Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/24

16 TAMERLANE never returned into India, but added the conquests he had made in it to the government of his grandson Pir Mohammed Gehanguir, who ruled from Gazna the mahomedan dominions of Indostan until the death of his grandfather, which happened in the year 1404. An event in which so many princes were interested did not fail to raise great commotions amongst the princes of his family. On his death-bed Tamerlane named Pir Mohammed Gehan Ghir the universal heir of all his dominions. The contempt with which his will was treated after his death, was equal to the veneration which had been paid to his authority during his life. The sultan Khalil another of his grandsons, immediately took possession of the capital of Samarcande, and proclaimed himself emperor. Pir Mohammed did not live long enough to assert his rights, but was assassinated six months after the death of his grandfather.

The sultan Sharock, the youngest of the two surviving sons of Tamerlane, succeeded to the inheritance designed for Gehan Ghir: he reigned near 42 years, during which the conquests of his father in India seem to have remained in subjection to his authority.

THERE is in Europe an excellent history of the life of this prince, and of his descendants, continued to the year 1497. There are likewise in England materials sufficient to form a history of the dependance in which India remained to the posterity of Tamerlane, until one of them erected the new dynasty of mahomedan emperors in Indostan, which is that of the present great Moguls; but these tracts, hitherto tittle regarded by those, whose fortunes alone could furnish the expence of presenting them to the public in languages of common use, remain out of the reach of public curiosity by the difficulties attending the study of those in which they are written.

A FEW scraps detached from one another by considerable intervals of time, and by subjects of little connection with each other, would be of