Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-05
TIMUR BEG.
A Description OF One OF the Most Remarka-
BILE Characters In History.
tHarpers Magazlne.l


lHarpers Magazlne.l
There is probably no chapter Of the
worlds history so crammed with fight
ing as that which chronicles the doings
in India from the tenth century to the
fourteenth, and to endeayor to
copdcnse any account Of the nume-
rous sieges suffered by Delhi and by
many another city Of Northern India
during that period would be to produce
a picture of unceasing bloodshed and
of wearisome sameness. The character
of Timur Beg, or Tamerlane, however,
is so very extraordinary as to merit de-
scription. From him dates the famous
Mogul empire, finally extinguished in
the present century by absorption into
the East India Company.
"IIis successors" says Gibbon, sex
tended their sway from the mountains
of Kashmir to Cape Comorin, and from
Kandahar to the Gulf Of Bengal.
Since the reign Of Aurungzebe their
empire has been dissolved, their trea-
sures Of Delhi have been rihed by
Persian robber (Nadir SHAH, and the
richest of their XII .,doms is now pos
sessed by company Of Christian mer-
chants of remote island in the North
ern ocean,"
1t is said that Timur Beg was a
grave man, of quiet manners, halt Of
one hand and one foot, and delighting
in the game of chess, which he greatly
complicated by doubling the number Of
pieces from thirty-two to siXty-four.
lie is described as ruling his
household with calm equity, by
no means sparing his sons from
the observance Of the law; tenn
perate and regular in his life, and
aiming ever at the establishment Of an
ideal kingdom where child might carry
purse Of gold in safety from east to
west of the Asian continent. How
man of such character could at the same
time be so emphatically the arch-de-
stIoyer of mankind is not clear. As
for the authority he exercised over his
children, it is at least certain that
when he invaded India his grandson,
Pr Mohammad, had made little
war for himself at Multan, and
would have persisted miserably had
his grandfather not come to his rescue.
How young Pr went ont to conquer
India on his own account is not told,
but it is certain that Timur was not
provoked to any act Of sharp justice.
Thurs sons seemed to have only
waited for his death to tear each other
to pieces at their leisure.
Timur, the wild chess-player, signal
lied his success in India by series Of
barbarous massacres. At one time, on
one day alone. he murdered 100000
prisoners in cold blood, lest they
should turn against him. Having
conquered the weak Mahmoud III.
before Delhi, he entered the city,
and had himself proclaimed emperor
in all the mosques on Friday (the
Muslin Sunday, and immediate
ly left the city to the mercy Of his Mo-
ghul soldiers, who burned, plundered,
and slew till they were weary. lie az
terward returned, and gave evidence of
his taste for the beautiful by ordering
the famous mosque Of Ferose, which
had escaped the flames, 10 be copied
in Samarkand.
These doings Of Timur appear the
more barbarous when we remember that
he was himself Mussulman sackiug a
kings city and Staying by
the hundred thousand his Mussulman
subjects. He had not the excuse which
he subsequently alleged in support of
his expedition against China, that he
was carrying the faith Of the Prophet
into a heather country. The kingdom
founded by Mohammad of Ghor was
essentially Muslin, and its invasion by !
Tamerlane was purely as arbitrary an
act Of plumber as was the conquest OF !
his own successors by Nadir Shah, the
Persian freebooter of the eighteenth
century.
Timur died of drinking too much
iced water ON the march to China in
l4O5. As was to be expected, his
kingdom or empire fell to pieces, anu
for l20 years series Of parvenu en-
perors Of ali sorts reigned at Delhi, be-
sieging it, taking it, and holding it as
they were able.