Timur Tamerlane (Iron Lame) is an outstanding Central Asian commander who lived in 1336-1405. He died at the age of 68, having founded the Timurid Empire (1370-1507). This man played an important political role in the history of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Rus'. He came from the Mongolian family of Barlas, but did not belong to the Genghisids (descendants of Genghis Khan). He was a zealous Muslim and knew Persian and Turkic languages well.
Being an experienced warrior, he was also a writer and was a prominent representative of his era. It was characterized by a shift in the traditions and customs of the Mongol ulus at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. Iron Lame developed the traditions of Islamic culture, not the Yasa of Genghis Khan. In his activities he relied on the Muslim population of the oases of Central Asia.
Genghis Khan's army consisted of nomads, each of whom was excellent at riding and shooting with a bow. But Timur’s army was formed on a different basis. It made no sense for him to mobilize farmers into his army, who could not even hold a saber in their hands. Therefore, military forces were recruited from professional warriors - ghulams (daring men). They risked their lives not in vain: they were paid a very good salary.
But in order to receive such a salary, the ghoul had to prove his skills to everyone. At full gallop, he had to remove the ring with the tip of the spear, which the inspector was holding with two fingers. It is not difficult to guess how much effort was spent on such preparation. At the same time, the ghulams were required to exercise iron discipline and unquestioning obedience to their commanders, the emirs.
Childhood and youth of Timur Tamerlane
The father of the great commander was the small landowner Muhammad Taragay (died in 1361). He professed Islam, and faith in Allah became the faith of his son. A boy was born from his first wife, Tekina Khatun. Then this woman apparently died, and the father remarried. In total, Timur had 2 sisters and 3 brothers. The family lived in the village of Khoja-Ilgar (modern Uzbekistan). It was there that the future famous conqueror was born on April 8, 1336.
The boy learned to ride a horse at an early age, practiced archery and javelin throwing. Being a very young man, he became an experienced warrior. At that time, the lands where Timur lived were part of the Chagatai ulus, one of the Mongol states. The young man was taken into his service by Khan Tughluk-Timur and made his young son Ilyas-Khoja an assistant. However, the prince’s entourage began to plot intrigues against the new assistant. They became so dangerous that Timur was forced to flee in 1362.
At that time, Central Asia was one continuous theater of military operations. The Mongol khans fought with their emirs, and the latter, in turn, fought with jete - bandits. Such gangs lived by robbery and did not recognize any bosses. They created their state of Mogulistan in Semirechye, where the Turkic rather than Mongolian population lived mainly.
During this period of the final collapse of the Mongol states and the war of all against all, Timur gathered the ghouls around him and turned out to be the most successful military leader. He entered into confrontation with the city militias of the Sarbadars and completely defeated them. The fortresses of the Sarbadars were taken, and all those who resisted were walled up alive in the walls.
During one of the skirmishes in 1362, Timur Tamerlane lost 2 fingers on right hand and was wounded in the right leg. The wound turned out to be so serious that the future great conqueror remained lame for the rest of his life. This is where the historical name of this extraordinary personality came from: Timur is iron, and Tamerlane is lame. It turns out the Iron Lame, about which the whole East spoke with fear and respect in the last third of the 14th century.
Army of Timur Tamerlane
After the victory over the Sarbadars, the successful and talented military leader conquered the entire Fergana (historical region) and subjugated Samarkand. He made the city of Ket (now Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan) his capital. In 1370 he captured Balkh. His Emir Hussein surrendered on condition of saving his life. However, he couldn't stand it nervous tension and ran. The emir was caught and executed on the orders of Timur, since he believed that the emir had violated the treaty by escaping.
In the south, the Iron Lame was opposed by the Muzaffarids (the last Persian dynasty). They ruled in Fars and Isfahan. The conqueror captured Isfahan and destroyed this city. A pyramid was made from the heads of the slain to intimidate the Muzaffarids. However, they continued to resist, and then it was Shiraz’s turn. This city was taken and plundered.
An interesting case is connected with Shiraz. In the city there lived a well-known Muslim East poet Hafiz. Among his poems he wrote the following quatrain:
If this beautiful Turkish woman
He will carry my heart in his hands,
For her only birthmark
I will give up both Samarkand and Bukhara.
Timur Tamerlane knew these verses. And so, having captured Shiraz, he sat on a carpet in the middle of the square amid a sea of violence and cruelty. The Ghulams robbed houses, drove away prisoners, killed children, raped women, and slaughtered the last resisting men. Not paying any attention to this, the formidable commander ordered Hafiz to be brought to him. Very soon he was brought in, dressed in an old, shabby robe.
And the conqueror said to the poet, hinting at the quatrain: “Unfortunate, I spent my whole life to decorate and exalt my two favorite cities - Samarkand and Bukhara, and you want to give them for the birthmark of some stupid woman!” To this Hafiz replied: “O Commander of the Faithful, it is because of my generosity that I am in such poverty.” Iron Lame appreciated the poet’s intelligence and resourcefulness. He laughed, ordered Hafiz to be given a luxurious robe and sent him away in peace.
All the conquests of the formidable commander were accompanied by incredible cruelty. They can be condemned, but it is unlikely that he could have acted differently. Having started a military campaign, Timur had to continue it in order to pay the ghulams. It was the war that fed the army. But if Tamerlane had stopped, he would have been left first without an army, and then without his head.
War with the Golden Horde
In the Golden Horde or Dzhuchiev ulus, the steppe Eurasian culture dominated. It had nothing in common with Islamic culture, of which Timur was a representative. And he restored the former power of the Muslim armies and became a serious threat to the Golden Horde. We must also not forget that according to the will of Genghis Khan, the entire Khorezm oasis belonged to the descendants of Jochi, but was captured by Tamerlane.
In 1383, Khan of Dzhuchiev ulus Tokhtamysh made the first attempt to take away Khorezm. He succeeded for a while, and with this daring act a war began between the two cultures. In 1385, Tokhtamysh carried out a second campaign into the possessions of Timur Tamerlane. The army of the Golden Horde passed through the Daryal Gorge and captured Tabriz in Azerbaijan, which, according to the division of Genghis Khan, should have belonged to the Jochi ulus. But Timur’s army drove away the Tatar army and captured many.
After 2 years, Tokhtamysh with a large army passed through the Kazakh steppe, crossed the Betpak-Dala desert and reached Termez. Along the way, the Tatars plundered all the villages, but did not take a single fortress, since they were reliably fortified. The formidable conqueror was at that time with his army in Persia. Having learned about the Tatar invasion, he returned to Central Asia, and Tokhtamysh began to retreat, but was overtaken and defeated. With the remnants of the army, he fled to Western Siberia.
Empire of Timur Tamerlane on the map
The Golden Horde was protected from the encroachments of Timur by the huge steppe. To overcome it, it was necessary to have a large number of horses, fodder and pasture. The steppes separating the Volga from Central Asia are not covered with grass all year round. And yet, the formidable commander decided to launch a campaign against the Dzhuchiev ulus. He took into account the fact that in the spring grass first begins to grow in the south, then in the central regions, and only then in the north. And the army of Timur Tamerlane set out on a campaign against the main enemy “following the spring.”
Tokhtamysh did not expect the rapid rush of the Muslims across the steppe. He began to quickly gather the forces he had, not bypassing Rus'. In 1389, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich died. He bequeathed the reign to his son Vasily. And only the khan of Dzhuchiev ulus could approve such a decision.
Tokhtamysh confirmed Vasily's rights to the throne, but demanded help from him. Prince Vasily brought an army, but after the destruction of Moscow in 1382, the Russian people had no desire to fight for the Tatars. And the Iron Lame, having made a rapid transition, pressed Tokhtamysh’s army to the Volga. The Tatars suffered a crushing defeat in the battle near the Kondurche River (one of the tributaries of the Volga). The khan himself escaped by crossing the river, but his cause was lost.
The Russian squads, seeing this course of events, went to the lower reaches of the Kama. Timur did not cross the river and pursue the Moscow prince. And he, thus, successfully avoided a collision. The formidable commander himself turned back and left the same way he came in the spring. He managed to safely bring most of his army to the fertile lands of Central Asia.
The campaign against the Golden Horde was victorious, but the main task - protecting their own lands - was not solved. Samarkand and Bukhara remained defenseless from Tatar raids. And indeed, soon Tokhtamysh again opposed Timur. He moved from the Volga steppes south along the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Iron Khromets came out to meet, and both troops met on the Terek on April 15, 1395. In this battle Tatar army suffered a crushing defeat.
The Golden Horde Khan fled, and the army of the Iron Lame passed through the Caspian steppes and invaded the Volga-Don interfluve. The formidable commander decided to go to Rus' and capture Ryazan and Moscow. However, in the rear of his army, Circassians, Ossetians and Tatars rebelled. Timur was forced to turn back on August 26, 1395. Thus, only the Russian city of Yelets was affected.
The great conqueror crossed Perekop, collected tribute on the Crimean peninsula and fed his army. Then he passed through the steppe, which the Circassians had burned out, and inflicted a crushing defeat on them. They took refuge in the mountains, and Timur’s army entered Azerbaijan through the Derbent Passage. Here it liquidated the fortresses of the rebels and returned to Samarkand - a city like paradise.
The last years of the life of Timur Tamerlane
In 1402, Timur Tamerlane defeated the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid, manned by the invincible Janissaries. Then the formidable commander found himself near the walls of Smyrna, occupied by a garrison of Johannite knights. The Turks could not break this garrison for 20 years, and the Iron Lame took the fortress by storm in a few days. Soon, however, Genoese and Venetian ships arrived at Smyrna with help and supplies for the besieged. But Timur’s warriors threw them with the heads of the knights of the Order of John from catapults. After this, the ruler of the East returned to Samarkand again for another rest.
Already an old man, the formidable conqueror began to prepare a military campaign against China. He set himself the goal of seizing the Great Silk Road in order to receive the maximum tax from merchants and thereby ensure the prosperity of his lands. He declared that there could not be two rulers in the world, meaning himself and the Chinese emperor.
In the fall of 1404, the campaign against China began. But it turned out to be the last for the great conqueror. Severe frosts struck, which stopped the army, and in February 1405, Iron Lame died. He died in the same way as Genghis Khan, on a campaign, but his death was not kept secret. Tamerlane's grave did not become a great secret either. The Lord of the East was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A spell was placed at the burial site so that no one would dare open the sarcophagus with the body of the conqueror. However, in June 1941, desperate heads were found who dared to open the mogul. But this is not relevant to this story.
Alexander Semashko
Life story
Life highlights
Commander, emir since 1370. Creator of the state with its capital in Samarkand. Defeated the Golden Horde. He made campaigns of conquest in Iran, Transcaucasia, India, Asia, etc., which were accompanied by the destruction of many cities, destruction and captivity of the population.
The founder of the Timurid dynasty, which ruled in Wed. Asia in 1370-1507.
Timur was born in the city of Kesh (in the Bukhara Khanate) or its environs; came from the Turkified Mongol tribe Barulas. During Timur's childhood, the Jagatai state in Central Asia collapsed. In Maverannehr, since 1346, power belonged to the Turkic emirs, and the khans enthroned by the emperor ruled only nominally. In 1348, the Mongol emirs enthroned Tukluk-Timur, who began to rule in Eastern Turkestan, the Kulja region and Semirechye. The first head of the Turkic emirs was Kazagan (1346 - 58).
Timur was originally the head of a gang of robbers formed in time of troubles. With her, he entered the service of the ruler of Kesha Haji, the head of the Barulas tribe. In 1360, Transoxiana was conquered by Tukluk-Timur; Haji fled to Khorasan, where he was killed; Timur was confirmed as the ruler of Kesh and one of the assistants of the Mongol prince Ilyas Khoja (son of the khan), appointed ruler of Transoxiana. Timur soon separated from the Mongols and went over to the side of their enemy Hussein (grandson of Kazagan); For some time they, with a small detachment, led the life of adventurers; During one skirmish in Seistan, Timur lost two fingers on his right hand and was seriously wounded in his right leg, which caused him to become lame (the nickname “lame Timur” is Aksak-Timur in Turkic, Timur-long in Persian, hence Tamerlane).
In 1364 the Mongols were forced to cleanse the country; Huseyn became the ruler of Transoxiana; Timur returned to Kesh. In 1366, Timur rebelled against Hussein, in 1368 he made peace with him and again received Kesh; in 1369, he again rebelled. In March 1370, Huseyn was captured and killed in the presence of Timur, although without his direct order. On April 10, 1370, Timur took the oath of all the military leaders of Transoxiana. Like his predecessors, he did not accept the title of khan and was content with the title of “great emir”; The khans under him were considered to be the descendant of Genghis Khan Suyurgatmysh (1370 - 88) and his son Mahmud (1388 - 1402).
Timur chose Samarkand as his residence and decorated it with magnificent construction projects. Timur devoted the first years of his autocracy to establishing order in the country and security on its borders (the fight against rebel emirs, campaigns against Semirechye and East Turkestan). In 1379 Khorezm was conquered (now Khanate of Khiva); from 1380, campaigns against Persia began, apparently caused only by aggressive aspirations (Timur’s saying: “the entire space of the populated part of the world is not worth having two kings”); Subsequently, Timur also acted as a representative of the idea of state order, necessary for the benefit of the population and impossible with the existence of a number of small rulers hostile to each other. In 1381 Herat was taken; in 1382, Timur's son, Miranshah, was appointed ruler of Khorasan; in 1383 Timur devastated Seistan.
Timur made three large campaigns in the western part of Persia and the adjacent regions - the so-called “three-year” (from 1386), “five-year” (from 1392) and “seven-year” (from 1399). For the first time, Timur had to return back as a result of the invasion of Transoxiana by the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in alliance with the Semirechensk Mongols (1387). Timur in 1388 drove out the enemies and punished the Khorezmians for their alliance with Tokhtamysh, in 1389 he made a devastating campaign deep into the Mongolian possessions as far as the Irtysh to the north and to the Greater Yulduz to the east, in 1391 - a campaign against the Golden Horde possessions to the Volga. These campaigns achieved their goal, since after them we no longer see the invasions of the steppe people on Maverannehr. During the “five-year” campaign, Timur conquered the Caspian regions in 1392, and western Persia and Baghdad in 1393; Timur's son, Omar Sheikh, was appointed ruler of Fars, Miran Shah - ruler of Aderbeijan and Transcaucasia.
Tokhtamysh's invasion of Transcaucasia caused Timur's campaign to southern Russia(1395); Timur defeated Tokhtamysh on the Terek, pursued him to the Russian borders (where he destroyed Yelets), plundered trading cities Azov and Kafa, burned Sarai and Astrakhan; but a lasting conquest of the country was not in mind, and the Caucasus ridge remained the northern border of Timur’s possessions. In 1396 he returned to Samarkand and in 1397 appointed his youngest son Shahrukh as ruler of Khorasan, Seistan and Mazanderan.
In 1398, a campaign was launched against India; in December, Timur defeated the army of the Indian Sultan (Toglukid dynasty) under the walls of Delhi and occupied the city without resistance, which a few days later was plundered by the army, and Timur pretended that this happened without his consent. In 1399, Timur reached the banks of the Ganges, on the way back he took several more cities and fortresses and returned to Samarkand with huge booty, but without expanding his possessions.
The “seven-year” campaign was initially caused by the madness of Miranshah and the unrest in the region entrusted to him. Timur deposed his son and defeated the enemies who invaded his domain. In 1400, a war began with the Ottoman Sultan Bayazet, who captured the city of Arzinjan, where Timur's vassal ruled, and with the Egyptian Sultan Faraj, whose predecessor, Barkuk, ordered the death of Timur's ambassador back in 1393. In 1400, Timur took Sivas in Asia Minor and Aleppo (Aleppo) in Syria (which belonged to the Egyptian Sultan), and in 1401 Damascus. Bayazet was defeated and captured in the famous Battle of Angora (1402). Timur plundered all the cities of Asia Minor, even Smyrna (which belonged to the Johannite knights). Western part Asia Minor was returned to the sons of Bayazet in 1403, and in the east the small dynasties overthrown by Bayazet were restored; in Baghdad (where Timur restored his power in 1401, and up to 90,000 inhabitants died), the son of Miranshah, Abu Bakr, was appointed ruler, in Aderbeijan (from 1404) - his other son, Omar.
In 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand and then launched a campaign against China, for which he began preparing back in 1398; that year he built a fortress (on the border of the current Syr-Darya region and Semirechye); Now another fortification was built, 10 days' journey further to the east, probably near Issyk-Kul. Timur gathered an army and in January 1405 arrived in the city of Otrar (its ruins are not far from the confluence of the Arys and the Syr Darya), where he fell ill and died (according to historians - on February 18, according to Timur's tombstone - on the 15th).
Timur's career is in many ways reminiscent of the career of Genghis Khan: both conquerors began their activities as leaders of detachments of followers they personally recruited, who then remained the main support of their power. Like Genghis Khan, Timur personally entered into all the details of the organization of military forces, had detailed information about the forces of his enemies and the state of their lands, enjoyed unconditional authority among his army and could fully rely on his associates. Less successful was the choice of persons placed at the head of the civil administration (numerous cases of punishment for extortion of high dignitaries in Samarkand, Herat, Shiraz, Tabriz). The difference between Genghis Khan and Timur is determined by the latter's greater education. Timur did not receive a school education and was illiterate, but in addition to his native (Turkic) language, he spoke Persian and loved to talk with scientists, especially listen to the reading of historical works; with his knowledge of history he amazed the greatest of Muslim historians, Ibn Khaldun; stories about historical valor and legendary heroes Timur used it to inspire his soldiers. Timur's buildings, in the creation of which he took an active part, reveal a rare artistic taste in him. Timur cared primarily about the prosperity of his native Maverannehr and about enhancing the splendor of his capital - Samarkand, where representatives of all branches of art and science were gathered from different countries; only in recent years he took measures to improve the well-being of other regions of the state, mainly border ones (in 1398 a new irrigation canal was built in Afghanistan, in 1401 - in Transcaucasia, etc.).
In Timur's attitude to religion, only political calculations are visible. Timur showed outward honor to theologians and hermits, did not interfere in the management of the property of the clergy, did not allow the spread of heresies (the prohibition of engaging in philosophy and logic), and took care of his subjects’ compliance with the rules of religion (closing entertainment establishments in large trading cities, despite the large income they generated treasury), but he personally did not deny himself the pleasures forbidden by religion, and only during his dying illness did he order the utensils of his feasts to be broken. To justify his cruelty on religious grounds, Timur in Shiite Khorasan and the Caspian regions acted as a champion of orthodoxy and a destroyer of heretics, and in Syria as an avenger for insults inflicted on the family of the prophet. The structure of military and civil administration was determined almost exclusively by the laws of Genghis Khan; Subsequently, theological authorities refused to recognize Timur as a devout Muslim, since he placed the laws of Genghis Khan above the dictates of religion. In Timur’s cruelties, in addition to cold calculation (like Genghis Khan), a painful, refined brutality is manifested, which, perhaps, should be explained by the physical suffering that he endured all his life (after the wound received in Seistan). The sons (except Shahrukh) and grandsons of Timur suffered from the same mental abnormality, as a result of which Timur, in contrast to Genghis Khan, did not find in his descendants either reliable assistants or continuers of his work. It turned out, therefore, to be even less durable than the result of the efforts of the Mongol conqueror.
The official history of Timur was written during his lifetime, first by Ali-ben Jemal-al-Islam (the only copy is in the Tashkent public library), then by Nizam-ad-din Shami (the only copy is in the British Museum). These writings were repressed famous work Sheref ad-din Iezdi (under Shahrukh), translated into French) "Histoire de Timur-Bec.", P., 1722). The work of another contemporary of Timur and Shahrukh, Hafizi-Abru, has reached us only in part; it was used by the author of the second half of the 15th century, Abd-ar-Rezzak of Samarkandi (the work was not published; there are many manuscripts). Of the authors (Persian, Arab, Georgian, Armenian, Ottoman and Byzantine) who wrote independently of Timur and the Timurids, only one, the Syrian Arab Ibn Arabshah, compiled a complete history of Timur ("Ahmedis Arabsiadae vitae et rerum gestarum Timuri, qui vulgo Tamerlanes dicitur , historia", 1767 - 1772).
In 1336 in the village. Khoja-Ilgar, near Keshe (the territory of present-day Uzbekistan), a son, Timur ibn Taragai Barlas (history is known as Timur Tamerlane), was born into the family of a bek from the Barlas tribe. In Mongolian, the name Timur means "iron".
Timur Tamerlane is an emir who is associated with the last conquests of the Mongols in Asia. He led the Mongols and was only an emir, since not being a descendant of the house of Genghisids, he could not be a khan and bear this title. Although in 1370 he intermarried with this house and became their relative, taking the name Timur Gurgan.
For the first time, historical sources remember it starting in 1361 - this is the year it began political career. This year he began to serve under Khan Togluku - a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.
He quickly increased his influence: first he was appointed to the post of adviser to the son of Khan Ilyas - Khoja - the ruler of Maverannehr, then he received the post of governor of the Kashkadarya vilayet (the khan's possession). He always had his own cavalry detachment of 60 people with him.
After a couple of years, Timur became disliked by the khan and therefore was forced to flee. Having concluded a military alliance with Emir Hussein, he began to fight against the Mongols.
As a result of these wars, in 1370 he captured Transoxiana and became an emirate, taking the oath. The capital became Samarkand, an important center in Asia at that time.
Beginning in 1371, Tamerlane's army began to conquer new territories - until 1380, many of the neighboring territories and most of the territory of Afghanistan were captured. Over the next 10 years, Tamerlane conquered Georgia, Armenia, Khorezm, and in 1388 Tamerlane came into possession of the lands from the Pamirs to the Aral Sea.
Since 1389, the emir was at war with the Golden Horde. His main opponent was Tokhtamysh (descendant of Genghis Khan), whom he helped become khan of the Golden Horde in 1376.
In 1391, after the defeat of Tokhtamysh’s troops, Tamerlane ravaged the capital of the Horde, Sarai-Berke.
In 1394 Tamerlane conquered Persia, in 1398 he plundered Delhi, the capital of India, in 1401 he captured Damascus and conquered Syria, and in 1402 he plundered Ankara, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
All his campaigns are divided into three large ones:
- three-year (campaign in Persia);
- five-year (war with the Golden Horde);
- seven years (campaign in Iran and war with the Ottoman Empire).
Tamerlane died in 1405 during a campaign in China. After him, his grandson Khalil Sultan seized control.
Tamerlane had 18 wives and four sons.
Timur did not even have a school education, but he knew the Persian language and loved history (they say that with his knowledge in this area he amazed Ibn Khaldun, the most famous Muslim historian).
Islam-today
The full name of the great conqueror of antiquity, who will be discussed in our article, is Timur ibn Taragai Barlas, but in literature he is often referred to as Tamerlane, or the Iron Lame. It should be clarified that he was nicknamed Iron not only for his personal qualities, but also because this is how his name Timur is translated from the Turkic language. The lameness was the result of a wound received in one of the battles. There is reason to believe that this mysterious commander of the past is involved in the great bloodshed that was shed in the 20th century.
Who is Tamerlan and where is he from?
First, a few words about the childhood of the future Great Khan. It is known that Timur-Tamerlane was born on April 9, 1336 on the territory of the current Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz, which at that time was a small village called Khoja-Ilgar. His father, a local landowner from the Barlas tribe, Muhammad Taragay, professed Islam, and raised his son in this faith.
Following the customs of those times, from early childhood he taught the boy the basics of military art - horse riding, archery and javelin throwing. As a result, barely reaching maturity, he was already an experienced warrior. It was then that the future conqueror Tamerlane received invaluable knowledge.
The biography of this man, or rather, that part of it that has become the property of history, begins with the fact that in his youth he gained the favor of Tughlik Khan, the ruler of the Chagatai ulus, one of the Mongolian states, on whose territory the future commander was born.
Appreciating Timur's fighting qualities, as well as his extraordinary mind, he brought him closer to the court, making him his son's tutor. However, the prince’s entourage, fearing his rise, began to build intrigues against him, and as a result, fearing for his life, the newly-minted teacher was forced to flee.
Leading a squad of mercenaries
The years of Tamerlane's life coincided with the historical period when it was a continuous theater of military operations. Fragmented into many states, it was constantly torn apart by civil strife among local khans, who were constantly trying to seize neighboring lands. The situation was aggravated by countless robber gangs - jete, who did not recognize any authority and lived exclusively by robberies.
In this environment, the failed teacher Timur-Tamerlane found his true calling. Having united several dozen ghulams - professional mercenary warriors - he created a detachment that, in its fighting qualities and cruelty, surpassed all other surrounding gangs.
First conquests
Together with his thugs, the newly-minted commander made daring raids on cities and villages. It is known that in 1362 he stormed several fortresses that belonged to the Sarbadars - participants in the popular movement against Mongol rule. Having captured them, he ordered the surviving defenders to be walled up in the walls. This was an act of intimidation to all future opponents, and such cruelty became one of the main traits of his character. Very soon the whole East learned about who Tamerlane was.
It was then that in one of the fights he lost two fingers of his right hand and was seriously wounded in the leg. Its consequences lasted until the end of his life and served as the basis for the nickname - Timur the Lame. However, this did not prevent him from becoming a figure who played a significant role in the history of not only Central, Western and South Asia, but also the Caucasus and Rus' in the last quarter of the 14th century.
His military talent and extraordinary audacity helped Tamerlane conquer the entire territory of Fergana, subjugating Samarkand and making the city of Ket the capital of the newly formed state. Further, his army rushed to the territory belonging to present-day Afghanistan, and, having ravaged it, stormed the ancient capital of Balkh, whose emir, Huseyn, was immediately hanged. Most of the courtiers shared his fate.
Cruelty as a weapon of intimidation
The next direction of attack of his cavalry was the cities of Isfahan and Fars, located south of Balkh, where they ruled last representatives Persian Muzaffarid dynasty. The first on his way was Isfahan. Having captured it and handed it over to his mercenaries for plunder, Timur the Lame ordered the heads of the dead to be placed in a pyramid, the height of which exceeded the height of a person. This was a continuation of his constant tactics of intimidating his opponents.
It is characteristic that the entire subsequent history of Tamerlane, the conqueror and commander, was marked by manifestations of extreme cruelty. It can be partly explained by the fact that he himself became a hostage to his own politics. Leading a highly professional army, the Lame had to regularly pay his mercenaries, otherwise their scimitars would turn against him. This forced us to achieve new victories and conquests by any means available.
The beginning of the fight against the Golden Horde
In the early 80s, the next stage in Tamerlane’s ascent was the conquest of the Golden Horde, or, in other words, the Dzhuchiev ulus. From time immemorial, it was dominated by the Euro-Asian steppe culture with its religion of polytheism, which had nothing in common with Islam, professed by the majority of its warriors. Therefore, the fighting that began in 1383 became a clash not only of opposing armies, but also of two different cultures.
Ordynsky, the same one who made a campaign against Moscow in 1382, wanting to get ahead of his enemy and strike first, undertook a campaign against Kharezm. Having achieved temporary success, he also captured a significant territory of what is now Azerbaijan, but soon his troops were forced to retreat, suffering significant losses.
In 1385, taking advantage of the fact that Timur and his hordes were in Persia, he tried again, but this time he failed. Having learned about the invasion of the Horde, the formidable commander urgently returned his troops to Central Asia and completely defeated the enemy, forcing Tokhtamysh himself to flee to Western Siberia.
Continuing the fight against the Tatars
However, the conquest of the Golden Horde was not yet completed. Its final defeat was preceded by five years filled with incessant military campaigns and bloodshed. It is known that in 1389 the Horde khan even managed to insist that Russian squads support him in the war with Muslims.
This was facilitated by the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy, after which his son and heir Vasily was obliged to go to the Horde for a label to reign. Tokhtamysh confirmed his rights, but subject to the participation of Russian troops in repelling the Muslim attack.
Defeat of the Golden Horde
Prince Vasily gave his consent, but it was only formal. After the defeat caused by Tokhtamysh in Moscow, none of the Russians wanted to shed blood for him. As a result, in the very first battle on the Kondurcha River (a tributary of the Volga), they abandoned the Tatars and, crossing to the opposite bank, left.
The conquest of the Golden Horde was completed by the battle on the Terek River, in which the troops of Tokhtamysh and Timur met on April 15, 1395. Iron Lame managed to inflict a crushing defeat on his enemy and thereby put an end to the Tatar raids on the territories under his control.
Threat to Russian lands and campaign against India
They were preparing their next blow to the very heart of Rus'. The goals of the planned campaign were Moscow and Ryazan, who until then did not know who Tamerlane was and paid tribute to the Golden Horde. But, fortunately, these plans were not destined to come true. The uprising of the Circassians and Ossetians, which broke out in the rear of Timur's troops and forced the conqueror to turn back, prevented this. The only victim then was the city of Yelets, which was on his way.
Over the next two years, his army made a victorious campaign in India. Having captured Delhi, Timur's soldiers plundered and burned the city, and killed 100 thousand defenders who were captured, fearing a possible rebellion on their part. Having reached the banks of the Ganges and capturing several fortified fortresses along the way, the army of thousands returned to Samarkand with rich booty and a large number slaves.
New conquests and new blood
Following India, it was the turn of the Ottoman Sultanate to submit to the sword of Tamerlane. In 1402, he defeated the hitherto invincible Janissaries of Sultan Bayazid, and took him prisoner. As a result, the entire territory of Asia Minor came under his rule.
The Ionite knights, who held the fortress of the ancient city of Smyrna for many years in their hands, could not resist Tamerlane’s troops. Having previously repelled the attacks of the Turks more than once, they surrendered to the mercy of the lame conqueror. When Venetian and Genoese ships with reinforcements arrived to their aid, the victors threw the severed heads of the defenders from the fortress catapults.
A plan that Tamerlane could not implement
Biography of this outstanding commander and evil genius of its era, ends with the last ambitious project, which was his campaign against China, which began in 1404. The goal was to seize the Great Silk Road, making it possible to receive taxes from passing merchants and thereby replenish their already overflowing treasury. But it prevented the implementation of the plan sudden death, which ended the life of the commander in February 1405.
The great emir of the Timurid empire - under this title he entered the history of his people - was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A legend is associated with his burial, passed down from generation to generation. It says that if Tamerlane’s sarcophagus is opened and his ashes are disturbed, then the punishment for this will be a terrible and bloody war.
In June 1941, an expedition from the USSR Academy of Sciences was sent to Samarkand to exhume the remains of the commander and study them. The grave was opened on the night of June 21, and the next day, as is known, the Great Patriotic War began.
Another interesting fact. In October 1942, cameraman Malik Kayumov, a participant in those events, meeting with Marshal Zhukov, told him about the fulfilled curse and offered to return Tamerlane’s ashes to their original place. This was done on November 20, 1942, and on the same day a radical turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad followed.
Skeptics tend to argue that in this case there were only a number of accidents, because the plan for the attack on the USSR was developed long before the opening of the tomb by people who, although they knew who Tamerlane was, but, of course, did not take into account the spell that hung over his grave. Without entering into controversy, let's just say that everyone has the right to have their own point of view on this matter.
Conqueror's family
Of particular interest to researchers are the wives and children of Timur. Like all eastern rulers, this great conqueror of the past had a huge family. He had 18 official wives alone (not counting concubines), the favorite of which is considered to be Sarai-mulk khanum. Despite the fact that the lady with such a poetic name was barren, the master trusted her with the upbringing of many of his sons and grandchildren. She also went down in history as the patroness of art and science.
It is quite clear that with such a number of wives and concubines there was also no shortage of children. Nevertheless, only four of his sons took the places befitting such high birth and became rulers in the empire created by their father. In their person, the story of Tamerlane found its continuation.
Central Asian Turkic commander and conqueror who played a significant role in the history of Central, South and Western Asia, as well as the Caucasus, Volga region and Rus'
Brief biography
Tamerlane, Timur (Chagat.تیمور ; Uzbek Amir Temur, Temur ibn Taragay April 9, 1336, Kesh, modern. Uzbekistan - February 19, 1405, Otrar, modern. Kazakhstan) is a Central Asian Turkic commander and conqueror who played a significant role in the history of Central, South and Western Asia, as well as the Caucasus, Volga region and Rus'. Commander, founder of the Timurid Empire (circa 1370) with its capital in Samarkand. In Uzbekistan he is revered as a national hero.
General characteristics
Name
Timur's full name was Timur ibn Taragai Barlasتيمور ابن ترغيى برلس (Tāmūr ibn Tāraġaiyi Bārlās) - Timur son of Taragay from Barlasy) in accordance with the Arabic tradition (alam-nasab-nisba). In Turkic languages Temür or Temir Means " iron" In medieval Russian chronicles it was referred to as Temir Aksak.
Not being Genghisid, Timur formally could not bear the title of khan, therefore he was always called only emir (leader, leader). However, having intermarried with the house of Chingizids in 1370, he took the name Timur Gurgan (Tāmūr Gurkānī, (تيموﺭ گوركان ), Gurkān is an Iranianized version of Mongolian kurugen or Khurgen, "son-in-law"). This meant that Timur was a relative of the Genghisids and could freely live and act in their houses.
In various (in which?) Persian sources the Iranianized nickname is often (?) found Timur(e) Liang(Timūr(-e) Lang, تیمور لنگ) " Timur Lame", this name was probably considered offensive at the time. It passed into Western languages ( Tamerlan, Tamerlane, Tamburlaine, Timur Lenk) and into Russian, where it does not have any negative connotation and is used along with the original “Timur”.
Personality
Timur was a very brave and reserved man. Possessing sobriety of judgment, he knew how to accept the most right decision V difficult situations. These character traits attracted people to him.
A far-sighted ruler and talented organizer.
Timur left behind dozens of monumental architectural structures, some of them have entered the treasury of world culture. Timur's buildings, in the creation of which he took an active part, reveal his extraordinary artistic taste.
Appearance
As shown by the opening of the tomb of Gur Emir (Samarkand) by M. M. Gerasimov and the subsequent study of the skeleton from the burial, which is believed to belong to Tamerlane, his height was 172 cm. Timur was strong and physically developed, his contemporaries wrote about him: “If Most warriors could pull the bow string to the level of the collarbone, but Timur pulled it to the ear.” His hair is lighter than that of most of his fellow tribesmen. A detailed study of Timur’s remains showed that, anthropologically, he belonged to the South Siberian race. Despite Timur’s old age (69 years), his skull, as well as his skeleton, did not have pronounced senile features. . The presence of most of the teeth, a clear relief of the bones, the almost complete absence of osteophytes - all this indicates that the skeleton belonged to a person, full of strength and health, whose biological age did not exceed 50 years. The massiveness of healthy bones, the highly developed relief and their density, the width of the shoulders, the volume of the chest and the relatively high height - all this gives the right to think that Timur had an extremely strong build. The emir's strong athletic muscles were most likely distinguished by a certain dryness of form, which is quite natural: life on military campaigns, with their difficulties and hardships, and almost constant stay in the saddle could hardly contribute to obesity..
A special external difference between Tamerlane’s warriors and other Muslims was the braids they preserved, as suggested by some scientists who studied the ancient Turks from Central Asian illustrated manuscripts of that time. Meanwhile, examining ancient Turkic sculptures and images of Turks in the paintings of Afrasiab, researchers came to the conclusion that the majority of the Turks wore braids until the 5th-8th centuries. But after the arrival of Islam in Central Asia, the Turks, being Muslims, no longer wore long hair and walked with short hair or shaved heads.
The opening of Timur's grave in 1941 and anthropological analysis of his remains showed that Timur himself did not wear braids. “Timur’s hair is thick, straight, gray-red in color, with a predominance of dark chestnut or red.” “Contrary to the accepted custom of shaving his head, at the time of his death Timur had relatively long hair.” Some historians believe that the light color of his hair is due to the fact that Tamerlane dyed his hair with henna. But M. M. Gerasimov notes in his work: “Even a preliminary study of beard hair under a binocular convinces that this reddish color is natural, and not dyed with henna, as historians described.” Timur wore a long mustache, not a trim one above the lip. As we found out, there was a rule that allowed the upper military class to wear a mustache without cutting it above the lip, and Timur, according to this rule, did not cut his mustache, and it hung freely above the lip. “Timur’s small thick beard was wedge-shaped. The beard hair is coarse, almost straight, thick, bright brown (red) in color, with significant graying.”
The anthropological reconstruction of the remains of the conqueror, which was carried out by M. M. Gerasimov, says: “The discovered skeleton belonged to a strong man, too tall for an Asian (about 170 cm). The crease of the eyelid, the most characteristic feature of the Turkic face, is relatively weakly expressed. The nose is straight, small, slightly flattened; lips are thick and contemptuous. Hair is gray-red in color, with a predominance of dark brown or red. The type of face is not Mongoloid.”
Lesions were visible on the bones of the right leg in the area of the kneecap, which is fully consistent with the nickname “Lame.”
Knowledge and language
A contemporary and captive of Tamerlane, Ibn Arabshah, who knew him personally since 1401, reports: “As for Persian, Turkic and Mongolian, he knew them better than anyone else.”
The Spanish diplomat and traveler Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who visited the court of Tamerlane in Transoxiana, reports that “Signor Temur” conquered all the territories of India Minor and Khorasan. Samarkand and Khorasan are separated by a river (Amu Darya). On the side of Samarkand, near the river stands the city of Termez, and beyond the river is the territory of Khorasan, Takharistan, "Beyond this river(Amu Darya - approx.) the kingdom of Samarkand extends, and its land is called Mogalia (Mogolistan), and the language is Mughal, and this language is not understood in this(southern - approx. Khorasan) on the other side of the river, those who live on this side do not understand and do not know how to read, but they call this letter mogali. A senor(Tamerlane - approx.) keeps with him several scribes who can read and write in this[language - note] »
According to the Timurid source “Muiz al-ansab”, at Timur’s court there was a staff of only Turkic and Persian clerks.
Ibn Arabshah, describing the tribes of Transoxiana, provides the following information: “The mentioned Sultan (Timur) had four viziers who were completely engaged in useful and harmful matters. They were considered noble people, and everyone followed their opinions. As many tribes and tribes as the Arabs had, the Turks had the same number. Each of the above-mentioned viziers, being representatives of one tribe, were a luminary of opinions and illuminated the arch of minds of their tribe. One tribe was called Arlat, the second - Zhalair, the third - Kavchin, the fourth - Barlas. Temur was the son of the fourth tribe".
During the campaign against Tokhtamysh in 1391, Timur ordered an inscription in the Chagatai language in Uighur letters to be knocked out from Mount Altyn Shoki - 8 lines and three lines in Arabic containing the Koranic text.
Stories of the seven hundred and ninetieth year of the Sheep. Summer month July. Sultan Temirbek of Turan sets off with his 100 thousand army to war with Khan Tokhtamysh. Driving through this area, I left this inscription as a memory: “May Allah bless him! Inshallah, with the blessings of Allah, may all people remember him.”Altyn shocks // Kazakhstan. National Encyclopedia. - Almaty: Kazakh encyclopedias, 2004. - T. I.
In history, this inscription is known as the Karsakpai inscription of Timur. Currently, the stone with Timur's inscription is kept and exhibited in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Timur loved to talk with scientists, especially listen to the reading of historical works; with his knowledge of history he surprised the medieval historian, philosopher and thinker Ibn Khaldun; Timur used stories about the valor of historical and legendary heroes to inspire his soldiers.
According to Alisher Navoi, although Timur did not write poetry, he knew both poetry and prose very well, and, by the way, knew how to bring the proper beit to the right place.
Modern researcher from Princeton University Swat Soucek, in his monograph about Timur, believes that “he was a Turk from the Barlas tribe, Mongolian in name and origin, but in all practical senses Turkic by that time. Timur's native language was Turkic (Chagatai), although he may have had some command of Persian due to the cultural environment in which he lived. He almost certainly did not know Mongolian, although Mongolian terms had not yet completely disappeared from documents and were found on coins.”
Family
His father's name was Muhammad Taragai or Turgai, he was a military man, a small landowner from the ancient Mongolian Barlas tribe.
According to some assumptions, Muhammad Taragay was precisely the leader of the Barlas tribe and a descendant of a certain Karachar-noyon, a powerful assistant of Chagatai and his distant relative. Timur's father was a pious Muslim, his spiritual mentor was Sheikh Shams ad-din Kulal.
Timur's father had one brother, whose name was Balta. Muhammad Taragay was married twice: his first wife was Timur's mother Tekina Khatun. There is conflicting information about its origin. Taragay's second wife was Kadak-khatun, the mother of Timur's sister Shirin-bek aga.
Muhammad Taragay died in 1361 and was buried in Timur’s homeland - in the city of Kesh (Shakhrisabz). His tomb has survived to this day.
Timur had an older sister, Kutlug-Turkan aga, and a younger sister, Shirin-bek aga. They died before the death of Timur himself and were buried in mausoleums in the Shahi Zinda complex in Samarkand. According to the source “Mu'izz al-ansab”, Timur had three more brothers: Juki, Alim Sheikh and Suyurgatmysh.
Childhood
Timur was born on April 8, 1336 in the village of Khoja-Ilgar near the city of Kesh (now Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan) in Central Asia. Timur spent his childhood and youth in the Kesh mountains. In his youth, he loved hunting and equestrian competitions, javelin throwing and archery, and had a penchant for war games. From the age of ten, mentors - atabeks who served under Taragai, taught Timur the art of war and sports games.
Beginning of political activity
The first information about Timur appeared in sources starting in 1361. Start political activity Tamerlane is similar to the biography of Genghis Khan: they were the leaders of the detachments of followers they personally recruited, who then remained the main support of their power. Like Genghis Khan, Timur personally entered into all the details of the organization of military forces, had detailed information about the forces of his enemies and the state of their lands, enjoyed unconditional authority among his army and could fully rely on his associates. Less successful was the choice of persons placed at the head of the civil administration (numerous cases of punishment for extortion of high dignitaries in Samarkand, Herat, Shiraz, Tabriz).
In 1347, the Chagatai ulus split into two separate states: Maverannahr and Mogolistan (or Mogulistan). In 1360, Transoxiana was conquered by Tughluk-Timur. In 1362, Tughluk-Timur hastily left Transoxiana as a result of the rebellion of a group of emirs in Mogolistan, transferring power to his son Ilyas-Khoja. Timur was confirmed as the ruler of the Kesh region and one of the assistants of the Mogul prince.
Before the khan had time to cross the Syr Darya River, Ilyas-Khoja, together with Emir Bekchik and other close emirs, conspired to remove Timur from state affairs, and, if possible, to destroy him physically. The intrigues intensified and became dangerous. Timur had to separate from the Mughals and go over to the side of their enemy - Emir Hussein, the grandson of Emir Kazagan. For some time, with a small detachment, they led the life of adventurers and went towards Khorezm, where in the battle of Khiva they were defeated by the ruler of those lands, Tavakkala-Kongurot, and with the remnants of their warriors and servants were forced to retreat deep into the desert. Subsequently, going to the village of Mahmudi in the region subject to Mahan, they were captured by the people of Alibek Dzhanikurban, in whose captivity they spent 62 days. According to historian Sharafiddin Ali Yazdi, Alibek intended to sell Timur and Hussein to Iranian merchants, but in those days not a single caravan passed through Mahan. The prisoners were rescued by Alibek's elder brother, Emir Muhammad Beg.
During a skirmish in Seistan, which took place in the fall of 1362 against the enemies of the ruler Malik Qutbiddin, Timur lost two fingers on his right hand and was seriously wounded in his right leg, causing him to become lame.
Until 1364, emirs Timur and Hussein lived on the southern bank of the Amu Darya in the regions of Kakhmard, Daragez, Arsif and Balkh and waged a guerrilla war against the Moguls.
In 1364, the Moguls were forced to leave the country. Returning back to Transoxiana, Timur and Hussein placed Kabul Shah from the Chagataid clan on the throne.
On next year, at dawn on May 22, 1365, near Chinaz there was bloody battle between the army of Timur and Hussein with the army of Khan Ilyas-Khoja, which went down in history as the “Battle in the Mud.” Timur and Hussein had little chance of victory, since the army of Ilyas-Khoja had superior forces. During the battle, a torrential downpour began, it was difficult for the soldiers to even look forward, and the horses got stuck in the mud. Despite this, Timur’s troops began to gain victory on his flank; at the decisive moment, he asked Hussein for help in order to finish off the enemy, but Hussein not only did not help, but also retreated. This predetermined the outcome of the battle. The warriors of Timur and Hussein were forced to retreat to the other side of the Syrdarya River.
Meanwhile, the army of Ilyas-Khoja was expelled from Samarkand by a popular uprising of the Serbedars, which was led by the madrasah teacher Mavlan-zade, the artisan Abubakr Kalavi and the shooter Mirzo Khurdaki Bukhari. Popular government was established in the city. The property of the rich sections of the population was confiscated, so they turned to Hussein and Timur for help. Timur and Hussein agreed to act against the Serbedars. In the spring of 1366, Timur and Hussein suppressed the uprising, executing the Serbedar leaders, but on the orders of Tamerlane they left alive one of the leaders of the uprising, Mawlana-zade, who was extremely popular among the people.
Election as "Great Emir"
Hussein had plans to take the position of supreme emir of the Chagatai ulus, like his grandfather Kazagan, who seized this position by force during the time of Kazan Khan. A split emerged in the relationship between Timur and Hussein, and each of them began to prepare for a decisive battle. In this situation, Timur received great support from the clergy in the person of the Termez seids, the Samarkand sheikh-ul-Islam and Mir Seyid Bereke, who became Timur’s spiritual mentor.
Having moved from Sali-sarai to Balkh, Hussein began to strengthen the fortress. He decided to act with deception and cunning. Hussein sent Timur an invitation to a meeting in the Chakchak gorge to sign a peace treaty, and as proof of his friendly intentions he promised to swear on the Koran. Having gone to the meeting, Timur took two hundred horsemen with him just in case, but Hussein brought a thousand of his soldiers and for this reason the meeting did not take place. Timur recalled this incident as follows: “I sent Emir Hussein a letter with a Turkic beit with the following content:
Who intends to deceive me,
He'll fall into the ground himself, I'm sure.
Having shown his deceit,
He himself will die from it.
When my letter reached Emir Hussein, he was extremely embarrassed and asked for forgiveness, but the second time I did not believe him.”
Gathering all his strength, Timur crossed to the other side of the Amu Darya. The advanced units of his troops were commanded by Suyurgatmysh-oglan, Ali Muayyad and Hussein Barlas. On the approach to the village of Biya, Barak, the leader of the Andkhud Sayinds, advanced to meet the army and presented him with kettledrums and the banner of supreme power. On the way to Balkh, Timur was joined by Jaku Barlas, who arrived from Karkara with his army, and Emir Kaykhusraw from Khuttalan, and on the other side of the river, Emir Zinda Chashm from Shiberghan, Khazarians from Khulm and Badakhshan Muhammadshah also joined. Having learned about this, many of Emir Hussein’s soldiers left him.
Before the battle, Timur assembled a kurultai, at which Suyurgatmysh Khan, the son of Kazan Khan, was elected Khan of Transoxiana. Shortly before Timur was confirmed as the “great emir,” a certain good messenger, a sheikh from Mecca, came to him and said that he had a vision that he , Timur, will become a great ruler. On this occasion, he presented him with a banner, a drum, a symbol of supreme power. But he does not take this supreme power personally, but remains close to it.
On April 10, 1370, Balkh was conquered, and Hussein was captured and killed by the ruler of Khutalyan, Kaykhusrav, as a matter of blood feud, since Hussein had previously killed his brother. A kurultai was also held here, in which Chagatai beks and emirs, high-ranking dignitaries of regions and tumans, and Termezshahs took part. Among them were former rivals and childhood friends of Timur: Bayan-suldus, emirs Uljaytu, Kaikhosrov, Zinda Chashm, Jaku-barlas and many others. Kurultai elected Timur Supreme Emir of Turan, as Timur’s state was now called, entrusting him with responsibility for establishing the long-awaited peace, stability and order in the country. Marriage to the daughter of Genghisid Kazan Khan, the captive widow of Emir Hussein Sarai-mulk khanum, allowed Timur to add the honorary title “Guragan” to his name, that is, “(khan’s) son-in-law.”
At the kurultai, Timur took the oath of all the military leaders of Transoxiana. Like his predecessors, he did not accept the khan title and was content with the title of “great emir” - the descendants of Genghis Khan Suyurgatmysh Khan (1370-1388), and then his son Mahmud Khan (1388-1402) were considered khans under him. Samarkand was chosen as the capital of the state. Timur began the struggle to create a centralized state.
Strengthening and expanding the state
Despite the laid foundation of statehood, Khorezm and Shibergan, which belonged to the Chagatai ulus, did not recognize new government in the person of Suyurgatmysh Khan and Emir Timur. It was restless on the southern and northern borders of the border, where Mogolistan and the White Horde caused trouble, often violating borders and plundering villages. After Urus Khan captured Sygnak and moved the capital of the White Horde, Yassy (now Turkestan), Sairam and Transoxiana to it were in even greater danger. It was necessary to take measures to protect and strengthen statehood.
Soon, the power of Emir Timur was recognized by Balkh and Tashkent, but the Khorezm rulers continued to resist the Chagatai ulus, relying on the support of the Dashti Kipchak rulers. In 1371, the ruler of Khorezm attempted to capture southern Khorezm, which was part of the Chagatai ulus. Emir Timur demanded that Khorezm return the captured lands first peacefully, sending first a tawachi (quartermaster), then a sheikh-ul-Islam (the head of the Muslim community) to Gurganj, but the ruler of Khorezm, Hussein Sufi, refused to fulfill this demand both times, taking the ambassador prisoner. Subsequently, Emir Timur made five campaigns against Khorezm.
Hikes to Mogolistan
Mogolistan had to be conquered to ensure the security of the state's borders. Mogolistan feudal lords often carried out predatory raids on Sairam, Tashkent, Fergana and Yassy. The raids of the Moghulistan ulusbegi Emir Kamar ad-Din in 1370-1371 brought especially great troubles to the people.
From 1371 to 1390, Emir Timur made seven campaigns against Mogolistan, finally defeating the army of Kamar ad-Din and Anka-tyur in 1390. Timur launched his first two campaigns against Kamar ad-Din in the spring and autumn of 1371. The first campaign ended in a truce; during the second, Timur, leaving Tashkent, moved towards the village of Yangi in Taraz. There he put the Moguls to flight and captured large booty.
In 1375, Timur carried out his third successful campaign. He left Sairam and passed through the regions of Talas and Tokmak along the upper reaches of the Chu River, returning to Samarkand through Uzgen and Khojent. However, Qamar ad-Din was not defeated. When Timur's army returned to Transoxiana, Kamar ad-Din invaded Fergana in the winter of 1376 and besieged the city of Andijan. The governor of Fergana, Timur's third son Umar Sheikh, fled to the mountains. The enraged Timur hurried to Fergana and for a long time pursued the enemy beyond Uzgen and the Yassy mountains all the way to the At-Bashi valley, the southern tributary of the upper Naryn.
In 1376-1377, Timur made his fifth campaign against Kamar ad-Din. He defeated his army in the gorges west of Issyk-Kul and pursued him to Kochkar. The Zafar-Nama mentions Timur's sixth campaign in the Issyk-Kul region against Kamar ad-Din in 1383, but the Ulusbegi managed to escape again.
In 1389-1390, Timur intensified his actions to finally defeat Kamar ad-Din. In 1389 he crossed the Ili and crossed the Imil region in all directions, south and east of Lake Balkhash and around Ata-Kul. His vanguard, meanwhile, pursued the Mughals to the Black Irtysh, south of Altai. His advanced detachments reached Kara Khoja in the east, that is, almost to Turfan. In 1390, Kamar ad-din was finally defeated, and Mogolistan finally ceased to threaten Timur’s power. However, Timur only reached the Irtysh in the north, Alakul in the east, Emil and headquarters Mongol khans Balig-Yulduza, but conquer the lands east of the mountains He couldn’t do Tangri-tag and Kashgar. Kamar ad-Din fled to the Irtysh and subsequently died of dropsy. Khizr-Khoja established himself as the Khan of Mogulistan.
First campaigns in Western Asia
In 1380, Timur went on a campaign against Malik Ghiyas-ud-din Pir-Ali II, since he did not want to recognize himself as a vassal of Emir Timur and began to strengthen the defensive walls of his capital, Herat, in response. At first, Timur sent an ambassador to him with an invitation to the kurultai in order to solve the problem peacefully, but Ghiyas ad-din Pir-Ali II rejected the offer, detaining the ambassador. In response to this, in April 1380, Timur sent ten regiments to the left bank of the Amu Darya. His troops captured the regions of Balkh, Shibergan and Badkhyz. In February 1381, Emir Timur himself marched with troops and took Khorasan, the cities of Serakhs, Jami, Qausia, Tuye and Kelat, and the city of Herat was taken after a five-day siege. In addition to Kelat, Sebzevar was captured, as a result of which the state of the Serbedars finally ceased to exist. In 1382, Timur's son Miran Shah was appointed ruler of Khorasan. In 1383, Timur devastated Sistan and brutally suppressed the Serbedar uprising in Sebzevar.
In 1383, he took Sistan, in which the fortresses of Zireh, Zave, Farah and Bust were defeated. In 1384 he captured the cities of Astrabad, Amul, Sari, Sultaniya and Tabriz, effectively capturing all of Persia.
Fight against the Golden Horde
Tamerlane's next goals were to curb the Golden Horde and establish political influence in its eastern part and the unification of Mogolistan and Transoxiana, previously divided, into a single state, at one time called the Chagatai ulus.
Realizing the danger posed by the Golden Horde, from the very first days of his reign, Timur tried in every possible way to bring his protege to power there. Khan of the Blue Horde Urus Khan tried to unite the once powerful ulus of Jochi, but his plans were hindered by the intensified struggle between the Jochids and the feudal lords of Desht-and Kipchak. Timur strongly supported Tokhtamysh-oglan, whose father died at the hands of Urus Khan, who eventually took the throne of the White Horde . However, after coming to power, Khan Tokhtamysh began to pursue a hostile policy towards the lands of Transoxiana. In 1387, Tokhtamysh, together with the ruler of Khorezm, Hussein Sufi, carried out a predatory raid on Bukhara, which led to last trip Timur to Khorezm and further military actions against Tokhtamysh (Tamerlane made three campaigns against him, finally defeating him only in 1395).
Three-year campaign and conquest of Khorezm
Timur began his first, so-called “three-year” campaign in the western part of Persia and the adjacent regions in 1386. In November 1387, Timur's troops took Isfahan and captured Shiraz. Despite the successful start of the campaign, Timur was forced to return due to the invasion of Transoxiana by the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in alliance with the Khorezmians (1387). A garrison of 6,000 soldiers was left in Isfahan, and Timur took its ruler Shah-Mansur from the Muzaffarid dynasty with him. Soon after the departure of Timur's main troops, a popular uprising took place in Isfahan under the leadership of the blacksmith Ali Kuchek. Timur's entire garrison was killed. Johann Schiltberger talks about Timur’s retaliatory actions against the Isfahanis in his travel notes:
“The latter immediately returned, but for 15 days he could not take possession of the city. Therefore, he offered the residents a truce on the condition that they would transfer 12 thousand riflemen to his subordination for some kind of campaign. When these warriors were sent to him, he ordered the thumb of each of them to be cut off, after which he sent them back to the city, which he soon took by storm. Having gathered the residents, he ordered to kill everyone who was over 14 years old, sparing those who were less years. The heads of the dead were stacked in the form of a tower in the center of the city. He then ordered the women and children to be taken to a field outside the city, where he separated children under seven years of age. After this, he ordered his soldiers to run over them with their horses. Tamerlane's own advisers and the mothers of these children fell to their knees before him and begged him to spare the children. But he did not heed their pleas and repeated his order, which, however, not a single warrior dared to carry out. Angry at them, Tamerlane himself ran into the children and said that he would like to know who would dare not follow him. Then the warriors were forced to follow his example and trample the children under the hooves of their horses. In total, about seven thousand were trampled. After that, he ordered the city to be set on fire, and the women and children were taken to his capital Samarkand, where he had not been for 12 years.”
It should be noted that Schiltberger himself was not an eyewitness to these events, but learned about them from third parties while in the Middle East in the period from 1396 to 1427.
In 1388, Timur drove out the Tatars and took the capital of Khorezm, Urgench. By order of Timur, the Khorezmians who offered resistance were mercilessly exterminated, the city was razed to the ground, and barley was sown in its place. In fact, Urgench was not completely destroyed, since masterpieces of Urgench architecture built before Timur have survived to this day, for example, the mausoleum of Il-Arslan (XII century), the mausoleum of Khorezmshah Tekesh (1200), etc.
In 1389, Timur made a devastating campaign deep into the Mongolian possessions to the Irtysh in the north and to Bolshoy Zhyldyz in the east, and in 1391 - a campaign against the Golden Horde possessions to the Volga, defeating Tokhtamysh in the battle on the Kondurche River. After this, Timur sent his troops against Mogolistan (1389-1390).
Five-year campaign and defeat of the Golden Horde
Timur began his second long, so-called “five-year” campaign in Iran in 1392. In the same year, Timur conquered the Caspian regions, in 1393 - western Persia and Baghdad, and in 1394 - Transcaucasia. Georgian sources provide several information about Timur’s actions in Georgia, about the policy of Islamization of the country and the capture of Tbilisi, about the Georgian military commonwealth, etc. By 1394, King George VII managed to carry out defensive measures- he gathered a militia, to which he added the Caucasian highlanders, including the Nakhs. At first, the united Georgian-Mountain army had some success; they were even able to push back the vanguard of the conquerors. However, ultimately Timur's approach with the main forces decided the outcome of the war. The defeated Georgians and Nakhs retreated north into the mountain gorges of the Caucasus. Considering the strategic importance of the pass roads to the North Caucasus, especially the natural fortress - the Daryal Gorge, Timur decided to capture it. However, a huge mass of troops was so mixed up in mountain gorges and gorges that they turned out to be unfit for combat. The defenders managed to kill so many people in the advanced ranks of the enemies that, unable to stand it, “Timur’s warriors turned back.”
Timur appointed one of his sons, Umar Sheikh, as the ruler of Fars, and another son, Miran Shah, as the ruler of Transcaucasia. Tokhtamysh's invasion of Transcaucasia caused Timur's retaliatory campaign in Eastern Europe(1395); Timur finally defeated Tokhtamysh on the Terek and pursued him to the borders of the Moscow principality. With this defeat of the army of Khan Tokhtamysh, Tamerlane brought indirect benefit in the struggle of the Russian lands against the Tatar-Mongol yoke. In addition, as a result of Timur's victory, the northern branch of the Great Silk Road, which passed through the lands of the Golden Horde, fell into decay. Trade caravans began to pass through the lands of Timur's state.
Pursuing the fleeing troops of Tokhtamysh, Timur invaded the Ryazan lands, ravaged Yelets, posing a threat to Moscow. Having launched an attack on Moscow, he unexpectedly turned back on August 26, 1395 (possibly due to uprisings of previously conquered peoples) and left the Moscow lands on the very day when Muscovites met the image of the Vladimir Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, brought from Vladimir (from that day the icon is revered as the patroness of Moscow), Vytautas’s army also went to the aid of Moscow.
“The Prince of Smolensk, Yuri Svyatoslavovich, brother-in-law of this prince (Vytautas), served him during the siege of Vitebsk as a tributary of Lithuania; but Vitovt, wanting to completely conquer this reign, gathered a large army and, spreading a rumor that he was going against Tamerlane, suddenly appeared under the walls of Smolensk...”N. M. Karamzin, “History of the Russian State”, volume 5, chapter II
According to the “Zafar-nama” of Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi, Timur was on the Don after his victory over Tokhtamysh on the Terek River and before the defeat of the cities of the Golden Horde in the same 1395. Timur personally pursued the Tokhtamysh commanders retreating after the defeat until they were completely defeated on the Dnieper. Most likely, according to this source, Timur did not set the goal of a campaign specifically on Russian lands. Some of his troops, not he himself, approached the borders of Rus'. Here, on the comfortable summer Horde pastures that stretched in the floodplain of the Upper Don to modern Tula, a small part of his army stopped for two weeks. Although the local population did not offer serious resistance, the region was severely devastated. As the Russians testify chronicle stories about the invasion of Timur, his army stood on both sides of the Don for two weeks, “captured” the land of Yeletskaya and “seized” the prince of Yeletskaya. Some coin hoards in the vicinity of Voronezh date back to 1395. However, in the vicinity of Yelets, which, according to the above-mentioned Russian written sources, was subjected to pogrom, treasures with such dating to present moment not found. Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi describes large booty taken in Russian lands and does not describe a single combat episode with the local population, although the main purpose of the “Book of Victories” (“Zafar-name”) was to describe the exploits of Timur himself and the valor of his warriors. “Zafar-nama” contains a detailed list of Russian cities conquered by Timur, including Moscow. Perhaps this is just a list of Russian lands that did not want armed conflict and sent their ambassadors with gifts.
Then Timur plundered the trading cities of Azov and Kafa, burned Sarai-Batu and Astrakhan, but the lasting conquest of the Golden Horde was not Tamerlane’s goal, and therefore the Caucasus ridge remained the northern border of Timur’s possessions. The Horde cities of the Volga region never recovered from Tamerlane’s devastation until the final collapse of the Golden Horde. Many colonies of Italian merchants in the Crimea and in the lower reaches of the Don were also destroyed. The city of Tana (modern Azov) rose from ruins for several decades.
In 1396 he returned to Samarkand and in 1397 appointed his youngest son Shahrukh as ruler of Khorasan, Sistan and Mazanderan.
March on India
In 1398, Timur launched a campaign against India, and along the way the highlanders of Kafiristan were defeated. In December, Timur defeated the army of the Delhi Sultan under the walls of Delhi and occupied the city without resistance, which a few days later was plundered by his army and burned. By order of Timur, 100 thousand captured Indian soldiers were executed for fear of a mutiny on their part. In 1399, Timur reached the banks of the Ganges, on the way back he took several more cities and fortresses and returned to Samarkand with huge booty.
Seven-year campaign and defeat of the Ottoman state
Returning from India in 1399, Timur immediately began a “seven-year” campaign in Iran. This campaign was initially caused by unrest in the region ruled by Miran Shah. Timur deposed his son and defeated the enemies who invaded his domain. Moving west, Timur encountered the Turkmen state of the Kara Koyunlu, the victory of Timur's troops forced the Turkmen leader Kara Yusuf to flee west to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid the Lightning. After which Kara Yusuf and Bayezid agreed on joint action against Timur. Sultan Bayazid responded to Timur's demand to hand over Kara Yusuf to him with a stinging refusal.
In 1400, Timur began military operations against Bayezid, who captured Erzincan, where Timur's vassal ruled, and against the Egyptian Sultan Faraj an-Nasir, whose predecessor, Barquq, ordered the assassination of Timur's ambassador back in 1393. In 1400, Timur took the fortresses of Kemak and Sivas in Asia Minor and Aleppo in Syria, which belonged to the Egyptian Sultan, and in 1401 he occupied Damascus.
On July 20, 1402, Timur won a major victory over the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, defeating him at the Battle of Ankara. The Sultan himself was captured. As a result of the battle, Timur captured the entire Asia Minor, and the defeat of Bayezid led to peasant war V Ottoman state and the civil strife of the sons of Bayezid. A letter from Alberto Campenza to His Holiness Pope Clement VII on the affairs of Muscovy gives some details about Tamerlane: “// The ruler of this horde, called Temir-Kutlu and known in History under the name of Tamerlane, even in our memory, like lightning (with 1,200,000 warriors, as our historians narrate), devastating and ruining everything that came his way, penetrated through Asia into Egypt defeated the Turkish Sultan Bayazet, who at that time, having captured Macedonia, Thessaly, Phocis, Boeotia and Attica, and weakened Illyria and Bulgaria with frequent raids, with cruelty, kept Constantinople, the head of the Christian Empire, under siege for a long time. The Emperor of Constantinople was forced, leaving his capital, to flee to France and Italy in order to ask for help against Bayazet. Meanwhile, Tamerlane forced the latter to lift the siege of Constantinople and, coming out against him with a huge army, defeated him, defeated him, captured him alive, shackled him in gold chains and for a long time He took him everywhere with him."
The fortress of Smyrna, (belonging to the Knights of St. John), which Ottoman sultans They could not take it for 20 years; Timur captured it by storm in two weeks. The western part of Asia Minor was returned to the sons of Bayazid in 1403, and in the eastern part the local dynasties deposed by Bayezid were restored.
Upon returning to Samarkand, Timur planned to declare his eldest grandson Muhammad Sultan (1375-1403), who was similar to his grandfather in actions and mind, as his successor. However, in March 1403, he fell ill and died suddenly.
Start of the trip to China
When Timur was 68 years old, in the fall of 1404, he began preparing an invasion of China. The main goal was to capture the remaining part of the Great Silk Road to obtain maximum profits and ensure the prosperity of his native Transoxiana and its capital Samarkand. Timur also believed that the entire space of the populated part of the world was not worth having two rulers. In August 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand and a few months later embarked on a campaign against China, for which he began preparing back in 1398. That year he built a fortress on the border of the current Syr-Darya region and Semirechye; Now another fortification was built, 10 days' journey further east, probably near Issyk-Kul. The campaign was stopped due to the onset of a cold winter, and in February 1405 Timur died.
Diplomatic ties
Timur, who created a huge empire, established diplomatic ties with a number of states, including China, Egypt, Byzantium, France, England, Castile, etc. In 1404, the ambassador of the Castilian king, Gonzalez de Clavijo, Ruy, visited the capital of his state - Samarkand. The originals of Timur's letters have been preserved to the French king Charles VI.
Domestic policy
Code of laws
During the reign of Emir Timur, a set of laws was created, known as the "Timur Code", which set out the rules of conduct for subjects and the duties of rulers and officials, as well as the rules for governing the army and the state.
Upon appointment to a position " great emir“demanded devotion and fidelity from everyone. Timur appointed 315 people to high positions who fought side by side with him from the very beginning of his political career. The first hundred were appointed as tens, the second hundred as centurions, and the third as thousands. Of the remaining fifteen people, four were appointed beks, one as the supreme emir, and others to the remaining high posts.
The judicial system was divided into three stages: 1. Sharia judge (qadi) - who was guided in his activities by the established norms of Sharia; 2. Judge ahdos - who was guided in his activities by well-established morals and customs in society. 3. Kazi askar - who led the proceedings in military cases. Everyone was equal before the law, both rulers and subjects.
Viziers under the leadership of Divan-Beghi were responsible for general position subjects and troops, for the financial condition of the country and the activities of government institutions. If information was received that the vizier of finance had appropriated part of the treasury, then this was checked and, upon confirmation, one of the decisions was made: if the embezzled amount was equal to his salary (uluf), then this amount was given to him as a gift. If the amount appropriated was twice the salary, then the excess was withheld. If the embezzled amount was three times higher than the established salary, then everything was taken away in favor of the treasury.
Emirs, like viziers, were appointed from a noble family and had to have such qualities as insight, courage, enterprise, caution and frugality, conduct business, thoroughly considering the consequences of each step. They had to “know the secrets of warfare, methods of dispersing the enemy army, not lose their presence of mind in the midst of a battle and be able to lead troops without trembling or hesitation, and if the battle order is disrupted, be able to restore it without delay.”
The law enshrined the protection of soldiers and ordinary people. The Code obliged village and neighborhood elders, tax collectors and hakims (local rulers) to pay a fine to a commoner in the amount of damage caused to him. If the harm was caused by a warrior, then it should have been handed over to the victim, and he himself would determine the punishment for him.
To the extent possible, the code enshrined the protection of the people in the conquered lands from humiliation and plunder.
A separate article is devoted in the code to attention to the beggars, who should have been collected in a certain place, given food and work, and also branded. If after this they continued to beg, then they should have been expelled from the country.
Emir Timur paid attention to the purity and morality of his people, he introduced the concept of the inviolability of the law and ordered not to rush to punish criminals, but to carefully check all the circumstances of the case and only after that render a verdict. Devout Muslims were explained the basics of religion for the establishment of Sharia and Islam, taught tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), hadith (collections of legends about the Prophet Muhammad) and fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence). Also, ulemas (scholars) and mudarris (madressah teachers) were appointed to each city.
Legal documents of Timur's state were compiled in two languages: Persian and Chagatai. For example, a document from 1378 giving privileges to the descendants of Abu Muslim who lived in Khorezm was compiled in the Chagatai Turkic language.
Army
Tamerlane and his warriors. Miniature
Timur had at his disposal a huge army of up to 200 thousand soldiers. Representatives of various tribes fought in Timur’s army: Barlas, Derbets, Nukus, Naiman, Polovtsians, Dulats, Kiyat, Jalairs, Suldus, Merkits, Yasavur, Kauchins, Kangly Argyns, Tulkichs, Duldai, Tugai, Kipchaks, Arlats, Tatars, Tarkhans, Kereites, etc.
The military organization of troops was built like that of the Mongols according to the decimal system: tens, hundreds, thousands, tumens (10 thousand). Among the sectoral management bodies was the wazirat (ministry) for the affairs of military personnel (sepoys).
Based on the rich experience of his predecessors, Tamerlane managed to create a powerful and combat-ready army, which allowed him to win brilliant victories on the battlefields over his opponents. This army was a multinational and multi-religious association, the core of which were Turkic-Mongol nomadic warriors. Tamerlane's army was divided into cavalry and infantry, the role of which greatly increased at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. However, the bulk of the army consisted of mounted detachments of nomads, the backbone of which consisted of elite units heavily armed cavalrymen, as well as detachments of Tamerlane’s bodyguards. Infantry often played a supporting role, but was necessary during sieges of fortresses. The infantry was mostly lightly armed and consisted mainly of archers, but the army also included heavily armed infantry shock troops.
In addition to the main branches of the military (heavy and light cavalry, as well as infantry), Tamerlane’s army included detachments of pontooners, workers, engineers and other specialists, as well as special infantry units that specialized in combat operations in mountainous conditions (they were recruited from residents of mountain villages). The organization of Tamerlane’s army generally corresponded to the decimal organization of Genghis Khan, but a number of changes appeared (for example, units of 50 to 300 people, called “koshuns,” appeared; the number of larger units, “kuls,” was also variable).
The main weapon of light cavalry, like infantry, was the bow. Light cavalrymen also used sabers or swords and axes. Heavily armed horsemen were clad in armor (the most popular armor was chain mail, often reinforced with metal plates), protected by helmets, and fought with sabers or swords (in addition to bows and arrows, which were common). Simple infantrymen were armed with bows, heavy infantry warriors fought with sabers, axes and maces and were protected by armor, helmets and shields.
During his campaigns, Timur used banners with the image of three rings. According to some historians, the three rings symbolized earth, water and sky. According to Svyatoslav Roerich, Timur could have borrowed the symbol from the Tibetans, whose three rings meant the past, present and future. Some miniatures depict the red banners of Timur's army. During the Indian campaign it was used black banner with a silver dragon. Before his campaign against China, Tamerlane ordered that a golden dragon be depicted on the banners.
There is a legend that before the Battle of Ankara, Timur and Bayazid the Lightning met on the battlefield. Bayezid, looking at Timur’s banner, said: “What impudence to think that the whole world belongs to you!” In response, Timur, pointing to the Turk’s banner, said: “It’s even greater impudence to think that the moon belongs to you.”
Urban planning and architecture
During the years of his conquests, Timur brought not only material loot to the country, but also brought with him prominent scientists, artisans, artists, and architects. He believed that the more cities there are cultured people, the faster its development will go and the more comfortable the cities of Transoxiana and Turkestan will be. During his conquests, he put an end to political fragmentation in Persia and the Middle East, trying to leave a memory of himself in every city he visited, he built several beautiful buildings in it. For example, he restored the cities of Baghdad, Derbend, Baylakan, fortresses, parking lots, bridges, and irrigation systems destroyed on the roads.
Timur cared primarily about the prosperity of his native Maverannahr and about enhancing the splendor of his capital, Samarkand. Timur brought craftsmen, architects, jewelers, builders, architects from all the conquered lands in order to equip the cities of his empire: the capital Samarkand, his father’s homeland - Kesh (Shakhrisyabz), Bukhara, the border city of Yassy (Turkestan). He managed to express all his care that he put into the capital Samarkand through words about it: - “There will always be blue sky and gold stars." Only in recent years did he take measures to improve the well-being of other regions of the state, mainly border ones (in 1398 a new irrigation canal was built in Afghanistan, in 1401 - in Transcaucasia, etc.)
In 1371, he began the restoration of the destroyed fortress of Samarkand, the defensive walls of Shahristan with six gates Sheikhzade, Akhanin, Feruza, Suzangaran, Karizgakh and Chorsu, and two four-story buildings Kuksarai were built in the arch, which housed the state treasury, workshops and a prison, as well as Buston barn, which housed the emir's residence.
Timur made Samarkand one of the centers of trade in Central Asia. As the traveler Clavijo writes: “In Samarkand, goods brought from China, India, Tatarstan (Dasht-i Kipchak - B.A.) and other places, as well as from the richest kingdom of Samarkand, are sold every year. Since there were no special rows in the city where it would be convenient to trade, Timurbek ordered a street to be laid through the city, on both sides of which there would be shops and tents for selling goods.”
Timur paid great attention to the development of Islamic culture and the improvement of sacred places for Muslims. In the mausoleums of Shahi Zinda, he erected tombs over the graves of his relatives, at the direction of one of his wives, whose name was Tuman, aka a mosque, a dervish abode, a tomb and Chartag were erected there. He also built Rukhabad (the tomb of Burkhaniddin Sogardji), Qutbi Chahardahum (the tomb of Sheikh Khoja Nuriddin Basir) and Gur-Emir (the family tomb of the Timurid family). Also in Samarkand, he built many baths, mosques, madrassas, dervish abodes, and caravanserais.
During 1378-1404, 14 gardens were cultivated in Samarkand and nearby lands: Bag-i bihisht, Bag-i dilkusha, Bag-i shamal, Bag-i buldi, Bag-i nav, Bag-i jahannuma, Bag-i takhti karacha and Bag-i davlatabad, Bag-zogcha (garden of rooks), etc. Each of these gardens had a palace and fountains. In his works about Samarkand, the historian Hafizi Abru mentions, in which he writes that “Samarkand, which had previously been built from clay, was rebuilt by erecting buildings from stone.” Timur's park complexes were open to ordinary citizens who spent their days of rest there. None of these palaces have survived to this day.
In 1399-1404, a cathedral mosque and a madrasah opposite it were built in Samarkand. The mosque later received the name Bibi Khanum (Lady Grandmother - in Turkic).
Shakhrisabz (in Persian “green city”) was developed, in which the destroyed city walls were erected, defensive structures, tombs of saints, majestic palaces, mosques, madrassas, tombs. Timur also devoted time to building bazaars and baths. From 1380 to 1404 the Aksaray Palace was built. In 1380, the family tomb Dar us-saadat was erected.
The cities of Yassy and Bukhara were also developed. In 1388, the city of Shahrukhiya, which was destroyed during the invasion of Genghis Khan, was restored.
In 1398, after the victory over the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh, a mausoleum was built in Turkestan over the grave of the poet and Sufi philosopher Khoja Ahmad Yassawi, on the orders of Timur, by Iranian and Khorezm craftsmen. Here the Tabriz master cast a two-ton copper cauldron, in which food was to be prepared for those in need.
Development of science and painting
In Maverannahr, applied art became widespread, in which artists could demonstrate all their mastery of their skills. It became widespread in Bukhara, Yassy and Samarkand. Drawings have been preserved in the tombs of the tombs of Shirinbek-aga and Tuman-aga, made in 1385 and 1405, respectively. The art of miniatures, which adorned such books by writers and poets of Maverannahr as “Shahname” by Abulkasim Ferdowsi and “Anthology of Iranian Poets,” received particular development. Great success The artists Abdulhai Baghdadi, Pir Ahmad Bagishamali and Khoja Bangir Tabrizi achieved in art at that time. In the tomb of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, located in Turkestan, there was a large cast-iron cauldron and candlesticks with the name of Emir Timur written on them. A similar candlestick was also found in the tomb of Gur-Emir in Samarkand. All this indicates that Central Asian craftsmen, especially wood and stone craftsmen and jewelers and weavers, have also achieved great success.
In the field of science and education, law, medicine, theology, mathematics, astronomy, history, philosophy, musicology, literature and the science of versification have become widespread. A prominent theologian at that time was Jalaliddin Ahmed al Khwarizmi. Much success in astrology reached Maulana Ahmad, and in jurisprudence Abdumalik, Isamiddin and Sheikh Shamsiddin Muhammad Jazairi. In musicology, Abdulgadir Maraghi, father and son of Safiaddin and Ardasher Changi. In painting by Abdulhay Baghdadi and Pir Ahmad Bagishamoli. In philosophy Sadiddin Taftazzani and Ali al-Jurjani. In the history of Nizamiddin Shami and Hafizi Abru.
Spiritual mentors of Timur
Timur's first spiritual mentor was his father's mentor, the Sufi sheikh Shams ad-din Kulal. Also known are Zainud-din Abu Bakr Taybadi, a major Khorosan sheikh, and Shamsuddin Fakhuri, a potter and prominent figure in the Naqshbandi tariqa. Timur’s main spiritual mentor was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Mir Seyid Bereke. It was he who handed Timur the symbols of power: the drum and the banner when he came to power in 1370. Handing these symbols, Mir Seyid Bereke predicted a great future for the emir. He accompanied Timur on his great campaigns. In 1391, he blessed him before the battle with Tokhtamysh. In 1403, they together mourned the unexpected death of the heir to the throne, Muhammad Sultan. Mir Seyid Bereke was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum, where Timur himself was buried at his feet. Another mentor of Timur was the son of the Sufi sheikh Burkhan ad-din Sagardzhi Abu Said. Timur ordered the construction of the Rukhabad mausoleum over their graves.
Timur's wives and children
He had 18 wives, of which his favorite wife was Emir Hussein's sister, Uljay Turkan aga. According to another version, his beloved wife was the daughter of Kazan Khan, Sarai-mulk khanum. She did not have her own children, but she was entrusted with the upbringing of some of Timur's sons and grandchildren. She was a famous patron of science and the arts. By her order, a huge madrasah and mausoleum for her mother were built in Samarkand.
In 1352, Timur married the daughter of Emir Jaku-barlas Turmush-aga. Khan Maverannahra Kazagan, convinced of Timur’s merits, in 1355 gave him his granddaughter Uljay-Turkan aga as his wife. Thanks to this marriage, Timur's alliance with Emir Hussein, the grandson of Kazagan, arose.
In addition, Timur had other wives: Tugdi bi, daughter of Ak Sufi kungrat, Ulus aga from the Sulduz tribe, Nauruz aga, Bakht Sultan aga, Burkhan aga, Tavakkul-hanim, Turmish aga, Jani-bik aga, Chulpan aga, etc.
Timur had four sons: Jahangir (1356-1376), Umar Sheikh (1356-1394), Miran Shah (1366-1408), Shahrukh (1377-1447) and several daughters: Uka Begim (1359-1382), Sultan Bakht aga (1362-1430), Bigi jan, Saadat Sultan, Musalla.
Death
He died during the campaign against China. After the end of the seven-year war, during which Bayezid I was defeated, Timur began preparations for the Chinese campaign, which he had long planned due to Chinese claims to the lands of Transoxiana and Turkestan. He gathered a large army of two hundred thousand, with which he set out on a campaign on November 27, 1404. In January 1405, he arrived in the city of Otrar (its ruins are not far from the confluence of the Arys and the Syr Darya), where he fell ill and died (according to historians - on February 18, according to Timur's tombstone - on the 15th). The body was embalmed, placed in an ebony coffin, lined with silver brocade, and taken to Samarkand. Tamerlane was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum, which was still unfinished at that time. Official mourning events were held on March 18, 1405 by Timur's grandson Khalil-Sultan (1405-1409), who seized the Samarkand throne against the will of his grandfather, who bequeathed the kingdom to his eldest grandson Pir-Muhammad.
Sarcophagus of Tamerlane
After the death of Tamerlane, a tomb was built - the majestic Gur-Emir mausoleum, where he and his descendants, as well as his spiritual mentor, were buried.
Russian politician and public figure Illarion Vasilchikov, who traveled around Central Asia, recalled his visit to Gur-Emir in Samarkand:
...Inside the mausoleum, in the middle, stood a large sarcophagus of Tamerlane himself, all made of dark green jade, with ornaments and sayings from the Koran carved on it, and on its sides were two smaller sarcophagi of white marble - Tamerlane’s beloved wives
The Legend of Tamerlane's Tomb
Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Laboratory of plastic anthropological reconstruction. Sculptural portrait of Tamerlane - reconstruction by anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov.
According to the legend, the source and time of which it is not possible to establish, there was a prediction that if Tamerlane’s ashes were disturbed, a great and terrible war would begin.
In the tomb of Timur Gur Emir in Samarkand, on a large dark green jade tombstone, the following is inscribed in Arabic script:
“This is the tomb of the great Sultan, the gracious Khakan of Emir Timur Gurgan; son Emir Taragay, son Emir Bergul, son Emir Ailangir, son Emir Angil, son Kara Charnuyan, son Emir Sigunchinchin, son Emir Irdanchi-Barlas, son Emir Kachulay, son Tumnai Khan.Whoever wants to know further, let it be known: the latter’s mother’s name was Alankuva, who was distinguished by her honesty and impeccable morality. She once became pregnant by a wolf, who came to her in the opening of the room and, taking the form of a man, announced that he was a descendant of the Commander of the Faithful, Aliy, the son of Abu Talib. This testimony given by her is accepted as truth. Her praiseworthy descendants will rule the world forever.
Died on the night of 14 Shagban 807 (1405).”
At the bottom of the stone there is an inscription: “This stone was placed by Ulugbek Gurgan after the campaign in Jitta”.
Several less reliable sources also report that the tombstone contains the following inscription: "When I rise (from the dead), the world will tremble". Some undocumented sources claim that when the grave was opened in 1941, an inscription was found inside the coffin: “Whoever disturbs my peace in this life or the next will suffer and die.”.
Another legend says: In 1747, Nadir Shah of Iran took this jade tombstone, and on that day Iran was destroyed by an earthquake, and the Shah himself became seriously ill. The earthquake occurred again when the Shah returned to Iran, and the stone was returned.
I entered the nearest teahouse and saw three ancient old men sitting there. I also noted to myself: they look alike, like siblings. Well, I sat down nearby, and they brought me a teapot and a bowl. Suddenly one of these old men turns to me: “Son, you’re one of those who decided to open Tamerlane’s grave?” And I’ll take it and say: “Yes, I’m the most important one in this expedition, without me all these scientists are nowhere!” I decided to drive away my fear with a joke. Only, I see, the old people frowned even more in response to my smile. And the one who spoke to me beckons me to him. I come closer and see that he has a book in his hands - an old one, handwritten, the pages are filled with Arabic script. And the old man traces the lines with his finger: “Look, son, what is written in this book. “Whoever opens Tamerlane’s grave will release the spirit of war. And there will be such a bloody and terrible carnage, such as the world has not seen forever."From the memoirs of Malik Kayumov, who was a cameraman during the opening of the grave:
M. M. Gerasimov, M. K. Kayumov and others after opening the tomb of Timur. 06/21/1941
He decided to tell the others, and they laughed at him. It was June 20th. The scientists did not listen and opened the grave, and on the same day the Great Patriotic War began. No one could find those elders: the owner of the teahouse said that on that day, June 20, he saw the old people for the first and last time.
The opening of Tamerlane's tomb was carried out on the night of June 20, 1941. Later, as a result of a study of the commander’s skull, the Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov recreated Tamerlane’s appearance.
However, the plan for war with the USSR was developed at Hitler's headquarters back in 1940, the date of the invasion was limitedly known in the spring of 1941 and was finally determined on June 10, 1941, that is, long before the opening of the grave. The signal to the troops that the offensive should begin as planned was transmitted on June 20.
According to Kayumov, while at the front, he secured a meeting with Army General Zhukov in October 1942, explained the situation and offered to return Tamerlane’s ashes back to the grave. This was carried out on November 19-20, 1942; These days, the Red Army began its offensive in the Battle of Stalingrad, which marked a turning point in the war in favor of the Soviet Union.
According to sources, Timur was fond of playing chess (more precisely, shatranj); perhaps he was the champion of his time.
In Bashkir mythology there is an ancient legend about Tamerlane. According to him, it was by order of Tamerlane in 1395-96 that the mausoleum of Hussein Bek, the first disseminator of Islam among the Bashkir tribes, was built, since the commander, having accidentally found the grave, decided to show great honor to him as a person who spread Muslim culture. The legend is confirmed by six graves of prince-military leaders at the mausoleum, who, for unknown reasons, died along with part of the army during the winter stop. However, who specifically ordered the construction, Tamerlane or one of his generals, is not known for certain. Now the mausoleum of Hussein Beg is located on the territory of the village of Chishmy, Chishminsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Personal belongings that belonged to Timur, by the will of history, ended up scattered among various museums and private collections. For example, the so-called Ruby of Timur, which adorned his crown, is currently kept in London.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Timur’s personal sword was kept in the Tehran Museum.
According to family legend, the Tungus princes Gantimurovs trace their family line to Tamerlane, which has nothing to do with historical realities, but is based solely on the consonance of the name Timur and the family name of the Gantimurovs.
In Uzbekistan, the first to raise the personality of Amir Timur (Temirlan) as one of the great khakans (khagans) in the history of Turkestan was Abdurauf Fitrat. It was he who sacralized the image of Amir Timur in his works; this tradition was continued by I. Muminov in the 1960s, and this sacralization served as the foundation for the exaltation of the personality of Amir Timur in Uzbekistan after it gained independence. Later Alikhan Tura Saguny translated it into modern Uzbek"Timur's Code".
Tamerlane in art
In literature
The official history of Tamerlane was written during his lifetime, first by Ali-ben Jemal-al-Islam (the only copy is in the Tashkent Public Library), then by Nizam-ad-din Shami (the only copy is in the British Museum). These works were supplanted by the famous work of Sheref ad-din Iezdi (under Shahrukh), translated into French (“Histoire de Timur-Bec”, P., 1722). The work of another contemporary of Timur and Shahrukh, Hafizi-Abru, has reached us only in part; it was used by the author of the second half of the 15th century, Abd-ar-Rezzak of Samarkandi (the work was not published; there are many manuscripts).
Of the authors (Persian, Arab, Armenian, Ottoman and Byzantine) who wrote independently of Timur and the Timurids, only one, the Syrian Arab Ibn Arabshah, compiled a complete history of Timur (“Ahmedis Arabsiadae vitae et rerum gestarum Timuri, qui vulgo Tamerlanes dicitur, historia ", 1767-1772).
Wed. also F. Neve “Expose des guerres de Tamerlan et de Schah-Rokh dans l’Asie occidentale, d’apres la chronique armenienne inedite de Thomas de Madzoph” (Brussels, 1859).
The authenticity of Timur's autobiographical notes, allegedly discovered in the 16th century, is more than doubtful.
Of the works of European travelers, the diary of the Spaniard Clavijo is especially valuable (“Diary of a trip to the court of Timur in Samarkand in 1403-1406”, text with translation and notes, St. Petersburg, 1881, in the “Collection of the Department of Russian Language and Literature Imperial Academy Sciences", vol. XXVIII, no. 1).
People's writer of Uzbekistan, Soviet author Sergei Petrovich Borodin began writing an epic novel called “Stars over Samarkand.” He wrote his first book, published under the title “Lame Timur,” between 1953 and 1954. The second book, “Bonfires of the Campaign,” was completed by 1958, and the third, “Lightning Bayazet,” by 1971, its publication in the magazine “Friendship of Peoples” was completed by 1973. The author also worked on a fourth book, entitled “The White Horse,” but died after writing only four chapters.
The theme of Tamerlane and his curse is played out in the novel “Day Watch” by Sergei Lukyanenko, in the plot of which Tamerlane finds a special chalk, with the help of which it is possible to change fate with one chalk mark.
Edgar Allan Poe - poem “Tamerlane”. Sergei Borodin - epic novel “Stars over Samarkand”. Includes 4 books: Mikail Mushfig - poem “Lame Timur” (1925)
In folklore
Timur as a ruler appears in many parables about Khoja Nasreddin.
Historical sources
Zafar-name of Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi (“Book of Victories”; written in Persian in Shiraz in 1419-1425), based on descriptions of the campaigns of Tamerlane, historical works, as well as eyewitness accounts. Yazdi's work is the most complete set of data on the history of Tamerlane and is a valuable historical source, but is distinguished by an extreme idealization of his activities. The life and work of Tamerlane is described in historical sources, both Muslim and Christian. Among the most famous Muslim sources, we should mention Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi (“Zafar-name”, 1419-1425), Ibn Arabshah (“The History of Amir Temur”), Abd ar-Razzak (“The places of the rise of two lucky stars and the places of confluence of two seas”, 1467-1471), Nizam ad-Din Shami (“Zafar-name”, 1404), Giyasaddin Ali (“Diary of Timur’s campaign in India”). Among the Western European authors, Rui Gonzalez de Clavijo, the author of the “Diary of a Journey to Samarkand to the Court of Timur,” is famous.
In 1430-1440, the “History of Timur and his successors” was written by the Armenian historian Thomas of Metsop (Tovmy Metsopetsi, 1378-1446). This detailed work is an important source about the era of Tamerlane and his campaigns in Armenia and neighboring countries.
In 1401-1402, Tamerlane instructed Nizam ad-Din Shami to bring into systematic order the official records of the events of Timur's era, compiled by his personal secretaries, and write the history of his reign in simple language. The story compiled under such conditions by Nizam-ad-din served as the primary source for the subsequent historical chronicles of Tamerlane and his era - “Zafar-name” by Sheref-ad-din Ali Ezdi and “Matla” al-sa’dein” (“The Rising Places of Two Lucky Stars” and the confluence of two seas”) by Abd-ar-razzak of Samarkandi.
Ibn Arabshah, as a child, was a captive of Tamerlane and 30 years after Tamerlane’s death he wrote the book “Ajayib al-Makdur fi Tarihi Taimur” (“The History of Amir Temur”). This book is valuable as one of the ancient manuscripts written by a contemporary of Tamerlane.
- Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilievich. Apotheosis of war
- Marlowe, Christopher. Tamerlane the Great.
- Lucien Kehren, Tamerlan - l'empire du Seigneur de Fer, 1978
- Lucien Kehren “La route de Samarkand au temps de Tamerlan, Relation du voyage de l'ambassade de Castille à la cour de Timour Beg par Ruy Gonzalez De Clavijo (1403-1406)” (traduite et commentee par Lucien Kehren), Publ: Paris Imprimerie nationale. Les editions: 1990, 2002 et 2006.
- Poe, Edgar Allan. Tamerlane.
- Javid, Huseyn. Lame Timur.
- Borodin, Sergei Petrovich. Stars over Samarkand.
- Segen, Alexander Yurievich. Tamerlane.
- Popov, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Tamerlane.
- Howard, Robert Irwin. Ruler of Samarkand.
- Khurshid Davron, Samarqand xayoli, 1991
- Khurshid Davron, Sohibqiron nabirasi, 1995
- Khurshid Davron, Bibixonim Qissasi, 2
In music
- George Frideric Handel's opera Tamerlane (premiered in London in 1724). The libretto of the opera is a free interpretation of the events that occurred after the capture of Bayezid at the Battle of Angora. Currently, it is one of the composer's most frequently performed operas.
- Musical and choreographic performance dedicated to the 660th anniversary of Amir Timur in Samarkand (1996). Scriptwriter - People's Poet of Uzbekistan Khurshid Davron, director - People's Artist of Uzbekistan Bakhodir Yuldashev.
- The song “The Doors of Tamerlane” by the rock group “Melnitsa”. The author of the text and music is Helavisa. Included in the albums “Master of the mill” (2004) and “Call of Blood” (2006).
- Song "Chalk of Fate". Author and performer - Seryoga. Used as a single in the film "Day Watch".
- Song of the Ukrainian heavy metal band Wings - “Tamerlane”
- Opera “The Legend of the Ancient City of Yelets, the Holy Virgin Mary and Tamerlane” - author A. Tchaikovsky, opera in 1 act. Libretto by R. Polzunovskaya, N. Karasik.
To the cinema
Artistic
- The role of Tamerlane in the 1973 Azerbaijani film Nasimi was played by Yusif Valiyev.
- One of the Imperial Bank's commercials, the World History Series, was created about Tamerlane. Author - Timur Bekmambetov.
- The theme of the curse of Tamerlane, who allegedly rewrote his fate with the help of the Chalk of Fate, is played out in the film “Day Watch,” based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. Director: Timur Bekmambetov.
- In the 2008 satirical film War, Inc. (Play for big money). The name of the corporation that actually rules the entire world economy is “Tamerlane”.
- Temurnoma (Timuriada) - 21 serial television film of 1996. Author - historian and People's poet of Uzbekistan Khurshid Davron
- Tamerlane is a 2009 opera directed by Graham Vick.
Documentary
- Secrets of antiquity. Barbarians. Part 2. Mongols (USA; 2003).
- The Curse of Tamerlane is a 2006 film directed by Alexander Fetisov.
In painting
- Vasily Vereshchagin, author of the paintings “The Doors of Khan Tamerlane (Timur)” (1872) and “Apotheosis of War” (1871).
- “Flowers of Timur (Lights of Victory)” (1933) - author Nicholas Roerich. The painting depicts a warning system using large fires lit on watchtowers.
Monuments, toponymy and memory
- The names Temir, Tamerlane, Temirlane and Timur are still common among many Turkic and some Caucasian peoples.
- On the territory of modern Uzbekistan, dozens of geographical objects, caves, and settlements have been preserved, the history of which is associated in folk memory with the name of Timur.
(National Museum of Timurid History in Tashkent)
- "Amir Temur Square" located in the center of Tashkent (Uzbekistan) ( original title- “Konstantinovsky Square”, also called Square October Revolution). After independence the area is called Amir Timur Square.
- The monument to Tamerlane was installed in Tashkent in the “Amir Timur Square”, a bronze equestrian sculpture of the work I. Jabbarova.
- The monument to Tamerlane was erected in Shakhrisabz, near the ruins of the Ak-Saray palace erected by order of Tamerlane.
- Monument to Tamerlane in Samarkand. Timur is represented sitting on a bench and leaning with both hands on a sword.
- In 1996, the National Museum of Timurid History was opened in Tashkent.
- In 1996, the Order of Amir Temur was established in Uzbekistan.
- In 1996, a postal block dedicated to Tamerlane was issued in Uzbekistan.
