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THE

French editor's

PREFACE

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FALL the oriental pieces which the late M. Petis de la Croix the fon has tranflated, there is not one which more deferves to fee the light, than this we now prefent the public, for which the learned world hath exprefs'd fo much impatience. The remarks he hath left behind him, to inftruct the reader in feveral obfcure paffages, will ferve for the ground-work of this preface; in which we fhall often make ufe of his own words.

M. DE LA CROIX having found a manufcript of the hiftory of Genghiz-Can, the most illuftrious of the ancestors of Timur-Bec, extracted from the beft authors by his late father; and confidering it might give much infight into the hiftory of Timur-Bec; the refpe&t due to an author fo nearly ally'd to him, and the connection be tween the two hiftorys, engag'd him to publish that history of Genghiz-Can; in which are related fome of the most confiderable tranfactions of the thirteenth century, as this of TimurBec is one of the principal ornaments of the two following. The conformity of the fubject, and the great

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greatnefs of the events, will render the reading of this hiftory very agreeable to those partfularly, who are acquainted with that of Genghiz-Can. Here they will find, among the most remarkable particulars, an exact defcription of the roads of the empire of the Moguls, and vaft light into the geography of the greateft part of Afia, with a continuation of the hiftory of the Mogul and Tartar emperors. And 1226. tho from the death of Genghiz-Cau*, to the + 1336. birth of Timur-Bect, there is an interval of which time

I.

Who the

one hundred and ten years, during fcended

twenty one emperors reign'd, who defcended
from Zagatai-Can the fon of Genghiz-Can, of
whofe hiftory the Europeans are ignorant ';
yet this defect has in fome meafure been fup-
ply'd, and the reader conducted as far as the
time of Timur-Bec: for M. de la Croix the fon
has added to the hiftory of Genghiz-Can a lift
of thofe emperors, with an abridgment of the
principal points of their history.

THE author of the hiftory, of which we now author is, publish a tranflation, is a writer univerfally apof whour plauded by the Orientals, and even by thofe we publifh who have written on the fame fubject; which is the tran- indeed uncommon. They agree that he is the flation. moft valuable of thofe who have written the hiftory of Timur Bec. Condemir, among the reft, prefers him before all the writers of the hiftory of the Moguls and Tartars; as well for the delicacy of the Perfian language, as for the

An hiftorian, nam'd Taschkunti, has written upon this fubject; but, M. de la Croix affures us that this work has not yet appear'd in Europe.

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This lift is extracted out of the chronological hiftory call'd Lubtaric, and from those of Condemir and Huffein Efendi.

force

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force of his expreffions, and the beauty of his ftyle.

HADGI Calfa, a modern Turk, in his Oriental library, fays that his name is Moulla Scherefeddin Ali Yezdi, native of Yezd, a city of Perfia: that he died in the year of the Hegira 850: An. Dom that he call'd his book, Zafar Name Emir Timur 1456. Gourcan, that is to fay, The hiftory of the con quefts of prince Timur, fon-in-law of the Can that this book was publifh'd at Chiraz, the antient capital of Perfia, by order of Ibrahim Sultan, fon of Charoc, fon of Timur-Bec: and that he finifh'd it in the year of Chrift 1424, that is, nineteen years after the death of Timur Bec, which happen'd in the year of Chrift 1405. He adds, that this book has been fince tranflated into the Turkish language by Hafiz Mehemed Bin Ahmed Alagemi. He alfo fays, that our author had before compos'd a first volume, under the title of Moucaddamey Zafar Name, that is, Preliminarys of the hiftory of conquefts: which book of preliminarys properly contains the hiftory of the Oulous, or Mogul hords and familys, who follow'd ZagataiCan, fon of Genghiz-Can, in the countrys which his father affign'd him as his fhare, and which for that reafon have ever fince been nam❜d Zagatai. Thefe hords, being diftributed into a great number of Tomans and govern'd by

Hords among the Moguls and Tartars are the fame as tribes among the Ifraelites and Arabians.

Toman is a country given to a hord or family, the chief of which poffeffes it as a fovereign, and governs it according to the laws of Genghiz-Can, furnishing ten thousand men to the Can or emperor. Toman alfo fignifys a fum of fifty abaf fis, a piece of mony, each of which in Perfia is worth eighteen French fols.

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II.

chiefs felected out of the moft illuftrious familys of the Moguls, form'd the empire which bore the name of Zagatai Can, of which Tranfoxiana was both the feat and center.

If this hiftory had been deliver'd down to us, A if won'd have ferv'd very well to connect the hifa torys of Genghiz-Can and Timur-Bec: but the lift of the Mogul emperors, which is join'd to the former, may fupply that defect.

gin of Ti

mur-Bec.

AGENEALOGY fo well attefted as that of True ori- Timur-Bec, gave room to M. Petis de la Croix to refute a prejudic'd notion, which almost every one has entertain'd till this time, that Timur-Bec was a fort of an adventurer, and had rais'd himfelf by robberys and violences. He tells us, that thefe are calumnys and impoftures, which have been publifh'd by authors of ro mances, and Turkifh writers who were his ene mys, and envious at his glory: among whom is Ahmed Bin Arabfchah, tranflated into French by M. Vatier. They make this prince a fhepherd, and a perfon of little confequence, who, as they affure us, rais'd his fortune by robbing on the high-way. They have difguis'd his name, to make one which thou'd give us a bafe and defpicable idea of this prince: to which purpose they have feign'd that he was lam'd by an arrow, with which he was thot by a certain fhepherd, whofe fheep he was ftealing. Thus they have alter'd the name of Bec, which fignifys prince, into that of Lenc, which fignifys lame: for it is an eafy change, in the writing and pronunciation of the Orientals, to fay Timur-Lenc, inftead of

To make this change, we need only take away the points under the e of Bec, and place one over it, which will become an Then carry the B a little higher, and it will be L. Thus for Bec we read Lenc.

n.

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