The reign and European con

rath I.

A. D. 1360-1389. Sept.

h

and wheresoever they go, may they return with a white face!" Such was the origin of these haughty troops, the terror of the nations, and sometimes of the sultans themselves. Their valour has declined, their discipline is relaxed, and their tumultuary array is incapable of contending with the order and weapons of modern tactics; but at the time of their institution, they possessed a decisive superiority in war; since a regular body of infantry, in constant exercise and pay, was not maintained by any of the princes of Christendom. The janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous countrymen; and in the battle of Cossova, the league and independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. As the conqueror walked over the field, he observed that the greatest part of the slain consisted of beardless youths; and listened to the flattering reply of his vizir, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irresistible arms. But the sword of his janizaries could not defend him from the dagger of despair: a Servian soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound. The grandson of Othman was mild in his temper, modest in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue: but the Moslems were scandalized at his absence from public worship; and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause a mixture of servitude and freedom not unfrequent in oriental history.i

But the Greeks had not time to quests of Amu- rejoice in the death of their enemies; and the Turkish scymitar was wielded with the same spirit by Amurath the first, the son of Orchan, and the brother of Soliman. By the pale and fainting light of the Byzantine annals, we can discern, that he subdued without resistance the whole province of Romania or Thrace, from the Hellespont to mount Hæmus, and the verge of the capital; and that Adrianople was chosen for the royal seat of his government and religion in Europe. Constantinople, whose decline is almost coëval with her foundation, had often, in the lapse of a thousand years, been assaulted by the barbarians of the east and west; but never till this fatal hour had the Greeks been surrounded, both in Asia and Europe, by the arms of the same hostile monarchy. Yet the prudence or generosity of Amurath postponed for a while this easy conquest; and his pride was satisfied with the frequent and humble attendance of the emperor John Palæologus and his four sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp of the Ottoman prince. He marched against the Sclavonian nations between the Danube and the Adriatic, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, and Albanians; and these warlike tribes, who had so often insulted the majesty of the empire, were repeatedly broken by his destructive inroads. Their countries did not abound either in gold or silver; nor were their rustic hamlets and townships enriched by commerce, or decorated by the arts of luxury. But the natives of the soil have been distinguished in every age by their hardiness of mind and body; and they were converted by a prudent institution into the firmest and most faithful supporters of the Ottoman greatness. The vizir of Amurath reminded his sovereign that, according to the Mahometan law, he was entitled to a fifth part | of the spoil and captives; and that the duty might easily be levied, if vigilant officers were stationed at Gallipoli, to watch the passage, and to select for his use the stoutest and most beautiful of the christian youth. The advice was followed; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in religion and arms; and the new militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervish. Standing in the front of their ranks, he stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was The Janizaries.

delivered in these words: "Let them be called Janizaries; (yengi cheri, or new soldiers ;) may their countenance be ever bright! their hand victorious! their sword keen! may their spear always hang over the heads of their enemies!

the most authentic record, the fourth book of Cantacuzene. I likewise regret the last books, which are still manuscript, of Nicephorus Gregoras. f After the conclusion of Cantacuzene and Gregoras, there follows a dark interval of a hundred years. George Phranza, Michael Ducas, and Laonicus Chalcondyles, all three wrote after the taking of Con. stantinople.

g See Cantemir, p. 37-41. with his own large and curious annotations.

h White and black face are common and proverbial expressions of praise and reproach in the Turkish language. Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto, was likewise a Latin sentence.

A. D. 1389-1403.

The character of Bajazet, the son The reign of Baand successor of Amurath, is strongly jazet I. Ilderim, expressed in his surname of Ilderim, March 9. or the lightning; and he might glory in an epithet, which was drawn from the fiery energy of his soul and the rapidity of his destructive march. In the fourteen years of his reign, he incessantly moved at the head of his armies, from Boursa to Adrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates; and, though he strenuously laboured for the propagation of the law, he invaded, with impartial ambition, the christian and Mahometan princes of Europe and Asia. From Angora to Amasia and Erzeroum, His conquests, the northern regions of Anatolia were reduced to his obedience: he stripped of their hereditary possessions, his brother emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, of Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the conquest of Iconium the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman dynasty. Nor were the conquests of Bajazet less rapid or important in Europe. No sooner had he imposed a regular form of servitude on the Servians and Bulgarians, than he passed the Danube to seek i See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I. in Cantemir, (p. 33-45.) the first book of Chalcondyles, and the Annals Turcici of Leunclavius. According to another story, the sultan was stabbed by a Croat in his tent; and this accident was alleged to Busbequius (Epist. i. p. 98.) as an excuse for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as it were, between two attendants, an ambassador's arms, when he is intro. duced to the royal presence.

from the Euphrates to the Danube.

k The reign of Bajazet I. or Ilderim Bayazid, is contained in Cantemir, (p. 46.) the second book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici. The surname of Ilderim, or lightning, is an example, that the conquerors and poets of every age have felt the truth of a system which derives the sublime from the principle of terror.

new enemies and new subjects in the heart of Moldavia. Whatever yet adhered to the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, acknowledged a Turkish master: an obsequious bishop led him through the gates of Thermopyla into Greece: and we may observe, as a singular fact, that the widow of a Spanish chief, who possessed the ancient seat of the oracle of Delphi, deserved his favour by the sacrifice of a beauteous daughter. The Turkish communication between Europe and Asia had been dangerous and doubtful, till he stationed at Gallipoli a fleet of galleys, to command the Hellespont and intercept the Latin succours of Constantinople. While the monarch indulged his passions in a boundless range of injustice and cruelty, he imposed on his soldiers the most rigid laws of modesty and abstinence; and the harvest was peaceably reaped and sold within the precincts of his camp. Provoked by the loose and corrupt administration of justice, he collected in a house the judges and lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in a few moments the fire would be kindled to reduce them to ashes.. His ministers trembled in silence: but an Æthiopian buffoon presumed to insinuate the true cause of the evil; and future venality was left without excuse, by annexing an adequate salary to the office of cadhi. The humble title of emir was no longer suitable to the Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet condescended to accept a patent of sultan from the caliphs who served in Egypt under the yoke of the Mamalukes: a last and frivolous homage that was yielded by force to opinion, by the Turkish conquerors to the house of Abbas and the successors of the Arabian prophet. The ambition of the sultan was inflamed by the obligation of deserving this august title: and he turned his arms against the kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual theatre of the Turkish victories and defeats. Sigismond, the Hungarian king, was the son and brother of the emperors of the west: his cause was that of Europe and the church: and, on the report of his danger, the bravest knights of France and Germany were eager to march under his standard and that of Battle of the cross. In the battle of Nicopolis, Nicopolis, A. D. 1396. Bajazet defeated a confederate army Sept. 28. of a hundred thousand christians, who had proudly boasted, that if the sky should fall, they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were slain or driven into the Danube; and Sigismond, escaping to Constantinople by the

1 Cantemir, who celebrates the victories of the great Stephen over the Turks, (p. 47.) had composed the ancient and modern state of his principality of Moldavia, which has been long promised, and is still unpublished.

m Leunclav. Annal. Turcici, p. 318, 319. The renality of the cadhis has long been an object of scandal and satire; and if we distrust the observations of our travellers, we may consult the feeling of the Turks themselves. (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, p. 216, 217. 229, 230.)

n The fact, which is attested by the Arabic history of Ben Schounah, a contemporary Syrian, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. p. 336.) destroys the testimony of Saad Effendi and Cantemir, (p. 14, 15.) of the election of Othman to the dignity of sultan.

o See the Decades Rerum Hungaricarum (Dec. iii. 1. ii. p. 379.) of Bonfinius, an Italian, who, in the fifteenth century, was invited into Hungary to compose an eloquent history of that kingdom. Yet, if it be extant and accessible, I should give the preference to some homely chronicle of the time and country.

p i should not complain of the labour of this work, if my materials

river and the Black sea, returned after a long circuit to his exhausted kingdom. In the pride of victory Bajazet threatened that he would besiege Buda; that he would subdue the adjacent countries of Germany and Italy; and that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats on the altar of St. Peter at Rome. His progress was checked, not by the miraculous interposition of the apostle, not by a crusade of the christian powers, but by a long and painful fit of the gout. The disorders of the moral, are sometimes corrected by those of the physical, world; and an acrimonious humour falling on a single fibre of one man, may prevent or suspend the misery of nations.

г

Such is the general idea of the Hun- Crusade and capgarian war; but the disastrous adven- tivity of the French princes, ture of the French has procured us A. D. 1396-1398. some memorials which illustrate the victory and character of Bajazet. The duke of Burgundy, sovereign of Flanders, and uncle of Charles the sixth, yielded to the ardour of his son, John count of Nevers; and the fearless youth was accompanied by four princes, his cousins, and those of the French monarch. Their inexperience was guided by the sire de Coucy, one of the best and oldest captains of Christendom ; but the constable, admiral, and marshal, of France commanded an army which did not exceed the number of a thousand knights and squires. These splendid names were the source of presumption and the bane of discipline. So many might aspire to command, that none were willing to obey; their national spirit despised both their enemies and their allies; and in the persuasion that Bajazet would fly, or must fall, they began to compute how soon they should visit Constantinople and deliver the holy sepulchre. When their scouts announced the approach of the Turks, the gay and thoughtless youths were at table, already heated with wine; they instantly clasped their armour, mounted their horses, rode full speed to the vanguard, and resented as an affront the advice of Sigismond, which would have deprived them of the right and honour of the foremost attack. The battle of Nicopolis would not have been lost, if the French would have obeyed the prudence of the Hungarians: but it might have been gloriously won, had the Hungarians imitated the valour of the French. They dispersed the first line, consisting of the troops of Asia; forced a rampart of stakes, which had been planted against were always derived from such books as the chronicle of honest Froissard, (vol. iv. c. 67, 69. 72. 74. 79-83. 85. 87. 89.) who read little, inquired much, and believed all. The original Memoires of the Marechal de Boucicault (partie i. c. 22-28.) add some facts, but they are dry and deficient, if compared with the pleasant garrulity of Froissard. An accurate Memoir on the Life of Enquerrand VII. sire de Coucy, has been given by the Baron de Zurlauben. (Hist. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv.) His rank and possessions were equally considerable in France and England; and, in 1375, he led an army of adventurers into Switzerland, to recover a large patrimony which he claimed in right of his grandmother, the daughter of the emperor Albert 1. of Austria. (Sinner, Voyage dans la Suisse Occidentale, tom. i. p. 118-124.)

That military office, so respectable at present, was still more conspicuous when it was divided between two persons. (Daniel, Hist. de la Milice Françoise, tom. ii. p. 5.) One of these, the marshal of the crusade, was the famous Boucicault, who afterwards defended Con. stantinople, governed Genoa, invaded the coast of Asia, and died in the field of Azincour.

CHAP. LXV.

Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane to the throne of Samarcand. His conquests in Persia, Georgia, Tartary, Russia, India, Syria, and Anatolia.His Turkish war.-Defeat and captivity of Bajazet.-Death of Timour.-Civil war of the sons of Bajazet.—Restoration of the Turkish monarchy by Mahomet the first.-Siege of Constantinople by Amurath the second.

Histories of TIMOUR, or Ta merlane.

THE Conquest and monarchy of the world was the first object of the ambition of TIMOUR. To live in the memory and esteem of future ages, was the second wish of his magnanimous spirit. All the civil and military transactions of his reign were diligently recorded in the journals of his secretaries: the authentic narrative was revised by the persons best informed of each particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and family of Timour, that the monarch himself composed the commentaries of his life, and the institutions of his government. But these cares were ineffectual for the preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world, or, at least, from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which he vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny, which had disfigured the birth and character, the person, and even the name, of Tamerlane. Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than debased, by the elevation of a peasant to the throne of Asia; nor can his lameness be a theme of reproach, unless he had the weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honourable, infirmity.

In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasible succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel subject; yet he sprang from the

a These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or Cherefeddin Ali, a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian language a history of Timour Beg, which has been translated into French by M. Petis de la Croix, (Paris, 1722. in 4 vols. 12mo,) and has always been my faithful guide. His geography and chronology are wonderfully accurate; and he may be trusted for public facts, though he servilely praises the virtue and fortune of the hero. Timour's attention to procure intelligence from his own and foreign countries, may be seen in the Institutions, p. 215. 217. 349. 351.

b These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe: but Mr. White gives some hope that they may be imported and translated by his friend Major Davy, who had read in the east this "minute and faithful narrative of an interesting and eventful period."

e I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turkish or Mogul language, be still extant. The Persic version, with an English translation, and a most valuable index, was published (Oxford, 1788. in 4to,) by the joint labours of Major Davy and Mr. White the Arabic professor. This work has been translated from the Persic into French (Paris, 1787.) by Mr. Langles, a learned orientalist, who has added the life of Timour, and many curious notes.

d Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imitate, the institutions of his great ancestor. The English translator relies on their interual evidence; but if any suspicion should arise of fraud and fiction, they will not be dispelled by Major Davy's letter. The orientals have never cultivated the art of criticism; the patronage of a prince, less honourable perhaps, is not less lucrative, than that of a book. seller; nor can it be deemed incredible that a Persian, the real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the value and price, of the work.

e The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style: Ahmedis Arabsiada (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vite et Rerum gestarum Timuri. Arabice et Latine. Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger. Franequera, 1767. 2 tom. in 4to. This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an ignorant, enemy: the very titles of his chapters are injurious; as how the wicked, as how the impious, as how the viper, &c. The copious

noble tribe of Berlass: his fifth ancestor, Carashar Nevian, had been the vizir of Zagatai, in his new realm of Transoxiana; and in the ascent of some generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at least by the females, with the imperial stem. He was born forty miles to the south of Samarcand, in

the village of Sebzar, in the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the hereditary chiefs,

as well as of a toman of ten thousand horse.i His birth was cast on one of those periods of anarchy which announce the fall of the Asiatic dynasties, and open a new field to adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were extinct; the emirs aspired to independence; and their domestic feuds could only be suspended by the conquest and tyranny of the khans of Kashgar, who, with an army of Getes or Calmucks, invaded the Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Ti- His first advenmour had entered the field of action;

tures,

A. D.

in the twenty-fifth, he stood forth as 1361-1370. the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of the people were turned towards a hero who suffered in their cause. The chiefs of the law and of the army had pledged their salvation to support him with their lives and fortunes; but in the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the desert with only sixty horsemen. The fugitives were overtaken by a thousand Getes, whom he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies were forced to exclaim, “Timour is a wonderful man: fortune and the divine favour are with him." But in this bloody action his own followers were reduced to ten, a number which was soon diminished by the desertion of three Carizmians. He wandered in the desert with his wife, seven companions, and four horses; and sixty-two days was he plunged in a loathsome dungeon, from whence he escaped by his own courage, and the remorse of the oppressor. After swimming the broad and rapid

article of TIMUR, in Bibliotheque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as D'Herbelot indifferently draws his materials (p. 877-888.) from Khondemir, Ebu Schounah, and the Lebtarikh.

f Demir or Timur signifies, in the Turkish language, Iron; and Beg is the appellation of a lord or prince. By the change of a letter or accent, it is changed into Lenc or Lame; and a European corruption confounds the two words in the name of Tamerlane.

g After relating some false and foolish tales of Timour Lenc, Arab. shah is compelled to speak truth, and to own him for a kinsman of Zingis, per mulieres (as he peevishly adds) laqueos Satanæ, (pars i. c. i. p. 25.) The testimony of Abulghazi Khan (p. ii. c. 5. p. v. c. 4.) is unquestionable and decisive.

h According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth ancestor of Zingis, and the ninth of Timour, were brothers; and they agreed, that the posterity of the elder should succeed to the dignity of khan, and that the descendants of the younger should fill the office of their minister and general. This tradition was at least convenient to justify the first steps of Timour's ambition. (Institutions, p. 24, 25. from the MS. fragments of Timour's History.)

i See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Chorasmiæ, &c. Descriptio, p. 60, 61.) in the third volume of Hudson's Minor Greek Geographers.

k See his nativity in Dr. Hyde, (Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 466.) as it was cast by the astrologers of his grandson Ulugh Beg. He was boru, A. D. 1336. April 9. 11° 57'. P. M. lat. 36. I know not whether they can prove the great conjunction of the planets from whence, like other conquerors and prophets, Timour derived the surname of Saheb Keran, or master of the conjunctions. (Bibliot. Orient. p. 878.)

1 In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of the khan of Kashgar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or Uzbeks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of Tartars. (Abulghazi, p. v. c. 5. p. vii. c. 5.) Could I be sure that this word is in the Turkish original I would boldly pronounce, that the Institutions were framed a century after the death of Timour, since the establishment of the Uzbeks in Transoxiana,