80 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
been both blinded, the one by his own father Shah 
Shuja, the other by Shah Mansur. These princes ex- 
perienced the clemency of their new sovereign, who sent 
them to his capital, where they had some of the best 
land assigned for their maintenance. The emperor re- 
mained only five days at Ispahan, whence he march- 
ed to a town in Kurdestan, whose inhabitants denied 
the authority of the Koran. Knowing that the bi- 
goted zeal of Timur would instigate him to accom- 
plish their extermination, they secured themselves in 
caverns among the hills, which they fortified. The 
Tartar troops, not being able to expel them by the 
sword, formed rivulets along the mountains, and 
breaking down their banks, caused the water to flow 
into the recesses where these unhappy fugitives had 
taken refuge, by which means the greater portion of 
them miserably perished. 
Another town of Kurdestan, which made a resolute 
defence, suffered a chastisement equally signal and 
merciless: it was reduced to rubbish, and all the 
inhabitants put to the sword. Here was a great 
number of Parsees or fire-worshippers, usually called 
Ghebres, that is, infidels, who, on account of their 
idolatrous creed, were all cruelly massacred. 
From this scene of heartless barbarity Timur pro- 
ceeded to Baghdad, whither he arrived on the tenth 
of October 1393. Upon reaching this celebrated ca- 
pital, he found that the Sultan had crossed the Tigris, 
broken down the bridge, and sunk the boats, to pre- 
vent his being pursued. The Jagatay soldiers how- 
ever, in spite of the rapidity of the river, threw them- 
selves into the Tigris with a great shout, passed over 
