Timur also did not belong to the right sect of Islam to claim the title of Caliph — the supreme ruler of a Muslim realm. Ultimately, Timur rewrote the ancient rules in order to make the past titles irrelevant. He became an Amir, which is equivalent today to a general. Through sheer force, Timur conquered all adversaries, and forced rule on anyone and everyone that challenged him. Once Timur established his rule in the regions of central Asia, he was poised to send his army north, south, east and west.
Over the next 35 years, his armies swept as far as the surrounding regions of the Caspian Sea, through the Ural Mountains, and on to the Volga River. Timur even reached the borders of Western Europe. He conquered all of Persia, which today are the modern states of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The attack on Delhi was among the most brutal and violent massacres in history. In one instance, Timur ordered the killing of more than , unarmed captives of the Indian Sultan, a terrible slaughter which occurred in only one day.
The kings and princes of Europe, including those of France, England and Spain, all sent envoys to the court of Timur in hopes that diplomacy would be an alternative to outright war. However, Timur chose rather to turn east and conquer the Ming Dynasty of China. In his lifetime, Timur conquered more than anyone else except for Alexander the Great.
Towards the end of his reign, Timur controlled all the remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, the Ilkhanatate and the Golden Horse, and he also attempted to restore the Yuan dynasty in China.
His army included soldiers of several different ethnicities and was both well-known and much feared throughout Asia, Africa and Europe. Timur was born at Kesh, a city located roughly 50 miles south of Samarkand, on 9 April His father was a lesser chief of the Barlas tribe, and through him, Timur claimed to be a descendant of Tumbinai Setsen, a male-line ancestor he shared in common with Genghis Khan.
Timur is described as tall and strongly built, with a big head and broad forehead. His skin was pale and ruddy, and he wore a full beard. According to the biographer Sharaf ad-Din, Timur was injured by arrows while stealing sheep in his twenties, and this left him lame in the right leg and caused his right arm to be stiff for the rest of his life.
Hence, his Persian name, Timur-i lang Temur the Lame. After being proclaimed sovereign at Balkh, he turned Samarkand into his capital. There is no evidence of Timur ever learning to read or write, but he spoke two or three languages, including Turkic and Persian, and he arranged to have history books read to him while he had dinner. More striking and startling by far was the fact that Tamerlane was severely disabled in his right side. At birth he was given the name Timur, meaning iron, which later gave rise to the pejorative Persian version, Timur-i-lang Timur the lame , after a devastating injury he suffered to both right limbs in his youth.
From there it was only a slight corruption to Tamburlaine and Tamerlane, the names by which he is better known in the West.
Such a physical disability, at a time when martial skills were a prerequisite of political power, would have been a crushing blow for most men. The young Tamerlane would have known the local proverb "only a hand that can grasp a sword may hold a sceptre''. Self-advancement in this brutal world was inconceivable without excelling in hand-to-hand combat and mounted archery.
The sources leave us in no doubt about the injury, although there is uncertainty over exactly how it occurred. Naturally, this taxation angered their citizens. In , a local named Kazgan seized power from the Chagatai ruler Borolday. Kazgan would rule until his assassination in After Kazgan's death, various warlords and religious leaders vied for power. Tughluk Timur, a Mongol warlord, emerged victorious in The Hajji fled, and the new Mongol ruler decided to install the seemingly more pliable young Timur to rule in his stead.
In fact, Timur was already plotting against the Mongols. The Mongols soon caught on; Timur and Hussein were dethroned and forced to turn to banditry in order to survive. In , the legend says, Timur's following was reduced to two: Aljai and one other. They were even imprisoned in Persia for two months.
Timur's bravery and tactical skill made him a successful mercenary soldier in Persia, and he soon collected a large following. By , the two warlords controlled Transoxiana. Timur's first wife died in , freeing him to attack his erstwhile ally Hussein.
Hussein was besieged and killed at Balkh, and Timur declared himself the sovereign of the whole region. Timur was not directly descended from Genghis Khan on his father's side, so he ruled as an amir from the Arabic word for "prince" , rather than as khan. Over the next decade, Timur seized the rest of Central Asia as well.
With Central Asia in hand, Timur invaded Russia in He helped the Mongol Khan Toktamysh retake control and also defeated the Lithuanians in battle. Timur captured Herat now in Afghanistan in , the opening salvo against Persia. By , all of Persia was his. With invasions in and , Timur fought against his former protege in Russia, Toktamysh. The Timurid army captured Moscow in While Timur was busy in the north, Persia revolted.
He responded by leveling entire cities and using the citizens' skulls to build grisly towers and pyramids. Timur's army of 90, crossed the Indus River in September and set upon India. The country had fallen to pieces after the death of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq r. Timur seized tons of treasure and 90 war elephants and took them back to Samarkand.
Timur looked west in , retaking Azerbaijan and conquering Syria. Baghdad was destroyed in and 20, of its people were slaughtered. The rulers of Europe were glad that the Ottoman Turk sultan Bayazid had been defeated, but they trembled at the idea that "Tamerlane" was at their doorstep.
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