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Scourge of God

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Timur-the-Lame Central Asia was the source of some of history's worst psychopathic gangsters. Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan are bywords of the genre. To these mass-murderers must be added Timur the Lame (or Tambourlane as he was more commonly called after Christopher Marlowe's English play in the late sixteenth century). The Persian historian of the Timurids, Sharaf ad-Din 'Ali bYazdi, writes that "in the year of Mouse of Mongols on the 25th month Sha'ban, on Tuesday (the 8th of April in 1336) Tequina khatun and amir Taragai gave birth to Timur in the villyat of Kesh  (the modern town of Shahrisabz in Uzbekistan) ."  The Arab biographer of Timur, Ahmed Ibn 'Arabshah, presents various origin stories: Timur and his father were from the tribe of the shepherds, who had not belief and intelligence (Timur's father was a plain servant, Timur's father was a poor shoemaker) OR Timur's father was one of the pillars of Sultan Hussein's state (Timur...
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Legacy of the Big Book

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  "The dedication page of the Codex Amiatinus , written in Northumberland c.700-16, offers the huge book as a gift from the ends of the earth [extremis de finibus] . In the fifth line the name of the donor 'Petrus Langobardorum' has been falsely inserted over an erasure: the original and rightful name, just decipherable underneath, is ' Ceolfridus Anglorum ', for the book was intended as a gift to the pope from Ceolfrith, abbot of Wearmonth and Jarrow (690-716 AD), who died on the journey to Rome, before the volume could be presented." "The Codex Amiatinus  is illustrated with this vast frontispiece ... Its caption declares that it shows the Old Testament prophet Ezra ['When the sacred books had been consumed in the fires of war, Ezra repaired the damage'] ... The picture shows an author writing out a manuscript on his lap in front of a classical book cupboard with nine books laid out on the shelves." 'Portrait of Ezra from Codex Amiatin...
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Alfred at Athelney

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  AD 878 This year about mid-winter, after twelfth night, the Danish army stole out to Chippenham, and rode over the land of the West Saxons; where they settled, and drove many of the people over the sea; and of the rest the greatest part they rode down, and subdued to their will;  ALL BUT ALFRED THE KING, He, with a little band, uneasily sought the woods and the fastness of the moors ... In the Easter of this year King Alfred with his little force raised a work at Athelney ; from which he assailed the army, assisted by that part of Somersetshire which was nighest to it. Then, in the seventh week after Easter, he rode to Brixton by the eastern side of Selwood; and there came out to meet him all the people of Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, and that part of Hampshire which is on this side of the sea, and they rejoiced to see him. Then within one night he went from this retreat to Hey, and within one night after he proceeded to Heddington; and there fought with all the army, and p...
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