TIMUR BEG. 
3 
virtue, when his actions do not confirm the interpreta- 
tion of his words. 
It is easy to apprehend why Timur was so anxious 
to leave behind him a record of his principles apart 
from his practice, when he was probably aware that 
his actions would not bear a severe scrutiny. He 
had the penetration to discover the advantages of 
virtue even to sovereigns, and was no doubt desirous 
to impress upon his successors the necessity of putting 
it into constant and earnest operation, and to eradicate 
through them the impression of his own cruelties ; 
but this was not to be effected. However the de- 
formities of tyrants may be veiled, they cannot alto- 
gether escape the penetration of posterity ; for, when 
prepossessions and prejudices have been neutralized 
by the lapse of years, men will generally look with 
a clear and unbiassed eye, and come tolerably near 
the truth, though they may not be entirely free 
from error. 
I shall endeavour in the following pages to give as 
faithful an account of the life of this illustrious despot 
as my own judgment and anxiety to reach the truth 
will enable me to do. Having no predilections to 
gratify, no prejudices to overcome, I can be actuated 
by no motive either to misrepresent or exaggerate. 
Timur was bom on the twenty-fifth of Shaban, in 
the year of the Hegira 736, corresponding with the se- 
venth of May a. d. 1336. He gives a singular account 
of his own name : — My father related to me the fol- 
lowing circumstances relative to my name. <r Soon af- 
ter your birth, I took your virtuous mother to pay our 
respects to the celebrated saint Shaikh Shems Addeen. 
