'After the
murder in the capital of Delhi,' says the historian, an eye-witness,
'there were some soldiers who had a hundred and fifty slaves, men,
women, and children, whom they drove out of the city before them; and
some soldiers' boys had twenty slaves to their own share.' On
reaching Samarkand, they employed these slaves as best they could;
and Timur employed his, the masons, in raising his great church from
the quarries of the neighbouring hills.[50]
In October following, Timur led this army of demons over the rich and
polished countries of Syria, Anatolia, and Georgia, levelling all the
cities, towns, and villages, and massacring the inhabitants without
any regard to age or sex, with the same _amiable view_ of correcting
the notions of people regarding his creed, propitiating the Deity,
and rewarding his soldiers. He sent to the Christian inhabitants of
Smyrna, then one of the first commercial cities in the world, to
request that they would at once embrace Muhammadanism, in the
_beauties_ of which the general and his soldiers had orders
generously and diligently to instruct them. They refused, and Timur
repaired immediately to the spot, that he might 'share in the merit
of sending their souls to the abyss of hell'.
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