Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd, the grandson of Míránsháh, is described by Mírkhwánd in the Rawḍatu'ṣ-Ṣafá as “supreme amongst Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd b. Sulṭán Muḥammad b. Míránsháh b. Tímúr the princes of the House of Tímúr in high em­prise, lofty rank and perfect discernment. He was a friend and patron of scholars, theologians and men of letters, and during the period of his rule the lands of Turkistán, Túrán, Khurásán, Zábulistán, Sístán and Mázandarán attained the zenith of prosperity.” He had in early life been attached to the court of his ac­complished kinsman Ulugh Beg, whose son 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf, after murdering his father as already related, cast Abú Sa'íd into prison, whence, owing to the negligence of the sentries, he escaped to Bukhárá. When 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf in turn was killed, he marched out from Bukhárá, and, after giving battle to his kinsman Abú Bakr, made himself supreme in Turkistán and Túrán. In 861/1456-7 he captured Herát and put to death Gawhar Shád Khátún. In 862/1457-8 Jahánsháh invaded Khurásán and occupied Herát, but afterwards relinquished it to Abú Sa'íd. Ten years later, in 872/1467-8, when Jahánsháh was defeated and slain by Úzún Ḥasan, of the rival clan of the “White Sheep” Turk-máns, Abú Sa'íd, hoping to profit by this circumstance, and encouraged by representations from 'Iráq, Fárs, Kirmán, Ádharbáyján and other lost provinces, marched westwards against his new rival Úzún Ḥasan, by whom he was finally defeated and taken prisoner near Mayána. After three days his captor, having decided on his destruction, handed him over to Yádigár Muḥammad, who put him to death to avenge the blood of his grandmother Gawhar Shád Khátún. The philosopher Jalálu'd-Dín Dawání, author of the well­known ethical manual entitled Akhláq-i-Jalálí, commem­orated his death in the following chronogram: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

By the Venetian travellers of this period, to whom we are indebted for much interesting information and indepen- Abú Sa'íd called “Busech” by the Venetians dent chronological details, Abú Sa'íd is called “Busech”; while Úzún Ḥasan is called “Ussun Cassano,” “Assimbeo,” or “Assambei” (i.e. Ḥasan Beg), and Jahánsháh “Giansa.” The towns of 'Urfa, Isfahán, Káshán, Qum, Yazd and Kharpút appear as “Orphi,” “Spaham” or “Spaan,” “Cassan,” “Como,” “Jex” and “Carparth.” It should be noted also that, apart from such well-known general histories as the Rawḍatu'ṣ-Ṣafá and Ḥabíbu's-Siyar, the hitherto unpublished Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn

Historical value of the Matla'u's­Sa'dayn of Kamálu'd-Dín 'Abdu's-Razzáq, a monograph on the reigns of “the two Fortunate Planets,” i.e. the two Abú Sa'íds (the Íl-khání Mongol, reigned 716/1316—736/1335, and the Tímúrid of whom we are now speaking), which was completed in 875/1470-1, only two years after the later Abú Sa'íd's death, affords a great wealth of material for the history of this period.

Abú Sa'íd was succeeded by two of his sons, Aḥmad and Maḥmúd, who are accounted by Stanley Lane-Poole Aḥmad and Maḥmúd, the sons of Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd the last (eighth and ninth) rulers of the House of Tímúr in Persia and Central Asia. Of these the first ruled in Transoxiana with Samarqand for his capital, and the second in Badakhshán, Khatlán, Tirmidh, etc. Both died, the latter by violence at the hands of the Uzbek Shaybáni Khán, in the last years of the fifteenth century (899/1493-4 and 905/1499-1500 respectively).

Much more important than the two princes last men­tioned, from the literary if not from the political point of Sulṭán Ḥusayn b. Mansúr b. Bayqará view, was Sulṭán Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr b. Bayqará, whose court at Herát was one of the most brilliant centres of letters, art and learning which ever existed in Persia. This prince, originally at­tached to and protected by Ulugh Beg, was, on the death of this ruler and his son 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf, cast into prison by Abú Sa'íd, but escaped, joined Abu'l-Qásím Bábur, and fled to Khwárazm or Khiva. In 862/1457-8 he captured Astar-ábád, the capital of the province of Gurgán or Jurján (the ancient Hyrcania) and was there crowned, but recognized Abú Sa'íd as his suzerain and placed himself under his protection. A year later Abú Sa'íd again compelled him to take refuge in Khwárazm and occupied Astarábád, which, however, he shortly afterwards recovered, together with the rest of the provinces of Gurgán and Mázandarán. On the death of Abú Sa'íd, Sulṭán Ḥusayn captured Herát, and was crowned there on Ramaḍán 10, 872 (April 3, 1468), which date is regarded by Munajjim-báshí as the beginning of his 38 years' reign, terminated by his death at the age of seventy years on Monday, 11 Dhu'l-Ḥijja, 911 (May 5, 1506). During the last 20 years of this period he was partly para­lysed. His talented minister Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í, who, like his master, was not only a great patron of men of learning and letters but himself a writer of distinction, both in prose and verse, especially in the Turkí language, died on the 12th of Jumáda ii, 906 (January 3, 1501) at the age of 62. An excellent monograph on his life and literary activities was published by M. Belin in the Journal Asiatique for 1861, and reprinted in the form of a separate pamphlet. * Sulṭán Ḥusayn, besides his literary tastes, had a great passion for pigeons, fighting-cocks and other birds, and, like so many of his House, was much addicted to wine.

It still remains to mention one of the most notable of all the descendants of Tímúr, namely Ẓahíru'd-Dín Muḥam- Ẓahíru'd-Dín Bábur mad Bábur, who, though he never ruled in Persia, was the founder of a new and splendid Tímúrid empire in India, the representatives of which, commonly known in Europe as the “Great Moguls,” included such noble princes as Humáyún, Akbar, Jahángír, Sháh-Jahán and Awrang-Zíb 'Álamgír, and which, though gradually shorn alike of its glories and its virtues, continued to exist until the great Indian Mutiny in 1857. Until the early part of the eighteenth century their magnifi­cent court at Delhi continued to attract a great number of eminent Persian poets and men of letters during a period when fuller appreciation and more liberal patronage of talent was to be found at Dihlí than at Iṣfahán.

Of the life of Bábur we possess singularly full and authentic details in the autobiographical memoir generally Bábur's autobio­graphy known as the Bábur-náma, or “Book of Bábur” which he composed in the Turkí or Chaghatáy language. Of the original Turkí text of this remarkable work a printed edition was published by Ilminsky at Kazan in 1857; * while a fac-simile of the then newly-discovered Ḥaydarábád codex was edited by Mrs Beveridge for the trustees of the “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund” in 1905. * This Turkí text has been translated into French by M. Pavet de Courteille, and was published at Paris in 1871. There also exists a Persian translation of the original, known as the Wáqi'át (or Túzuk)-i-Bábarí, made at the request of the great Emperor Akbar, Bábur's grandson, by his accomplished general Mírzá 'Abdu'r-Raḥím Khán-Khánán in 998/1589-90, * on which Dr John Leyden and Mr William Erskine's well-known English version, published in London in 1826, is based. Besides this notable and most authoritative work, we have the very valuable and Mírzá Ḥaydar Dughlát's Memoirs illuminating Memoir of Bábur's cousin Mírzá Ḥaydar Dughlát, now accessible to the English reader in Sir E. Denison Ross's translation, edited, with Preface, Introduction, Commentary, Notes and a Map, by the late Mr Ney Elias, formerly H.B.M. Consul-General for Khurásán and Sístán, and published in London in 1898 with the title A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, being the Ta'ríkh-i-Rashídí of Mírzá Muḥammad Ḥaydar Dughlát. This book, which, as its title implies, has a much larger scope than the Bábur-náma, of which the author made use * in its compilation, greatly supplements and illuminates the earlier work. * Apart from these two works, which are worthy of special notice on account of the high position of their authors and their active participation in the making of the history which they narrate, the historical sources for this period are unusually full and trustworthy.