Note 402 — Chapter XXIV · Tīmūr, the Great Amīr

The sources for the biography of Tīmūr are plentiful. The best known, both in the East and in Europe, is the Zafar-Nāmé, by Sheref ud-Dīn `Alī, of Yezd. This was completed in 1424 by the order of Ibrāhīm, the son of Shāh Rukh, the son of Tīmūr. It was first translated into French in 1722 by M. Petis de la Croix, whose work was in turn englished shortly afterwards. It is this history that has served as a basis for all European historians, Gibbon included. There is, however, an older biography of Tīmūr, which, owing to its scarcity, is very little known. The only MS. in Europe is in the British Museum. It, too, bears the title of Zafar-Nāmé, or Book of Victory. It was compiled at Tīmūr’s own order by a certain Nizām Shāmī, and is brought down to A.H. 806, i.e. one year before Tīmūr’s death. The MS. itself bears the date of A.H. 838 (1434). Owing to the vast interest attaching to such a contemporary account, Professor Denison Ross has undertaken to prepare an edition of the text for the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.