﻿ON THE TARTARS. 37 



no proof that the Tartars were themselves well-in- 

 structed, much less that they instructed the world ; 

 nor have we any stronger reason to conclude from their 

 general manners and character, that they had made an 

 early proficiency in arts and sciences. Even of poetry, 

 the most universal and most natural of the fine arts, 

 we find no genuine specimens ascribed to them, ex- 

 cept some horrible war-songs expressed in Persain by 

 Alt of Ye&d, and possibly invented by him. After 

 the conquest of Persia by the Mongals, their princes 

 indeed encouraged learning, and even made astrono- 

 mical observations at Samarkand ; as the Turc became 

 polished by mixing with the Persians and Arabs, 

 though their very riature, as one of their own writers 

 confesses, had before been like an incurable distemper, 

 and their minds clouded ivith ignorance : thus also the 

 Mancheu monarchs of China have been patrons of the 

 learned and ingenious ; and the Emperor KienLong 

 is, if he be now living, a fine Chinese poet. In all 

 these instances the Tartars have resembled the Ro- 

 mans, who, before they had subdued Greece, were 

 little better than tigers in war, and fauns or syhmns 

 in science and art. 



Before I left Europe, I had insisted in conversation, 

 that the Tu-zuc, translated by Major Davy, was never 

 written by Taimur himself, at least not as Casar wrote 

 his commentaries, for one very plain reason, that no 

 Tartarian king of his age could write at all ; and, in 

 support of my opinion, I had cited lbnuArabshah, who, 

 though justly hostile to the savage, by whom his na- 

 tive city, Damascus, had been ruined, yet praises his 

 talents and the real greatness of his mind; but adds, 

 " He was wholly illiterate ; he neither read nor wrote 

 " any thing; and he knew nothing of Arabic ; 

 " though of Persian, Turkish, and the Mogul dialect, 

 ** he knew as much as was sufficient for his purpose, 

 " and no more. He used with pleasure to hear histories 



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