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93
for it. As was expected, no sooner the grip of the master hand was felt no more, than numerous sources of dangers, both from within and outside, appeared, menacing his authority. Timur was neither a general nor a statesman to cope successfully with the situation. On the contrary his policy was shifty and temporising. He alternately used force and conciliation, with the usual consequence that both policies failed and the situation deteriorated from bad to worse. The chiefs taking advantage of his vacillating policy paid him but nominal homage. The result was chaos and anarchy and the better part of Timur's reign was spent in quelling these uprisings. With a view to curb the influence of these refractory nobles, he recruited most of his army from the Kizilbash and Tajiks. A division of 12,000 Kizilbash cavalry was raised, who were regularly paid and properly looked after. Timur hoped that by this measure he would be able to secure himself against the rebels and obtain prompt obedience to his orders. The first important event of his reign was an uprising headed by Abdul Khaliq Khan, an influential chief. This rebellion was easily put down; Abdul Khaliq was taken prisoner and
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.