Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-12

| i thing he undertook he was sue
ceSsful We call him Tamerlane.
! In the beginning he was gentleman
of little consequence-master OF no
more than some cattle and land in that
| breeding ground of conqucrors, Central
Asia. Not the son of king, as Alexan-
der was, or the heir of chieftain, like
Genghis Khan. The victorious Alexan-
der had at the outset his people, the
Macedonians, and Genghis Khan had
his Mongols. But Tamerlane gathered
together a people.
One after the other he overcame ire
armies of more than half the world.
He tore down cities and rebuilt them
in the way he wished. Over his reads
the caravan trade of two continents
passed. Under his hands he gathered
the wealth of empires and spent 1t as
he fancied Out of mountain SUBMITS
he made pleasure palaces In a month.
| More, perhaps, than any other human
being within a life he attempted ito
grasp this sorry scheme of things en-
| tire and then. remold it nearer
| to the hearts desire
Tamerlane he was, and only as Tam
erlane is he known toSuS today. In our
general histories his empire is called
| Tamerlane's, although our ancestors Of
| five centuries ago spoke of 1t as Tartary.
| Vaguely they knew him as dominant
and merciless figure, moving beyond tie
gates of Europe among golden tents and
towers built of human skulls lighted at
night by spirit beacons.
Asia knew him well-both to its pride
and its sorrow. And there his enemies
said that he was a great gray wolf eat
ing the EARTH while his followers called
him lion and conqueror.
Tamerlane could not easily be CLASH
fed. He was part of no dynasty-he
| Lad + ~ tlya
of the barbarians who harried Rome
out there in the limbo of things he built
q Rome of his own in the desert. He
made a throne for himself, but he
Epent most of his years in the saddle OF
a horse.
And when he built he used no pre-
vious pattern of architecture; he made
a new one according to his own inclina-
tons, out Of cliffs and mountain peaks
and a solitary dome that he saw in
| Damascus before he burned that city.
This swelling dome of Tamerlane's
fancy has become the motif of Russian
design, and Is the crown of the Tai
Mahal. And the Tai Mahal was built
by one of the Notwithstanding s
great-grandchildren
Tamerlane is the European rendering
of neutrality-suspicious. the Limper.
Timur means Iron, and this alone was
an arrow and he was not able to walk
without limping. The historians of
Asia speak of him as Amir Timur Curl
gan-Lord Tirnour, the Splendid-and
only as Timur-i-lang in the way OF
vituperation.
In Tamerlanes day Europe proper
would have been no more than prov
ince of Asia. A province of barons
and serfS where the cities as a rule
I1-r 1ofu
so says the chonicler-an affair OF
murmuring and misery.
WE know the setting Of the Euro
w pean, scene of that country, but
not the man who rose to dominate the
world. To those Europeans Tamerlane's
magniflcence seemed unearthly and his
power demoniac. When he appeared
at their threshold, their kings sent
letters and ENJOYS to "Tamburlan the
Great, Lord of Tatary."
In the European pageantry of kings
Tamerlane has been given no place; in
the pages of history there Is only a
fleeting impression of the terror he
aroused. But to the men of Asia he
is still 1.-THE Lord"
After five centuries it is clear to us
that Tamerlane was the last of the
marck are secure in their inches; we
know the details of their lives. But
the one died a failure, and the other
tr1umphed in the political leadership of
a single empire. Tamerlane created an
empire, and was successful in every
campaign he undertook; he died on the
march toward the last power strong
enough to oppose him.
To understand what he attempted
we must look at the man as he lived
To do this, it is necessary to put aside
the histories of Europe, and close our
eyes to modern civilization, with its
prejudices. And to look at Tamerlane
, through the eyes of the men who rode
at his side.
We must penetrate the veil of terror
and go beyond the towers of human
. skulls, past Constantinople, and over
the sea into Asia-along the highway
of the Land of the Sun. on the road
to Samarkand. The time is the year
of Our Lord 1885.
, The place is river.
at is" the good knight Clavijo said
lone Of the four rivers that flow ou'