Tímúr's next exploit was the reduction of the strong
fortress of Takrít, which was gallantly defended. Finally,
however, the defenders were overcome and put to death, and
their heads built up into minarets. Continuing his march
northwards he passed by Karkúk, Arbíl, Mawṣil (Mosul) and
Rawḥá, where, in March, 1394, he was overtaken by stormy
and rainy weather, and compelled by this and the disobedience
of Malik 'Izzu'd-Dín to return to Mesopotamia. Having
in a brief space of time dealt with this rebellious chieftain,
Tímúr again turned northwards and reduced the fortress of
Márdín. Luckily for the garrison, news had just reached
Tímúr of the birth, at Sulṭániyya, on March 22, 1394, of a
grandson, the afterwards celebrated Ulugh Bey, son of Sháh-
Fortunately for Persia, a fresh menace on the part of his old enemy Túqátmish compelled Tímúr at this juncture, towards the end of February, 1395, * to march northwards to defend his own territories, and this, with the ensuing campaign in Southern Russia, in the course of which he penetrated as far as Moscow, * kept him occupied for more than a year. During and in consequence of his absence several revolts broke out in Persia, such as that of Qará Yúsuf the Turkmán in Ádharbáyján; * of Gúdarz (probably a Zoroastrian) at Sírján; * of Sulṭán Muḥammad, son of Abú Sa'íd of Ṭabas, and some Khurásáni soldiers who had formerly been in the service of the Muẓaffarí dynasty at Yazd; and of Buhlúl at Niháwand. All these revolts were quickly and sternly repressed, and the ringleader of that last mentioned, Buhlúl, was burned alive. * The ensuing month of Ramaḍán was passed by Tímúr at Hamadán “in obedience and devotion to the Divine Benefactor, and in the observance of the obligations of fasting and vigils and of every kind of religious rite and ceremony.” He then, having ordered his generals to subdue the whole Persian shore of the gulf from Khúzistán to Hurmuz, set out on July 18, 1396, for Samarqand.
On this occasion Tímúr remained quiet at his capital
for a longer period than usual, and devoted a good deal of
attention to beautifying it and its environs by the labours
of “the expert engineers and skilful architects who had
been gathered to the Royal Metropolis from every clime
and country from East to West.”
*
He also gave a series
of gorgeous banquets, of which one of the chief was to
celebrate the conferring of the kingdom of Khurásán, including
Sístán and Mázandarán, from Fíruzkúh to Ray, on
his son Sháh-rukh, which happened in May, 1397.
*
Less
than a year later, in the spring of 1398, he set out on his
Indian campaign, instigated thereto, as asserted in the
Ẓafar-náma,
*
by his desire to promote Islám and crush
idolatry, and by the accounts which reached him of the
toleration shown by the Muslim rulers towards their Hindú
subjects and neighbours. After some preliminary operations
against the Afgháns (or Awgháns) of the Sulaymán
Kúh and the Siyáh-púsh (“Black-robed”) heathen of Káfir-
Reports of troubles in Persia (especially in Ádharbáyján, where his son, Míránsháh, to whom the government of this important province had been entrusted, was courting disaster by his insane vagaries, generally ascribed to an injury to his head caused by a fall from his horse) impelled Tímúr to cut short his Indian campaign early in the year A.D. 1399, and to hasten homewards. He crossed the Indus on his return journey on March 8 of that year, five months and seventeen days after he had crossed it at the beginning of his campaign, and the Oxus three weeks later. On April 7 he reached his native town of Kash or Shahr-i-Sabz (the “Green City”), and entered Samarqand, his capital, on April 27. A fortnight later (May 9, 1399) he laid the foundation-stone of the magnificent mosque (Masjid-i-Jámi') which he had long intended to erect for the embellishment of his metropolis.
On September 9, 1399, Tímúr again quitted Samarqand
for Ádharbáyján, where the erratic conduct of his son
Míránsháh, of which fresh accounts continued to reach
him, urgently demanded his attention. At Aywának, near
Ray, he was joined by his son Sháh-rukh and by another
army which he had despatched by way of Mázandarán.
Míránsháh was induced to come to his father's camp to
render account of his misconduct, which included the waste
or embezzlement of a large proportion of the revenues, the
putting to death on mere suspicion of certain men of consequence
against whom he had conceived a spite, the wanton
destruction of certain historic buildings, and the exhumation
of the eminent Minister and historian Rashídu'd-Dín
Faḍlu'lláh, whose body he caused to be re-interred in the
Jews' cemetery. Míránsháh was punished by his father's
displeasure and the virtual transference of the authority he
had misused to his son Abú Bakr, but Tímúr's fiercest
wrath fell upon certain minstrels and poets who had been
Míránsháh's boon-companions, and who were alleged to
have corrupted his principles and encouraged his extravagances.
Several of these, namely Mawláná Muḥammad of
Quhistán, “who, together with a complete mastery of the
technicalities of the various sciences, was unique in his age
and the marvel of his time in verse and prose composition,
both serious and frivolous,”
*
Quṭbu'd-Dín Ná'í, Ḥabíb-i-
<text in Arabic script omitted>
“'Tis the end of the matter and the last round, O heretic!
Whether thou goest or not, the choice is no longer in thy hand!
If they lead thee, like Manṣúr,
*
to the foot of the gibbet (pá-yi-dár),
Stand firm (páy-dár) like a man, for the world is not enduring (páy-
dár)!”
The campaign on which Tímúr was now embarked, and which included some of his most remarkable achievements, is called by Sharafu'd-Dín 'Alí Yazdí (ii, 206) the “Seven Years' Campaign.” As it began about Muḥarram 8, 802 (Sept. 10, 1399), and as Tímúr returned to his capital, Samarqand, in Muḥarram, 807 (July, 1404), this appellation must be regarded as a misnomer. Even the abridged account of the many bloody battles and brilliant victories included in this period which is given in Price's Chronological Retrospect * fills 166 quarto pages, and in this place it must suffice to indicate only its chief events.
The winter of A.D. 1399-1400 was spent by Tímúr in
Qarábágh near the Araxes, and ere spring had melted the
snows he once more invaded Georgia, devastated the country,
destroyed the churches and monasteries, and slew great
numbers of the inhabitants. In August, 1400, he began his
march into Asia Minor by way of Avník, Erzeroum, Erzinján
and Sívás. The latter place offered a stubborn resistance,
and when it finally capitulated Tímúr caused all the Armenian
and Christian soldiers to the number of four thousand
to be buried alive; but the Muhammadans he spared.
*
Meanwhile an animated correspondence was taking place
between him and the Ottoman Sulṭán Báyazíd, called Yil-