CHAPTER XVIII.
[(1.)] “and they were all trampled upon.”—This atrocious conduct on the part of Timour, is not the creation of Schiltberger’s brain, but it cannot have reference to the capture of Ispahan in 1387, although it is possible that the evolutions of Timour’s horsemen against children, was repeated after the fall of Ephesus in 1403; this act of cruelty being imputed to him by several Oriental authors. His return to Samarkand from Ephesus, actually took place after an absence of at least seven, if not twelve years (Rehm, Gesch. d. Mittelalt., iv, 3, 78); and he went there immediately after taking Ispahan in 1387. Schiltberger’s details on the revolt of that city under the farrier, Aly Koutchava, and on the construction of the tower of human heads by order of Timour, agree with similar accounts from other sources.—Bruun.