The close of the fifteenth century is an epoch in the history of the East, and especially of Persia, of which but little is known. The blast of Timour’s invasion had swept over that historic land and left it desolate. These four Accounts of Travels by Europeans are, therefore, especially interesting in a geographical and historical point of view, and will, with the books of Barbaro and Contarini, which are in Ramusio’s collection, complete the series of Italian voyages about that period. In order clearly to understand the facts brought forward, it will be necessary to glance at the motives of policy which started the embassies, and the historical changes which influenced their results. In Eastern Europe the Byzantine empire had, after a long and gradual decline, at length crumbled into ruins beneath the power of the Ottomans, which threatened to be as great a scourge to Europe as that of Timur (or Tamerlane) had been to Asia, while the stability and vitality of their empire offered a great contrast to the ephemeral character of Timur’s dominion. Singly, the powers of Christendom could in vain hope to withstand their terrible foe; and Venice, the Great Republic, then rich and flourishing, with a far-sighted policy, endeavoured to induce all the Christian princes to make common cause against the Ottoman Turks. Hungary and Poland were engaged in continuous warfare with the Musulmans; but the petty jealousies, which no danger, however imminent, could lull, caused the other powers to look coldly on the proposed alliance. Venice, in her need, then cast her eyes to the East, where she found a new dynasty firmly established in the ancient kingdom of Persia, the inveterate foe of the house of Othman. That country, after the death of Timour, had been nominally subject to his descendants, though two rival Toorkoman tribes had established principalities in Azerbigan and Diarbekr. These were the Kara Koinlu, and Ak-koinlu, or the Black and White Sheep, between whom a deadly feud existed; the former were the first to rise to power, under their chief, Kara Mahomed; while his son, the famous Kara Yusuf, threw off the yoke of the descendants of Timour in 1410. Secunder, the son of Kara Yusuf, waged war with Shah Rokh; and, after his death, his brother Jehan Shah, in 1437, not only overran Irak, Fars, and Kerman, but in 1457 besieged and pillaged Herat. The Kara Koinlus kept the throne until 1486. KARA KOINLU RULERS. Kara Mahomed. | Kara Yusuf. | +---------------------+-------------------+ | | | Secunder. Abouseyd, Jehan Shah, 1437-1468. put to death by Secunder. | | Hassan Aly.