Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/430

418 418 CIIIUSTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. the great dominions of the Turks. The world resounded with the news of the battle between Tamerlane and Bajazet, in which the latter was vanquished, taken alive, and shut by the Tartar in an iron cage, against the arm of which he beat out his brains.* The very name of Tamerlane became the terror of nations, and the insatiable invader was just preparing a formidable expedition against China, when death came suddenly, in 1405, to overthrow the Colossus and dis- sipate in a moment his gigantic empire. His im- mense heritage fell to his children, but they were far from resembling him. They rushed like birds of prey upon a quarry to snatch whatever provinces they could, and soon the fabulous empire of Tamerlane was dis- located and rent asunder, and on its fragments arose that of the great Moguls, who reigned with more or less success down to the epoch of the English domi- nation. Opinions differ as to what kind of religious principles Tamerlane professed ; some assert that, after the ex- ample of Tchinguiz-Khan, he was simply a deist, but rather more favourable to the Christians than the fol- lowers of Mahomet. Catrou, in his " General History of the Mongol Empire," says (vol. i. p. 7.), "He fol- lowed the religion of Tchinguiz-Khan, which had been preserved in the Mongol family. He adored the Al- mighty, Invisible, and Eternal God, perfectly one, with- out distinction of nature or person. He observed the natural law comprised in the eight precepts, which are but the Oriental writers contradict it, and declare that, on the con- trary, Bajazet was honourably treated by the victor.
 * This is the account given by all the Greek and Latin authors,