TIMUR BEG. 
75 
The whole of Kurdestan being subdued, the con- 
queror proceeded to Ispahan, the modern capital of 
Persia, and one of the most gorgeous cities of the 
East. Upon his arrival, the governor and chief citi- 
zens came out and implored the mercy of the Jagatay 
sovereign, who entered the city, where he was enter- 
tained with great magnificence. Having placed a gar- 
rison there, he returned to his camp. 
A short time after, a sedition broke out in the 
suburbs of Ispahan, headed by a smith, who, collect- 
ing the rabble, slaughtered the commissaries appointed 
under the new government, together with upwards of 
three thousand Turks. They also slew the guards, 
and seized the gates. All the Jagatay soldiers would 
probably have been massacred had they not been de- 
fended by the more prudent citizens, who repelled the 
insurgents and restored some degree of order. 
Next day, Timur, having stormed the city, entered 
it with his troops, and commanded all the inhabitants, 
except those who had opposed themselves to the in- 
surgents, to be slaughtered. This order was executed 
with such ferocity, that, according to the registers 
of the divan, the number of heads amounted to se- 
venty thousand; these were laid in heaps on the 
walls and afterwards piled up into pyramids. That 
horrible massacre happened at the close of the year 
1387. 
After this sanguinary event the emperor encamped 
before Shiraz, the capital of Fars, or Persia Proper, 
which submitted. The conquest of the whole king- 
dom almost immediately followed. 
