political movements of foreign courts and armies. He himself despatched travellers to various parts, who were ordered to lay before him the maps and descriptions of other foreign countries” (Wolff’s _Bokhara_, p. 243). [411] Shāh Rukh was Tīmūr’s favourite son. He derived his name, which means “King and Castle,” from a well-known move in chess, which royal game was one of Tīmūr’s few amusements (Wolff’s _Bokhara_, p. 244). [412] Cf. Price’s _Mohammedan History_, iii. 492, quoting the _Khulāsat-ul-Akhbār_. As a fact, Pīr Mohammad only obtained the government of Balkh, and was murdered in Kandahār in A.H. 809 (1406). Cf. De Guignes, v. 79. [413] Cf. De Guignes, v. 81. [414] De Guignes, v. 81. Khalīl spent some years in Moghūlistan, but, unable to bear a longer separation from Shād Mulk, joined her in Herāt. Shāh Rukh gave him the government of Khorāsān, and he died the same year (A.H. 812). [415] His astronomical tables are amongst the most accurate and complete that come down to us from Eastern sources. They treat of the measurement of time, the course of the planets, and of the position of fixed stars. The best editions are those printed in Latin in 1642–48 by an Oxford professor named Greaves, and reprinted in 1767. The remains of his celebrated observatory still crown the hill known as Chupān Ata in an eastern suburb of Samarkand. [416] Shāh Rukh’s authority, to judge by the coins which have come down to us, extended nearly as far as his more celebrated father’s. We have his superscription on the issues of mints as widely distant as Shīrāz, Kaswīn, Sabzawār, Herāt, Kum, Shuster, and Astarābād. [417] Vambéry’s _Bokhara_, p. 223. [418] _Ibid._ p. 244. [419] The young prince was born in 1483, the son of `Omar Shaykh Mīrzā, whom he succeeded in the sovereignty of the eastern portion of Tīmūr’s dominions. His conquest of India, and foundation of the Moghul dynasty of Delhi, do not come within the scope of this work. He was equally great in war, administration, and literature: perhaps the most remarkable figure of his age. [420] A.H. 903 (1497). [421] An excellent table, showing the ramifications of the Tīmūrides, will be found in vol. vii. of the _Mohammedan Coins of the British Museum_. [422] In the case of possessive pronouns and verbal inflexions, for example, we find direct and obvious imitations of the Turkish grammar. [423] The “Great Caan” of Marco Polo. [424] Cf. Bretschneider, _op. cit._ ii. pp. 139, 140. [425] Cf. Bretschneider, _loc. cit._ [426] _Idem._ Tūkā Tīmūr, from whom sprang the Khāns of the Crimea, was the youngest son of Jūjī. Cf. Lane-Poole’s _Mohammedan Dynasties_, p. 233. Tokhtamish, the inveterate foe of Tamerlane, belonged to the Crimean branch of the Khāns of Dasht-i-Kipchāk. The Khānate of Kazan was founded in 1439, on the remains of the Bulgarian Empire, by Ulugh Mohammed of the same line. [427] Bretschneider, _loc. cit._