Between the mountains of Alai
And Tian-Shan’s heavenly chain
Lies the home of the Zagatai,
Fergána’s fruitful plain.
First of the towns whose domes and wall
Deck that illustrious land
Stands the lame Timùr’s capital,
His best-loved Samarkánd.
I stood inside a shattered room,
Stricken by earthquakes rife,
That Timùr raised above the tomb
Of Ming’s fair daughter-wife.
Daughter of China’s Bógdu-Khan,
Wife of the great Timùr,
Who ’twixt them ruled the vast inland
From Red Sea to Amùr.
Above an arch a double dome
Bites in the clear blue sky
(Bramanté’s famous fane at Rome
Seems scarce so broad and high).
Above the dome a crescent bright
Watched sleepy Samarkánd,
Asleep to-day, but wide awake
When Timùr ruled the land.
Sure, such a tomb was never raised
By widower to wife!
Nor Akhbar brave nor Shah Jehán
Did thus weld bricks to life.
The Tâj, in marble shining bright
By Agra’s sun-baked walls,
Must yield the palm for sheer delight
To Bibi-Khánim’s halls.
The sun shines through the double dome,
Lighting its inner skin,
It shows the remnant of the stair
That upwards led within,
From which the muezzin, climbing slow,
To shout the evening prayer,
Could see the Rigistán below,
Shir-Dár and Tilla-Kare.
I seemed to see the cliffs at Kesh,
Whence came the great Amìr,
From whose red rift the Zarafshán
Sends forth its waters clear.
I seemed to see the Tatar horde,
Under Toktámish brave,
Beaten and drowning in the ford
That crosses Kubán’s wave.
I saw the Mogul army move
To conquer Hindostán;
Its serried, strong divisions prove
The master mind of man.
Ninety-two thousand fretting steeds
Rush down from hill to plain;
Timùr descends the khud by ropes,
Five times let down again.
The Mongols march upon Attock
And cross the rivers five,
Timùr joins forces at Multán
With all his sons alive;
His armies then invest Batnir,
They come to Delhi’s towers,
Mahmud Sultán gives battle there,
Timùr his standard lowers.
Asia, from Irtish to Ormùz
O’er-run by Timùr’s bands,
Irán, Turán and Ind had felt
The weight of Mongol hands.
Aleppo taken by the horde,
Timùr fresh laurels culls,
And covers Baghdad’s reeking sward
With pyramids of skulls.
Now on Angóra’s fateful plain
The “Lightning” Bayazet
Urges his Turks to fight, in vain,
’Gainst Mongol and kismet.
’Twas told that Bayazet was caged
Just like a timid deer,
But Timùr never warfare waged
On captives of his spear.
From all these scenes of lust and blood
I turn to Samarkánd,
Where Zarafshán’s refreshing flood
Gives life unto the land.
Here Timùr mosque and palace built
Around a sheltered pool,
Set in a field with arbours gilt,
And called it Khân-i-Gùl.
Thousands of guests were bid to share
The great Amìr’s largesse,
The Guilds and Trades were gathered there,
The wronged received redress.
Here, in his coat of mail of steel,
Timùr, ’midst his sepoys,
From Russ, and France, and far Castille,
Received the Grand Envoys.
Six grandsons of the Great Amìr
Wed brides of princely rank,
Nine times the brides their dresses change,
Nine times their handmaids thank.
Each time each bride is fresh arrayed,
Fall to the ground in showers
Rubies and diamonds, which the maid
Keeps as her bridal flowers!
I see Timùr, one boot, one glove,
And with his lint-white hair,
Delighted on his chess-board move
Fifty-six pieces fair.
The blood-red ruby in his ear
Trembles before my view,
But when his rage the stone shakes there,
’Fore God! the world shakes too.
At last the Mogul Emperor
Invades far-off Cathay,
He starts, the tired conqueror,
Marching ten miles a day,
Crosses Syr-Dária’s solid stream,
And stops at Otrár, when
He sees the blade of Àzrael gleam
At three-score years and ten.
Come with me to the Gùr-Amir,
Within whose simple walls
Over a six-foot block of jade
A horsehair standard falls.
Beneath the dark and polished stone
Descends a bare brick stair,
Leading to Tamerlane’s own tomb,
Nor pomp nor state is there.
Beneath the fluted, darkened dome,
Where dimly seen in gloom,
Surrounded by an Arab text,
Hangs Timùr’s tattered plume,
Outside the simple marble rail
Engraved with Timùr’s name,
The passing pilgrim cannot fail
To muse on Timùr’s fame.