(1.) “and the king kept his treasure there.”—This, in all probability, is the fortress of Alinjy or Alindsha, some miles to the south of Nahitchevan. In 1394, Ahmed ben Oweis sent thither his family and treasure, and it was not until the year 1401 that this fortress was taken by Timour’s troops, whilst he himself was laying siege to Baghdad with the bulk of his army. Faradj, who had been left in command by Ahmed, was forced to surrender, after a valorous defence of forty days. All the inhabitants were massacred, and the place was completely destroyed with the exception of the schools, mosques, and hospitals (Weil, _Gesch. der Chal._, 93). After taking Baghdad, July 9, 1401, Timour passed through Tabreez, on his way to Karabagh, where he purposed spending the winter, occupying the cities of Roha, Mardin, and Mosoul on his march. It would appear that it is to these places Schiltberger refers, but he has fallen into error in saying that they were taken after the capture of Baghdad—a mistake to be accounted for, from his not having served in the expedition.[1]—BRUUN.
(1.) “Lesser India.”—Under this name Schiltberger includes the northern portion of the peninsula on this side of the Ganges, giving to the southern part the designation of Greater India. Marco Polo (Yule, ii, 416, 417) employs the same names, but in another sense. His Lesser India included Kesmacoran (Kij-Makrau, _i.e._, Makran), to the whole Coromandel coast inclusive. Greater India extended from the Coromandel coast to Cochin China—Middle India being Abyssinia. Timour’s expedition into India (1398) was conducted to the banks of the Indus from Samarkand, by way of Inderab and Cabul. On crossing the river near Kalabagh, he passed by way of Mooltan to Delhi, which he occupied, conducting himself as was his custom on such occasions; but Schiltberger makes no allusion to the cruelties he practised. Perhaps because the details of the expedition were related to him by the Mongols themselves, and not by their enemies, the Arabs and Persians.—BRUUN.
(2.) “and it is of half a day’s journey.”—We are evidently given to understand here, that the narrow defile through which Timour had to pass, was the famous Iron Gate, at all times considered the frontier limit of India and Turania. In the year 328 B.C., Alexander of Macedon made his way through this passage, described by his historians in language identical to that of Schiltberger ... “sed aditus specus accipit lucem, interiora obscura sunt”.... (Curtius, viii, 8, 19). Very similar is the testimony of the several Oriental writers quoted in the _Centralasiatische Studien (Sitzungsberichte d. Kais. Akad. d. Wissenschaften_, lxxxvii, 1, 67, 184) by M. Tomaschek, who has availed himself of the results of the Russian expedition to Hissar (_Ysvest. Imp. Geog. Obshtchest._, xii, 70, 1876, 349–363) to determine the exact locality of the Iron Gate. There may have been near the Iron Gate, in Schiltberger’s time, as there is now, a “Winterdorf” (Tomaschek, l. c.) called Darbend or Derbent, but it is not of this “kishlak”, but rather of the city of Derbent, in the Caucasus, that Clavijo observes, after stating that the possessions of Timour extended from the Iron Gates situated near Derbent, to those in the land of Samarkand:—“E Darbante es una muy gran ciudad que se cuenta su señorio con una grande tierra, é las primeras destas puertas, que son mas cerca de nos, se llaman las puertas del Fierro de cerca Darbante, é las otras postrimeras se llaman las puertas del Fierro cerca Termit, que confinan con il terreno de la India menor.” I prefer giving this extract in the original.—BRUUN.