﻿3$ THE FIFTH DISCOURSE: 



<c read to him, and so frequently heard the same book, 

 *' that he was able by memory to correct an inaccurate 

 * c reader." This passage had no effect on the trans- 

 la' cr, whom great and learned men in India had as- 

 sured, it seems, that the zvork was authentic, by which 

 he meant composed by the conqueror himself: but the 

 great in this country might have been jinlearned, or 

 the learned might not have been great enough to an- 

 swer any leading question in a manner that opposed 

 the declared inclination of a British inquirer; and, 

 in either case, since no witnesses are named, so gene- 

 ral a reference to them will hardly be thought conclu- 

 sive evidence. On my part, I will name a Muselman, 

 whom we all know, and who has enough both of 

 greatness and of learning to decide the question both 

 impartially and satisfactorily : The Naivwab Mozajfer 

 Jang informed me of his own accord, that no man 

 of sense in Hindustan believed the work to have been 

 composed by Taimur, but that his favourite, surnamed 

 Hindu Shah, was known to have written that book and 

 others, ascribed to his patron, after many confidential 

 discourses with the Emir, and, perhaps, nearly in the 

 prince's words as well as in his person : a story which 

 All of Yezd, who attended the court of Taimur, and 

 has given us a flowery panegyric instead of history, 

 renders highly probable, by confirming the latter part 

 of the Arabian account, and by total silence as to the 

 literary productions of his master. It is true, that a 

 very ingenious but indigent native, whom Davy sup- 

 ported, has given me a written memorial on the sub- 

 ject, in which he mentions Taimur as the author of 

 two works in Turkish ; but the credit of his informa- 

 tion is overset by a strange apocryphal story of a king; 

 of Yemen, who invaded, he says, the Emirs domi- 

 nions, and in whose library the manuscript was after- 

 wards found, and translated by order of Alishir, first 

 minister oiTaimars grandson; and Major Davy him- 



