History of Bokhara from the Earliest Period Down to the Present; Composed for the First Time After Oriental Known and Unknown Historical Manuscripts (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 Excerpt: ... XII. THE TIMOURIDES. 807 (1405)--906 (1500). TlMOUR was not by any means so fortunate in his successors as his Mongolian predecessor in the path of conquest had been. The former ruler had merely laid the foundations of a gigantic power, and had left the completion and extension of the edifice to the strong arms of his sons and grandsons; but the latter prince had, with his own hand, built up his fabric of empire to the topmost pinnacle, and his children, so far from strengthening it, were the first to shake it by their quarrels and the furious civil wars which eventually led to its ruin. The Djenghizides had maintained their power in Central and Western Asia during two centuries, but the successors of Timour barely retained 100 years' possession of the dominions they had inherited, although there were amongst them several men of marked ability, whose talents for government and noble qualities deserve to be held in admiration by posterity.1 The remains of the deceased hero had scarcely been laid to rest at Samarkand, and the funeral solemnities were not over, before his heirs began fighting for the crown. With the exception of the wise and noble Shahrukh Mirza, who was governing in Khorasan, all Timour's sons had died 1 These circumstances have been commented on by the learned M. Belin, who, in his Notice bibliographiquc et littcraire sur Afir-Ali-Chir-Nevdii, makes the following remark (at p. 29) in speaking of the Timourides: --' II y a lieu de s'etonner que le gout des lettres n'ait pu exercer sur ces princes, doues, pour la plupart d'une certaine philosophic religieuse, une influence salutaire sur leur rudesse et leur eruaute naturelles.' before him,1 and he had therefore named as his successor the grandson in whose abilities he had most confidence. This..