kindness and generosity. Alter 

 when some faithful Osmanlis tried to save their master, he 

 was put into chains, but only at night. Accompanying 

 Timur on his march, he sat in a kales.' that is. in a sedan 

 hanging between two horses, and this was the origin of 

 the fable that Timur had put Bayazid in an iron - 

 like a wild beast, a table which has chiefly 



'. 'd by Arabshah and the Byzantine Phran/cs i.. 0, 

 26). Bayazid died in his captivitv at Akshehr. about a 

 year after the battle of Angora (14tVi of Sha'l.an, sii:> v.n. ; 

 8th of March, 1403 A.D.), and Timur allowed Prince Mu/a 

 to carry the body of his father to Bnisa. 



The- sons of Timur pursued the sons of liavax.i.l as far as 

 the Bosporus, but ha v ing nofleet, they did not cross this chan- 

 nel. Thc\ ravaged the country, and" afterwards joined llieir 

 father Tinmr. who with the main body of his army took 



us and laid siege, to Smyrna. This town, which he- 



1 to the Knightsof St. .lohn at Khoeles. fell alii r a gal- 



OCe, in the month of December. 1-102. Ilo 

 the conquest of Asia Minor from the Osmanlis was einly a 

 temporary triumph, for a short time allcrwanis > 

 n ru\|.red by Mohammed I., the son and successor of 

 the unfortunate Bayazid. After having thus carried his 

 arms as far as the shore of the Ionian Sea. Timur withdrew 

 to Persia to quell an insurrection, and then rctircel to Samar- 

 kand, lie was preparing for the conquest of I 'hina. but he 

 died on his inarch to that country, at Otraron the. la \artes, on 

 the 17th of ShaVm, 807 A.M. ..'I'.lth of February. I !().") . in 



e-nty-first year, after a reign of thirty-six years, leaving 

 thirty-six sons and grandsons, anil seveiitee-n giand- 

 claughters. A considerable pait of Timur's western and 

 northern conquests, Ar-ia Minor, llagelael. Syria, (uiirgia, 

 Armenia, and the whole kingdom of Kiptshak, were lo^t by 

 his successors almost immediately alter his death. In 



