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Perplexities of Oriental History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
By way of introduction to a sketch of Persian history prepared for the new volume of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ I recently wrote as follows:—
Oriental history, as told by Oriental historians, is for the majority of readers in Europe a study of little attraction. Its genealogies and oft-repeated names are wearisome; its stories of battle, murder, and rapine are monotonous and cast in one mould; the mind cannot readily impart life to the dry bones of the more prominent dramatis personæ, by conceiving for them any flesh-and-blood individuality. The court-chronicler of an Eastern potentate writes to order, and in accordance with a precedent which fetters style and expression; and even the painter of state-portraits strives rather to turn out a conventional and model monarch than the likeness of an original human being. In the palace of Kirich, near Tehran, is a picture of Fath Ali Sháh and his sons. There may be a certain waxwork beauty in some of the faces, but they give no more signs of innate character or mental idiosyncrasy that do the kings and knaves of a pack of cards.
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References
page 368 note 1 The derivation of the word from the Arabic ‘Tamuru,’ in the 67th chapter of the Kuran, meaning ‘it shall shake,’ appears too fanciful for ready acceptation. That it is the Turki form of ‘demír’—iron—is a more likely theory.
page 369 note 1 Markham's, Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timur of Samarkand, A.D. 1403–6. Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1859Google Scholar.
page 370 note 1 History of Persia, vol. i. (Murray, 1815)Google Scholar.
page 370 note 2 Purchas his Pilgrimage, the Fourth Booke, chap. xv. (London, 1617)Google Scholar.
page 371 note 1 A small, but very interesting volume. Timur is, however, only mentioned incidentally as ‘the Great Tamur Chan, that is to say, an Iron Lorde, who is otherwise by some corruptly called Tamerlan and Tamburlan.’
page 372 note 1 This writer complains of the way in which ‘Ahmad, son of Gueraspe,’ had treated the subject previously.
page 377 note 1 Statura procera, barbatus; latis humeris et pectore, cæterisque membris jequalis et congruens; integrâ valetudine, excepto altero pede, quo non perinde valebat, ut inde claudicare ac deformiter incedere perspiceretur; oris truculenti… oculi introrsus recedentes, præferocis animi sui Sævitiam spirantes, intuentibus terrorem et formidinem incutiebant.
page 378 note 1 Her love for Tamburlaine is the real poetry of the First Part, as her death and Tamburlaine's consequent despair are the mainstay of Part II. She is the daughter of the Soldan of Egypt!
page 379 note 1 Designated in Dyce's Preface to his edition of Marlowe, published in 1850, ‘a precocious young gentleman.’
page 381 note 1 Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. i. p. 170. Mr. Rieu selects this mai uscript as one possessing ‘exceptional claim to attention.’
page 383 note 1 Malcolm, , History of Persia, vol. i. p. 499Google Scholar.
page 384 note 1 The Moine de St. Denys says that Tamerlane sent Ambassadors to Charles VI. to let him know that he considered him the first king of the West.
page 386 note 1 The History of India from the Earliest Ages, by Wheeler, J. Talboys: vol. iv. part i. (Trübner & Co., 1876)Google Scholar.
page 386 note 2 The Modern History of Hindustan, vol. ii. part i. (London, 1803)Google Scholar.
page 387 note 1 A Comprehensive History of India, by Beveridge, Henry, vol. i. (Blackie & Co.)Google Scholar.