The Mulfuzat Timury claims to be Timur's (1336-1405) own account of his life, found in a Turki manuscript and put into Persian in the seventeenth century by Abu Talib al-Husayni. Major Charles Stewart translated the early part, to Timur's accession at Samarkand in 1369, from a manuscript once owned by Major William Davy, for the Oriental Translation Fund in 1830. It tells of Timur's youth among the Barlas tribe near Kesh, his omens, his wars with the Chaghatayid khans and his rivals, and his taking of Samarkand. Its authenticity has long been doubted.
How they knew
Part eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
The translator uses 'Tartary' for the whole steppe world once called Scythia and 'Tartars' for its Turkic and Mongol nomads, including Timur's own people. In the text, 'Tatar' is also the name of a legendary ancestor, twin brother of 'Moghul'.
Why read it
It shows how Timur's world told its own origin story (Tatar and Moghul as twin brothers descended from Japhet) and gives glimpses of felt tents, palaces, fortresses and mosques in Transoxiana, even if the voice is not truly Timur's.
Watch out
Most modern scholars regard the memoirs as a seventeenth-century Persian composition passed off as Timur's own; treat the first-person voice as a literary device. Stewart's preface quotes Davy arguing for authenticity.
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.
Attributed to Timur (translated by Charles Stewart, 1830)
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
Attributed to Timur (translated by Charles Stewart, 1830)
Editorial contextBefore helping his ally Malik Husayn retake Herat, Timur strips a leg of mutton to the bone and performs 'the usual ceremonies' to read an omen from it; the sign is good, and the city falls by surprise at dawn. The translator adds a footnote that the Tartars play with sheep bones instead of dice. Omens run all through these memoirs.
At this time there was a stewed leg of mutton before us, the bone of which was sticking out ; I took it, and having stripped it of all the meat, I resolved within myself to draw from it an omen, whether Melk Hussyn would be successful in his enterprize. I performed the usual ceremonies, and the result was favourable
Attributed to Timur (translated by Charles Stewart, 1830)
Editorial contextTimur asks his father for the family history, and hears the Turkic origin legend: the Turks descend from Yafet Aghlan, son of the biblical Japhet, and a later king had twin sons named Tatar and Moghul who split Turkestan between them. Tatar's eight sons and Moghul's nine founded the tribes, who then fought each other on the plains. The same story is told by the Khivan khan and historian Abu'l-Ghazi in the seventeenth century.
when his fifth son Aljeh Khan ascended the throne, the all gracious God bestowed on him twin sons, one of which was called Tatar, the other Moghul ; when they were grown up, Aljeh Khan divided the kingdom of Turkestan between them during his life-time
Attributed to Timur (Persian text of Abu Talib al-Husayni, translated by Charles Stewart, 1830)