Tīmūr Leng, or Lame Tīmūr, possessed a genius for civil administration as well as for conquest. He seized the throne of Samarkand and became undisputed master of Central Asia. Then he overran Persia and Georgia in 1369, and came to blows with the redoubtable Tokhtamish Khān. Fierce and prolonged was the struggle for supremacy, but in 1395 it ended disastrously for the western chief. After effectually breaking his rival’s power, Tīmūr destroyed that of the Turkish Sultan Bāyazīd in Angora, and was on his way to subdue China when death overtook him at Otrār on the Sir Daryā, or Jaxartes. With the defeat of Tokhtamish and the disappearance of Tīmūr the Mongolian power steadily declined. In 1408 the Khān Edighei attempted to chastise rebellious Moscow, but was baffled by the ramparts of the Kremlin. The development of the vigorous capital continued under Vassili I., who purchased from the Mongolian Khān the right to reign supreme at Kieff, and afterwards subdued Rostov. He assumed the style of Great Prince, and levied tribute in return for his protection from all the cities of Muscovy. But the real founder of the Russian autocracy was Vassili III., rightly styled the Great. His ambition was fired by the promptings of the priesthood and of his Greek wife Sophia, who was a daughter of the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Paleologus. He persistently undermined the autonomy of other states; and, after adding all but Novogorod to his empire, he finally, with Mongolian aid, crushed that last stronghold of Russian independence. To Vassili the Great, Russia owes its claim to succeed the mighty emperors of the East and the grandiloquent style and title assumed by its Tsars, for he adopted the arms of Byzantium and was proclaimed Ruler of All the Russias. In 1480 he found himself strong enough to throw off the Mongolian yoke, and, when the Khān marched against Moscow with 150,000 men, he was confronted by a Russian army and was fain to abandon his enterprise. Vassili’s grandson Ivan IV., surnamed the Terrible, was crowned Tsar at Moscow in 1547. After a prolonged struggle with the haughty Boyars he shook off their influence and became, in deed as well as in name, an autocrat. Then his restless energies found vent in aggression. He conquered Kazan and Astrakhan in 1554; but, falling a prey to insanity, he was guilty of excesses which weakened his authority and emboldened the Mongols to make a fresh bid for supremacy. The Khān Dawlat Girāy appeared before Moscow in 1571 with 120,000 followers and burnt the suburbs.[531] But the Kremlin again held out, and the nomads retreated to the Volga, never to return. Thus was Russia delivered from an influence which had paralysed her energies, and was free to work out her destinies. We shall see how profoundly they were affected by the action of the Mongolian restlessness on the dreamy, sluggish nature of the Slav. CHAPTER II CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF ASIA