Frederic John Goldsmid

“ His conquests to the west and north-west led him among the Mongols of the Caspian, and to the banks of the Ural and the Volga; those to the south and south-west comprehended almost every pro vince in Persia, including Baghdad, Kerbela, and Kurdistan. ”

“ Another was projected against China, but the old warrior was attacked by fever and ague when encamped on the farther side of the Sihon (Syr-Daria) and died at Atrār (Otrar) on the 17th of February 1405. Markham, in his introduction to the narrative of Clavijo’s embassy, states that his body “was embalmed with musk and rose water, wrapped in linen, laid in an ebony coffin and sent to Samarkand, where it was buried.” Timūr had carried his victorious arms on one side from the Irtish and the Volga to the Persian Gulf and on the other from the Hellespont to the Ganges. ”

“ By the death of his father he was also left hereditary head of the Berlas. The exigencies of his quasi -sovereign position compelled him to have recourse to his formidable patron, whose reappearance on the banks of the Sihon created a consternation not easily allayed. Mawara lnahr was taken from Timur and entrusted to a son of Tughlak; but he was defeated in battle by the bold warrior he had replaced at the head of a numerically far inferior force. ”

“ TIMUR.Timúr Bey or Timúr Lang (Timur i Leng) , "the lame Timur" vulgarized into TAMERLANE the renowned Oriental conqueror, was born in 1336 at Kesh, better known as Shahr-i-Sabz, " the green city," situated some 50 miles south of Samarkand in Transoxiana. His father Teragai was head of the tribe of Berlas. ”

“ About 1358, however, he came before the world as a leader of armies. His career for the next ten or eleven years may be thus briefly summarized from the Memoirs. Allying himself both in cause and by family connexion with Kurgan, the dethroner and destroyer of Kazan, chief of the western Jagatai, he was deputed to invade Khorasan at the head of a thousand horse. ”