TIMUR BEG. 
5 
in the window of her apartment, over which the 
curtain had been left undrawn, covered her with 
a mantle of light, and at the same time seemed af- 
fectionately to caress her. ie Such, said the princess, 
is the cause of the condition in which you now be- 
hold me. The bountiful source at once of light 
and of fecundity, who fills the wide world with his 
glories, is the parent of that child to which I shall 
shortly give birth/’ Her father, after a proper exa- 
mination of the matter, became convinced of the truth 
of his daughter’s declaration, and gravely persuaded 
himself that a child, indebted for its existence to the 
great Author and Dispenser of all fruitfulness, must be 
destined to fill the world with the renown of his 
achievements. This story probably owed its origin to 
the name of Timur’s father— Teragay, which signifies 
the source of light. Teragay was at this time a noble 
of distinguished reputation at the court of the sove- 
reign of Turkestan and Transoxiana, the latter country 
being dependent upon the former. 
The account of Timur’s family, given in the Intro- 
duction to his “ Autobiographical Memoirs,” is as 
follows : — ff In the tenth century, a person named 
Tumenah Khan, whose descent has been traced by 
the Oriental historians from Noah, commanded a 
horde of Moghuls then dwelling to the northwest of 
China. This person had twin sons, Kubel Khan and 
Kajuly Behader, whom he prevailed on to sign an 
agreement, that the dignity of Khan should continue 
in the posterity of the former, and that of Sepah 
Salar, commander-in-chief, in the descendants of the 
latter. From the first of these sons was descended, in 
b 3 
