Chinggis Khan's law set above Islam
Editorial contextIbn Arabshah says Timur spoke Persian, Turkish and Mongol but no Arabic, and held to the 'Chinggis Khan rules' (the yasa), treating them like branches of Islamic law. So, he says, did all the Chaghatay, the people of the Dasht, Cathay and Turkestan, whom he calls rabble. For this reason, he adds, leading jurists declared Timur an unbeliever.
He held to the rules of Chinggis Khan, which are like the branches of jurisprudence in the Islamic faith … And so do all the Chaghatay and the people of the Dasht, Cathay and Turkestan, that rabble: all of them put the rules of the accursed Chinggis Khan ahead of the rules of Islam.
Working translation
Original wording
وكان معتقدا للقواعد الجنكيزخانيه وهي كفروع الفقه من الملة الاسلاميه … وكذلك كل الجغتاي واهل الدشت والخطا وتركستان اولئك الطغام كلهم يمشون قواعد الملعون جنكيزخان على قواعد الاسلام
About Timur, the Chaghatay, the people of the Dasht (Golden Horde Tatars)
Keep in mind
Religious polemic. It shows that Chinggisid law still mattered in Muslim Central Asia c.1400, but the tone is hostile.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this print is garbled); vowel marks and the asterisk dividers of the rhymed prose omitted.
Black felt tents and a room dug underground
Editorial contextLost on a freezing night while hunting, young Timur and his companions saw black felt tents that at first looked like sand hills. The family took them for thieves, then gave them a room built underground, lit a fire, fed them soup and lent them flea-ridden blankets. Timur says that after becoming ruler he rewarded them.
About this time we saw some black (felt) tents or huts, upon which my companions said, " these are hillocks of sand and dust," … the inhabitants of which supposing I was a thief, hallooed out and prepared to attack me ; but when I told them all the circumstances, they were ashamed, and having cleared out a room which was constructed under ground, lighted a fire for us
About Nomads of Transoxiana
Keep in mind
The word 'felt' is the translator's addition in brackets. The story may be literary.
Turks, Tartars, Moguls and Tajiks
Editorial contextTwo footnotes explain the troops sent to scout the mountains of Kafiristan. 'Turks' are the descendants of Moguls and Tartars; 'Tadgics' (Tajiks) are the Persian-speaking townspeople of Transoxiana and Iran, who are neither. It is a neat 1720s key to how Tartar, Mogul and Turk overlapped.
The Turks are those who descend from the Moguls and Tartars… The Tadgics are the inhabitants of the towns of Transoxiana, and all the country of Iran, who are neither Tartars, Moguls, nor Turks.
About Timur's Turkic soldiers and the Tajik townspeople
Keep in mind
An editorial gloss, not Yazdi's own words.
A prince in exile sleeps in a felt tent of cross-poles
Editorial contextDriven out of his homeland, Babur set off for Khorasan with two or three hundred followers, most on foot. They had only two proper tents; Babur gave his to his mother and slept each night in a small felt tent on flexible poles. Erskine's note explains this alachuq was a felt-covered frame that folded up easily.
Such was our distress, that among us all we had only two tents. My own tent was pitched for my mother, and they erected for me at each stage a felt-tent of cross-poles, in which I used to take up my quarters.
About Babur's followers
Continue in this sourceThe memoirs of Babur, Timurid prince and founder of Mughal India1466 to 1533 · 16 passagesRepairing a Mongol khan's palace at Karshi
Editorial contextBefore marching on Samarkand, Timur orders the palace of 'Kepee Khan' at Karshi repaired, a fortress built at the town gate and other buildings put up. The translator's note explains that the old town of Nakhsheb took the name Karshi (Turkic for 'palace') from a palace built there by a Mongol prince, the Chaghatayid khan Kebek.
I prepared for marching to Samerkund, but first gave orders to repair the palace of Kepee Khan, whose name in the Turky language, was Karshy ; and I commanded that a fortress should be erected at the gate of the town, and some other buildings constructed.
About Chaghatayid Mongols; Timur
Keep in mind
The wording makes 'Karshy' the palace's Turkic name; the footnote is by the translator.
Timur's four tribal vizirs and the Barlas
Editorial contextIbn Arabshah opens his life of Timur by explaining that the Turks, like the Arabs, are divided into tribes. The four chief officers of the Chaghatayid sultan came from four tribes, the Arlat, Jalayir, Qauchin and Barlas, and Timur was the son of the Barlas chief. On the same page he reports a Persian genealogy linking Timur to Chinggis Khan through the female line, and explains Timur's title Gurkan as Mongol for 'son-in-law', since he married royal daughters.
The Turks have tribes and clans that almost match the tribes of the Arabs, and each of these vizirs was from a tribe … the first of them called Arlat, the tribe of the second called Jalabir [Jalayir], the tribe of the third called Qauchin, and the tribe of the fourth named Barlas; and Timur was the son of the fourth of them.
Working translation
Original wording
والترك لهم قبائل وشعب تكاد توازي قبائل العرب وكل واحد من هؤلاء الوزراء كان من قبيلة … احدهم تسمى ارلات وقبيلة الثاني تدعى جلابر وقبيلة الثالث يقال لها قاوجين وقبيلة الرابع اسمها برلاس وكان تيمور ابن رابعهم
About Chaghatay Turks (Timur's people)
Keep in mind
Ibn Arabshah wrote as an enemy of Timur. The print misspells Jalayir as Jalabir; the tribal list matches other Timurid sources.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this print is garbled); vowel marks and the asterisk dividers of the rhymed prose omitted.
The Karakhitai: steppe exiles who swapped carts for camels
Editorial contextThe envoy tells how Ta-shi (Yelu Dashi), a Khitan of the fallen Liao house, fled north-west with the frontier tribes, moving from pasture to pasture for years. Blocked by rocks and snow, they abandoned their carts, loaded their goods on camels, conquered the Muslim lands and founded an empire. After a regent princess was executed for killing her husband and a weak ruler took over, the realm decayed, and the few Khitan left had adopted Muslim customs and dress. It is a compact picture of a nomad people turning into a settled empire and then dissolving into its subjects.
They were obliged to leave their carts behind, and to carry their baggage on camels. Thus they arrived in the country of the Hui-ho (Mohammedans), took possession of the land and founded an empire. … the empire fell into decay, and was finally destroyed by the Hui-ho. At the present day there are few of these people left, and they have adopted the customs and the dress of the Hui-ho.
About Karakhitai (Western Liao), Khitan exiles
Keep in mind
Told from the Jin side; Bretschneider points to the fuller Liao history account in his Part II. The Changchun diary (W113, p.73) blames the fall on the Naiman prince Guchluk and the Sultan of Khwarazm rather than simply 'the Hui-ho'.
