According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth
ancestor of Zingis, and the ninth of timour, were brothers;
and they agreed, that the posterity of the elder should
succeed to the dignity of khan, and that the descendants of
the younger should fill the office of their minister and
general. This tradition was at least convenient to justify
the first steps of Timour's ambition (Institutions, p. 24,
25, from the MS. fragments of Timour's History.)