TIMUR BEG. 
13 
CHAPTER II. 
a. d. 1354 — 1362. 
It appears from his autobiography that Timur was 
early possessed with the idea of his future greatness. 
After describing his recovery from a severe sickness, 
he says : — “ Another of the auspicious omens predict- 
ing my sovereignty was this : One day during this 
year I was seated in my father s monastery, and was 
reading the sixty-seventh chapter of the Koran,* when 
a grey-haired Syed entered the monastery, and look- 
ing attentively at me, demanded my name. Having 
told him, he compared it with the chapter I was 
reading, and said, f God Almighty has given the so- 
vereignty of the earth to this boy and his posterity.’ 
I looked upon this circumstance as a mere dream; but 
when it reached the ears of my father, he encouraged 
my hopes, and showed my horoscope to one of the 
astrologers of Turkestan, who said, f He will be supe- 
rior in his dominions, in dignity and authority, to any 
of his predecessors ; he will add other countries to his 
own dominions, and will be an ornament to religion.’ 
He then said to me, f Your descendants and poste- 
rity shall rise to the highest dignity.’ When I had 
heard these words, I gave him a handsome present.” 
* Timur daily read the Koran with the earnestness of a zea- 
lous Mussulmaun, and always consulted it whenever he was 
about to embark upon any perilous enterprise. 
C 
