History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
111 (return) [ He was twenty-seven before he served his first
wars under the emir Houssein, who ruled over Khorasan and
Mawerainnehr. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 262. Neither of these
statements agrees with the Memoirs. At twelve he was a boy. “I
fancied that I perceived in myself all the signs of greatness and
wisdom, and whoever came to visit me, I received with great
hauteur and dignity.” At seventeen he undertook the management of
the flocks and herds of the family, (p. 24.) At nineteen he
became religious, and “left off playing chess,” made a kind of
Budhist vow never to injure living thing and felt his foot
paralyzed from having accidentally trod upon an ant, (p. 30.) At
twenty, thoughts of rebellion and greatness rose in his mind; at
twenty-one, he seems to have performed his first feat of arms. He
was a practised warrior when he served, in his twenty-seventh
year, under Emir Houssein.]
112 (return) [ Compare Memoirs, page 61. The imprisonment is
there stated at fifty-three days. “At this time I made a vow to
God that I would never keep any person, whether guilty or
innocent, for any length of time, in prison or in chains.” p.
63.—M.]
113 (return) [ Timour, on one occasion, sent him this message:
“He who wishes to embrace the bride of royalty must kiss her
across the edge of the sharp sword,” p. 83. The scene of the
trial of Houssein, the resistance of Timour gradually becoming
more feeble, the vengeance of the chiefs becoming proportionably
more determined, is strikingly portrayed. Mem. p 130.—M.]
12 (return) [ The ist book of Sherefeddin is employed on the
private life of the hero: and he himself, or his secretary,
(Institutions, p. 3—77,) enlarges with pleasure on the thirteen
designs and enterprises which most truly constitute his
_personal_ merit. It even shines through the dark coloring of
Arabshah, (P. i. c. 1—12.)]
13 (return) [ The conquests of Persia, Tartary, and India, are
represented in the iid and iiid books of Sherefeddin, and by
Arabshah, (c. 13—55.) Consult the excellent Indexes to the
Institutions. * Note: Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer,
Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches.—M.]
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