surrounded with difficulties and danger, and the glory and success with which his enterprizes were finally crowned, make the resemblance between these two Princes still more striking. Like Timour, Babour wrote an accurate History of his own Life and Actions in the Turki language; which though by no means equal to the admirable composition of his renowned ancestor, is a work of infinite merit. Yet this history, great as the Royal Author was, remained in obscurity till the middle of the reign of his grandson Acbur, when it was translated into the Persian language by one of his Omrahs, Khaun a Khaunaun. It is more difficult to account for the temporary obscurity of this valuable work, than for that of Timour's; for at the death of Babour it must have fallen into the hands of his son Humaioon, and on his death, into those of Acbur. Yet till the middle of his reign it remained unknown and untranslated: and if Acbur had, in the early part of his life, been driven from his throne, if divisions had taken place in his family, and his posterity had been scattered abroad, this valuable manuscript might have fallen into private hands, and have remained unknown for a century longer; possibly, have been totally lost. No critic, either Oriental or European, pretends to dispute the authenticity of Babour's History; and, as far as I have been able to discover, the learned of the East consider the Institutes and History of Timour as equally genuine.

"I was acquainted with several great and learned men in India, both natives and Persians on perusing the works of Timour, I was led to make the same enquiry which you have made, whether they were, or were not authentic? The answers I received were always in the affirmative, and attended with some tokens and expressions of surprize, that I should, or could, doubt their being genuine. Shaah Aulum, the present Mogul, has a beautiful copy of the History and Institutes of Timour; which he holds in such esteem, and of which he is so exceedingly careful, that though he granted me the use of any other book in his possession, this he positively excepted by name, as a work so rare and valuable, that he could not trust it to the care of any person whatever.*

Upon the whole, if the learned of the East, for several generations,

* Times are since altered, and I have now lying before me two authentic transcripts of the Emperor's copy, an account of which will be hereafter given; CHARLES Stewart.

have been induced to give implicit credit to the Institutes and History of Timour, which is certainly the case, I do not see how Europeans can, with any degree of propriety, doubt their authenticity. The Oriental critics have the very best materials on which to form their opinions; our small stock of knowledge in the language, and still smaller stock of Asiatic Historians, render us very incompetent judges of the point in question. There are a great number of Oriental Manuscripts in the libraries of the learned; but I am convinced, that there are still many, very many, which never have found, and possibly never will find, their way into Europe; and therefore, though no historical evidence can be produced to prove the authenticity of the works of Timour, yet no one can pretend to say, that such historical proofs do not exist. The learned of the East must be the best judges whether they do, or do not merit their belief and veneration; and they have thought proper to bestow upon them both the one and the other. It is much to be regretted, that the Life of Timour, written by himself, is not to be found in Europe: if that, and the Institutes could be translated and published together, such is the accuracy of the narrative, such the importance of the matter, and such the lights that they would mutually reflect on each other, that it would, I conceive, be impossible for any one to read them, without acquiescing in their authenticity from the internal evidence alone.* Yours, most assuredly,

WILLIAM Davy."

See also Dr. White's Preface to the Institutes, page 6.

INTRODUCTION.

THE extensive region, formerly called Scythia, and now generally denominated Tartary, has been inhabited from a very early period by Nomade nations, who wandered with their flocks and herds from one part of the continent to another, frequently migrating from the shores of the Eastern Ocean, to the midst of Europe, where they were known by the appellation of Goths or Getes, Vandals, Huns, Turks, Tartars, &c.* These nations were subdivided into various tribes and hordes, consisting of from five thousand to seventy thousand families, who took their names from some celebrated chieftain, and were subject to their respective leaders under the title of Khāns (Kings); but when a number of these nations were united under one leader, he assumed the title of Khākān, (Emperor).†

In the tenth century, a person named Tumenāh Khān, whose descent has been traced by the Oriental historians from Noah, commanded a horde of Moghuls then dwelling to the north-west of China, this person had twin sons, Kubel Khan and Kajuly Behader, whom he prevailed on to sign an agreement, that the dignity of Khān should continue in the posterity of the former, and that of Sepah Salar, Commander-in-Chief, in the descendants of the latter.

From the first of these sons was descended, in the fourth degree, Zingis, called by the Persians, Jengyz Khan, born A. D. 1154, and from the second in the eighth degree, the hero of the following Memoirs, who was born in the district of Kesh, province of Maveralnaher, A. D. 1336.

An ample detail of all these nations will be found in Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

+ See printed copy of the Institutes of Timur, pages 131 and 285: Gibbon following the French orthography, calls him Chagan.

Jengyz or Zingis died in A. D. 1227, having divided his vast dominions between his four sons, called Jūjy or Tuchy, Jagtay, Auktay, and Tūly; to the first of these was assigned the extensive kingdom of Kipchāk or Great Tartary; to the second, Turkestan and Maveralnaher, (Transoxiana); to the third, Mughulistān and Northern China; to the fourth, Persia, and that part of India, west of the river Indus. Their descendants reigned over these countries till the time of Timur, who subdued them all; but as neither Jengyz or Timūr assumed the title of Khākān, (Emperor) there probably existed a more ancient and honourable family than either of them.* An ancestor of Timur, named Kerachār Nuyan, was married to a daughter of Jagtay Khan, second son of Zingis, by which means the two families became doubly connected; in consequence of which, Timur bore the title of Gūrgān, son-in-law of the Khan; it also signifies a great Prince. The continuation of the family history will be given by himself.

P. S. I fear that the number of proper names which occur in this work will tire my readers, but such is the style of Oriental history; the reason assigned for it is, that it may serve as a record of the actions of each chief, and should the author omit any persons, he might be called to account by the heirs. Mirza Abu Talib, who wrote his Travels through Europe, in 1803, apologized to his countrymen for the number of barbarous names he was obliged to relate to them, so that the complaint is mutual.

* Since writing the above, I have been informed by one of our best Chinese scholars, that the Mandarins of that country are called Kwans, but that the title of Jengyz was Ching-sze Kho-han.