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Zingis claimed for himself or his ancestry a miraculous conception, and received from a prophet, who ascended to heaven, the dominion of the earth. He called himself the son of God; and when the missionary friars came to his immediate successor from the Pope, that successor made answer to them, that it was the Pope's duty to do him homage, as being earthly lord of all by divine right.
As Attila ruled from China to the Rhine, and wasted Europe from the Black Sea to the Loire, so Zingis and his sons and grandsons occupied a still larger portion of the world's surface, and exercised a still more pitiless sway.
The same practice of eradicating the beard is still followed by the native tribes of America. How the Mongals were repulsed at the Caspian Mountains, by Men dwelling in Caves. When Zingis sent the before-mentioned armies into the east, he marched personally into the land of the Kergis , which, however, he did not now conquer.
Nor should it be overlooked that this rich country has been subjected to the same calamities which have been the desolation of Asia Minor; for, as the Turcomans have devastated the latter, so, as I have already had occasion to mention, Zingis swept round the sea of Aral, and destroyed the fruits of a long civilization.
Here then we have an intermediate empire of Tartars, placed between the eras of Attila and Zingis; but in this sketch it has no place, except as belonging to Turkish history, because it was contained within the limits of Asia, and, though it lasted for 200 years, it only faintly affected the political transactions of Europe.
The conquests of Timour were as sudden and as complete, if not as vast, as those of Zingis; and, if he did not penetrate into Europe, he accomplished instead the subjugation of Hindostan. The exploits of those warriors have the air of Eastern romance; 700,000 men marched under the standard of Zingis; and in one of his battles he left 160,000 of his enemies upon the field.
They were both lawgivers; it is the boast of Zingis that he laid down the principle of religious toleration with a clearness which modern philsophers have considered to rival the theory of Locke; and Timour, also established an efficient police in his dominions, and was a patron of literature.
In each case a foe came upon them from the north, still more fierce and vigorous than they, and humbled them to the dust. These two foes, which came upon the Seljukian Turks and the Ottoman Turks respectively, are names by this time familiar to us; they are Zingis and Timour. Zingis came down upon the Seljukians, and Timour came down upon the Ottomans.
The Naymani, to whom all the surrounding tribes then paid tribute, were much indignant at the elevation of Zingis; but their great emperor had lately died, leaving the authority divided among his sons, who were young and foolish, and knew not how to rule the people; yet they invaded the territories of the Mongals, slaying the inhabitants and carrying off much prey.
In a former note, it has been mentioned, on the authority of Abulgazi- khan, himself a descendant of Zingis, and prince, of Khuaresm, that Kublai-khan was only the fifth emperor of the Tartars, and that he ascended the throne in 1257.
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