Of Bábur's life, which can be studied in detail in the above-mentioned and numerous other works, * it is sufficient to say here that it falls broadly into three periods, of which the first was passed in the little principality of Farghána,

Outline of Bábur's life where he was born in A.D. 1482 and whence he was expelled by Shaybání Khán and his Uzbeks about 1504. During the second period (A.D. 1504-1525) he ruled over Afghánistán and Badakhshán. Finally he decided on the invasion of India, and the founda­tion of the “Great Mogul” Dynasty in that country dates from his brilliant victory at Pánípat over Sulṭán Ibráhím Lódí of Dihlí on April 20, 1526, and the occupation of Ágra and Dihlí and northern India from the Indus to Bengal. This third and shortest period was brought to a close by his death on December 26, 1530, when he was succeeded by his son Humáyún. The narrative of the Bábur-náma extends from Ramaḍan 899/June 1494 (the year of Bábur's accession at the early age of twelve to the throne of Farghána) to 936/1529-30, the year preceding his death. There are, however, certain lacunæ, to wit the years 915-924 (1509-1518) and 927-931 (1521-1525).

We have, however, overshot the limits of the period dealt with in this chapter; for, so far as Persia is concerned, the House of Tímúr disappears from it before the year 1500. The great empire founded by Tímúr, that ruthless man of blood, was maintained in Persia by his gentler and more enlightened son Sháh-rukh until his death in 850/1447. What follows is mainly a dismal record of fratricidal strife and invasions of Uzbeks and other barbarians, redeemed by brilliant galaxies of poets, artists and men of letters and science whom the lavish bounty and undeniable taste of these truculent and quarrelsome princes continued to at­tract to their various courts, in particular to Herát. The details of these wars, set out at great length by Mírkh-wánd, Khwándamír and 'Abdu'r-Razzáq, and in English by Erskine, * are somewhat wearisome, being not so much between different peoples or principles, as between ambitious members of one family. Happily for our present purpose we need not go much beyond Sir John Malcolm's excellent summary of this period of Persian history. “After the death of Ulugh Beg,” says he, * “we discover a crowd of the descendants of Tímúr contending for the provinces of his empire; and so great was the respect which men entertained for the blood of the hero that everyone who could boast of it in his veins found adherents who enabled him either to obtain a throne or an honourable grave.”

To the literary and artistic gifts and tastes of these princes, on the other hand, that great authority on Persian painting and miniatures, Dr F. R. Martin, bears the following eloquent testimony in his monumental work on The Minia­ture Painting and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey.*

“The Tímúrids soon began to lead a life compatible with the wealth their fathers and forefathers had amassed Dr Martin on Persian painting at this period during their wars, and tried to squander it as quickly as possible. History constantly repeats itself. The life of these rulers forms a true epic. They recall to mind the old Paladins in the Chansons de Gestes, passing in the space of a short time from the splendours of a throne to a position of the utmost decay. They were, however, the most artistic princes that ever reigned in Persia. If the conquering armies of Tímúr destroyed many a work of art, his successors brought into being works of art that would otherwise never have been created. Does not Samarqand redeem the loss of many a town destroyed by Tímúr? What he destroyed was already of itself destined to fall, and Tímúr simply gave the mortal thrust. He was not the destroyer we are accustomed to consider him, but the master who arranged matters with an iron hand. He formed a link in the chain of natural develop­ment, and from his realm arose the Persia of later times, his successors bringing Persian art to its most flourishing stage. These Tímúrids were no barbarians; indeed every­thing goes to show that they were highly civilized and refined men, real scholars, loving art for the sake of art alone, and without ostentation. In the intervals between their battles they enjoyed thinking of their libraries and writing poetry, many of them having composed poetry that far excels that of their court poets. Sulṭán Ḥusayn Mírzá was no bad poet, and his odes, written in Turkí, are far better than those of many celebrated poets. He also wrote in Arabic and competed with the celebrated Jámí. The most refined style of life prevailed, in certain respects calling to mind that of the European princes of the same time, or that of France during the 18th century, although it was far more literary than either.

“Báysunghur, Sháh-rukh, Ulugh Beg and Sulṭán Ḥusayn Mírzá were bibliophiles not surpassed by the Dukes of Burgundy, or by King René of Anjou, their contemporaries, and were far more illustrious than the celebrated French and Italian book-lovers of the 16th and 17th centuries. Not only did they collect books, but they created them. Báysunqur and Ḥusayn Mírzá were to Persia what William Morris was to England four hundred years later. They created a new style of book, but theirs was infinitely more aristocratic, solid and artistic. The very finest European books and manuscripts cannot, except in a very few isolated instances, bear comparison with those of the Orientals as regards the fineness of their work.

“Báysunqur was the son of Sháh-rukh and grandson to Tamerlane; he died in 837/1433, when 37 years of age,

Báysunqur “one of the greatest bibliophiles of the world” at Astarábád, where he was governor. He was the founder of the most elegant style of book-production in Persia, and well deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest bibliophiles of the world. Under his auspices forty artists were em­ployed in copying manuscripts under the guidance of Mawláná Ja'far of Tabríz, himself a pupil of 'Abdu'lláh son of Mír 'Alí. By paying large salaries and making princely presents he retained in his service the cleverest masters of the period, who executed the finest work in the production of their splendid volumes. The paper was unsurpassed, the illuminations of extreme delicacy, and the covers are unequalled to the present day. Books from his vast library are now dispersed over the entire world, and wherever found should possess a place of honour.

“It was during the reigns of the Tímúrids and not during that of Sháh 'Abbás that the finest carpets were produced in Culmination of other arts at this period Persia. The finest arms and armour, and ivory-work of a minuteness surpassing all examples produced by other countries, were made at their court. All specimens of Persian art that exhibit the most refined taste and workmanship emanate from their time or from the very beginning of the Ṣafawí dynasty.

“All art produced in the East is the direct result of an impulse given by the monarch. But for Báysunqur and “All real art in the East is Court art” Sulṭán Ḥusayn Mírzá we should not have had that lovely miniature art their artists created, for it was to adorn and illustrate their own writings that they welcomed artists from all parts of their kingdom. But for Sháh 'Abbás we should not have had the splendid figured velvet, and but for Sulaymán the Mag­nificent there would be no magnificent Turkish faience from Izníq, and but for Sulṭán Aḥmad we should not have had the wonderful manuscripts of the Qur'án, by which their aesthetic tastes are still perpetuated. All real art in the Orient is court art, or is dependent on a Maecenas. It was so in the 'Abbásid court at Baghdád in the ninth century; it was so in Egypt and Spain; it was so everywhere. This fact must be remembered, as it explains much that would otherwise be incomprehensible.

“That an art so brilliant should entirely disappear with the ruler was not to be expected. The princes died, but Survival of this art into the six­teenth century the artists survived and entered the service of another. The impulse derived from the Tímúrids was so powerful that it lasted through a great part of the sixteenth century. It was not only the new rulers of Persia, the Ṣafawís, but also princes whose names are almost unknown to history, who continued the fashion and had manuscripts executed that were more costly than anything of the kind produced in Europe.”

It is necessary to remind the reader, who may be apt to think of far-reaching international relations as in large Communications between Persia, China and India measure a product of modern times and an out­come of modern facilities of communication, how considerable was the intercourse in the time which we are considering between Asiatic (not merely Muslim) states far removed from one another. The inter­esting extracts from that valuable but hitherto unpublished history, the Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn of 'Abdu'r-Razzáq of Samar-qand, published in French by Quatremere in 1843, * include the accounts of two embassies from the court of Herát, the one to China, the other to India, narrated in each case by one who had headed or accompanied the mission. The mission to China, described by Ghiyáthu'd-Dín Naqqásh (“the Painter”), left Herát on December 4, 1419, reached Pekin (Khán-báligh or “Cambaluc”) a year and ten days later, and returned to Herát on September 2, 1422. * The mission to India, confided to and narrated by the above­mentioned 'Abdu'r-Razzáq himself, started on January 13, 1442, and landed once more on Persian soil at Hurmuz in the Persian gulf on April 20, 1444. * The activity and cos­mopolitan character of that port are well indicated by the ambassador in the following descriptive paragraph: