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Timur

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   Statue of Timur in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan
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   Statue of Timur in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan

   Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas ( Chagatai Turkic: تیمور Tēmōr, "iron") (
   1336 – February 1405) was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-Mongol
   descent, conqueror of much of Western and central Asia, and founder of
   the Timurid Empire ( 1370–1405) in Central Asia and of the Timurid
   dynasty, which survived in some form until 1857. He is also known as
   Timur-e Lang ( Persian: تیمور لنگ) which translates to Timur the Lame,
   as he was lame after sustaining an injury to the leg as a child.

   He ruled over an empire that extends in modern nations from south
   eastern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, through Central Asia
   encompassing part of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Russia, Turkmenistan,
   Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, India, even approaching Kashgar in
   China.

   Timur's legacy is a mixed one, for while Central Asia blossomed, some
   say even peaked, under his reign, other places such as Baghdad,
   Damascus, Delhi and other Arab, Persian, Indian and Turkic cities were
   sacked and destroyed, and many thousands of people were slaughtered.
   Thus, while Timur remains a hero of sorts in Central Asia, he is
   vilified by many in Arab, Persian and Indian societies. At the same
   time, many Western Asians still do name their children after him, while
   Persian literature calls him "Teymour, Conqueror of the World" (تیمور
   جهانگشا).

   After his marriage into 13th-century Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan's
   family, he took the name Timūr Gurkānī ( Persian: تيمور گوركانى),
   Gurkān being the Persianized form of the original Mongolian word
   kürügän, "son-in-law". Alternative spellings of his name are: Temur,
   Taimur, Timur Lenk, Timur-i Leng, Temur-e Lang, Amir Timur, Aqsaq
   Timur, as well as the Latinized Tamerlane and Tamburlaine.

Early life

   Timur was born in Transoxiana, near Kesh (an area now better known as
   Shahr-e Sabz), 'the green city,' situated some 50 miles south of
   Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan.

   Timur placed much of his early legitimacy on his genealogical roots to
   the great Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. What is known is that he was
   descended from the Mongol invaders who initially pushed westwards after
   the establishment of the Mongol empire.

   His father Taraghay was head of the tribe of Barlas, a nomadic
   Turkic-speaking tribe of Mongol origin that traced its origin to the
   Mongol commander Qarachar Barlas. Taraghay was the great-grandson of
   Qarachar Noyon and, distinguished among his fellow-clansmen as the
   first convert to Islam, Taraghay might have assumed the high military
   rank which fell to him by right of inheritance; but like his father
   Burkul he preferred a life of retirement and study. Taraghay would
   eventually retire to a Muslim monastery, telling his son that "the
   world is a beautiful vase filled with scorpions."

   Under a paternal eye, the education of young Timur was such that at the
   age of twenty he had not only become an adept in manly outdoor
   exercises but had earned the reputation of being an attentive reader of
   the Qur'an. Like his father, Timur was a Muslim and may have been
   influenced by Sufism. At this period, according to the Memoirs
   (Malfu'at), he exhibited proofs of a tender and sympathetic nature,
   though these claims are generally now held to be spurious.

   In addition, the spurious genealogy on his tombstone taking his descent
   back to Ali, and the presence of Shiites in his army led some observers
   and scholars to call him a Shiite. However, his official religious
   counselor was the Hanafite scholar Abd alJabbar Khwarazmi. There is
   evidence that he had converted to be Nusayri under the influence of
   Sayyed Barakah, a Nusayri leader from Balkh, who was a mentor of his.
   He also constructed one of his finest buildings at the tomb of Ahmed
   Yesevi, an influential Turkic Sufi saint who was doing most to spread
   Sunni Islam among the nomads.

Military leader

   Map of the Timurid Empire in 1405 (In Grey)
   Enlarge
   Map of the Timurid Empire in 1405 (In Grey)

   In about 1360 Timur gained prominence as a military leader. He took
   part in campaigns in Transoxania with the khan of Chagatai, a
   descendant of Genghis Khan. His career for the next ten or eleven years
   may be thus briefly summarized from the Memoirs. Allying himself both
   in cause and by family connection with Kurgan, the dethroner and
   destroyer of Volga Bulgaria, he was to invade Khorasan at the head of a
   thousand horsemen. This was the second military expedition which he
   led, and its success led to further operations, among them the
   subjection of Khwarizm and Urganj.

   After the murder of Kurgan the disputes which arose among the many
   claimants to sovereign power were halted by the invasion of Tughluk
   Timur of Kashgar, another descendant of Genghis Khan. Timur was
   dispatched on a mission to the invader's camp, the result of which was
   his own appointment to the head of his own tribe, the Barlas, in place
   of its former leader Hajji Beg.

   The exigencies of Timur's quasi-sovereign position compelled him to
   have recourse to his formidable patron, whose reappearance on the banks
   of the Syr Darya created a consternation not easily allayed. The Barlas
   were taken from Timur and entrusted to a son of Tughluk, along with the
   rest of Mawarannahr; but he was defeated in battle by the bold warrior
   he had replaced at the head of a numerically far inferior force.

Rise to power

   Tughluk's death facilitated the work of reconquest, and a few years of
   perseverance and energy sufficed for its accomplishment, as well as for
   the addition of a vast extent of territory. During this period Timur
   and his brother-in-law Husayn, at first fellow fugitives and wanderers
   in joint adventures full of interest and romance, became rivals and
   antagonists. At the close of 1369 Husayn was assassinated and Timur,
   having been formally proclaimed sovereign at Balkh, mounted the throne
   at Samarkand, the capital of his dominions.

   It is notable that Timur never claimed for himself the title of khan,
   styling himself amir and acting in the name of the Chagatai ruler of
   Transoxania. Timur was a military genius but lacking in political
   sense. He tended not to leave a government apparatus behind in lands he
   conquered, and was often faced with the need to conquer such lands
   again after inevitable rebellions.

Period of expansion

   Until his death, Timur spent the next 35 years in various wars and
   expeditions. Timur not only consolidated his rule at home by the
   subjugation of his foes, but sought extension of territory by
   encroachments upon the lands of foreign potentates. His conquests to
   the west and north-west led him among the Mongols of the Caspian Sea
   and to the banks of the Ural and the Volga. Conquests in the south and
   south-West encompassed almost every province in Persia, including
   Baghdad, Karbala and Kurdistan.

   One of the most formidable of his opponents was Tokhtamysh who, after
   having been a refugee at the court of Timur, became ruler both of the
   eastern Kipchak and the Golden Horde and quarrelled with Timur over the
   possession of Khwarizm. Timur supported Tokhtamysh against Russians and
   Tokhtamysh, with armed support by Timur, invaded Russia and in 1382
   captured Moscow. After the death of Abu Sa'id ( 1335), ruler of the
   Ilkhanid Dynasty, there was a power vacuum in the Persia. In 1383 Timur
   started the military conquest of Persia. Timur captured Herat, Khorasan
   and all eastern Persia to 1385.

   In the meantime, Tokhtamysh, now khan of the Golden Horde, turned
   against Timur and invaded Azerbaijan in 1385. It was not until 1395, in
   the battle of Kur River, that the power of Tokhtamysh was finally
   broken, after a titanic struggle between the two monarchs. In this war,
   Timur led an army of over 100,000 men north for about 500 miles into
   the uninhabited steppe, then west about 1000 miles, advancing in a
   front more than 10 miles wide. Tokhtamysh's army finally was cornered
   against the Volga River near Orenburg and destroyed. During this march,
   Timur's army got far enough north to be in a region of very long summer
   days, causing complaints by his Muslim soldiers about keeping a long
   schedule of prayers in such northern regions. Timur led a second
   campaign against Tokhtamysh via an easier route through the Caucasus,
   and Timur destroyed Sarai and Astrakhan, and wrecked the Golden Horde's
   economy based on Silk Road trade.

India

   In 1398 Timur, informed about civil war in India (started in 1394),
   began war against the Muslim Ruler in Delhi. He crossed the Indus River
   at Attock on September 24. The capture of towns and villages was very
   often accompanied by their destruction and the massacre of their
   inhabitants. On his way to Delhi he met fierce resistance put up by the
   Governor of Meerut, Qilladar (Qilla means Fort; Qill-dar means Fort
   Commander) Ilyaas Awan Alvi, who engaged him in an intense battle which
   lasted nearly two months inflicting heavy losses on both sides. After
   the honourable and couragous death in battle of Ilaas Awan, Timur
   (though very much impressed by Ilyaas Awan's bravery) approached Delhi
   to meet with the armies of the Emperor, Sultan Nasir-u-Din Mehmud of
   Tughlaq Dynasty, who was already weak due to a fight for power in the
   Royal Family. The Sultan's army was easily defeated and destroyed on
   December 17, 1394. Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked,
   destroyed, and left in a mass of ruins. Before the battle for Delhi,
   Timur executed more than 50,000 captives, and after the sack of Delhi
   almost all inhabitants who were not killed were captured and deported.
   It is said that the devastation of Delhi was not Timur's intent, but
   that his horde could simply not be controlled after entering the city
   gates. However, some historians have stated that he told his armies
   they could have free reign over Delhi.

   Timur left Delhi in approximately January 1399. In April 1399 he was
   back in his own capital beyond the Oxus (Amu Darya). An immense
   quantity of spoils was conveyed from India. According to Ruy Gonzáles
   de Clavijo, ninety captured elephants were employed merely to carry
   stones from certain quarries to enable the conqueror to erect a mosque
   at Samarkand, probably the enormous Bibi-Khanym Mosque.

Last campaigns and death

   Timur went to Kashmir from Delhi and forced hundreds to embrace Islam.
   Before the end of 1399 Timur started a war with Bayezid I, sultan of
   the Ottoman Empire, and the Mamluk sultan of Egypt. Bayezid began
   annexing the territory of Turkmen and Muslim rulers in Anatolia. As
   Timur claimed suzerainity over the Turkmen rulers, they took refuge
   behind him. Timur invaded Syria, sacked Aleppo, and captured Damascus
   after defeating the Mamluk's army. The city's inhabitants were
   massacred, except for the artisans who were deported to Samarkand. This
   led to Tamarlane's being publicly declared an enemy of Islam.

   He invaded Baghdad in June 1401. After the capture of the city, 20,000
   of its citizens were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should
   return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many warriors
   were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign
   just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur). In 1402, Timur
   invaded Anatolia and defeated Bayezid in the Battle of Ankara on July
   20, 1402. Bayezid was captured in battle and subsequently died in
   captivity, initiating the twelve year Ottoman Interregnum period.
   Timur's stated motivation for attacking Bayezid and the Ottoman Empire
   was the restoration of Seljuq authority. Timur saw the Seljuks as the
   rightful rulers of Anatolia as they had been granted rule by Mongol
   conquerors, illustrating again Timur's interest with Genghizid
   legitimacy.

   By 1368, the Ming had driven the Mongols out of China. The first Ming
   Emperor Hongwu Emperor demanded, and got, many Central Asian states to
   pay homage to China as the political heirs to the former House of
   Kublai. Timur more than once sent to the Ming Government gifts which
   could have passed as tribute, at first not daring to defy the economic
   and military might of the Middle Kingdom.

   Timur wished to restore the Mongol Empire, and eventually planned to
   conquer China. In December 1404, Timur started military expeditions
   against the Ming Dynasty of China, but he was attacked by fever and
   plague when encamped on the farther side of the Sihon ( Syr-Daria) and
   died at Atrar ( Otrar) in mid-February 1405. His scouts explored
   Mongolia before his death, and the writing they carved on trees in
   Mongolia's mountains could still be seen even in the twentieth century.

   Of Timur's four sons, two (Jahangir and Umar Shaykh) predeceased him.
   His third son, Miran Shah, died soon after Timur, leaving the youngest
   son, Shah Rukh. Although his designated successor was his grandson Pir
   Muhammad b. Jahangir, Timur was ultimately succeeded in power by his
   son Shah Rukh. His most illustrious descendant Babur founded the Mughal
   Empire and ruled over most of North India. Babur's descendants, Akbar,
   Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, expanded the Mughal Empire to most
   of the Indian subcontinent along with parts of Afghanistan.

   Markham, in his introduction to the narrative of Clavijo's embassy,
   states that his body "was embalmed with musk and rose water, wrapped in
   linen, laid in an ebony coffin and sent to Samarkand, where it was
   buried." His tomb, the Gur-e Amir, still stands in Samarkand. Timur had
   carried his victorious arms on one side from the Irtish and the Volga
   to the Persian Gulf, and on the other from the Hellespont to the Ganges
   River.

Contributions to the arts

   Timur became widely known as a patron to the arts. Much of the
   architecture he commissioned still stands in Samarqand, now in
   present-day Uzbekistan. He was known to bring the most talented
   artisans from the lands he conquered back to Samarkand. And he is
   credited with often giving them a wide latitude of artistic freedom to
   express themselves.

   According to legend, Omar Aqta, Timur's court calligrapher, transcribed
   the Qur'an using letters so small that the entire text of the book fit
   on a signet ring. Omar also is said to have created a Qur'an so large
   that a wheelbarrow was required to transport it. Folios of what is
   probably this larger Qur'an have been found, written in gold lettering
   on huge pages.

   Timur was also said to have created Tamerlane Chess, a variant of
   shatranj (also known as medieval chess) played on a larger board with
   several additional pieces and an original method of pawn promotion.

Exhumation

   Timur's body was exhumed from his tomb in 1941 by the Russian
   anthropologist Mikhail M. Gerasimov. He found that Timur's facial
   characteristics conformed to that of Mongoloid features, which he
   believed, in some part, supported Timur's notion that he was descended
   from Genghis Khan. He also confirmed Timur's lameness. Gerasimov was
   able to reconstruct the likeness of Timur from his skull.

   Famously, a curse has been attached to opening Timur's tomb. In the
   year of Timur's death, a sign was carved in Timur's tomb warning that
   whoever would dare disturb the tomb would bring demons of war onto his
   land. Gerasimov's expedition opened the tomb on June 19, 1941.
   Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany,
   began three days later on June 22, 1941. Shortly after Timur's skeleton
   and that of Ulugh Beg, his grandson, were reinterred with full Muslims
   burial rites in 1942, the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad. The legend
   of Tamerlane's curse features prominently in the 2006 Russian
   blockbuster Day Watch.

Fiction

     * There is a popular Irish Reel entitled Timour the Tartar.

     * Timur Lenk was the subject of two plays ( Tamburlaine the Great,
       Parts I and II) by English playwright Christopher Marlowe.

     * Bob Bainborough portrayed Tamerlane in an episode of History Bites.

     * George Frideric Handel made Timur Lenk the title character of his
       Tamerlano (HWV 18), an Italian language opera based on the 1675
       play Tamerlan ou la mort de Bajazet by Jacques Pradon.

     * Edgar Allan Poe's first published work was a poem entitled
       "Tamerlaine".

     * German-Jewish writer and social critic Kurt Tucholsky, under the
       pen name of Theobald Tiger, wrote the lyrics to a cabaret song
       about Timur in 1922, with the lines

                Mir ist heut so nach Tamerlan zu Mut —
                ein kleines bisschen Tamerlan wär gut

   which roughly translates as "I feel like Tamerlane today, a little bit
   of Tamerlane would be nice." The song was an allegory about German
   militarism, as well as a wry commentary on German fears of "Bolshevism"
   and the "Asiatic hordes from the East."
     * He is referred to in the poem "The City of Orange Trees" by Dick
       Davis. The poem is about an opulent society and the cyclic nature
       of zeal, prosperity and demise in civilisation.

     * Tamerlane features prominently in the short story Lord of Samarcand
       by Robert E. Howard which features a completely fictional account
       of his last campaign and death.

     * In the Nintendo GameCube video game Eternal Darkness, Pious
       Augustus recites a speech echoing Tamerlane's actual speech after
       sacking Damascus, implying that Tamerlane was the masked warlord.

     * In Microsoft's Age of Empires II, Tamerlane is a hero available
       only in the Map Editor.

     * The alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim
       Stanley Robinson portrays a Timur whose last campaign is
       significantly different from the historical truth.

   Preceded by:
   -           Timurid dynasty
               1370– 1405     Succeeded by:
                              Pir Muhammad
                              Miran Shah
                              Khalil Sultan
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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