d exterminate the idolaters of China,
which cannot be done without very great strength and power. It is
therefore fitting, my dear companions in arms, that those very
soldiers, who were the instruments whereby those my faults were
committed, should be the means by which I work out my repentance, and
that they should march into China, to acquire for themselves and
their Emperor the merit of that holy war, in demolishing the temples
of those unbelievers and erecting good Muhammadan mosques in their
places. By this means we shall obtain pardon for all our sins, for
the holy Koran assures us that good works efface the sins of this
world.' At the close of the Emperor's speech, the princes of the
blood and other officers of rank besought God to bless his generous
undertaking, unanimously applauding his sentiments, and loading him
with praises. 'Let the Emperor but display his standard, and we will
follow him to the end of the world.' Timur died soon after crossing
the Jaxartes, on the 1st of April, 1406, and China was saved from
this dreadful scourge. But, as the _philosophical_ historian, Sharaf-
ud-din,[55] _profoundly_ observes, 'The Koran remarks that if any one
in his pilgrimage to Mecca should be surprised by death, the merit of
the good work is still written in heaven in his name, as surely as if
he had had the good fortune to accomplish it. It is the same with
regard to the "ghaza" (holy war), where an eternal merit is acquired
by troubles, fatigues, and dangers; and he who dies during the
enterprise, at whatever stage, is deemed to have completed his
design.' Thus Timur the Lame had the merit, beyond all question of
doubt, of sending to the abyss of hell two hundred millions of men,
women, and children, for not believing in a certain book of which
they had never heard or read; for the Tartars had not become
Muhammadans when they conquered China in the beginning of the
thirteenth century. Indeed, the _amiable_ and _profound_ historian is
of opinion, after the most mature deliberation, that 'God himself
must have arranged all this in favour of so great and good a prince;
and knowing that his end was nigh, inspired him with the idea of
undertaking this enterprise, that he might have the merit of having
completed it; otherwise, how should he have thought of leading out
his army in the dead of winter to cross countries covered with ice
and snow?'

The heir to the throne, the Prince Pir Muhammad, was absent when
Timur di