a solemn assurance of restoring him with an increase of CHAP. glory to the throne of his ancestors. But the effect of LXV. this promise was disappointed by the sultan's untimely death: amidst the care of the most skilful physicians, he expired of an apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia, about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear over his grave; his body, with royal pomp, was conveyed to the mausoleum which he had erected at Boursa; and his son Mousa, after receiving a rich present of gold and jewels, of horses and arms, was invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of Anatolia.

Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has been extracted from his own memorials, and dedicated to his son and grandson, nineteen years after his decease; and, at a time when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest falsehood would have implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty indeed is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian histories"; yet flattery, more especially in the East, is base and audacious; and the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet is attested by a chain of witnesses, some of whom shall be produced in the order of their time and country. 1. The attested, reader has not forgot the garrison of French, whom the marshal Boucicault left behind him for the defence of Constantinople. They were on the spot to receive the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the overthrow of their great adversary; and it is more than probable, that some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp of Tamerlane. From their account, the hardships of the prison and death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal's servant and historian, within the distance of seven years". 2. The name of Poggius the Italians,

47 See the history of Sherefeddin, (1. v. c. 49. 52, 53. 59, 60). This work was finished at Shiraz, in the year 1424, and dedicated to sultan Ibrahim, the son of Sharokh, the son of Timour, who reigned in Farsistan in his father's lifetime.

48 After the perusal of Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, &c. the learned d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Órientale, p. 882.) may affirm, that this fable is not mentioned in the most authentic histories: but his denial of the visible testimony of Arabshah, leaves some room to suspect his accuracy.

49 Et fut lui-même (Bajazet) pris, et mené en prison, en laquelle mourut de dure mort! Memoires de Boucicault, P. i. c. 37. These memoirs were composed while the marshal was still governor of Genoa, from whence he was expelled in the year 1409, by a popular insurrection (Muratori, Annali d'ItaJia, tom. xii. p. 473, 474).

50 The reader will find a satisfactory account of the life and writings of

1. by the

French;

LXV.

2. by the

Arabs;

CHAP. is deservedly famous among the revivers of learning in the fifteenth century. His elegant dialogue on the vicissitudes of fortunes was composed in his fiftieth year, Italians; twenty-eight years after the Turkish victory of Tamerlanes; whom he celebrates as not inferior to the illustrious Barbarians of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline Poggius was informed by several occular witnesses; nor does he forget an example so apposite to his theme as the Ottoman monarch, whom the Scythian confined like a wild beast in an iron cage, and exhi bited a spectacle to Asia. I might add the authority of two Italian chronicles, perhaps of an earlier date, which would prove at least that the same story, whether false or true, was imported into Europe with the first tidings 3. by the of the revolutions3. 3. At the time when Poggius flourished at Rome, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah composed at Damascus the florid and malevolent history of Timour, for which he had collected materials in his journies over Turkey and Tartarys. Without any possible correspondence between the Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the fact of the iron cage; and their agreement is a striking proof of their common veracity. Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates another outrage, which Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender nature. His indiscreet mention of women and divorces was deeply resented by the jealous Tartar: in the feast of victory, the wine was served by female cupbearers, and the sultan beheld his own concubines and wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed without a veil to the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity, it is said, that

Poggins, in the Poggiana, an entertaining work of M. Lenfant, and in the Biotheca Latina media et infimæ Etatis of Fabricius (tom. v. p. 305308) Poggius was born in the year 1380, and died in 1459.

51 The dialogue de Varietate Fortunæ (of which a complete and elegant edition has been published at Paris in 1723, in 4to), was composed a short time before the death of Pope Martin V. (p. 5), and consequently about the end of the year 1430.

52 See a splendid and eloquent encomium of Tamerlane, p. 36-39. ipse enim novi (says Poggius) qui fuere in ejus castris... Regem vivum cepit, caveâque in modum feræ inclusum per omnem Asiam circumtulit egregium admirandumque spectaculum fortunæ.

53 The Chronicon Tarvisianum (in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xix. p 800), and the Annales Estensés (tom. xviii. p. 974). The two authors, Andrea de Redusiis de Quero, and James de Delayto, were both contemporaries, and both chancellors, the one of Trevigi, the other of Ferrara. The evidence of the former is the most positive.

54 See Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 28. 34. He travelled in regiones Rumas, A H. 839 (A. D. 1435, July 27), tom. ii. c. 2. p. 13.

Greeks;

his successors, except in a single instance, have ab- CHAP. stained from legitimate nuptials; and the Ottoman LXV. practice and belief, at least in the sixteenth century, is attested by the observing Busbequius", ambassador from the court of Vienna to the great Soliman. 4. Such is the 4. by the separation of language, that the testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that of a Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chalcondyles and Ducas, who flourished in a later period, and who speak in a less positive tone; but more attention is due to George Phranza", protovestiare of the last emperors, and who was born a year before the battle of Angora. Twenty-two years after that event, he was sent ambassador to Amurath the second; and the historian might converse with some veteran Janizaries, who had been made prisoners with the sultan, and had themselves seen him in his iron cage. 5. The last evidence, in every sense, is that of the 5. by the Turkish annals, which have been consulted or transcrib- Turks. ed by Leunclavius, Pocock, and Cantemir". They unanimously deplore the captivity of the iron cage; and some credit may be allowed to national historians, who cannot stigmatise the Tartar without uncovering the shame of their king and country.

From these opposite premises, a fair and moderate Probable conclusion may be deduced. I am satisfied that Shere- conclufeddin Ali has faithfully described the first ostentatious sion. interview, in which the conqueror, whose spirits were harmonised by success, affected the character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet; the complaints of his enemies, the Anatolian princes, were just and vehe ment; and Timour betrayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph to Samarcand. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by digging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul emperor to impose a harsher restraint; and in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on a wagon might be invented, not as a wanton insult, but

55 Busbequins in Legatione Turcicâ, epist. i. p. 52. Yet his respectable authority is somewhat shaken by the subsequent marriages of Amurath II. with a Servian, and of Mahomet II. with an Asiatic, princess (Cantemir, p. 83 93).

56 See the testimony of George Phranza (1. i. c. 29), and his life in Hanckius de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40). Chalcondyles and Ducas speak in general terms of Bajazet's chains.

57 Annales Leunclav. p. 321. Pocock, Prolegomen. ad Abulpharag. Dynast. Cantemir, p. 55.

CHAP. as a rigorous precaution. Timour had read in some fabulous history a similar treatment of one of his predecessors, a king of Persia ; and Bajazet was condemned to represent the person, and expiate the guilt, of the Death of Roman Cæsar. But the strength of his mind and body Bajazet, AD 1463 fainted under the trial, and his premature death might, without injustice, be ascribed to the severity of Timour. He warred not with the dead; a tear and a sepulchre were all that he could bestow on a captive who was delivered from his power; and if Mousa, the son of Bajazet, was permitted to reign over the ruins of Boursa, the greatest part of the province of Anatolia had been restored by the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns.

March 9.

Term of

the con

From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and quests of from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia Timour, was in the hand of Timour; his armies were invincible, A.D. 1403. his ambition was boundless, and his zeal might aspire

to conquer and convert the Christian kingdoms of the West, which already trembled at his name. He touched the utmost verge of the land; but an insuperable, though narrow, sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia"; and the lord of so many tomans, or myriads of horse, was not master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus and Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed, the one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great occasion, they forgot the difference of religion to act with union and firmness in the common cause: the double straits were guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately withheld the transports, which Timour demanded of either nation, under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the same time, they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honours of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet, implored his

58 A Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner aud inclosed in the figure of a cow's hide by Maximian or Galerius Cæsar. Such is the fable related by Eutychius (Annal. tom. i. p. 421. vers. Pocock). The recollection of the true history (Decline and Fall, &c. vol. i. p. 416-424.) will teach us to appreciate the knowledge of the Orientals of the ages which precede the Hegira.

59 Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 25.) describes, like a curious traveller, the straits of Gallipoli and Constantinople. To acquire a just idea of these events, I have compared the narratives and prejudices of the Moguls, Turks, Greeks, and Arabians. The Spanish ambassador mentions this hostile union of the Christians and Ottomans (Vie de Timour, p. 96).

clemency for his father and himself; accepted by a red CHAP. patent, the investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which LXV. he already held by the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish, of casting himself in person at the feet of the king of the world. The Greek emperor (either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his conscience as soon as the Mogul arms had retired from Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a new design of vast and romantic compass; a design of subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and, after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote, and perhaps imaginary, danger was averted by the submission of the sultan of Egypt: the honours of the prayer and the coin, attested at Cairo the supremacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a giraffe, or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Samarcand the tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less astonished by the portrait of a Mogul, who, in his camp before Smyrna, meditates and almost accomplishes the invasion of the Chinese empire. Timour was urged to this enterprise by national honour and religious zeal. The torrents which he shed of Musulman blood could be expiated only by an equal destruction of the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he might best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of China, founding moschs in every city, and establishing the profession of faith in one God, and his prophet Mahomet. The recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was an insult on the Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire afforded the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hongvou, founder of the dynasty of Mag, died four years before the battle of Angora; and his grand

60 Since the name of Cæsar had been transferred to the sultans of Roum, the Greek princes of Constantinople (Sherefeddin, 1. v. c. 54.) were confounded with the Christian lords of Gallipoli, Thessalonica, &c. under the title of Tekkur, which is derived by corruption from the genitive T upis (Cantemir, p. 51).

61 See Sherefeddin, I. v. c. 4. who marks, in a just itinerary, the road to China, which Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 33.) paints in vague and rhetorical colours.

VOL. VIII.

E