120 LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
supply fuel for the royal kitchens. Guests from all 
parts of Asia crowded to this memorable feast : they 
drank from gold cups adorned with pearls and the 
rarest jewels, and everything was in harmony with 
this splendid prodigality. 
After the banquet, the bridegrooms with their brides 
were nine times clothed in costly suits of apparel, 
their girdles studded with gems, and wearing on 
their heads coronets of inestimable value. The ground 
upon which they trod was strewed with gold, pearls, 
and precious gems, which were left as perquisites to 
their attendants. The festivities lasted two months, 
during which period unlimited indulgences against 
the laws of the Koran were freely permitted. After 
the expiration of this term of universal freedom, the 
permission was recalled by royal proclamation ; when 
the great conqueror of the East retired to his closet, 
where, says his historian,* “ he thanked God for his 
favours, in raising him from a petty prince to he the 
most mighty monarch in the world, in giving him so 
many victories and conquests, maintaining him in 
sovereign authority, and making him his chosen ser- 
vant/’ 
Timur, weary of the inactivity of peace, though in 
his seventieth year, resolved upon the invasion of 
China, and marched in a severe winter at the head of 
two hundred thousand chosen men, besides probably 
a large body of mercenaries. These consisted of forces 
from all the northern provinces of Asia, of Persia, and 
among them were a considerable body of Kara Tar- 
* Shureef-ood Deen Ally. 
