OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

hikes, in the temper of their swords and lancesof the purest steel of Damascus , in the strengthof their walled cities, and in the populousnessof sixty thousand villages; and instead of sus-taining a siege, they threw open their gates andarrayed their forces in the plain. But these for-ces were not cemented by virtue and union; andsome powerful emirs had been seduced to de-sert or betray their more loyal companions. Ti-mour’s front was covered with a line of Indianelephants, whose turrets were filled with archersand Greek fire: the rapid evolutions of his ca-valry completed the dismay and disorder; theSyrian crowds fell back on each other: manythousands were stifled or slaughtered in the en-trance of the great street; the Moguls enteredwith the fugitives; and, after a short defence,thecitadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo,was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Amongthe suppliants and captives, Timour distinguish-ed the doctors of the law, whom he invited tothe dangerous honour of a personal conference .” 1The Mogul prince was a zealous mussulman;but his Persian schools had taught him to reverethe memory of Ali and Hosein; and he had im-bibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians, asthe enemies of the son of the daughter of theapostle of God . To these doctors he proposeda captious question, which the casuists of Bo-chara, Samarcand, and Herat were incapable

m These interesting conversations appear to have been copied byArabshah (tom. i, c. 68, p. 625-645) from the cadhi and historian EbnSchounah, a principal actor. Yet how could he be alive seventy-fiveyears afterwards (d’Hcrbelot, p. 792)?

21

CHAP.LX V.

SacksAlepoo,A. D.1400Nov. 11;