Tamerlane

Just at the moment when the Sultan (Bajazet) seemed to have attained the pinnacle of his ambition, when his authority was unquestioningly obeyed over the greater part of the Byzantine Empire in Europe and Asia, when the Christian states were regarding him with terror as the scourge of the world, another and greater scourge came to quell him, and at one stroke all the vast fabric of empire which Bāyezīd had so triumphantly erected was shattered to the ground. This terrible conquerer was Timūr the Tatar, or as we call him, "Tamerlane". Timūr was of Turkish race, and was born near Samarkand in 1333. He was consequently an old man of 70 when he came to encounter Bāyezīd in 1402. It had taken him many years to establish his authority over a portion of the numerous divisions into which the immense empire of Chingiz Khan had fallen after the death of that stupendous conqueror. Timūr was but a petty chief among many others: but at last he won his way and became ruler of Samarkand and the whole province of Transoxiana, or 'Beyond the River' (Mā-warā-n-nahr) as the Arabs called the country north of the Oxus. Once fairly established in this province, Timūr began to overrun the surrounding lands, and during thirty years his ruthless armies spread over the provinces of Asia, from Dehli to Damascus, and from the Sea of Aral to the Persian Gulf. The subdivision of the Moslem Empire into numerous petty kingdoms rendered it powerless to meet the overwhelming hordes which Timūr brought down from Central Asia. One and all, the kings and princes of Persia and Syria succumbed, and Timūr carried his banners triumphantly as far as the frontier of Egypt, where the brave Mamluk Sultans still dared to defy him. He had so far left Bāyezīd unmolested; partly because he was too powerful to be rashly provoked, and partly because Timūr respected the Sultan's valorous deeds against the Christians: for Timūr, though a wholesale butcher, was very conscientious in matters of religion, and held that Bāyezīd's fighting for the Faith rightly covered a multitude of sins.