Tamerlane his story. Tamerlane is the greatest Turkic commander of the Middle Ages. Name and identity

Tamerlane (Timur; April 8, 1336, p. Khoja-Ilgar, modern. Uzbekistan - February 18, 1405, Otrar, modern. Kazakhstan; Chagatai تیمور (Temür‎, Tēmōr) — "iron") is a Central Asian conqueror who played a significant role in the history of Central, South and Western Asia, as well as the Caucasus, the Volga region and Rus'. An outstanding commander, emir (since 1370). The founder of the empire and the Timurid dynasty, with its capital in Samarkand.

Name and identity

Tamerlane's name

Full name Timur was Timur ibn Taragay Barlas (Timur ibn Taragay Barlas — Timur son of Taragai from Barlasov) in accordance with the Arabic tradition (alam-nasab-nisba). Vchagatai and Mongolian (both Altaic) Temur or Temir Means " iron».

Not being a Genghisid, Timur formally could not bear the title of great khan, always calling himself only an emir (leader, leader). However, having intermarried in 1370 with the house of Genghisides, he took the name Timur Gurgan (Timur Gurkanī, (تيموﺭ گوركان ), Gurkān is an Iranian version of Mongolian kurugen or khurgen, "son-in-law". This meant that Tamerlane, having intermarried with the Chingizid khans, could freely live and act in their homes.

In various Persian sources, an Iranianized nickname is often found Timur-e Liang(Tīmūr-e Lang, تیمور لنگ) "Timur the Lame", this name was probably considered derogatory at the time. It has passed into Western languages ( Tamerlan, Tamerlane, Tamburlaine, Timur Lenk) and into Russian, where it has no negative connotation and is used along with the original "Timur".

Monument to Tamerlane in Tashkent

Monument to Tamerlane in Samarkand

Personality of Tamerlane

The beginning of Tamerlane's political activity is similar to the biography of Genghis Khan: they were the leaders of the detachments of adherents they personally recruited, who later 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 the enemies and the state of their lands, enjoyed unconditional authority among his troops 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). Tamerlane liked to talk with scientists, especially to listen to the reading of historical writings; 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 warriors.

Timur left behind dozens of monumental architectural structures, some of which entered the treasury of world culture. The buildings of Timur, in the creation of which he took an active part, reveal in him an artistic taste.

Timur was primarily concerned with the prosperity of his native Maverannakhr and the exaltation of 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 (Shahrisyabz), Bukhara, the border city of Yassy (Turkestan). He managed to express all his care that he invested in the capital of Samarkand through words about it: - “Over Samarkand there will always be blue sky and golden stars. Only in last years he took measures to improve the well-being of other areas of the state, mainly border areas (in 1398 a new irrigation canal was built in Afghanistan, in 1401 in Transcaucasia, etc.)

Biography

Childhood and youth

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's childhood and youth were spent in the mountains of Kesh. 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 with Taragay, taught Timur the art of war and sports games. Timur was a very brave and restrained man. Possessing sober judgment, he was able to make the right decision in difficult situations. These character traits attracted people to him. The first information about Timur appeared in the sources starting from 1361, when he began his political activity.

The appearance of Timur

Timur at a feast in Samarkand

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, physically developed, his contemporaries wrote about him: “If most warriors could pull the bowstring to the level of the collarbone, then Timur pulled it to the ear. His hair is lighter than most of his tribesmen. Anthropologist show Mongoloid or mixed Mongoloid. A detailed study of the remains of Timur showed that anthropologically he was characterized by the Mongoloid South Siberian type.

Despite the senile age of Timur (69 years old), his skull, as well as his skeleton, did not have pronounced, actually senile features. The presence of most of the teeth, a clear relief of the bones, the almost absence of osteophytes - all this most likely indicates that the skull of the skeleton belonged to a person. full of energy and health, the biological age of which did not exceed 50 years. The massiveness of healthy bones, their highly developed relief and density, the width of the shoulders, the volume of the chest and relatively high growth - all this gives the right to think that Timur had an extremely strong build. His strong athletic muscles, most likely, were somewhat dry in form, and this is natural: life in military campaigns, with their difficulties and hardships, almost constant stay in the saddle could hardly contribute to obesity.

Restoration of the face of Tamerlane from the skull by anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov in 1941 after opening the grave

A special external difference between Tamerlane and his warriors from other Muslims was the braids they preserved, according to the Mongolian custom, which is confirmed by some Central Asian illustrated manuscripts of that time. Meanwhile, examining the ancient Turkic sculptures, the images of the Turks in the paintings of Afrasiab, the researchers came to the conclusion that the Turks wore braids as early as the 5th-8th centuries. The opening of Timur's grave and the analysis of anthropologists showed that Timur did not have 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, by the time of his death Timur had relatively long hair." Some historians believe that the light color of the hair is due to the fact that Tamerlane dyed his hair with henna. But, M. M. Gerasimov in his work notes: “Even a preliminary study of the hair of a beard under a binocular convinces that this reddish-reddish color is her natural, and not dyed with henna, as described by historians.” Timur wore a long mustache, not trimmed above the lip. As it turned out, there was a rule that allowed the highest military class to wear a mustache without cutting it above the lip, and Timur, according to this rule, did not cut his mustache, and they hung freely above the lip. “Timur's small thick beard was wedge-shaped. Her hair is coarse, almost straight, thick, bright brown (red) in color, with significant graying. Huge scars were visible on the bones of the left leg in the area of \u200b\u200bthe patella, which is fully consistent with the nickname "lame man"

Parents, brothers and sisters of Timur

Mausoleums of Timur's sisters in the Shakhi Zinda complex in Samarkand

His father's name was Taragay or Turgay, he was a military man, a small landowner. He came from the Mongol tribe of the Barlas, by that time already Turkicized and speaking the Chagatai language.

According to some assumptions, Timur's father Taragai was the leader of the Barlas tribe and a descendant of a certain Karachar noyon (a major feudal landowner in the Middle Ages), a powerful assistant to Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan and a distant relative of the latter.

Timur's father was a pious Muslim, his spiritual mentor was Sheikh Shams ad-din Kulal.

In the Encyclopedia Britannica, Timur is considered a Turkic conqueror.

In Indian historiography, Timur is considered the head of the Chagatai Turks.

Timur's father had one brother, whose name in Turkic was Balta.

Timur's father was married twice: the first wife was Timur's mother Tekina-Khatun. Contradictory information has been preserved about her origin. And the second wife of Taragay / Turgay was Kadak-khatun, the mother of Timur's sister Shirin-bek aga.

Muhammad Taragai 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 Shakhi Zinda complex in Samarkand. According to the Mu‘izz al-Ansab source, Timur had three more brothers: Juki, Alim Sheikh and Suyurgatmysh.

Spiritual guides of Timur

Mausoleum Rukhabad in Samarkand

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, a prominent figure in the Nakshbandi tariqa. The main spiritual mentor of Timur was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Mir Seyid Bereke. It was he who gave Timur the symbols of power: a drum and a banner when he came to power in 1370. Presenting 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 mourned together the unexpectedly deceased 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 Sagarji Abu Said. Timur ordered the construction of the Rukhabad mausoleum over their graves.

Timur's language skills

During a campaign against the Golden Horde against Tokhtamysh in 1391, Timur ordered to knock out an inscription in the Chagatai language in Uighur letters - 8 lines and three lines in Arabic, containing a Koranic text near the mountain Altyn-Chuku. In history, this inscription is known as the Karsakpai inscription of Timur. Currently, the stone with the inscription of Timur is stored and exhibited in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

A contemporary and prisoner of Tamerlane, Ibn Arabshah, who knew Tamerlane personally since 1401, reports: "As for Persian, Turkic and Mongolian, he knew them better than anyone else." Princeton University researcher Svat Soucek writes of Timur in his monograph that “He was a Turk of the Barlas tribe, Mongolian in name and origin, but in every practical sense Turkic by that time. Timur's native language was Turkic (Chagatai), although he may have also spoken Persian to some extent 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.

The legal documents of Timur's state were drawn up in two languages: Persian and Turkic. For example, a document dated 1378, giving privileges to the descendants of Abu Muslim, who lived in Khorezm, was drawn up in the Chagatai Turkic language.

The Spanish diplomat and traveler Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who visited the court of Tamerlane in Transoxiana, reports that "Beyond this river(Amu Darya - approx.) the kingdom of Samarkand extends, and its land is called Mogaliya (Mogolistan), and the language is Mughal, and this language is not understood on this(southern - approx.) side of the river, since everyone speaks Persian", then he says “The letter, which is used by the people of Samarkand,[living-approx.] 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 moghals. A señor(Tamerlane - approx.) he keeps several scribes with him who can read and write on this[language - approx.] » Orientalist professor Robert McChesney notes that by the language of Mughal, Clavijo meant the Turkic language.

According to the Timurid source "Muiz al-Ansab", at the court of Timur there was only a staff of Turkic and Tajik scribes.

Describing the tribes of Maverannahr, Ibn Arabshah gives the following information: “The mentioned sultan (Timur) had four viziers who were completely engaged in useful and harmful deeds. They were considered noble people, and everyone was a follower of their opinions. How many tribes and tribes the Arabs had, the Turks had the same number. Each of the aforementioned viziers, being representatives of one tribe, were the beacon of opinions and illuminated the set 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."

According to Alisher Navoi, although Timur did not write poetry, he knew both poetry and prose very well, and, by the way, he knew how to bring the proper bait to the place.

Timur's wives

He had 18 wives, of which his favorite wife was the sister of Emir Hussein - Uljay-Turkan aga. According to another version, his beloved wife was the daughter of Kazan Khan, Sarai Mulk Khanum. She had no children of her own, but she was entrusted with the upbringing of some of Timur's sons and grandsons. She was a renowned patroness of science and the arts. By her order, a huge madrasah and mausoleum for her mother was built in Samarkand.

In 1355, Timur marries the daughter of Emir Jaku-barlas Turmush-aga. Khan of Maverannahr Kazagan, convinced of the merits of Timur, 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-khanim, Turmish aga, Jani-bik aga, Chulpan aga and others.

During Timur's infancy, the Chagatai state in Central Asia (the Chagatai ulus) collapsed. In Maverannahr since 1346, the power belonged to the Turkic emirs, and the khans who were elevated to the throne by the emperor ruled only nominally. The Mogul emirs in 1348 enthroned Tugluk-Timur, who began to rule in East Turkestan, the Kulja region and Semirechye.

Rise of Timur

Map of the Chagatai Khanate

Start of political activity

Timur's conquests

In 1347, Emir Kazagan killed Genghis Khan Kazan Khan, after whose death the Chagatai ulus broke up into two separate states: Maverannahr and Mogolistan. After the collapse of the Chagatai ulus, the head of the Turkic emirs was Kazagan (1346-1358), who was not a Genghisid, but a native of the Karaunas. Formally, Chingizid Danishmadcha-oglan was elevated to the throne, and after his assassination, Bayankuli Khan. After the death of Kazagan, his son Abdullah really ruled the country, but he was killed and political anarchy swept the region.

Timur entered the service of the ruler of Kesh, Hadji Barlas, who was supposedly the head of the Barlas tribe. In 1360 Maverannahr was conquered by Tugluk-Timur. Haji Barlas fled to Khorasan, and Timur entered into negotiations with the khan and was approved as the ruler of the Kesh region, but was forced to leave after the Mongols left and Haji Barlas returned.

In 1361, Khan Tugluk-Timur again occupied the country, and Haji Barlas again fled to Khorasan, where he was subsequently killed. In 1362, Tugluk-Timur hurriedly left Maverannahr as a result of the rebellion of a group of emirs in Mogolistan, transferring power to his son Ilyas-Khoja. Timur was approved as the ruler of the Kesh region and one of the assistants to the Mogul prince. Before the khan had time to cross the Syrdarya River, Ilyas-Khoja-oglan, together with Emir Bekchik and other close emirs, conspired to remove Timurbek from state affairs, and, if possible, to destroy him physically. The intrigues became more and more intensified and took on a dangerous character. Timur had to separate from the Mughals and go over to the side of their enemy - Emir Hussein (Kazagan's grandson). For some time they led a life of adventurers with a small detachment and went towards Khorezm, where in the battle near Khiva they were defeated by the ruler of those lands, Tavakkala-Kongurot, and with the remnants of their warriors and servants, they were forced to retreat deep into the desert. Subsequently, having gone to the village of Makhmudi in the area subject to Mahan, they were taken prisoner by the people of Alibek Janikurban, in whose dungeons they spent 62 days in captivity. According to the 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-bek.

In 1361-1364, Timurbek and Emir Hussein lived on the southern bank of the Amu Darya in the regions of Kahmard, Daragez, Arsif and Balkh and waged a guerrilla war against the Mongols. During a skirmish in Seistan that took place in the autumn of 1362 against the enemies of the ruler Malik Kutbiddin, Timur lost two fingers on his right hand and was seriously wounded in his right leg, which made him lame (the nickname "lame Timur" - Aksak-Temir in Turkish Timur-e lang in Persian, hence Tamerlane).

In 1364, the Moghuls were forced to leave the country. Returning back to Maverannahr, Timur and Hussein installed the ulus of Kabul Shah from the Chagataid clan on the throne.

The following year, at dawn on May 22, 1365, a bloody battle took place near Chinaz between the army of Timur and Hussein and the army of Mogolistan led by Khan Ilyas-Khoja, which went down in history as a "battle in the mud." Timur and Hussein had few chances to defend their native land, 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 ahead, and the horses got stuck in the mud. Despite this, Timur's troops began to win on their flank, at the decisive moment he asked for help from Hussein 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 soldiers of Timur and Hussein were forced to retreat to the other side of the Syr Darya River.

Meanwhile, the army of Ilyas-Khoja was expelled from Samarkand by a popular uprising of the Serbedars, led by the teacher of the Mavlanazada madrasah, the artisan Abubakr Kalavi and the well-aimed marksman Mirzo Khurdaki Bukhari. The city has established popular government. 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 oppose the Serbedars - they lured them with kind speeches to negotiations, where in the spring of 1366 the troops of Hussein and Timur suppressed the uprising by executing the Serbedar leaders, but by order of Tamerlane, they left the leader of the Serbedars, Mavlana-zade, to whom popular preferences were turned .

Election "Great Emir"

Timur during the siege of the Balkh fortress in 1370

Throne stone of Timur

Hussein wanted to rule on the throne of the Chagatai ulus among the Turkic-Mongolian people, like his grandfather Kazagan, according to the established tradition, power from time immemorial belonged to the descendants of Genghis Khan. During the reign of Genghis Khan Kazankhan, the position of Supreme Emir was forcibly appropriated by the grandfather of Emir Hussein, Emir Kazagan, which was the reason for the break, which was already not very good. good relations between beks Timur and Hussein. Each of them began to prepare for the decisive battle.

Timur was greatly supported by 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-saray to Balkh, Hussein began to strengthen the fortress. He decided to act by deceit 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. Going to the meeting, Timur, just in case, took with him two hundred horsemen, Hussein brought a thousand of his soldiers, and for this reason the meeting did not take place. Timur recalls this incident: “I sent a letter to Emir Hussein with a Turkic bait of the following content:

Who intends to deceive me, He will lie down in the ground, I'm sure. Having shown his deceit, He himself will perish 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 River. The advanced units of his troops were commanded by Suyurgatmish-oglan, Ali Muayyad and Hussein Barlas. On the approach to the village of Biya, Barak, the leader of the Andhud Sayinds, advanced to meet the army, and handed him the timpani and the banner of supreme power. On the way to Balkh, Timur was joined by Dzhaku Barlas, who arrived from Karkara, with his army, and Emir Kaykhusrav from Khuttalan, and on the other side of the river, Emir Zinda Chashm from Shibirgan, Khazarians from Khulm and Badakhshan Muhammadshah also joined. Having learned about this, many soldiers of Emir Hussein left him.

Before the battle, Timur gathers a kurultai, at which a man from the Chingizid family of Suyurgatmysh is elected khan. Shortly before Timur was approved as the “great emir,” a kind messenger, a sheikh from Mecca, came to him and said that he had a vision that he, Timur, would become a great ruler. On this occasion, he handed him a banner, a drum, a symbol of supreme power. But he does not personally take this supreme power, but remains next to it.

On April 10, 1370, Balkh was conquered, and Hussein was captured and killed by the ruler of Khutallyan Kaykhusrav on the rights 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 fogs, Termezshahs took part. Among them were former rivals and childhood friends of Timur: Bayan-suldus, emirs Uljaitu, Kaikhosrov, Zinda Chashm, Jaku-barlas and many others. Kurultai elected Timur as the supreme emir of Turan, making him responsible for establishing the long-awaited peace, stability and order in the country. And the marriage with the daughter of Genghis Khan Kazan Khan, the captive widow of Emir Hussein Saray Mulk Khanum, allowed the Supreme Emir of Maverannahr Timur to add the honorary title “guragan”, that is, “son-in-law”, to his name.

At the kurultai, Timur took the oath from all the military leaders of Maverannahr. Like his predecessors, he did not accept the title of khan and was content with the title of "great emir" - under him, the descendant of Genghis Khan Suyurgatmysh (1370-1388), his son Mahmud (1388-1402) were considered khans. Samarkand was chosen as the capital, Timur began the struggle for the creation of a centralized state.

Strengthening the state of Timur

The official name of the state of Timur

In the Karsakpai inscription of 1391, made in the Chagatai Turkic language, Timur ordered the name of his state to be stamped: Turan.

Composition of Timur's troops

Representatives of various tribes fought as part of Timur’s army: Barlas, Durbats, Nukuzes, Naimans, Kipchaks, Bulguts, Dulats, Kiyats, Dzhalairs, Sulduz, Merkits, Yasavuri, Kauchins, etc.

The military organization of the troops was built like that of the Mongols, according to the decimal system: tens, hundreds, thousands, tumens (10 thousand). Among the bodies of branch administration was a vazirat (ministry) for the affairs of military personnel (sepoys).

Campaigns to Mogolistan

Despite the laid foundation of statehood, Khorezm and Shibirgan, which belonged to the Chagatai ulus, did not recognize the new power in the person of Suyurgatmish Khan and Emir Timur. It was restless on the southern and northern borders of the border, where Mogolistan and the White Horde caused anxiety, often violating the borders and plundering villages. After the capture of Sygnak by Uruskhan and the transfer of the capital of the White Horde, Yassy (Turkestan), Sairam and Maverannahr were in even greater danger. It was necessary to take measures to strengthen the statehood.

The ruler of Moghulistan, Emir Kamar ad-din, tried to prevent the strengthening of Timur's state. Mogolistan feudal lords often made predatory raids on Sairam, Tashkent, Fergana and Turkestan. Particularly great troubles were brought to the people by the raids of Emir Qamar ad-Din in the 70-71s and the raids in the winter of 1376 on the cities of Tashkent and Andijan. In the same year, Emir Qamar al-Din captured half of Fergana, from where its governor, the son of Timur, Umar Sheikh Mirza fled to the mountains. Therefore, the solution of the problem of Mogolistan was important for peace on the borders of the country.

From 1371 to 1390, Emir Timur made seven campaigns against Mogolistan, finally defeating the army of Qamar ad-Din and Anka-Tur in 1390 during the last campaign. However, Timur reached only the Irtysh in the north, Alakul in the east, Emil and the headquarters of the Mongol khans Balig-Yulduz, but he could not conquer the lands east of the Tangri-tag and Kashgar mountains. Qamar al-Din fled and subsequently died of dropsy. The independence of Mogolistan was preserved.

Timur undertook the first two campaigns against the militant Khan Qamar ad-Din in the spring and autumn of 1371. The first campaign ended in a truce; during the second Timur, leaving Tashkent through Sairam, located to the north of the city, moved towards the village of Yangi on Taraz. There he put the nomads to flight and captured a large booty.

In 1375 Timur carried out the third successful campaign. He left Sairam and passed through the regions of Talas and Tokmak along the upper reaches of the Chu River. Timur returned to Samarkand via Uzgen and Khujand.

But Qamar ad-din was not defeated. When Timur's army returned to Maverannahr, he invaded Ferghana, a province that belonged to Timur, and laid siege to the city of Andijan. Enraged Timur hurried to Ferghana and pursued the enemy for a long time behind Uzgen and the mountains of Yassy to the very valley of At-Bashi, the southern tributary of the upper Naryn.

In 1376-1377. Timur made his fifth campaign against Qamar ad-din. He defeated his army in the gorges west of Issyk-Kul and pursued him to Kochkar.

The "Zafarname" mentions the sixth campaign of Timur to the Issyk-Kul region against Kamar ad-din in 1383, but the khan again managed to escape.

In 1389-1390. Timur intensified his actions in order to thoroughly defeat Qamar 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 forward detachments reached Kara Khoja in the east, that is, almost to Turfan.

In 1390, Qamar ad-din was finally defeated, and Mogolistan finally ceased to threaten the power of Timur.

Fight against the Golden Horde

In 1360, northern Khorezm, which was part of the Golden Horde, became independent. The Kungrat-Sufi dynasty, which declared its independence, strengthened its position in 1371 and attempted to capture southern Khorezm, which was part of the Chagatai ulus. Emir Timur demanded the return of the occupied lands of southern Khorezm, first by peaceful means, sending first tavachi (quartermaster), then sheikhulislam (head of the Muslim community) to Gurganj, but Khorezmshah Hussein-sufi both times refused to fulfill this requirement, capturing the ambassador. Since then, Emir Timur has made five trips to Khorezm. At the last stage of the struggle, the Khorezmshahs tried to enlist the support of the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. In 1387, the Sufi Kungrats, together with Tokhtamysh, made a predatory raid on Bukhara, which led to Timur's last campaign against Khorezm and further military operations against Tokhtamysh.

Tamerlane's next goals were to curb the Jochi ulus (known in history as the White Horde) and establish political influence in its eastern part and unite Mogolistan and Maverannahr, previously divided, into a single state, which was once called the Chagatai ulus.

State of Tamerlane

Realizing the danger to the independence of Maverannahr from the Jochi ulus, from the very first days of his reign, Timur tried in every possible way to bring his protege in the Jochi ulus to power. Golden Horde had its capital in the city of Sarai-Batu (Saray-Berke) and stretched across the North Caucasus, the northwestern part of Khorezm, the Crimea, Western Siberia and the Volga-Kama principality of Bulgar. The White Horde had its capital in the city of Sygnak and stretched from Yangikent to Sabran, along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, and also on the banks of the Syr Darya steppe from Ulu-tau to Sengir-yagach and the land from Karatal to Siberia. The Khan of the White Horde, Urus Khan, tried to unite the once powerful state, whose plans were thwarted by the intensified struggle between the Jochids and the feudal lords of the Dashti Kipchak. Timur strongly supported Tokhtamysh-oglan, whose father died at the hands of Uruskhan, who eventually took the throne of the White Horde. However, after ascending to power, Khan Tokhtamysh seized power in the Golden Horde and began to pursue a hostile policy towards the lands of Maverannahr.

Tamerlane made three campaigns against Khan Tokhtamysh, finally defeating him on February 28, 1395.

Timur's campaign against the Golden Horde in 1391

Timur's campaign against the Golden Horde in 1395

After the defeat of the Golden Horde and Khan Tokhtamysh, the latter fled to Bulgar. In response to the plunder of the lands of Maverannahr, Emir Timur burned the capital of the Golden Horde - Saray-Batu, and gave the reins of government to Koirichak-oglan, who was the son of Uruskhan. Timur's defeat of the Golden Horde also had broad economic consequences. As a result of Timur's campaign, 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.

In the 1390s, Tamerlane inflicted two severe defeats on the Horde Khan - on Kondurcha in 1391 and on the Terek in 1395, after which Tokhtamysh was deprived of the throne and forced to wage a constant struggle with the khans appointed by Tamerlane. With this defeat of the army of Khan Tokhtamysh, Tamerlane brought indirect benefits in the struggle of the Russian lands against Tatar-Mongol yoke.

In 1395, Tamerlane, who was on a campaign against Tokhtamysh, passed the Ryazan region and took the city of Yelets, after Tamerlane moved towards Moscow, but unexpectedly turned around and left on August 26 back. According to church tradition, it was at that time that Muscovites met the revered Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which was transferred to Moscow to protect it from the conqueror. On the day of the meeting of the image, according to the chronicle, the Mother of God appeared to Tamerlane in a dream and ordered him to immediately leave the borders of Rus'. The Sretensky Monastery was founded at the meeting place of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. Tamerlane did not reach Moscow, his army passed along the Don and took full.

There is also another point of view. According to the “Zafar-name” (“Book of Victories”) by Sheref-ad-din Yazdi, Timur ended up on the Don after his victory over Tokhtamysh near the Terek River and before the total defeat of the cities of the Golden Horde in the same 1395. Tamerlane personally pursued the retreating commanders of Tokhtamysh after the defeat until they were completely defeated. On the Dnieper, the enemy was finally defeated. Most likely, according to this source, Timur did not set out to march specifically on Russian lands. Some of his detachments approached the borders of Rus', and not he himself. Here, on the comfortable summer pastures of the Horde, stretching 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 put up serious resistance, the region was severely devastated. As the Russian chronicle stories about Timur's invasion testify, his army stood on both sides of the Don for two weeks, "captured" (occupied) the land of Yelets and "captured" the prince of Yelets. Some coin treasures in the vicinity of Voronezh date back to 1395. However, in the vicinity of Yelets, which, according to the aforementioned Russian written sources, was subjected to a pogrom, treasures with such dating on currently not detected. Sheref-ad-din Yazdi describes the great booty taken in the Russian lands and does not describe a single combat episode with the local population, although the main purpose of the "Book of Victories" was to describe the exploits of Timur himself and the valor of his soldiers. According to legends recorded by Yelets local historians in the 19th-20th centuries, the Yelets residents put up stubborn resistance to the enemy. However, in the "Book of Victories" there is no mention of this, the names of the soldiers and commanders who took Yelets, who were the first to climb the rampart, who personally captured the Yelets prince, were not named. Meanwhile, great impression The soldiers of Timur were fired by Russian women, about whom Sheref-ad-din Yazdi writes in a poetic line: “Oh, beautiful peris like roses stuffed into a snow-white Russian canvas!” Then in "Zafar-name" follows a detailed list of Russian cities conquered by Timur, where there is also Moscow. Perhaps this is just a list of Russian lands who did not want to armed conflict and sent their ambassadors with gifts. After the defeat of Bek Yaryk Oglan, Tamerlane himself began to methodically ravage the lands of his main enemy Tokhtamysh. The Horde cities of the Volga region never recovered from the ruin of Tamerlane until the final collapse of this state. Many colonies of Italian merchants in the Crimea and in the lower reaches of the Don were also defeated. The city of Tana (modern Azov) rose from the ruins for several decades. Yelets, according to Russian chronicles, existed for about twenty more years and was completely ruined by some "Tatars" only in 1414 or 1415.

Campaigns in Iran and the Caucasus

In 1380, Timur went on a campaign against Malik Giyasiddin Pir Ali II, who ruled in the city of Herat. At first, he sent an ambassador to him with an invitation to the kurultai in order to solve the problem peacefully, but Malik rejected the offer, detaining the ambassador. In response to this, in April 1380, Timur, under the leadership of Emirzade Pirmuhammad Jahangir, sent ten regiments to the left bank of the Amu Darya River. He captured the regions of Balkh, Shibirgan and Badkhiz. In February 1381, Emir Timur himself marched with troops and took the cities of Khorasan, Serax, Jami, Kausia, Isferain, Tuye and Kelat, and Herat was taken after a five-day siege. also, in addition to Kelat, Sebzevar was taken, as a result of which the state of the Serbedars ceased to exist; in 1382 Timur's son, Miranshah, was appointed ruler of Khorasan; In 1383, Timur devastated Seistan and brutally suppressed the uprising of the Serbedars in Sebzevar.

In 1383, he took Seistan, in which the fortresses of Zireh, Zave, Farah and Bust were defeated. In 1384, he captured the cities of Astrabad, Amul, Sari, Sultania and Tabriz, in fact capturing all of Persia. After that, he went on a campaign to Armenia, after which he made several more aggressive campaigns in Persia and Syria. These campaigns are known in world history as three-year, five-year and seven-year campaigns, during which he waged wars on the territory of modern Syria, India, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran.

Three great campaigns of Timur

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).

Three year hike

For the first time, Timur was forced to return back as a result of the invasion of Maverannahr by the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in alliance with the Mongols of Semirechye (1387).

Timur in 1388 drove out the enemies and punished the Khorezmians for the alliance with Tokhtamysh, in 1389 he made a devastating campaign deep into the Mongol possessions to the Irtysh to the north and to the Big Zhyldyz to the east, in 1391 - a campaign against the Golden Horde possessions to the Volga. These campaigns achieved their goal.

[edit] Five year trip

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 the ruler of Fars, Miran Shah - the ruler of Transcaucasia. The invasion of Tokhtamysh in the Transcaucasus caused Timur's response to Eastern Europe (1395); Timur defeated Tokhtamysh on the Terek, pursued him to the limits of the Moscow principality. There he invaded the Ryazan lands, ruined Yelets, posing a threat to Moscow. Having launched an attack on Moscow, he unexpectedly turned back and left the Moscow lands on the very day when Muscovites met the image of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, brought from Vladimir (from that day on, the icon is revered as the patroness of Moscow). Then Timur plundered the trading cities of Azov and Kafa, burned down Sarai-Bata and Astrakhan, but the lasting conquest of the Golden Horde was the goal of Tamerlane, and therefore the Caucasus Range remained the northern border of Timur's possessions. In 1396 he returned to Samarkand and in 1397 appointed his youngest son Shahrukh as the ruler of Khorasan, Seistan and Mazanderan.

Campaign to India

Timur's campaign in India

In 1398 a campaign against India was undertaken, and the highlanders of Kafiristan were defeated along the way. In December, under the walls of Delhi, Timur defeated the army of the Indian sultan (Toghlukid dynasty) and occupied the city without resistance, which was sacked by the army a few days later. In 1399, Timur reached the banks of the Ganges, took several more cities and fortresses on the way back, and returned to Samarkand with huge booty, but without expanding his possessions.

Seven Year Campaign

Timur defeats the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, Sultan Nasir adin Faraj.

Timur's campaign against the Ottoman Empire

The "seven-year" campaign was originally caused by unrest in the area ruled by Miranshah. Timur deposed his son and defeated the enemies who invaded his possessions. 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 assassination of Timur's ambassador back in 1393. In 1400, Timur took Sivas in Asia Minor and Aleppo (Aleppo) in Syria (belonging to the Egyptian Sultan), in 1401 - Damascus.

In 1399, in response to the actions of Sultan Bayezid I the Lightning, who patronized Timur's enemy Kara Yusuf and wrote an insulting letter, Timur began his seven-year campaign against Ottoman Empire.

Angora battle

In 1402, Timur won a major victory over the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I the Lightning, defeating him at the Battle of Ankara on July 28. The Sultan himself was taken prisoner. As a result of the battle, the whole Asia Minor, and the defeat of Bayezid led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, accompanied by a peasant war and civil strife among his sons. The official reason for the war was the alleged offering of gifts by Turkish ambassadors to Timur. Outraged that Bayezid was acting as a benefactor, Timur declared hostilities

The fortress of Smyrna (belonging to the Joannite knights), which the Ottoman sultans, besieging, could not take for 20 years, he captured by storm in two weeks. West Side Asia Minor in 1403 was returned to the sons of Bayazet, in the east the small dynasties deposed by Bayazet were restored.

Upon his return 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.

Beginning of the campaign to China

In August 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand and a few months later undertook a campaign against China, for which he began to prepare as early as 1398. In that year, he built a fortress on the border of the present Syr-Darya region and Semirechye; now another fortification has been built, 10 days' journey further east, probably near Issyk-Kul. The trip was canceled due to the cold winter, and in February 1405 Timur died.

Diplomatic Relations

Timur's letter to the King of France, Charles VI, dated 1402

Timur, who created a huge empire, established diplomatic relations with a number of states, including China, Egypt, Byzantium, France, England, Spain, etc. In 1404, the ambassador of the Castilian king, Gonzalez de Clavijo, Ruy, visited the capital of his state, Samarkand. The original letters of Timur to the French king Charles VI have been preserved.

Children

Mausoleum of Timur's sons Jahangir and Umar Sheikh in Shakhrisyabz

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

Mausoleum of Emir Timur in Samarkand

He died during a campaign in 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 because of China's claims to the lands of Transoxiana and Turkestan. He gathered a large army of two hundred thousand, with whom 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 with 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 throne of Samarkand against the will of his grandfather, who bequeathed the kingdom to his eldest grandson Pirmukhammed.

A look at Tamerlane in the light of history and culture

Code of laws

During the reign of Emir Timur, there was a code of laws "Timur's Code", which set out the rules of conduct for members of society and the duties of rulers and officials, and also contain rules for managing the army and the state.

When appointed to the post, the "great emir" demanded devotion and loyalty from everyone. He appointed to high positions 315 people who were next to him from the very beginning of his career and fought side by side with him. The first hundred were appointed as foremen, the second hundred as centurions, and the third as thousands. Of the remaining fifteen people, four were appointed beks, one was appointed supreme emir, and others were appointed to other high posts.

The judicial system was divided into three levels: 1. Sharia judge - who was guided in his activities by the established norms of Sharia; 2. Judge ahdos - who was guided in his activities by the mores and customs established in society. 3. Kazi askar - who conducted the proceedings on military matters.

The law was recognized as equal for everyone, both for emirs and subjects.

The viziers under the leadership of Divan-Begi were responsible for the general situation of the subjects and the troops, for the financial condition of the country and the activities of state institutions. If information was received that the vizier of finance appropriated a part of the treasury, then this was checked and, upon confirmation, one of the decisions was made: if the appropriated amount was equal to his salary (uluf), then this amount was given to him as a gift. If the assigned amount is twice the salary, then the excess must be withheld. If the appropriated amount was three times higher than the established salary, then everything was taken away in favor of the treasury.

Emirs, as well as viziers, must be from a noble family, possess such qualities as insight, courage, enterprise, caution and thrift, conduct business, having thoroughly thought through the consequences of each step. They must “know the secrets of conducting a battle, methods of dispersing an enemy army, not lose their presence of mind in the midst of a battle and be able to lead troops without trembling and hesitation, and in the event of a breakdown in battle formation, be able to restore it without delay.”

The protection of soldiers and common people was fixed. The code obligated village and district elders, tax collectors and khokims (local rulers) to pay a fine to a commoner to the extent of the damage caused to him. If the harm was caused by a warrior, then he should be transferred into the hands of the victim, and he himself determined the measure of punishment for him.

As far as possible, the code secured the protection of the people in the conquered lands from humiliation and plunder.

A separate article is devoted to paying attention to the poor, who should have been gathered to a certain place, given food and work, and branded. If after that 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 the criminals, but to carefully check all the circumstances of the case and only after that make a verdict. Orthodox Muslims were explained the basics of religion to establish Sharia and Islam, taught tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), hadith (a collection of legends about the Prophet Muhammad) and fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence). Ulema (scientists) and mudarrises (madrasah teachers) were also appointed to each city.

Decrees and laws in the state of Timur were drawn up in two languages: Persian-Tajik and Chagatai. At the court of Timur, there was a staff of Turkic and Tajik clerks.

Army of Tamerlane

Based on the rich experience of his predecessors, Tamerlane managed to create a powerful and efficient army, which allowed him to win brilliant victories on the battlefields over his opponents. This army was a multinational and multi-confessional association, the core of which was the Turkic-Mongolian nomadic warriors. The army of Tamerlane was divided into cavalry and infantry, the role of which greatly increased at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. Nevertheless, the main part of the army was made up of cavalry units of nomads, the backbone of which consisted of elite units of heavily armed cavalrymen, as well as detachments of Tamerlane's bodyguards. The infantry often played a supporting role, but was necessary during the sieges of fortresses. The infantry was mostly lightly armed and mainly consisted of archers, but the army also consisted of heavily armed shock troops of infantrymen.

In addition to the main types of troops (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 mountain conditions(they were recruited from the inhabitants of mountain villages). The organization of Tamerlane's army, in general, corresponded to the decimal organization of Genghis Khan, but a number of changes appeared (for example, units numbering from 50 to 300 people called "koshuns" appeared, the number of larger "Kul" units was also inconsistent).

The main weapon of the light cavalry, like the infantry, was the bow. Light cavalrymen also used sabers or swords and axes. Heavily armed riders were armored (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 ubiquitous). Ordinary infantrymen were armed with bows, heavy infantry warriors fought with sabers, axes and maces and were protected by shells, helmets and shields.

banners

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 troops. During the Indian campaign, a black banner with a silver dragon was used. Before going to China, Tamerlane ordered to depict a golden dragon 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 the banner of Timur, said: "What impudence to think that the whole world belongs to you!" In response, Timur, pointing to the banner of the Turk, said: "Even more impudence to think that the moon belongs to you."

Urban planning and architecture

The National Museum of the History of the Timurids in Tashkent and its image on a banknote of 1000 soums

In 1371, he began the restoration of the destroyed fortress of Samarkand, the defensive walls of Shahristan with six gates Sheikhzade, Akhanin, Feruz, Suzangaran, Karizgah and Chorsu, and two four-story buildings Kuksaray were built in the arch, in which the state treasury, workshops and a prison were located, as well as Buston-shed, in which the residence of the emir is located.

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 annually. 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 erected Ruhabad (the tomb of Burkhaniddin Sogardzhi), Kutbi chahardakhum (the tomb of Sheikh Khoja Nuriddin Basir) and Gur-Emir (the family tomb of the Timurid clan). Also in Samarkand, he built many baths, mosques, madrasahs, dervish cloisters, caravanserais.

During the years 1378-1404, 14 gardens were cultivated in Samarkand and nearby lands Bagh-i bihisht, Bag-i dilkusha, Bag-i shamal, Bag-i buldi, Bag-i nav, Bag-i jahannuma, Bag-i tahti karach and Bag-i davlatabad, Bag-zogcha (garden of rooks), etc. Each of these gardens had a palace and fountains. The historian Khafizi Abru mentions Samarkand in his writings, in which he writes that “Samarkand, built earlier from clay, was rebuilt by erecting buildings from stone.” None of these palaces has survived to this day.

In 1399-1404, a cathedral mosque and a madrasah were built in Samarkand. The mosque was later named Bibi Khanum (madam grandmother in Turkic).

Shakhrisabz (in Tajik "green city") was equipped, in which the destroyed city walls were erected, fortifications, tombs of saints, majestic palaces, mosques, madrasahs, tombs. Timur also devoted time to the construction of bazaars and baths. Aksaray Palace was built from 1380 to 1404. In 1380, the family tomb Dar us-saadat was erected.

The cities of Yassy and Bukhara were also equipped. In 1388, the city of Shahrukhia was restored, which was destroyed during the invasion of Genghis Khan.

In 1398, after the victory over the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh, in Turkestan, a mausoleum was built by Iranian and Khorezm masters on the order of Timur over the grave of the poet and Sufi philosopher Khoja Ahmad Yassawi. Here, a Tabriz master cast a two-ton copper cauldron, in which they were supposed to cook food for those in need.

The development of science and painting

In Maverannakhr, applied art became widespread, in which artists could show all their mastery of their skills. It received its distribution in Bukhara, Yassy and Samarkand. The drawings in the tombs of the tomb of Shirinbek-aga and Tuman-aga, made in 1385 and 1405, respectively, have been preserved. The art of miniatures, which adorned such books by writers and poets of Maverannakhr as “Shahnameh” by Abulkasim Firdousi and “Anthology of Iranian Poets”, received special development. Great success in art at that time was achieved by the artists Abdulkhay, Pir Ahmad Bagishamali and Khoja Bangir Tabrizi.

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkestan, built by Timur

In the field of science and education, jurisprudence, medicine, theology, mathematics, astronomy, history, philosophy, musicology, literature and the science of versification have spread. A prominent theologian at that time was Jalaliddin Ahmed al Khorezmi. Great success in astrology was achieved by Maulana Ahmad, and in jurisprudence Abdumalik, Isamiddin and Sheikh Shamsiddin Muhammad Jazairi. In musicology, Abdulgadir Maragi, father and son of Safiaddin and Ardasher Changi. Painting by Abdulkhay Baghdadi and Pir Ahmad Bagishamoli. In the philosophy of Sadiddin Taftazzani and Mirsaid Sharif Jurjani. In the story of Nizamiddin Shami and Hafizi Abru.

The legend of the tomb of Tamerlane

According to the legend, the source and time of which it is not possible to establish, there was a prediction that if the ashes of Tamerlane were disturbed, a great and terrible war.

In the tomb of Timur Gur Emir in Samarkand, on a large dark green jade gravestone in Arabic script in Arabic and Persian is inscribed:
“This is the tomb of the great Sultan, the gracious Khakan Emir Timur Gurgan; son of Emir Taragay, son of Emir Bergul, son of Emir Aylangir, son of Emir Anjil, son of Kara Charnuyan, son of Emir Sigunchinchin, son of Emir Irdanchi-Barlas, son of Emir Kachulai, son of Tumnai Khan. This is the 9th generation.

Genghis Khan comes from the same family from which the grandfathers of the glorious Sultan, buried in this sacred and beautiful tomb, descend: Khakan-Genghis-son. Emir Maisukai-Bahadur, son of Emir Barnan-Bahadur, son of Kabul-Khan, son of the mentioned Tumnai-Khan, son of Emir Baysungara, son of Kaidu-Khan, son of Emir Tutumtin, son of Emir-Buk, son of Emir-Buzanjar.

Whoever wants to know further, let it be known: the mother of the latter was called Alankuva, who was distinguished by her honesty and her impeccable morality. She once became pregnant from a wolf who appeared to her in the opening of the room and, taking the form of a man, announced that he was a descendant of the ruler of the faithful Aliya, the son of Abu-Talib. This testimony given by her is accepted as the truth. Her praiseworthy descendants will rule the world forever.

Died on the night of 14 Shagban 807 (1405)."

At the bottom of the stone is the inscription: “This stone was set by Ulugbek Gurgan after a trip to Jitta”.

Several less reliable sources also report that the tombstone bears 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: "Anyone who disturbs my peace in this life or the next will be subjected to suffering and perish".

Another legend says: In 1747, the Iranian Nadir Shah took away this jade tombstone, and on that day Iran was destroyed by an earthquake, and the Shah himself fell seriously ill. The earthquake was repeated when the Shah returned to Iran and the stone was returned.

From the memoirs of Malik Kayumov, who was a cameraman at the opening of the grave:

I entered the nearest tea house, I saw three ancient old men sitting there. I also noted to myself: they are similar to each other, like brothers. Well, I sat down nearby, they brought me a teapot and a bowl. Suddenly, one of these old men turns to me: “Son, are you one of those who decided to open the grave of Tamerlane?” And I take it and say: “Yes, I am the most important in this expedition, without me all these scientists are nowhere!”. Jokingly decided to drive away his fear. Only, I see, the old people, in response to my smile, frowned even more. And the one who spoke to me beckons. I come closer, I look, in his hands is a book - an old, handwritten one, the pages are filled with Arabic script. And the old man runs his finger along the lines: “Look, son, what is written in this book. “Whoever opens the grave of Tamerlane will release the spirit of war. And there will be a slaughter so bloody and terrible, which the world has not seen forever and ever.

He decided to tell the others and was laughed at. It was June 20th. The scientists did not listen and opened the grave on June 22, and on the same day the Great Patriotic War. No one could find those elders: the owner of the teahouse said that on that day, June 20, he saw the elders for the first and last time.

The opening of the tomb of Tamerlane was carried out on June 22, 1941 by the Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov. As a result of the study of the skull of the commander, the appearance of Tamerlane was recreated.

However, the plan for the 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 according to plan was transmitted on June 20.

According to Kayumov, while at the front, he managed to get a meeting with Army General Zhukov in October 1942, explained the situation and offered to return the ashes of Tamerlane back to the grave. This was carried out on November 19-20, 1942; These days there was a turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Kayumov's criticism of Aini provoked reciprocal criticism from Tajik society. Another version of events, owned by Kamal Sadreddinovich Aini (the son of a writer who participated in the excavations) was published in 2004. According to her, the book was dated to the end of the 19th century, and Kayumov did not know Farsi, so he did not understand the content of the conversation and considered that Aini shouted at the elders. The words written in Arabic in the margins are " these are traditional sayings, which are similarly available in relation to the burial places of Ismail Somoni, and Khoja Akhrar, and Khazrati Bogoutdin, etc., in order to protect burial places from seekers of easy money, looking for values in the graves of historical figures”, which he told the old people.

When everyone left the crypt, I saw three elders talking in Tajik with my father, with A. A. Semenov and T. N. Kary-Niyazov. One of the elders was holding some old book in his hand. He opened it and said in Tajik: “This book is old written. It says that whoever touches the grave of Timurlane, misfortune, war will overtake everyone. All those present exclaimed: "O Allah, save us from troubles!". S. Aini took this book, put on his glasses, carefully looked through it and addressed the elder in Tajik: “Dear, do you believe in this book?”
Answer: “Why, it begins with the name of Allah!”.
S. Aini: “Do you know what kind of book this is?”
Answer: "An important Muslim book that begins with the name of Allah and protects the people from disasters."
S. Aini: “This book, written in Farsi, is just “Jangnoma”, a book about battles and fights, a collection of fantastic stories about certain heroes. And this book was compiled only recently, at the end of the 19th century. And those words that you are talking about the grave of Timurlane are written on the margins of the book with a different hand. By the way, you probably know that according to Muslim traditions, it is generally considered a sin to open graves and sacred places - mazars. And those words about the grave of Timurlane are traditional sayings that are similarly available in relation to the burial places of Ismail Somoni, and Khoja Akhrar, and Khazrati Bogoutdin Balogardon and others, in order to protect burial places from seekers of easy money, looking for values in the graves of historical figures. But for the sake of scientific purposes in different countries, as in our country, ancient burial grounds and graves of historical figures were opened. Here is your book, study it and think with your head.”
T. N. Kary-Niyazov picked up the book, carefully looked through it and, in agreement with S. Aini, nodded his head. Then Malik Kayumov took the book into his hands, whom everyone there called “suratgir” (photographer). And I saw that he was turning the pages not from the beginning of the book, as it should be from right to left, but, on the contrary, in a European way, from left to right.

- From the diary of S. Aini

According to sources, Timur was fond of playing chess (more precisely, shatranj).

In Bashkir mythology there is an ancient legend about Tamerlane. According to him, it was on the orders of Tamerlane in 1395-96 that the mausoleum of Hussein-bek, the first spreader of Islam among the Bashkir tribes, was built, since the commander, having accidentally found the grave, decided to show great honors to him as a person who spread Muslim culture. The legend is confirmed by six graves of princes-military leaders near the mausoleum, who, for unknown reasons, died along with part of the army during the winter camp. However, who specifically ordered the construction, Tamerlane or one of his generals, is not known for certain. Now the mausoleum of Hussein-bek 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, were scattered across 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.

Tamerlane came from the Barlas family. The ethnonym "Barlas" has been known since the time of Genghis Khan.

In most sources, the Barlas are mentioned as one of the most powerful Turkic tribes. The Arab historian Rashid ad-Din writes that the 4,000-strong army that Genghis Khan allocated to his son Chagatai consisted, in particular, of the Barlas and they were originally a Mongol tribe called barulos, which means “thick, strong” in Mongolian. It also meant "commander, leader, brave warrior" and was associated with the military courage of the tribe.

Tamerlane always boasted that his ancestors were from the tree of Genghis Khan and gave great importance related to this dynasty. Most of the commanders of Tamerlane were just Barlas.

It's interesting that when Persian Shah Mansour Muzaffari in his message he called Tamerlane an "Uzbek", the "iron lame man" was greatly offended. This was the reason for the campaign against the Persian Shiraz, as a result of which the city was destroyed and plundered.

Tamerlane, one of the greatest conquerors in world history, was born on April 8, 1336 in the village of Khoja-Ilgar, now known as the Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz.

Here are 12 facts about the conqueror Timur, known as Tamerlane or the Great Lame.

1. The real name of one of the greatest generals in world history is Timur ibn Taragay Barlas, which means "Timur son of Taragai from the Barlas family." Various Persian sources mention the derogatory nickname Timur-elang, that is "Timur Khromoy" given to the general by his enemies. "Timur-e Liang" migrated to Western sources as "Tamerlane". Having lost its pejorative meaning, it became the second historical name of Timur.

2. From childhood, who loved hunting and war games, Timur was a strong, healthy, physically developed person. Anthropologists who studied the tomb of the commander in the 20th century noted that the biological age of the conqueror who died at 68, judging by the condition of the bones, did not exceed 50 years.

Reconstruction of the appearance of Tamerlane from his skull. Mikhail Mikhailovich Gerasimov, 1941. Photo: Public Domain

3. From the time of Genghis Khan the title of great khan could only be worn by Genghisides. That is why Timur formally bore the title of emir (leader). At the same time, in 1370, he managed to intermarry with the Genghisides, marrying his daughter Kazan Khanbarn-mulkxanim. After that, Timur received the prefix Gurgan, which means "son-in-law", which allowed him to live and act freely in the homes of "natural" Genghisides.

4. In 1362, Timur, who was waging a guerrilla war against the Mongols, was seriously injured during the battle in Seistan, having lost two fingers on his right hand and was seriously wounded in his right leg. The injury, which plagued Timur for the rest of his life, led to lameness and the nickname "Timur the Lame".

5. For several decades of virtually continuous wars, Timur managed to create a huge state that included Maverannahr ( historical area Central Asia), Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. The conqueror Timur himself gave the name Turan to the created state.

Tamerlane's conquests. Source: Public Domain

6. At the peak of his power, Timur had at his disposal an army numbering about 200 thousand soldiers. It was organized according to the system created by Genghis Khan - tens, hundreds, thousands, as well as tumens (divisions of 10 thousand people). A special control body was responsible for order in the army and its provision with everything necessary, the functions of which were similar to the modern Ministry of Defense.

7. In 1395, Timur's army for the first and last time ended up in Russian lands. The conqueror did not consider Russian territories as an object for joining his state. The reason for the invasion was the struggle of Timur with the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. And although Timur's army devastated part of the Russian lands, capturing Yelets, on the whole, the conqueror, with his victory over Tokhtamysh, contributed to the fall of the Golden Horde's influence on the Russian principalities.

8. The conqueror Timur was illiterate and in his youth did not receive any education other than military education, but at the same time he was very talented and capable person. According to the chronicles, he spoke several languages, liked to talk with scientists and demanded to read works on history aloud to him. Possessing a brilliant memory, he then cited historical examples in conversations with scientists, which greatly surprised them.

9. Waging bloody wars, Timur brought from campaigns not only material booty, but also scientists, artisans, artists, architects. Under him, there was an active restoration of cities, the foundation of new ones, the construction of bridges, roads, irrigation systems, as well as the active development of science, painting, secular and religious education.

Monument to Tamerlane in Uzbekistan. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

10. Timur had 18 wives, among whom are often distinguished Uljay Turkanyeah And barn-mulkxanim. These women, who are called "Timur's beloved wives", were relatives of each other: if Uljay-Turkan aga was the sister of Timur's comrade-in-arms Emir Hussein, then Saray-mulk xanim is his widow.

11. Back in 1398, Timur began to prepare for an aggressive campaign in China, which was launched in 1404. As often happens in history, the Chinese were saved by chance - the campaign that had begun was interrupted due to the early and extremely cold winter, and in February 1405 Timur died.

12. One of the most famous legends associated with the name of the great commander tells about the "curse of the grave of Tamerlane." Allegedly, immediately after the opening of the grave of Timur, a great and terrible war should begin. Indeed, Soviet archaeologists opened the tomb of Timur in Samarkand on June 20, 1941, that is, two days before the start of World War II. Skeptics, however, remind that the plan of attack on the USSR was approved in Nazi Germany long before the opening of Timur's grave. As for the inscriptions promising trouble to those who open the grave, they did not differ in any way from similar ones made on other burials of the Timur era, and were intended to scare away tomb robbers. It is worth noting one more thing - the famous Soviet anthropologist and archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov, who not only participated in the opening of the tomb, but also restored the appearance of Timur from his skull, lived safely until 1970.

Tamerlane's name

Timur's full name was Timur ibn Taragay Barlas (Timur ibn Taragay Barlas - Timur son of Taragai from Barlasov) in accordance with the Arabic tradition (alam-nasab-nisba). In Chagatai and Mongolian (both Altaic) Temur or Temir Means " iron».

Not being a Genghisid, Timur formally could not bear the title of great khan, always calling himself only an emir (leader, leader). However, having intermarried in 1370 with the house of Genghisides, he took the name Timur Gurgan (Timur Gurkanī, (تيموﺭ گوركان ), Gurkān - an Iranian version of Mongolian kurugen or khurgen, "son-in-law". This meant that Tamerlane, having intermarried with the Chingizid khans, could freely live and act in their homes.

Monument to Tamerlane in Tashkent

Monument to Tamerlane in Samarkand

Personality of Tamerlane

Timur was mainly concerned about the prosperity of his native Maverannakhr and the exaltation of 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 (Shahrisyabz), Bukhara, the border city of Yassy (Turkestan). He managed to express all his care that he invested in the capital Samarkand through the words about it: - "There will always be a blue sky and golden stars over Samarkand." Only in recent years has he taken measures to improve the well-being of other areas of the state, mainly border areas (in 1398 a new irrigation canal was built in Afghanistan, in 1401 - in Transcaucasia, etc.)

Biography

Childhood and youth

The appearance of Timur

Timur at a feast in Samarkand

File:Temur1-1.jpg

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, physically developed, his contemporaries wrote about him: “If most warriors could pull the bowstring to the level of the collarbone, then Timur pulled it to the ear. His hair is lighter than most of his tribesmen. A detailed study of the remains of Timur showed that anthropologically he was characterized by the Mongoloid South Siberian type.

Despite the senile age of Timur (69 years old), his skull, as well as his skeleton, did not have pronounced, actually senile features. The presence of most of the teeth, a clear relief of the bones, the almost absence of osteophytes - all this most likely indicates that the skull of the skeleton belonged to a person full of strength and health, whose biological age did not exceed 50 years. The massiveness of healthy bones, their highly developed relief and density, the width of the shoulders, the volume of the chest and relatively high growth - all this gives the right to think that Timur had an extremely strong build. His strong athletic muscles, most likely, were somewhat dry in form, and this is natural: life in military campaigns, with their difficulties and hardships, almost constant stay in the saddle could hardly contribute to obesity. .

A special external difference between Tamerlane and his warriors from other Muslims was the braids they preserved, according to the Mongolian custom, which is confirmed by some Central Asian illustrated manuscripts of that time. Meanwhile, examining the ancient Turkic sculptures, the images of the Turks in the painting of Afrasiab, the researchers came to the conclusion that the Turks wore braids as early as the 5th-8th centuries. The opening of Timur's grave and the analysis of anthropologists showed that Timur did not have 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, by the time of his death Timur had relatively long hair." Some historians believe that the light color of the hair is due to the fact that Tamerlane dyed his hair with henna. But, M. M. Gerasimov in his work notes: “Even a preliminary study of the hair of a beard under a binocular convinces that this reddish-reddish color is her natural, and not dyed with henna, as described by historians.” Timur wore a long mustache, not trimmed above the lip. As it turned out, there was a rule that allowed the highest military class to wear a mustache without cutting it above the lip, and Timur, according to this rule, did not cut his mustache, and they hung freely above the lip. “Timur's small thick beard was wedge-shaped. Her hair is coarse, almost straight, thick, bright brown (red) in color, with significant graying. Huge scars were visible on the bones of the left leg in the region of the patella, which is fully consistent with the nickname "lame man"

Parents, brothers and sisters of Timur

His father's name was Taragay or Turgay, he was a military man, a small landowner. He came from the Mongolian tribe of Barlas, by that time already Turkicized and spoke the Chagatai language.

The Encyclopedia Britannica lists Timur as a Turkic conqueror.

In Indian historiography, Timur is considered the head of the Chagatai Turks.

Timur's father had one brother, whose name in Turkic was Balta.

Timur's father was married twice: the first wife was Timur's mother Tekina-Khatun. Contradictory information has been preserved about its origin. And the second wife of Taragay/Turgay was Kadak-khatun, the mother of Timur's sister Shirin-bek aga.

Muhammad Taragai died in 1361 and was buried in Timur's homeland - in the city of Kesh (Shakhrisabz). His tomb has survived to this day.

Spiritual guides of Timur

Mausoleum Rukhabad in Samarkand

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, a prominent figure in the Nakshbandi tariqa. The main spiritual mentor of Timur was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Mir Seyid Bereke. It was he who gave Timur the symbols of power: a drum and a banner when he came to power in 1370. Presenting 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 mourned together the unexpectedly deceased heir to the throne, Muhammad Sultan. Mir Seyid Bereke was buried in the mausoleum of Gur Emir, where Timur himself was buried at his feet. Another mentor of Timur was the son of the Sufi sheikh Burkhan ad-din Sagarji Abu Said. Timur ordered the construction of the Rukhabad mausoleum over their graves.

Timur's language skills

During a campaign against the Golden Horde against Tokhtamysh in 1391, Timur ordered to knock out an inscription in the Chagatai language in Uighur letters - 8 lines and three lines in Arabic, containing a Koranic text near the mountain Altyn-Chuku. In history, this inscription is known as the Karsakpai inscription of Timur. Currently, the stone with Timur's inscription is stored and exhibited in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Tamerlane's contemporary and captive Ibn Arabshah, who knew Tamerlane personally from 1401, reports: "As for Persian, Turkic and Mongolian, he knew them better than anyone else." Princeton University researcher Svat Soucek writes of Timur in his monograph that “He was a Turk of the Barlas tribe, Mongolian in name and origin, but in every practical sense Turkic by that time. Timur's native language was Turkic (Chagatai), although he may have also spoken Persian to some extent due to the cultural environment in which he lived. He practically did not know Mongolian for sure, although Mongolian terms have not yet completely disappeared from documents and were found on coins.

The legal documents of Timur's state were drawn up in two languages: Persian and Turkic. So, for example, a document from 1378 giving privileges to the descendants of Abu Muslim who lived in Khorezm was written in the Chagatai Turkic language.

According to the Timurid source "Muiz al-Ansab", at the court of Timur there was only a staff of Turkic and Tajik scribes.

Timur's wives

He had 18 wives, of which his favorite wife was the sister of Emir Hussein - Uljay-Turkan aga. According to another version, his beloved wife was Kazan Khan's daughter Sarai-mulk khanim. She had no children of her own, but she was entrusted with the upbringing of some of Timur's sons and grandsons. She was a renowned patroness of science and the arts. By her order, a huge madrasah and mausoleum for her mother was built in Samarkand.

During Timur's infancy, the Chagatai state in Central Asia (the Chagatai ulus) collapsed. In Maverannahr since 1346, the power belonged to the Turkic emirs, and the khans who were elevated to the throne by the emperor ruled only nominally. In 1348, the Mogul emirs enthroned Tugluk-Timur, who began to rule in East Turkestan, the Kulja region and Semirechye.

Rise of Timur

Start of political activity

Timur entered the service of the ruler of Kesh - Hadji Barlas, who was presumably the head of the Barlas tribe. In 1360 Maverannahr was conquered by Tugluk-Timur. Haji Barlas fled to Khorasan, and Timur entered into negotiations with the khan and was approved by the ruler of the Kesh region, but was forced to retire after the Mongols left and Haji Barlas returned.

The next year, at dawn on May 22, 1365, a bloody battle took place near Chinaz between the army of Timur and Hussein with the army of Mogolistan led by Khan Ilyas-Khoja, which went down in history as a "battle in the mud." Timur and Hussein had few chances to defend their native land, 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 ahead, and the horses got stuck in the mud. Despite this, Timur's troops began to win on their flank, at the decisive moment he asked for help from Hussein 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 soldiers of Timur and Hussein were forced to retreat to the other side of the Syr Darya River.

Composition of Timur's troops

Representatives of various tribes fought as part of Timur's army: Barlas, Durbats, Nukuzes, Naimans, Kipchaks, Bulguts, Dulats, Qiyats, Jalairs, Sulduz, Merkits, Yasavuri, Kauchins, etc.

The military organization of the troops was built like that of the Mongols, according to the decimal system: tens, hundreds, thousands, tumens (10 thousand). Among the branch management bodies was a vazirat (ministry) for the affairs of military personnel (sepoys).

Campaigns to Mogolistan

Despite the laid foundation of statehood, Khorezm and Shibirgan, which belonged to the Chagatai ulus, did not recognize the new power in the person of Suyurgatmish Khan and Emir Timur. It was restless on the southern and northern borders of the border, where Mogolistan and the White Horde brought anxiety, often violating borders and plundering villages. After the capture of Sygnak by Uruskhan and the transfer of the capital of the White Horde, Yassy (Turkestan), Sairam and Maverannahr were in even greater danger. It was necessary to take measures to strengthen the statehood.

The ruler of Mogolistan, Emir Kamar ad-din, tried to prevent the strengthening of Timur's state. Mogolistan feudal lords often made predatory raids on Sairam, Tashkent, Ferghana and Turkestan. Particularly great troubles were brought to the people by the raids of Emir Qamar ad-din in the 70-71s and the raids in the winter of 1376 on the cities of Tashkent and Andijan. In the same year, Emir Qamar al-Din captured half of Fergana, from where its governor, the son of Timur, Umar Sheikh Mirza fled to the mountains. Therefore, the solution of the problem of Mogolistan was important for peace on the borders of the country.

But Qamar ad-din was not defeated. When Timur's army returned to Maverannahr, he invaded Ferghana, a province that belonged to Timur, and laid siege to the city of Andijan. An enraged Timur hurried to Ferghana and pursued the enemy for a long time behind Uzgen and the mountains of Yassy to the very valley of At-Bashi, the southern tributary of the upper Naryn.

The "Zafarname" mentions the sixth campaign of Timur in the Issyk-Kul region against Kamar ad-din in the city, but the khan again managed to escape.

The next goals of Tamerlane were the curbing of the ulus of Jochi (known in history as the White Horde) and the establishment of political influence in its eastern part and the unification of Mogolistan and Maverannahr, previously divided, into a single state, which was once called the Chagatai ulus.

Realizing the danger to the independence of Maverannahr from the Juchi ulus, from the very first days of his reign, Timur tried in every possible way to bring his protege in the Juchi ulus to power. The Golden Horde had its capital in the city of Sarai-Batu (Saray-Berke) and extended across the North Caucasus, northwestern Khwarezm, Crimea, Western Siberia, and the Volga-Kama principality of Bulgar. The White Horde had a capital in the city of Sygnak and extended from Yangikent to Sabran, along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, and also on the banks of the Syr Darya steppe from Ulu-tau to Sengir-yagach and land from Karatal to Siberia. The Khan of the White Horde, Urus Khan, tried to unite the once powerful state, whose plans were thwarted by the intensified struggle between the Jochids and the feudal lords of the Dashti 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 ascending to power, Khan Tokhtamysh seized power in the Golden Horde and began to pursue a hostile policy towards the lands of Maverannahr.

Timur's campaign against the Golden Horde in 1391

Timur's campaign against the Golden Horde in 1395

After the defeat of the Golden Horde and Khan Tokhtamysh, the latter fled to Bulgar. In response to the plunder of the lands of Maverannahr, Emir Timur burned the capital of the Golden Horde - Sarai-Batu, and gave the reins of government to Koirichak-oglan, who was the son of Uruskhan. Timur's defeat of the Golden Horde also had broad economic consequences. As a result of Timur's campaign, 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.

In the 1390s, Tamerlane inflicted two severe defeats on the Khan of the Horde - on Kondurcha in 1391 and on the Terek in 1395, after which Tokhtamysh was deprived of the throne and forced to wage a constant struggle with the khans appointed by Tamerlane. With this defeat of the army of Khan Tokhtamysh, Tamerlane brought indirect benefits in the struggle of the Russian lands against the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

Three great campaigns of Timur

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).

Three year hike

For the first time, Timur was forced to return back due to the invasion of Maverannahr by the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in alliance with the Mongols of Semirechye ().

Death

Mausoleum of Emir Timur in Samarkand

He died during a campaign in 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 because of China's claims to the lands of Transoxiana and Turkestan. He gathered a large army of two hundred thousand, with whom 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 with 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, upholstered in 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 throne of Samarkand against the will of his grandfather, who bequeathed the kingdom to his eldest grandson Pir-Mohammed.

A look at Tamerlane in the light of history and culture

Code of laws

Main article: Code of Timur

When appointed to the post, the "great emir" demanded devotion and loyalty from everyone. He appointed to high positions 315 people who were next to him from the very beginning of his career and fought side by side with him. The first hundred were appointed tenants, the second hundred - centurions, and the third - thousanders. Of the remaining fifteen people, four were appointed beks, one was appointed supreme emir, and others were appointed to other high posts.

The law was recognized as equal for everyone, both for emirs and subjects.

Army of Tamerlane

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-confessional association, the core of which was the Turkic-Mongolian nomadic warriors. The army of Tamerlane was divided into cavalry and infantry, the role of which greatly increased at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. Nevertheless, the main part of the army was made up of cavalry units of nomads, the backbone of which consisted of elite units of heavily armed cavalrymen, as well as detachments of Tamerlane's bodyguards. The infantry often played a supporting role, but was necessary during the sieges of fortresses. The infantry was mostly lightly armed and mainly consisted of archers, but the army also consisted of heavily armed shock troops of infantrymen.

In addition to the main types of troops (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, in general, corresponded to the decimal organization of Genghis Khan, however, a number of changes appeared (for example, units of 50 to 300 people called "koshuns" appeared, the number of larger "kul" units was also inconsistent).

The main weapon of the light cavalry, like the infantry, was the bow. Light cavalrymen also used sabers or swords and axes. Heavily armed riders were armored (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 ubiquitous). Ordinary foot soldiers were armed with bows, heavy infantry warriors fought with sabers, axes and maces and were protected by shells, helmets and shields.

banners

According to sources, Timur was fond of playing chess (more precisely, shatranj).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Timur's personal sword was kept in the Tehran Museum.

Tamerlane in art

In literature

historical

Ghiyasaddin Ali. Diary of Timur's campaign in India. M., 1958.
Nizam ad-Din Shami. Zafar name. Materials on the history of the Kirghiz and Kirghizia. Issue I. M., 1973.
Yazdi Sharaf ad-Din Ali. Zafar name. T., 2008.
Ibn Arabshah. Miracles of the fate of the history of Timur. T., 2007.
Clavijo, Ruy Gonzalez de. Diary of a journey to Samarkand to the court of Timur (1403-1406). M., 1990.
Abd ar-Razzak. Places where two lucky stars rise and where two seas meet. Collection of materials relating to the history of the Golden Horde. M., 1941.

Timur (Tamerlane)

Emir, who personified the last conquests of the Mongols in Asia and proved his loyalty to the traditions of Genghis Khan

Emir of the Timurid Empire Timur

Timur, the son of a bek from the Turkicized Mongolian Barlas tribe, was born in 1336 in Kesh (modern Shakhrisab, Uzbekistan). His father had a small ulus. The name of the Central Asian conqueror comes from the nickname Timurleng (Timur Khromets), which was associated with his lameness on his left leg.

In 1361, he entered the service of Khan Togluk, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. Soon Timur became an adviser to the khan's son Ilyas Khoja and the ruler (viceroy) of the Kashkadarya vilayet in the possessions of Khan Togluk. By that time, the Bek's son from the Barlas tribe already had his own detachment of mounted warriors.

Having fallen into disgrace, Timur with his detachment of 60 people fled across the Amu Darya River to the Badakhshan Mountains. There he got stronger. Khan Togluk sent a thousand-strong detachment in pursuit of Timur, but he, having fallen into a well-arranged ambush, was almost completely exterminated in battle by the soldiers of Timur - lame.

Gathering his strength, Timur concluded a military alliance with the ruler of Balkh and Samarkand, Emir Hussein, and began a war with Khan Togluk and his son, heir Ilyas Khoja. The enemy troops consisted mainly of warriors - Uzbeks. On the side of Timur came the Turkmen tribes, who gave him numerous cavalry.

Soon he declared war on his ally - the Samarkand emir Hussein - and defeated him. Timurleng captured Samarkand - one of largest cities Central Asia - and intensified military operations against the son of Khan Togluk. The troops of that number (according to exaggerated data) were about 100 thousand people, but 80 thousand of them were garrisons of fortresses and almost did not participate in field battles.

Timur's cavalry detachment numbered only about two thousand people, but they were experienced warriors, soldered by iron discipline. In a number of battles, Timur the lame inflicted defeats on the Khan's troops, and by 1370 their demoralized remnants retreated across the Syr River.

After these successes, Timur went for a military trick, which he succeeded brilliantly. On behalf of the khan's son, who commanded the troops of Togluk, he sent out the strictest order to the commandants of the fortresses to leave the fortresses entrusted to them and to move beyond the Syr River with garrisons. They carried out the command.

In 1370, Timur became emir in Maverannahr - the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. He ruled on behalf of the descendants of Genghis Khan, relying on the army, the nomadic nobility and the Muslim clergy. He made the city of Samarkand his capital.

Timur began aggressive campaigns outside his original possessions in 1371. By 1380, he had already made 9 such campaigns, and soon all the neighboring regions inhabited by Uzbeks, and most of modern Afghanistan, were under his authority. Any resistance to the Mongol army was severely punished - after himself, the commander Tamerlane left huge destruction and erected (according to a number of sources) pyramids from the heads of defeated enemy soldiers.

In 1376, Emir Timur provided military assistance to Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Genghis Khan, as a result of which the latter became one of the khans of the Golden Horde. However, Tokhtamysh soon repaid his patron with black ingratitude.

In 1386, Tamerlane made an aggressive campaign in the Caucasus. Near Tiflis, his army fought the Georgians and won a complete victory. The capital of Georgia was destroyed. The defenders of the fortress of Vardzia put up courageous resistance to the conquerors, the entrance to which was through the dungeon. The defenders of Vardzia repelled all enemy attempts to break into the fortress through an underground entrance. The Mongols managed to take it with the help of wooden platforms, which they lowered on ropes from the neighboring mountains.

Simultaneously with Georgia, the Mongols Timur Khromets conquered neighboring Armenia.

In 1388, after a long resistance, Khorezm fell, and its capital city of Urgench was destroyed. Now all the lands along the river Jeyhun (Amu Darya) from the Pamir Mountains to Aral Sea became the possessions of Emir Timur. In 1389, the cavalry of the Samarkand ruler made a campaign in the steppes to Lake Balkhash, to the territory of Semirechie - the south of modern Kazakhstan.

When Timur fought in Persia, Tokhtamysh, who became the Khan of the Golden Horde, attacked the emir's possessions and plundered their northern part. Timur hastily returned to Samarkand and began to carefully prepare for a big war with the Golden Horde. His cavalry had to go 2,500 kilometers across the arid steppes.

Khromets made three big campaigns against Khan Tokhtamysh - in 1389, 1391 and 1394-1395. In the last campaign, the Samarkand emir went to the Golden Horde along the western coast of the Caspian Sea through modern Azerbaijan and the fortress of Derbent.

In July 1391, the most important thing happened near Lake Kergel. major battle between the cavalry armies of Emir Timur and Khan Tokhtamysh. The forces of the parties were approximately equal - 300 thousand cavalry soldiers each, but these figures in the sources are clearly overestimated. The battle began at dawn with a mutual skirmish of archers, followed by mounted attacks on each other. By noon, the army of the Golden Horde was defeated and put to flight.

Timur successfully waged war against Tokhtamysh, but did not annex his possessions to himself. The Emir's Mongol troops crushed the Golden Horde capital, Saray-Berke. Tokhtamysh with his troops and camps more than once fled to the most remote corners of his possessions.

In the campaign of 1395, Timur's army, after another pogrom of the Volga territories of the Golden Horde, reached the southern borders of the Russian land and laid siege to the border town - the fortress of Yelets. Its few defenders could not resist the enemy, and Yelets was burned. After that, Tamerlane suddenly turned back.

The Mongol conquests of Persia and neighboring Transcaucasia lasted from 1392 to 1398. The decisive battle between the emir's army and the Persian army of Shah Mansur took place near Patila in 1394. The Persians energetically attacked the enemy center and almost broke its resistance. Timur himself led the counterattack of the heavy armored cavalry, which became victorious. The Persians were completely defeated. This victory allowed Timurleng to completely subjugate Persia.

In 1398 Timur the lame invaded India. In the same year, his army besieged the city of Merath. The besiegers took the fortress by storm with the help of ladders. Bursting into Merath, the Mongols exterminated all its inhabitants. After that, Timur ordered the destruction of the Merath walls.

One of the battles took place on the Ganges River. Here the Mongol cavalry fought with the Indian military flotilla, which consisted of 48 large river boats. Emir's warriors rushed with their horses to the Ganges and attacked the enemy ships by swimming, hitting their crews with arrows accurately fired from bows.

At the end of 1398, Timur's army approached the city of Delhi. Under its walls, on December 17, a battle took place between the Mongol army and the army of the Delhi Muslims under the command of Mahmud Tughlaq. The battle began with the fact that Timur with a detachment of 700 horsemen, having crossed the Jamma River to reconnoiter the city fortifications, was attacked by the 5,000-strong cavalry of Mahmud Tughlaq. Timur repulsed the first attack, and when the main forces of the Mongol cavalry entered the battle, the Delhi Muslims were driven behind the fortress walls.

Tamerlane captured Delhi from battle, betraying this numerous and rich Indian city to plunder, and its inhabitants to massacre. The conquerors left Delhi, burdened with huge booty. Everything that could not be taken to Samarkand, the emir ordered to destroy or destroy to the ground. It took a whole century for Delhi to recover from the Mongol pogrom.

The cruelty of Timur on Indian soil is best evidenced by the following fact. After the battle of Panipat in 1398, he ordered the slaughter of 100,000 Indian soldiers who had surrendered to him.

In 1400, Timur began an aggressive campaign in Syria, moving there through Mesopotamia, which he had previously captured. Near the city of Aleppo (modern Aleppo), on November 11, a battle took place between the Mongolian army and Turkish troops commanded by the Syrian emirs. They did not want to sit in the siege and went to battle in the open field. The Mongols defeated them, and the emirs of Syria, having lost several thousand soldiers, retreated to Aleppo. After that, Timur took and plundered the city, taking its citadel by storm.

The Mongol conquerors behaved on Syrian soil in the same way as in other conquered countries. All the most valuable was to be sent to Samarkand. In the capital of Syria, Damascus, which was captured on January 25, 1401, the Mongols massacred 20,000 inhabitants.

After the conquest of Syria, a war began against the Turkish Sultan Bayezid I. The Mongols captured the border fortress of Kemak and the city of Sivas. When the Sultan's ambassadors arrived there, Timur, to intimidate them, reviewed his huge, according to some reports, 800,000 (!) Army.

After that, he ordered to capture the crossings across the Kizil-Irmak River and besiege the Ottoman capital Ankara. This forced the Turks to accept a general battle with the Mongols under the walls of Ankara, which took place on June 20, 1402.

According to Eastern sources, the Mongol army numbered from 250 to 350 thousand soldiers and 32 war elephants brought to Anatolia from India. The Sultan's army, which consisted of the Ottoman Turks, hired Crimean Tatars, Serbs and other forced peoples of the Ottoman Empire, numbered 120-200 thousand people.

Timur won a victory largely due to the successful actions of his cavalry on the flanks and the transition to his side of the bribed 18 thousand Crimean Tatars. In the Turkish army, the Serbs, who were on the left flank, held out most staunchly. Sultan Bayazid I was taken prisoner, and the infantrymen, the Janissaries, who were surrounded, were completely killed. The fleeing Ottomans were pursued by the emir's 30,000 light cavalry.

After a convincing victory at Ankara, Tamerlane laid siege to the large seaside city of Smyrna. He took it after a two-week siege and plundered it. Then the Mongol army turned back to Central Asia, once again devastating Georgia along the way. In 1405 the great conqueror passed away.

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Great emir Tamerlane (Timur lame)

Oh, if only, taking a sofa with poetry
Yes, in a jug of wine and putting bread in your pocket,
I'll spend a day with you among the ruins, -
Any sultan would envy me.
rubaiyat
No less mysterious historical, brilliant personality, of course, is Timur lame. Born 109 years after the death of Genghis Khan.
Timur - iron, was born on April 9, 1336. Khoja-Ilgar, modern Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan, died February 18, 1405 Otrar, Kazakhstan - a Central Asian commander and conqueror who played a significant role in the history of Central, South and Western Asia, as well as the Caucasus, the Volga region and Rus'. Commander, founder of the Timurid Empire (1370) with its capital in Samarkand. Great emir of the Timurid Empire. Timur's full name was Timur ibn Taragay Barlas - Timur son of Taragay from Barlas in accordance with the Arabic tradition (alam-nasab-nisba). In the Chagatai and Mongolian languages Tem;r or Temir means "iron". In medieval Russian chronicles he was referred to as Temir Aksak.

Not being Genghisides, Timur formally could not bear the title of khan, therefore he was always called only emir (leader, leader). However, having intermarried in 1370 with the house of Genghisides, he took the name Timur Gurgan - an Iranianized version of the Mongolian k;r;gen or kh;rgen, "son-in-law"). This meant that Timur was a relative of the Genghisides and could freely live and act in their homes.

Portrait of Tamerlane. 15th century miniature

Father Muhammad Taragay Noyon (Barlas), he was a military man, a small landowner. He came from the Barlas tribe and was a descendant of a certain Karachar noyon (a large feudal landowner in the Middle Ages), a powerful assistant to Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan, mother Tekin Khatun (female alternative to the title Khan - Khatun).
Timur was a very brave and restrained man. Possessing sober judgment, he was able to make the right decision in difficult situations. These character traits attracted people to him.
A far-sighted ruler and a talented organizer, Timur was at the same time a cruel conqueror, mercilessly suppressing any manifestations of disobedience. Majestic pyramids of severed heads, wiped off the face of the earth of the city, hundreds of thousands of deliberately killed prisoners and civilians - all this was familiar to Tamerlane's conquest and punitive campaigns. For example, having invaded Afghanistan, Timur ordered to erect a tower of two thousand living captives mixed with clay and broken bricks to intimidate the population. However, it should be noted that the sophisticated cruelty common to medieval wars assumed such impressive proportions in Timur's conquests precisely because of the scale of these conquests and the unprecedented mass character of the battles.
Timur left behind dozens of monumental architectural structures, some of which entered the treasury of world culture. Timur's buildings, in the creation of which he took an active part, reveal in him an outstanding artistic taste.
He was an educated man, his maternal grandfather Sadr al-Shari "and a famous scholar of one of the directions of Sharia - Hanafi. He was the author of Sharh al-Wikay, a commentary on al-Wakaya, which in turn is a commentary on al-Marghinana - al -Khidai, which is a classic guide to the laws of Hanafi.It is also possible that he is the famous traveler Ibn Batuta.

Timur at a feast in Samarkand
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, physically developed, his contemporaries wrote about him: “If most warriors could pull the bowstring to the level of the collarbone, then Timur pulled it to the ear. His hair is lighter than most of his tribesmen. A detailed study of the remains of Timur showed that anthropologically he belonged to the South Siberian race.

The appearance of Timur, reconstructed based on the results of the study of his remains.

Despite Timur's senile age (69 years), his skull, as well as his skeleton, did not have pronounced senile features proper. The presence of most of the teeth, a clear relief of the bones, the almost complete absence of osteophytes - all this suggests that the skull of the skeleton belonged to a person full of strength and health, whose biological age did not exceed 50 years. The massiveness of healthy bones, their highly developed relief and density, the width of the shoulders, the volume of the chest and relatively high growth - all this gives the right to think that Timur had an extremely strong build. His strong athletic muscles, most likely, were somewhat dry in form, and this is natural: life in military campaigns, with their difficulties and deprivations, almost constant stay in the saddle could hardly contribute to obesity.

A special external difference between Tamerlane's warriors and other Muslims was the Mongolian braids they preserved, which is confirmed by some Central Asian illustrated manuscripts of that time. Meanwhile, examining the ancient Turkic sculptures, the images of the Turks in the paintings of Afrasiab, the researchers came to the conclusion that the Turks wore braids as early as the 5th-8th centuries. The opening of Timur's grave and the analysis of anthropologists showed that Timur did not have 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, by the time of his death Timur had relatively long hair." Some historians believe that the light color of the hair is due to the fact that Tamerlane dyed his hair with henna. But M. M. Gerasimov in his work notes: “Even a preliminary study of the hair of the beard under the binocular convinces that this reddish-reddish color is her natural, and not dyed with henna, as described by historians.” Timur wore a long mustache, not trimmed above the lip. As it turned out, there was a rule that allowed the highest military class to wear a mustache without cutting it above the lip, and Timur, according to this rule, did not cut his mustache, and they hung freely above the lip. “Timur's small thick beard was wedge-shaped. Her hair is coarse, almost straight, thick, bright brown (red) in color, with significant graying.

Depiction of Timur by a French artist

On the bones of the right leg, lesions were visible in the region of the patella, which is fully consistent with the nickname "Khromets".
A contemporary and prisoner of Tamerlane, Ibn Arabshah, who knew Tamerlane 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 Maverannakhr, reports that “Beyond this river (Amu Darya) the kingdom of Samarkand extends, and its land is called Mogaliya (Mogolistan), and the Mughal language, and this language is not understood on this (southern) side of the river, since everyone speaks Persian”, he further reports “the letter used by the Samarkand people living on the other side of the river, those who live on this side do not understand and cannot read, but call this letter Moghali. And Senor Tamerlane keeps several scribes with him who can read and write in this language.
According to Svat Sou;ek, Timur 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 also spoken Persian to some extent 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.
During the campaign against Tokhtamysh in 1391, Timur ordered to knock out an inscription in the Chagatai language in Uyghur letters near the mountain Altyn-Chuk - 8 lines and three lines in Arabic containing the Qur'anic text. In history, this inscription is known as the Karsakpai inscription of Timur. Currently, the stone with Timur's inscription is stored and exhibited in the Hermitage.
Timur liked to talk with scientists, especially to 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 warriors.
According to Alisher Navoi, although Timur did not write poetry, he knew both poetry and prose very well, and, by the way, he knew how to bring the proper bait to the place.
Timur's childhood and youth were spent in the mountains of Kesh. 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, the Atabek mentors who served under Taragay taught Timur the art of war and sports games.
The first information about Timur appeared in sources starting from 1361. The beginning of Tamerlane's political activity is similar to the biography of Genghis Khan: they were the leaders of the detachments of adherents they personally recruited, who later 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 the enemies and the state of their lands, enjoyed unconditional authority among his troops 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 1362, Timur was approved as the ruler of the Kesh region and one of the assistants to the Mogul prince.
Ilyas-Khoja, together with Emir Bekchik and other close emirs, agreed to remove Timur from state affairs, and, if possible, to destroy him physically. The intrigues became more and more intensified and took on a dangerous character. 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 they led a life of adventurers with a small detachment and went towards Khorezm, where in the battle near Khiva they were defeated by the ruler of those lands, Tavakkala-Kongurot, and with the remnants of their warriors and servants, they were forced to retreat deep into the desert. Subsequently, having gone to the village of Makhmudi in the area subject to Mahan, they were taken prisoner by the people of Alibek Janikurban, in whose captivity they spent 62 days. According to the 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-bek.
Until 1364, the 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 Moghuls. During a skirmish in Seistan that took place in the autumn of 1362 against the enemies of the ruler Malik Kutbiddin, Timur lost two fingers on his right hand and was seriously wounded in his right leg, which made him lame.
In 1364, the Moghuls were forced to leave the country. Returning back to Maverannahr, Timur and Hussein installed Kabul Shah from the Chagataid clan on the throne.
The following year, at dawn on May 22, 1365, a bloody battle took place near Chinaz between the army of Timur and Hussein and the army of Khan Ilyas-Khoja, which went down in history as the “Battle in the Mud”. Timur and Hussein had little chance of winning, as Ilyas-Khoja's army was outnumbered. During the battle, a torrential downpour began, it was difficult for the soldiers to even look ahead, and the horses got stuck in the mud. Despite this, Timur's troops began to win on their flank, at the decisive moment he asked for help from Hussein 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 soldiers of Timur and Hussein were forced to retreat to the other side of the Syr Darya River.
Meanwhile, the army of Ilyas-Khoja was expelled from Samarkand by a popular uprising of the Serbedars, led by the teacher of the Mavlanazada madrasah, the artisan Abubakr Kalavi and the archer Mirzo Khurdaki Bukhari. People's government was established in the city. The property of the wealthy segments of the population was confiscated, so they turned to Hussein and Timur for help. Timur and Hussein agreed to oppose the Serbedars. In the spring of 1366, Timur and Hussein suppressed the uprising by executing the Serbedar leaders, but by order of Tamerlane, they left alive one of the leaders of the uprising, Mavlana-zade, who was very popular among the people.

Timur during the siege of the Balkh fortress in 1370

Hussein hatched plans to take the post of supreme emir of the Chagatai ulus, like his grandfather Kazagan, who seized this position by force during the time of Kazan Khan. There was a split in relations between Timur and Hussein, and each of them began to prepare for a decisive battle. In this situation, Timur was greatly supported by the clergy in the person of the Termez seids, the Samarkand sheikh-ul-Islam and Mir Seid Bereke, who became Timur's spiritual mentor.
Having moved from Sali-saray to Balkh, Hussein began to strengthen the fortress. He decided to act by deceit 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. Going to the meeting, Timur, just in case, took with him two hundred horsemen, 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 a letter to Emir Hussein with a Turkic bait of the following content:
Who intends to deceive me
It will fall into the ground, 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 Andhud Sayinds, advanced to meet the army, and handed him the timpani and the banner of supreme power. On the way to Balkh, Timur was joined by Dzhaku Barlas, who arrived from Karkara, with his army, and Emir Kaykhusrav from Khuttalan, and on the other side of the river, Emir Zinda Chashm from Shibirgan, Khazarians from Khulm and Badakhshan Muhammadshah also joined. Having learned about this, many soldiers of Emir Hussein left him.
Before the battle, Timur gathered a kurultai, at which Suyurgatmysh Khan, the son of Kazan Khan, was elected Khan of Maverannahr. Shortly before Timur was approved as the “great emir,” a kind messenger, a sheikh from Mecca, came to him and said that he had a vision that he, Timur, would become a great ruler. On this occasion, he handed him a banner, a drum, a symbol of supreme power. But he does not personally take this supreme power, but remains next to it.
On April 10, 1370, Balkh was conquered, and Hussein was captured and killed by the ruler of Khutallyan Kaykhusrav as a 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 fogs, Termezshahs took part. Among them were former rivals and childhood friends of Timur: Bayan-suldus, emirs Uljaitu, Kaikhosrov, Zinda Chashm, Jaku-barlas and many others. Kurultai elected Timur as the supreme emir of Turan, as the state of Timur was henceforth called, placing on him the responsibility for establishing the long-awaited peace, stability and order in the country. Marriage with the daughter of Genghisid Kazan Khan, the captive widow of Emir Hussein Sarai-mulk khanim, 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 from all the military leaders of Maverannahr. Like his predecessors, he did not take the title of khan and was content with the title of "great emir" - under him, the descendant of Genghis Khan Suyurgatmysh Khan (1370-1388), and then his son Mahmud Khan (1388-1402) were considered khans. Samarkand was chosen as the capital of the state. Timur began the struggle for the creation of a centralized state.

Map of the Timurid Empire in 1405.

Despite the laid foundation of statehood, Khorezm and Shibirgan, which belonged to the Chagatai ulus, did not recognize the new power 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 anxiety, often violating the borders and plundering villages. After the capture of Sygnak by Urus Khan and the transfer of the capital of the White Horde, Yassy (now Turkestan), Sairam and Maverannahr were in even greater danger. It was necessary to take measures to protect and strengthen the 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 occupied lands, first by peaceful means, sending first a tavachi (quartermaster) to Gurganj, then a sheikh-ul-Islam (head of the Muslim community), but the ruler of Khorezm, Hussein Sufi, both times refused to fulfill this requirement, capturing the ambassador. Later, Emir Timur made five campaigns against Khorezm.
Mogolistan had to be conquered to ensure the security of the state's borders. Mogolistan feudal lords often made predatory raids on Sairam, Tashkent, Fergana and Yassy. Especially great troubles were brought to the people by the raids of the Moghulistan ulusbegi of Emir Kamar ad-Din in 1370-1371.
From 1371 to 1390, Emir Timur made seven campaigns against Mogolistan, finally defeating the army of Qamar ad-Din and Anka-Tur in 1390. Timur undertook the first two campaigns against Qamar ad-Din in the spring and autumn of 1371. The first campaign ended with a truce; during the second Timur, leaving Tashkent, moved towards the village of Yangi on Taraz. There he put the Moghuls to flight and captured much booty.
In 1375 Timur carried out the 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 Khujand. However, Qamar ad-Din was not defeated. When Timur's army returned to Maverannahr, Qamar ad-Din invaded Fergana in the winter of 1376 and laid siege to the city of Andijan. The governor of Fergana, the third son of Timur Umar-sheikh, fled to the mountains. Enraged Timur hurried to Ferghana and pursued the enemy for a long time behind Uzgen and the mountains of Yassy to the very valley of At-Bashi, the southern tributary of the upper Naryn.
In 1376-1377, Timur made his fifth campaign against Qamar ad-Din. He defeated his army in the gorges west of Issyk-Kul and pursued him to Kochkar. The "Zafar-name" mentions the sixth campaign of Timur to the Issyk-Kul region against Kamar ad-Din in 1383, but the ulusbegi again managed to escape.
In 1389-1390, Timur intensified his actions in order to finally defeat Qamar al-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 forward detachments reached Kara Khoja in the east, that is, almost to Turfan. In 1390, Qamar ad-din was finally defeated, and Mogolistan finally ceased to threaten the power of Timur. However, Timur reached only the Irtysh in the north, Alakul in the east, Emil and the headquarters of the Mongol khans Balig-Yulduz, but he could not conquer the lands east of the Tangri-tag and Kashgar mountains. Qamar ad-Din fled to the Irtysh and subsequently died of dropsy. Khizr-Khoja established himself as the Khan of Moghulistan.
In 1380, Timur went on a campaign against Malik Ghiyas-ad-din Pir-Ali II, since he did not want to recognize himself as a vassal of Emir Timur and, in response, began to strengthen the defensive walls of his capital city of Herat. At the beginning, Timur sent an ambassador to him with an invitation to the kurultai in order to solve the problem peacefully, but Giyas-ad-din Pir-Ali II rejected the proposal, 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, Shibirgan and Badkhyz. In February 1381, Emir Timur himself set out with troops and took Khorasan, the cities of Serakhs, Jami, Kausia, Tuye and Kelat, and the city of Herat was taken after a five-day siege. In addition to Kelat, Sebzevar was taken, 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 crushed the uprising of the Serbedars 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, Sultania and Tabriz, in fact capturing all of Persia.
The next goals of Tamerlane were the curbing of the Golden Horde and the establishment of political influence in its eastern part and the unification of Mogolistan and Maverannahr, previously divided, into a single state, which was once 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. The Khan of the White Horde, Urus Khan, tried to unite the once powerful ulus of Jochi, but his plans were thwarted by the intensified struggle between the Jochids and the feudal lords of Desht-i Kipchak. According to Yuri Shpilkin, Urus Khan is fair-haired, with green eyes, one of the descendants of the eldest son of Genghis Khan Jochi, whose mausoleum is located 50 km. from Zhezkazgan, whose ancestors in all likelihood were from the Andronov Aryans - Sakas or Scythians. Iranian-speaking and Turkic authors call him "Urus-Khan of the Uzbeks", or simply Urus-Khan, and behind the eyes of Kokkoz - Green-eyed or Blue-eyed. The word Urus is a phonetic version of the ethnonym Russian. The initial r- is alien to the Turkic languages, the word Russian acquired vowels and the form urus, orus, orys. The fact that the founder of the dynasty of Kazakh khans was called Urus should not surprise us. The name or nickname Urus was quite widespread among the Turkic beks and Chingizids. According to modern researchers, the name Urus was usually called: "fair-haired child", and the birth of such was not so uncommon.

Urus Khan

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 Maverannahr. In 1387, Tokhtamysh, together with the ruler of Khorezm, Hussein Sufi, made a predatory raid on Bukhara, which led to Timur's last campaign against Khorezm and further military operations against Tokhtamysh (Tamerlane made three campaigns against him, finally defeating him only in 1395).

Khan Tokhtamysh-oglan

Timur began the 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 back due to the invasion of Maverannahr 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 away its ruler Shah Mansur from the Muzaffarid dynasty. Shortly after the departure of Timur's main troops, a popular uprising took place in Isfahan, led by the blacksmith Ali Kuchek. Timur's entire garrison was slaughtered. Johann Schiltberger narrates about Timur's retaliatory actions against the Isfahanians in his travel notes:
“The latter immediately returned, but for 15 days he could not capture the city. Therefore, he offered the inhabitants a truce on the condition that they hand over 12,000 riflemen to his command for some kind of campaign. When these soldiers 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 was soon taken by him by attack. Having gathered the inhabitants, he ordered the death of all who were over 14 years old, sparing those who were less than years old. 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 that, he ordered his soldiers to run over them with their horses. Tamerlane's own advisers and the mothers of these children fell on their knees before him and begged him to spare the children. But he did not heed their pleas, he repeated his order, which, however, not a single warrior dared to fulfill. 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 soldiers were forced to follow his example and trample the children with the hooves of their horses. Total trampled counted about seven thousand. After that, he ordered the city to be set on fire, and took the women and children 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, the city of Urgench. By order of Timur, the Khorezmians who resisted were mercilessly exterminated, the city was destroyed to the ground, and barley was sown in its place. In fact, Urgench was not completely destroyed, since masterpieces of the architecture of Urgench built before Timur have survived to this day, for example, the mausoleum of Il-Arslan (XII century), the mausoleum of Khorezmshah Tekesh (1200) and others.

In 1389, Timur made a devastating campaign deep into the Mongol possessions to the Irtysh in the north and to Big Zhyldyz in the east, and in 1391 - a campaign against the Golden Horde possessions to the Volga, defeating Tokhtamysh in the battle on the Kondurcha River. After that, Timur sent his troops against Mogolistan (1389-1390).
Timur began the 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 the actions of Timur in Georgia, about the policy of Islamization of the country and the capture of Tbilisi, about the Georgian military commonwealth etc. By 1394, Tsar George VII managed to carry out defensive measures on the eve of the next invasion - he gathered a militia, to which he attached the Caucasian highlanders, including the Nakhs.

Army of Tamerlane (attacks the Georgian city of Nerges.)

At first, the united Georgian-Mountain army had some success, they were even able to push back the advanced detachments of the conquerors. However, in the end, 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. Given the strategic importance of the pass roads to the North Caucasus, in particular, the natural fortress - the Darial Gorge, Timur decided to capture it. However, a huge mass of troops was so mixed up in the mountain gorges and gorges that it turned out to be incapable of combat. The defenders managed to kill so many people in the advanced ranks of the enemies that, unable to stand it, "turned ... Timur's soldiers."
Timur appointed one of his sons, Umar Sheikh, as the ruler of Fars, and another son, Miran Shah, as the ruler of Transcaucasia. The invasion of Tokhtamysh in the Transcaucasus caused Timur's response to 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 benefits 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, devastated Yelets, posing a threat to Moscow. Having launched an offensive against Moscow, on August 26, 1395, he unexpectedly turned back (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 Most Holy Theotokos, brought from Vladimir (from that day the icon is revered as the patroness of Moscow), Vitovt's army also went to the aid of Moscow.

According to Zafar-name by Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi, Timur was on the Don after his victory over Tokhtamysh on the Terek River and until the defeat of the cities of the Golden Horde in the same 1395. Timur personally pursued the Tokhtamysh commanders, who retreated after the defeat, until their complete defeat on the Dnieper. Most likely, according to this source, Timur did not set out to march specifically on Russian lands. Some of his detachments approached the borders of Rus', and not he himself. Here, on the comfortable summer pastures of the Horde, stretching 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 put up serious resistance, the region was severely devastated. As the Russian chronicle stories about Timur's invasion testify, his army stood on both sides of the Don for two weeks, "captured" the land of Yelets and "seized" the prince of Yelets. Some coin treasures 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 a pogrom, no treasures with such dating have been found so far. Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi describes the great booty taken in the 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. The "Zafar-name" contains a detailed list of Russian cities conquered by Timur, where there is also Moscow. Perhaps this is just a list of Russian lands that did not want an armed conflict and sent their ambassadors with gifts.
Then Timur plundered the trading cities of Azov and Kafa, burned down Sarai-Bata and Astrakhan, but the lasting conquest of the Golden Horde was not the goal of Tamerlane, and therefore the Caucasus Range remained the northern border of Timur's possessions. The Horde cities of the Volga region never recovered from the devastation of Tamerlane 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 defeated. The city of Tana (modern Azov) rose from the ruins for several decades.
In 1396 he returned to Samarkand and in 1397 appointed his youngest son Shahrukh as the ruler of Khorasan, Sistan and Mazanderan.

Timur defeats the Sultan of Delhi, Nasir ad-Din Mahmud, in the winter of 1397-1398, painting dated 1595-1600.

1398 Timur undertook a campaign against India, on the way the highlanders of Kafiristan were defeated. In December, under the walls of Delhi, Timur defeated the army of the Delhi Sultan and occupied the city without resistance, which a few days later was plundered by his army and burned. By order of Timur, 100,000 captured Indian soldiers were executed for fear of a rebellion on their part. In 1399, Timur reached the banks of the Ganges, took several more cities and fortresses on the way back, and returned to Samarkand with huge booty.
Returning from India in 1399, Timur immediately began a "seven-year" campaign in Iran. This campaign was originally caused by unrest in the area ruled by Miran Shah. Timur deposed his son and defeated the enemies who invaded his possessions. Moving west, Timur encountered the Turkmen state of Kara-Koyunlu, the victory of Timur's troops forced the leader of the Turkmen Kara Yusuf to flee west to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid the Lightning. After that, Kara Yusuf and Bayezid agreed on a joint action against Timur. Sultan Bayazid responded to Timur's demand to give him Kara Yusuf with a caustic refusal.
In 1400, Timur began hostilities against Bayezid, who captured Erzinjan, 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 28, 1402, Timur won a major victory over the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, defeating him at the Battle of Ankara. The Sultan himself was taken prisoner.

Stanislav Khlebovsky, "The Capture of Bayezid by Timur", 1878

As a result of the battle, Timur captured all of Asia Minor, and the defeat of Bayezid led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, accompanied by a peasant war and civil strife among his sons.
In March of that very year 1402 (when the battle between Timur and Bayazid took place), a brief article by a Russian chronicler is marked, which gives a generalization of a military and geopolitical nature remarkable in its scale: "... a sign appeared in the west, in the evening dawn, a star is great in a green spear way .. .behold, show a sign, because the tongues rise up to fight against each other: Turks, Lyakhs, Ugrians, Germans, Lithuania, Czechs, Horde, Greeks, Russ, and many other lands and countries, turmoil and fighting against each other; appear."
There is no exaggeration in this image of ubiquitous strife among peoples: it was an era of truly tectonic shifts on the ethnic map of the Eurasian continent. The era of great battles and invasions (Kulikovo, Kosovo field, the destruction of Moscow by Tokhtamysh, the battle of Nikopol, the battle on Vorskla, Ankara, Grunwald, the battle on Maritsa, the invasion of Edigey, Hussite wars...) covered the living space of most Slavic states and peoples. It deeply shook the Orthodox world. The result of this era was the collapse of Byzantium, the emergence of a new center of Orthodoxy in Muscovite Rus'.
The fortress of Smyrna, which belonged to the Knights of St. John, which the Ottoman sultans could not take for 20 years, Timur captured by storm in two weeks. The western part of Asia Minor in 1403 was returned to the sons of Bayazid, in the eastern part the local dynasties deposed by Bayazid were restored.
Upon his return to Samarkand, Timur planned to declare his eldest grandson Mohammed-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.

The fortress at Jiayuguan was reinforced for fear of Timur's invasion while he decided to attack China.

When Timur was 68 years old - in the fall of 1404, he began to prepare an invasion of China. The main goal was to capture the rest of the Great Silk Road. to obtain maximum profits and ensure the prosperity of the native Maverannahr and its capital Samarkand. Timur also believed that the entire space of the inhabited part of the world is not worth having two rulers. In August 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand and a few months later undertook a campaign against China, for which he began to prepare as early as 1398. In that year, he built a fortress on the border of the present Syr-Darya region and Semirechye; now another fortification has been built, 10 days' journey further east, probably near Issyk-Kul. The campaign was stopped due to the beginning of a cold winter, and in February 1405 Timur died.
Timur, who created a huge empire, established diplomatic relations with a number of states, including China, Egypt, Byzantium, France, England, Castile, and others. In 1404, the ambassador of the Castilian king, Gonzalez de Clavijo, Ruy, visited the capital of his state, Samarkand. The original letters of Timur to the French king Charles VI have been preserved.
During the reign of Emir Timur, a code of laws was created, known as the "Codes of Timur", which set out the rules for the conduct of subjects and the duties of rulers and officials, as well as the rules for managing the army and the state.
When appointed to the post, the "great emir" demanded devotion and loyalty 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 tenants, the second hundred - centurions, and the third - thousanders. Of the remaining fifteen people, four were appointed beks, one was appointed supreme emir, and others were appointed to other high posts.
The judicial system was divided into three levels: 1. Sharia judge (kadi) - who was guided in his activities by the established norms of Sharia; 2. Judge ahdos - who was guided in his activities by the mores and customs established in society. 3. Kazi askar - who conducted the proceedings on military matters. All were equal before the law, both rulers and subjects.
The viziers under the leadership of Divan-Begi were responsible for the general situation of the subjects and the troops, for the financial condition of the country and the activities of state institutions. If information was received that the vizier of finance appropriated a part of the treasury, then this was checked and, upon confirmation, one of the decisions was made: if the appropriated amount was equal to his salary (uluf), then this amount was given to him as a gift. If the assigned amount is twice the salary, then the excess was withheld. If the appropriated amount was three times higher than the established salary, then everything was taken away in favor of the treasury.
Emirs, as well as viziers, were appointed from a noble family and had to possess such qualities as insight, courage, enterprise, caution and thrift, to conduct business, having thoroughly thought through the consequences of each step. They had to “know the secrets of conducting a battle, ways to disperse an enemy army, not lose their presence of mind in the midst of a fight and be able to lead troops without trembling and hesitation, and in case of disorder of battle order, be able to restore it without delay.”
The law was enshrined in the protection of soldiers and the common people. The Code obligated village and district elders, tax collectors and khakims (local rulers) to pay a fine to a commoner in the amount of the damage caused to him. If the harm was caused by a warrior, then he should be transferred into the hands of the victim, and he himself determined the measure of punishment for him.
As far as possible, the code secured the protection of the people in the conquered lands from humiliation and plunder.
A separate article is devoted to paying attention to the poor, who should have been gathered to a certain place, given food and work, and branded. If after that 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 the criminals, but to carefully check all the circumstances of the case and only after that make a verdict. Orthodox Muslims were explained the basics of religion to establish Sharia and Islam, taught tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), hadith (collections of legends about the Prophet Muhammad) and fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence). Ulema (scientists) and mudarrises (madrasah teachers) were also appointed to each city.
The legal documents of Timur's state were drawn up in two languages: Persian and Chagatai. For example, a document dated 1378, giving privileges to the descendants of Abu Muslim, who lived in Khorezm, was drawn up in the Chagatai Turkic language.

Tamerlane and his warriors. Miniature

Timur had at his disposal a huge army of up to 200 thousand soldiers. Representatives of various tribes fought as part of Timur’s army: Barlas, Durbats, Nukuzes, Naimans, Kipchaks, Dulats, Kiyats, Jalairs, Sulduz, Merkits, Yasavuri, Cauchins, Kangly, etc.
The military organization of the troops was built like that of the Mongols according to the decimal system: tens, hundreds, thousands, tumens (10 thousand). Among the bodies of branch management was a vazirat (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-confessional association, the core of which was the Turkic-Mongolian nomadic warriors. The army of Tamerlane was divided into cavalry and infantry, the role of which greatly increased at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. However, the main part of the army was made up of cavalry units of nomads, the backbone of which consisted of elite units of heavily armed cavalrymen, as well as detachments of Tamerlane's bodyguards. The infantry often played a supporting role, but was necessary during the sieges of fortresses. The infantry was mostly lightly armed and mainly consisted of archers, but the army also consisted of heavily armed shock troops of infantrymen.
In addition to the main types of troops (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, in general, corresponded to the decimal organization of Genghis Khan, but a number of changes appeared (for example, units numbering from 50 to 300 people called "koshuns" appeared, the number of larger "Kul" units was also inconsistent).
The main weapon of the light cavalry, like the 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 ubiquitous).
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 troops. During the Indian campaign, a black banner with a silver dragon was used. Before going to China, Tamerlane ordered to depict a golden dragon on the banners.

There is a legend that before the battle of Ankara, Timur and Bayazid the Lightning met on the battlefield. Bayazid, looking at the banner of Timur, said: "What impudence to think that the whole world belongs to you!" In response, Timur, pointing to the banner of the Turk, said: "Even more impudence to think that the moon belongs to you."

During the years of his conquests, Timur brought to the country not only material booty, but also brought with him prominent scientists, artisans, artists, and architects. He believed that the more cultured people there are in the cities, the faster its development will go and the more comfortable the cities of Maverannahr and Turkestan will be. In the course of 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. So, for example, he restored the cities of Baghdad, Derbend, Baylakan, fortresses destroyed on the roads, parking lots, bridges, irrigation systems.
Timur cared mainly about the prosperity of his native Maverannahr and about the exaltation of 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 invested in the capital Samarkand through the words about it: - "There will always be a blue sky and golden stars over Samarkand." Only in recent years did he take measures to improve the well-being of other areas of the state, mainly border areas (in 1398 a new irrigation canal was built in Afghanistan, in 1401 in Transcaucasia, etc.).
In 1371, he began the restoration of the ruined fortress of Samarkand, the defensive walls of Shahristan with six gates, and two four-story buildings Kuksaray were built in the arch, in which the state treasury, workshops and a prison were located, as well as Buston-saray, in which the residence of the emir was located.
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 annually. 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 erected Rukhabad (the tomb of Burkhaniddin Sogardzhi), Kutbi chakhardakhum (the tomb of Sheikh Khoja Nuriddin Basir) and Gur-Emir (the family tomb of the Timurid clan). Also in Samarkand, he built many baths, mosques, madrasahs, dervish cloisters, caravanserais.
During 1378-1404, 14 gardens of Bag-zogcha (garden of rooks) and others were grown in Samarkand and nearby lands. Each of these gardens had a palace and fountains. The historian Khafizi Abru mentions Samarkand in his writings, in which he writes that “Samarkand, previously 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 has survived to this day.
In 1399-1404, a cathedral mosque and a madrasah were built in Samarkand. The mosque later received the name Bibi Khanum (madam grandmother - in Turkic).

Cathedral Mosque of Timur

Shakhrisabz (in Tajik "green city") was equipped, in which destroyed city walls, defensive structures, tombs of saints, majestic palaces, mosques, madrasahs, and tombs were erected. Timur also devoted time to the construction of bazaars and baths. Aksaray Palace was built from 1380 to 1404. In 1380, the family tomb Dar us-saadat was erected.
The cities of Yassy and Bukhara were also equipped.
In 1388, the city of Shahrukhia was restored, which was destroyed during the invasion of Genghis Khan.
In 1398, after the victory over the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh, in Turkestan, a mausoleum was built by Iranian and Khorezm masters on the order of Timur over the grave of the poet and Sufi philosopher Khoja Ahmad Yassawi. Here, a two-ton copper cauldron was cast by a Tabriz master, in which they were supposed to cook food for those in need.
In Maverannakhr, applied art became widespread, in which artists could show all their mastery of their skills. It received its distribution in Bukhara, Yassy and Samarkand. The drawings in the tombs of the tomb of Shirinbek-aga and Tuman-aga, made in 1385 and 1405, respectively, have been preserved. The art of miniatures, which adorned such books by writers and poets of Maverannakhr as “Shahnameh” by Abulkasim Firdousi and “Anthology of Iranian Poets”, received special development. Great success in art at that time was achieved by the artists Abdulkhay, Pir Ahmad Bagishamali and Khoja Bangir Tabrizi.

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 testifies to the fact that the Central Asian masters of their craft, especially woodworkers with stone and jewelers with weavers, also achieved great success.
In the field of science and education, jurisprudence, medicine, theology, mathematics, astronomy, history, philosophy, musicology, literature and the science of versification have spread. A prominent theologian at that time was Jalaliddin Ahmed al Khorezmi. Great success in astrology was achieved by Maulana Ahmad, and in jurisprudence Abdumalik, Isamiddin and Sheikh Shamsiddin Muhammad Jazairi. In musicology, Abdulgadir Maragi, father and son of Safiaddin and Ardasher Changi. Painting by Abdulkhay Baghdadi and Pir Ahmad Bagishamoli. In the philosophy of Sadiddin Taftazzani and Ali al-Jurjani. In the story of Nizamiddin Shami and Hafizi Abru.
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, a prominent figure in the Nakshbandi tariqa. The main spiritual mentor of Timur was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Mir Seyid Bereke. It was he who gave Timur the symbols of power: a drum and a banner when he came to power in 1370. Presenting 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 mourned together the unexpectedly deceased 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 Sagarji Abu Said. Timur ordered the construction of the Rukhabad mausoleum over their graves.

Mausoleum Rukhabad in Samarkand

He had 18 wives, of which his favorite wife was the sister of Emir Hussein - Uljay-Turkan aga. According to another version, his beloved wife was Kazan Khan's daughter Sarai-mulk khanum. She had no children of her own, but she was entrusted with the upbringing of some of Timur's sons and grandsons. She was a renowned patroness of science and the arts. By her order, a huge madrasah and mausoleum for her mother was built in Samarkand.

In 1352, Timur marries the daughter of Emir Jaku-barlas Turmush-aga. Khan of Maverannahr Kazagan, convinced of the merits of Timur, 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-khanim, Turmish aga, Jani-bik aga, Chulpan aga and others.

Mausoleum of Timur's sons Jahangir and Umar Sheikh in Shakhrisyabz

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.

Mausoleum of Emir Timur in Samarkand.

He died during a campaign in 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 because of China's claims to the lands of Transoxiana and Turkestan. He gathered a large army of two hundred thousand, with whom 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 with 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-Mohammed.
After the death of Tamerlane, a tomb was built - the majestic Gur-Emir mausoleum, where a jade sarcophagus with the ashes of Tamerlane and two smaller marble sarcophagi with the ashes of his beloved wives were placed.

Traveling in Central Asia, Russian politician and public figure Illarion Vasilchikov recalled visiting Gur-Emir in Samarkand: ... Inside the mausoleum, in the middle, there was a large sarcophagus of Tamerlane himself, all of dark green jade, with ornaments and sayings from the Koran carved on it, and on the sides of it are two smaller sarcophagi of white marble - favorite wives of Tamerlane.
According to the legend, the source and time of which it is not possible to establish, there was a prediction that if the ashes of Tamerlane were disturbed, a great and terrible war would begin.
In the tomb of Timur Gur Emir in Samarkand, on a large dark green jade gravestone in Arabic script in Arabic and Persian is inscribed:
“This is the tomb of the great Sultan, the gracious Khakan Emir Timur Gurgan; son of Emir Taragay, son of Emir Bergul, son of Emir Aylangir, son of Emir Anjil, son of Kara Charnuyan, son of Emir Sigunchinchin, son of Emir Irdanchi-Barlas, son of Emir Kachulai, son of Tumnai Khan. This is the 9th generation.
Genghis Khan comes from the same family from which the grandfathers of the glorious Sultan, buried in this sacred and beautiful tomb, descend: Khakan-Genghis-son. Emir Maisukai-Bahadur, son of Emir Barnan-Bahadur, son of Kabul-Khan, son of the mentioned Tumnai-Khan, son of Emir Baysungara, son of Kaidu-Khan, son of Emir Tutumtin, son of Emir-Buk, son of Emir-Buzanjar.
Whoever wants to know further, let it be known: the mother of the latter was called Alankuva, who was distinguished by her honesty and her impeccable morality. She once became pregnant from a wolf who appeared to her in the opening of the room and, taking the form of a man, announced that he was a descendant of the ruler of the faithful Aliya, the son of Abu-Talib. This testimony given by her is accepted as the truth. Her praiseworthy descendants will rule the world forever.
He 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 a trip to Jitta.”
Several less reliable sources also report that the tombstone has 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: "Anyone who disturbs my peace in this life or the next will be subjected to suffering and perish."
Another legend says: In 1747, the Iranian Nadir Shah took this jade tombstone, and on that day Iran was destroyed by an earthquake, and the Shah himself fell seriously ill. The earthquake was repeated when the Shah returned to Iran and the stone was returned.
From the memoirs of Malik Kayumov, who was a cameraman at the opening of the grave: I entered the nearest teahouse, I look - there are three ancient old men sitting there. I also noted to myself: they are similar to each other, like brothers. Well, I sat down nearby, they brought me a teapot and a bowl. Suddenly, one of these old men turns to me: “Son, are you one of those who decided to open the grave of Tamerlane?” And I take it and say: “Yes, I am the most important in this expedition, without me all these scientists are nowhere!”. Jokingly decided to drive away his fear. Only, I see, the old people, in response to my smile, frowned even more. And the one who spoke to me beckons. I come closer, I look, in his hands is a book - an old, handwritten one, the pages are filled with Arabic script. And the old man runs his finger along the lines: “Look, son, what is written in this book. “Whoever opens the grave of Tamerlane will release the spirit of war. And there will be a slaughter so bloody and terrible, which the world has not seen forever and ever.

Article from the newspaper "Izvestia" dated 06/22/1941

He decided to tell the others and was laughed at. It was June 20th. 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 elders for the first and last time.
The opening of the tomb of Tamerlane was carried out on the night of June 20, 1941. Later, as a result of the study of the skull of the commander, the Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov recreated the appearance of Tamerlane.
However, the plan for the 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 according to plan was transmitted on June 20.
According to Kayumov, while at the front, he managed to get a meeting with Army General Zhukov in October 1942, explained the situation and offered to return the ashes of Tamerlane back to the grave. This was carried out on November 19-20, 1942; These days there was a turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Kayumov's criticism of Aini provoked reciprocal criticism from Tajik society. Another version of events, owned by Kamal Sadreddinovich Aini (the son of a writer who participated in the excavations) was published in 2004. According to her, the book was dated to the end of the 19th century, and Kayumov did not know Farsi, so he did not understand the content of the conversation and considered that Aini shouted at the elders. The words written in Arabic in the margins are “traditional sayings that are similarly available for the burials of Ismail Somoni, and Khoja Akhrar, and Khazrati Bogoutdin, and others, in order to protect the burials from seekers of easy money, looking for values in the graves of historical figures” , about which he told the old people.
When everyone left the crypt, I saw three elders talking in Tajik with my father, with A. A. Semyonov and T. N. Kary-Niyazov. One of the elders was holding some old book in his hand. He opened it and said in Tajik: “This book is old written. It says that whoever touches the grave of Timurlane, misfortune, war will overtake everyone. All those present exclaimed: "O Allah, save us from troubles!". S. Aini took this book, put on his glasses, carefully looked through it and addressed the elder in Tajik: “Dear, do you believe in this book?”
Answer: “Why, it begins with the name of Allah!”.
S. Aini: “Do you know what kind of book this is?”
Answer: "An important Muslim book that begins with the name of Allah and protects the people from disasters."
S. Aini: “This book, written in Farsi, is simply “Jangnoma” - a book about battles and fights, a collection of fantastic stories about certain heroes. And this book was compiled only recently, at the end of the 19th century. And those words that you are talking about the grave of Timurlane are written on the margins of the book with a different hand. By the way, you probably know that according to Muslim traditions, it is generally considered a sin to open graves and sacred places - mazars. And those words about the grave of Timurlane are traditional sayings that are similarly available in relation to the burial places of Ismail Somoni, and Khoja Ahrar, and Khazrati Bogoutdin Balogardon and others, in order to protect burial places from seekers of easy money, looking for values in the graves of historical figures. But for the sake of scientific purposes in different countries, as in our country, ancient burial grounds and graves of historical figures were opened. Here is your book, study it and think with your head.”
T. N. Kary-Niyazov picked up the book, carefully looked through it and, in agreement with S. Aini, nodded his head. Then Malik Kayumov took the book into his hands, whom everyone there called “suratgir” (photographer). And I saw that he was turning the pages not from the beginning of the book, as it should be from right to left, but, on the contrary, in a European way, from left to right. - From the diary of S. Aini
According to sources, Timur was fond of playing chess (more precisely, shatranj).

Iranian shatranj.

Timur's personal sword was kept in the Tehran Museum.

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 Nizam-ad-Din Shami (the only copy is in the British Museum). These works were supplanted by the well-known work of Sheref-ad-din Yezdi (under Shahrukh) translated into French ("Histoire de Timur-Bec", P., 1722). The work of another contemporary of Timur and Shahrukh, Khafizi-Abru, has come down to us only in part; it was used by the author of the second half of the 15th century, Abd-ar-Rezzak Samarkandi (the work was not published; there are many manuscripts).
Of the authors (Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Ottoman and Byzantine) who wrote independently of Timur and the Timurids, only one, the Syrian Arab Ibn Arabshah, compiled complete history 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 Journey to Timur’s Court in Samarkand in 1403-1406”, text with translation and notes, St. Petersburg, 1881, in the “Collection of the Russian Language and Literature Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences”, vol. XXVIII, No. 1).
People's writer of Uzbekistan, Soviet author Sergei Petrovich Borodin began writing an epic novel called "Stars over Samarkand". The first book, published under the title "Lame Timur", he wrote in the period from 1953 to 1954. The second book, entitled Campfires, was completed by 1958, and the third book, Lightning Bayazet, was completed by 1971, the publication of which was completed by the Friendship of Peoples magazine by 1973. The author also worked on a fourth book called "White Horse", however, having written only four chapters, he died.
The theme with Tamerlane and his curse is played up in the novel "Day Watch" by Sergei Lukyanenko, according to the plot of which Tamerlane finds a special chalk, with which it is possible to change fate with one inscription of chalk.
Edgar Allan Poe - "Tamerlane"
Timur, as a ruler, appears in many parables about Khoja Nasreddin.

Timur the Magnificent

According to Alexander Vorobyov: Even during his lifetime, such a strong knot of contradictions was woven around the appearance and deeds of Timur Gurigan - Timur the Magnificent, that it is no longer possible to cut it today. He even went down in history under none of his names: Timur, Tamerbek, Timur Gurigan, but under the nickname given to him by his enemies because of his lameness - "Lame Timur". Otherwise - Aksak-Timur in Turkic, Timur-leng in Persian, Tamerlane in European languages. And since then we have called the invincible emir the insulting nickname - Tamerlane.
The news of his campaigns instantly reached the Europeans, and they, too, began to tremble before the name of the "Great Lame".
Europe was seized by another attack of horror, it expected the invasion of the Central Asian hordes. Timur then defeated and captured at Angora (Ankara) the great Ottoman sultan Bayazid I Lightning (Thunder) - the son of the Ottoman Murad, who was killed on the Kosovo field by the Serbian prince Lazar in 1389. But the Lightning Sultan was considered invincible: before that, he conquered Anatolia and most of the Balkans. After a long blockade from 1394 to 1400, he almost captured Constantinople. It was he who put an end to the crusades against the Muslims, defeating the army of the crusaders near Nikopol (Bulgaria) in 1396. This defeat discouraged Europeans from saber-rattling in the East for many years. And this great Ottoman was defeated and captured!
The Genoese raised the standard of Tamerbek over the towers of the Pera fortress in the Golden Horn Bay. The Emperor of Constantinople and the Sultan of Egypt hastened to recognize Timur's authority and offered to pay tribute. King Henry IV of England and King Charles VI of France congratulated the emir on his great victory in the most benevolent tone. King of Spain Henry III of Castile sent his ambassadors to Tamerbek, led by the valiant knight Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo. Europe was preparing for the worst, it expected the invasion of Tamerbek. But Timur Gurigan once again surprised everyone - his warriors turned their war horses back towards Samarkand.
Numerous historiographers of Timur have described all aspects of his life. They paid him so much attention that they collected any information about him, even the most ridiculous. Therefore, many of the surviving testimonies are not just contradictory - they sometimes lead to complete bewilderment. Thus, medieval biographers and memoirists note Timur's phenomenal memory, knowledge of Turkish and Persian languages, they say that his knowledge of numerous stories from the life of great conquerors and heroes helped him inspire the soldiers before the battle. And at the same time, the same sources claim that Tamerbek was illiterate. How could it happen that a person who knew several languages could not read, while possessing a phenomenal memory? Why, then, did he need to keep personal readers with him if they could not teach Tamerbek to read? How then did he manage his great empire, led the army, determined the number of his troops, the amount of remaining fodder? How could an illiterate person surprise the greatest of Muslim historians, Ibn Khaldun, with his knowledge of history? The most ambiguous interpretation of historians is an attempt to present Timur as a merciless butcher who exterminates his opponents, slaughtering entire cities. If you believe this version, it turns out that Tamerbek is not a great warrior and builder, but a beast in human form.
Apparently, he was an educated person, his maternal grandfather Sadr al-Shari "and a famous scholar of one of the directions of Sharia - Hanafi. He was the author of Sharh al-Wikay, a commentary on al-Wakaya, which in turn is a commentary on al - Marghinans - al-Khidaya, which is a classic guide to the laws of Hanafi.It is also possible that he is the famous traveler ibn-Batuta.
According to Viktor Tukmachev: In 1852. "Kazan provincial journals" published excerpts from the work of the Bulgar chronicler Sherif-Eddin, where it was said: "...Khan Temir-Aksak, having ruined the Devil's settlement, visited the graves of Mohammed's followers, located at the mouth of the river Toima, which flows into the Kama under the settlement. .."
Historians cast the deepest doubt on the fact that Tamerlane was in Yelabuga. The Elabuga people have a legend about why the Devil's Settlement was not destroyed by the legendary Tamerlane. Allegedly, the besieged fulfilled the will of the "iron lame" and surrounded the entire tower from the base to the top with the severed heads of their soldiers. According to this little-known legend, Timur laid siege to the fortress and all those besieged were threatened with imminent death. A secret underground passage, through which one could go to a safe place, was discovered by Timur's soldiers and filled up. It was still possible to defend the fortress: there were people, there were forces and weapons. It just didn't make sense. Everyone would die. And then all the people living here would have disappeared. Timur, famous not only for his cruelty, but also for the fact that he keeps his word, said that he would leave alive those who take refuge in the last tower of the fortress (it was the smallest). But at the same time, the tower itself from top to bottom should be covered with severed human heads. And not those soldiers who had already died in the battle with Tamerlane, but the heads of those defenders of the fortress who were still alive and ready to fight.
After a painful night meeting, women and children entered the indicated tower (they were to revive the great people who had lived here for centuries), and in the morning the soldiers chopped off each other's heads and piled them near the tower so that the tower would hide under the pyramid of human heads ... Tamerlane kept his word: the tower remained intact, and those who took refuge in it remained alive. The people have been reborn. But at what cost!
Archaeologists have not found any confirmation. Not a single significant fragment has been found, not a single tower built from “severed heads”.
How can one take on faith all the reports of the atrocities of Tamerbek, if we know that during the monstrous St. Bartholomew's Night on August 24, 1572, Catholics in Paris slaughtered their "brothers in the Christian faith", but were able to destroy only 3 thousand Huguenots? And then more than 30 thousand were exterminated throughout France. Moreover, the Catholics prepared for this operation for a long time and carefully. Timur, on the assurances of some historians, spontaneously destroyed hundreds of thousands of people.
It should not be forgotten that people then were ordinary prey that could be profitably resold. Slaves are money. Who will destroy their property with their own hands? Why did Timur have to slaughter civilians if he could always sell them?
Most likely, the example of a distorted story with the emir once again proves how skillfully this can be done, how skillfully it can be redrawn history. After all, a lie repeated many times and by many becomes the truth. It's not who you are that matters, it's what others say about you. So with Timur, apparently, this ancient history was repeated: from a warrior and a builder they created the image of a butcher.

lot of the rootless

Numerous biographers of Timur, who vividly described his campaigns and deeds, left very little information about his appearance. Moreover, many of them contradict the idea that Timur belonged to the Mongol tribe of the Barlas. Thus, Ibn Arabshah, an Arab captured by the Emir, tells us that Timur was tall, had a large head, and a high forehead. He was very strong and brave, strongly built, with broad shoulders. He wore a long beard, limped on his right leg, spoke in a low voice, turned gray early. Skin color was white!
The most interesting "portrait" of Tamerbek was obtained by the anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov, who, as you know, was able to reconstruct the appearance of the emir.
According to the remains recovered during excavations in the Gur-Emir mausoleum on the night of June 22, 1941, Gerasimov scientifically confirmed Tamerbek's lameness and dry hand. Gerasimov outlined the results of his work in the article "Portrait of Tamerlane". If you carefully read the conclusions that Gerasimov makes, it turns out that Timur was ... a European!
However, the evidence that Timur comes from a Turkic Mongolian family is such a document that will give the right to categorically refuse to consider Iranian and Indian miniatures, endowing Timur with typical features of an Indo-European.

Depiction of Timur by a 16th-century French artist

In quite recent times, it was customary to stigmatize Timur. Visitors to the Gur-Emir mausoleum were told about the monstrous cruelty of the Great Conqueror, about the sufferings of the peoples he defeated. Today Tamerbek is the personified national idea of Uzbekistan. He is everywhere. Monuments are erected to him, he looks from banknotes, historical science only deals with him and his descendants, the Timurids. His name is crowned with the highest state awards - on April 26, 1996, the law "On the Establishment of the Order of Emir Timur" was adopted.

Schoolchildren study his life and deeds. It seems to foreigners who come to Uzbekistan that apart from Timur and his descendants, no one has lived here before. And the canonization of Timur began with a very remarkable event. During Soviet times, a bust of Karl Marx, made of red marble, stood in the center of Tashkent. In early 1995, the statue of a communist theorist was demolished, and a monument to an Asian hero from the distant past was erected in its place. After his death, Timur also defeated Marx. And now the splendor of the greatness of his empire, stretching from the Egyptian pyramids to the Great Wall of China, illuminates the future of Uzbekistan.
With the bloody eyes of the wounds, the war wept.
The spiky row of her teeth is bared by a smile.
Ibn Hamdis
Tamerlane went down in history as an outstanding military leader and cruel ruler. So, at the beginning of his military career, he was once overtaken by a thousandth army of the enemy. Timur himself at that time had only 60 soldiers. But he was not afraid to enter into battle with his small detachment and won - after a bloody battle, he had only ten people out of sixty left, and his opponents had 50 people out of a thousand, after which Timur's enemies fled.
In 1395, Tamerlane was about sixty years old. He was a man of average height but strong build. One of his legs was injured in his youth, but those around him almost did not notice his lameness. Timur's voice was loud, far reaching around the area, which helped him a lot to lead his soldiers in the roar of battle. Until old age, he had, despite constant battles and campaigns, good health. Only his vision began to deteriorate by the age of seventy.
Sergei Petrovich Borodin in the book "Lame Timur" tells about him: Tamerlane, the most cruel of the generals known to the world. The thirst for power burned in his heart and strengthened his determination to subordinate everyone and everything to his will, no one could count on indulgence. The great warrior, nicknamed Lame Timur, was a powerful politician not only on the battlefields. In his capital, Samarkand, he was a clever merchant and a talented urban planner. Inside the tents embroidered with gold - a wise father and grandfather among the intrigues of numerous heirs. “The entire space of the World should belong to only one king” - this was the rule of his life and the basic law of the legendary empire of Tamerlane. At the door, open to the garden, on a small carpet sat a long, lean old man in a black robe trimmed with green borders. Dark, almost black, with a copper tint, his dry face turned to the boy, and his eyes - quick, intent, young - vigilantly ran over the whole small, light, beloved appearance of his grandson. He told his grandson: “I stopped running since my leg was broken. But since my right hand withered away, no one escaped from my hands. Before that, I ran, and they caught me. And then I was much older than you. I was already… twenty-five years old then.” “Rarely did grandfather speak to someone so simply about his past affairs. There were a lot of things in them that there is no need to remember the Ruler of the World. After all, there was no one in the whole world who could compete with strength and power with this long, like a shadow, dry, sick, withered, lame old man.
This description of Timur is somewhat reminiscent of Stalin (lame, withered hands with a penetrating glance of tiger eyes).
On solemn occasions, Timur wore a wide silk robe, and on his head he wore a high felt hat with an oblong ruby at the top, strewn with pearls and precious stones. In his ears he wore large and expensive earrings according to Mongolian custom. In general, in peacetime, he loved jewelry and pomp. During military campaigns, he always served as a model of Spartan simplicity.

His character surprisingly combined strict Sufi views on life with outbursts of a wildly warlike spirit and unbridled lust for power. The latter qualities seem to have prevailed in him, since he himself said: "only with a sword in hand can one establish dominance."
During his life, Tamerlane made dozens of campaigns and conquered a vast territory with the power of his weapons. Timur himself said: “With the help of valiant leaders and my warriors, I became the ruler of 27 states. All these countries recognized my authority, and I enacted laws for them

Timur's conquests

Great Rus' was part of the Tokhtamyshev ulus. The same bitter fate awaited her as the rich cities of the Golden Horde along the Volga region. Tamerlane entered the Russian borders, took Yelets, captured his prince, devastated the surroundings and moved to Moscow. But he did not reach the city. After standing within the limits of the Ryazan principality for fifteen days, Tamerlane went back on August 26.
According to church legend, in order to save Moscow from invasion, Metropolitan Cyprian ordered the revered icon of the Vladimir Mother of God to be transferred to Moscow, "then commanding all people to fast and pray."

Vladimir Mother of God. Icon of the 12th century.

The messengers from Moscow arrived in Vladimir on August 15, the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. Having served a prayer service, the icon was taken out of the Assumption Cathedral and Vladimirskaya road marched towards Moscow in procession. The whole city came out to send off the icon. eleven days procession with the icon walked along the Vladimir road. On August 26, all of Moscow, young and old, led by Metropolitan Cyprian, met the icon outside the city on Kuchkovo Field.

Prayer to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
Miniature of the Radziwill Chronicle of the 15th century.

The icon was placed in the Assumption Cathedral. Soon, the news spread throughout Moscow that on the day of the meeting of the icon, Tamerlane left the parking lot on the Don and went to the steppe. Allegedly, he had a terrible dream, and he led his troops away.
. At the same time, the troops of Vasily Dmitrievich, who had already left Moscow to meet Timur, were prepared for the war. Having passed Kolomna, the Moscow prince took up defensive positions on the banks of the Oka, and ordered his governors and city governors to "strengthen the siege." At the same time Grand Duke Lithuanian Vitovt gathered his troops, spreading the rumor everywhere that he was going to the Tatars. Thus, Tamerlane was clearly shown that, having attacked Moscow, he would deal not with the remnants of Tokhtamysh's possessions, but with the forces of all Orthodox Rus'. It was this demonstration of the unity of the Russian and Lithuanian princes that caused " bad dream» Tamerlane.
In 1393, an embassy with a label went from Tokhtamysh to Lithuania. The text of this label has been preserved in the Russian chronicles: “God granted us again, our enemies, enemies, gave us all into our hands. We executed them in such a way that they would not harm us again.” At the same time, the khan asks his “brother” Jagiello to “from the volosts subject to us” captured by Lithuania, “gathering outputs (tribute.) Hand over to the envoys for delivery to the treasury.” This label confirms the fact that during the reign of Tokhtamysh, the Lithuanians paid tribute to the Horde. Further, the label proposes the restoration of trade relations between states “without acceptance”, that is, without duties! In addition, it is proposed to conclude a military alliance.
A military alliance was sought in 1394 by the ambassadors of Tokhtamysh and from the Egyptian sultan.
From the story of Anna Vladimirovna Kornienko: "To my children, happy conquerors of states, my descendants - the great rulers of the world ..."
These words begin the notorious Codes, one of the two unique written sources that have come down to us, the author of which is supposedly Amir Timur himself, Timur the Magnificent, the “Thunderstorm of the East and West”, the conqueror of lands and peoples, the fearless and invincible commander Great Emir Tamerlane. Already after the first lines of the text, the reader, even if he has never heard of the Central Asian conqueror of the XIV century, begins to realize that he is holding in his hands the life story of one of the most outstanding and mysterious personalities that has ever appeared on the world stage.
The personality is complex and multifaceted, Timur is a warrior of Islam, a man who called himself “the shadow of Allah on earth”, a legendary warrior before whom mighty empires bowed their heads, a wise political and statesman who had a truly iron will and character (in translation, the name Timur means “ Iron"), managed to weave such an intricate and strong web of contradictions around his image that it was not possible to unravel or even cut it either then, or even more so now, hundreds of years later.

Depiction of Timur in Italian painting of the 16th century

There is very little unambiguously reliable information about the Ruler of the Lucky Constellations, as Timur's contemporaries "christened" him for his rare luck, or rather, it would be more accurate to say that they do not exist at all.
As the legend says, he was born with a lump of dried blood in his hand and with white hair, like an old man's (the same was said about Genghis Khan). Having heard about this, the locals came to the general opinion that, of course, a great man was born in the Taragai family.
Timur's father, Taragai, most likely, came from the nobility of the Turkicized Mongolian tribe of the Barlas, who settled in Maverannekhra (between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya) in the 13th century, and was a descendant of the noyon (a large feudal landowner in Mongolia in the Middle Ages) Karachar, assistant and distant relative of Chagatai, son of Genghis Khan. Thus, Taragay, and with him, of course, his son, themselves belonged to the Genghis family, although some sources say that Timur was the maternal great-grandson of the Golden Horde Khan. Be that as it may, there was no direct relationship between Timur and Genghis Khan. Timur grew up without a mother. She died when the boy was still very young.
Timur from childhood was distinguished by curiosity. For hours he could listen with rapture to the amazing stories that the caravaners told. He was silent, never laughed, and even in games he was purposeful and, perhaps, overly serious. Timur loved hunting, and from the age of 18, when he matured, he literally became addicted to this activity. He was a well-aimed archer and had excellent horsemanship. In addition, even as a child, Timur knew how to show his influence on his peers, both in various war games and in everyday life. WITH early age he only talked about campaigns and conquests, his amusements consisted of endless battles, he persistently exercised his body, which was strengthened day by day; the mind, developed beyond his years, gave rise to endless grandiose plans, about the ways of implementing which the future emir was already seriously thinking about, as if guessing how significant a role he would play in the lives of many thousands of people.
Many years later, in his "Autobiography" (the second source that has come down to us, the author of which is supposedly the great emir himself), written from his words, Timur will tell an amazing story he heard from his father. Allegedly, one day Amir Taragai saw in a dream how a handsome young man, who looked like an Arab, approached him and handed him a sword. Taragai took the sword in his hands and began to swing it in the air, and then the steel of the blade shone so that it lit up the whole world. Shocked, Taragai asked Saint Amir Kulyal to explain this dream to him. Amir Kulal said that this dream had a prophetic meaning and that God would send him a son who was destined to take over the whole world, convert everyone to Islam, free the earth from the darkness of ignorance and delusion.
Having told about this, Taragay confessed to Timur that as soon as he was born, the emir immediately realized that the dream had come true, and immediately took his son to Sheikh Shamsuddin. When Taragai entered the sheikh's house, he read the Koran aloud and in the verse on which he stopped, the name Timur was encountered, as a result of which they named the baby.
Thanking Allah for the fact that his name is borrowed from the Koran, Timur tells another dream that he himself had already had. As if one day he saw in a dream how he casts a net into a large river. The network covered the entire river, after which the future conqueror pulled ashore all the fish and animals that inhabited the waters. The dream interpreters also explained this dream as foreshadowing the great and glorious reign of Amir Timur. So glorious that all the peoples of the universe will be subject to it.
Timur was well aware that alone, no matter how strong, courageous and determined he was on his own, he would never be able to achieve anything. And who needs a throne in the desert? He depended on many in the same way that many depended on him. Timur appreciated people, but only as much as they could be useful to him.
He knew how to bind to himself those whom he needed, and spared neither time nor money for this.
“Some of them (people) help me with their exploits, others with advice, both in conquering states and in managing them. I use them to strengthen the castle of my happiness: they are the decoration of my yard. “To inspire officers and soldiers, I spared neither gold nor precious stones; I allowed them to my table, and they sacrificed their lives for me in battles. By showing them favors and entering into their needs, I secured their affection for myself, ”the great emir said.
At the age of 19, Timur fell seriously ill. He was treated with all sorts of means, but nothing helped. Seven days spent by the young man in the heat and delirium led the desperate courtiers, like himself, to the idea of an unfavorable outcome of the disease, the cause of which, most likely, was a neglected abscess on the hand between the fingers. The young man cried and said goodbye to life. However, after seven days, the mighty body of the future emir managed to overcome the infection and quickly recovered. Some time later, as Tamerbek himself says, he had a vision of a certain sayd (translated from Arabic - “happy”, “successful” - a form of respectful treatment) with long hair, who predicted to the young man that he would be a great king.
In the future, Amir Timur will say that he owes such success to a fair and impartial attitude towards people, thanks to which he "gained the favor of God's creatures", that by "wise policy and strict justice" he "kept his soldiers and subjects between fear and hope." He will say that in the name of the triumph of justice, which he considered charitable, he freed the oppressed from the hands of the persecutors, that only true justice controlled his decisions, the sentence was always passed according to the law and the innocent was never punished ...
In an effort to win the hearts of the people, Timur extended good deeds to everyone, regardless of their position and origin, showered gifts on his warriors, frankly sympathized with the lower and destitute, and his generosity ensured him universal human affection. “Even my enemy,” said the commander, “when he felt guilty and came to ask for my protection, he received forgiveness and found a benefactor and friend in me ... and if his heart was still embittered, then my treatment of him was such that I managed to finally blot out the very trace of his displeasure."
Of course, these words sound too good to be true. However, one wants to believe in them simply because the great conqueror, while maintaining his own high position, managed to live to such an advanced age for that era - 69 years, and not be stabbed, poisoned, strangled or killed in any other way by someone from former friends or current enemies. Neither Alexander the Great, nor Gaius Julius Caesar, nor most other world leaders were so lucky ...
In the cruelties of Tamerlane, in addition to cold calculation (like that of 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). Tamerlane's sons (except Shahrukh) and grandchildren suffered from the same mental abnormality, as a result of which Tamerlane, in contrast to Genghis Khan, did not find in his descendants either reliable assistants or successors to his work. It turned out, therefore, to be even less durable than the result of the efforts of the Mongol conqueror.

Tamerlane his story. Tamerlane is the greatest Turkic commander of the Middle Ages. Name and identity

Name and identity

Tamerlane's name

Personality of Tamerlane

Biography

Childhood and youth

The appearance of Timur

Parents, brothers and sisters of Timur

Spiritual guides of Timur

Timur's language skills

Timur's wives

Rise of Timur

Start of political activity

Election "Great Emir"

Strengthening the state of Timur

The official name of the state of Timur

Composition of Timur's troops

Campaigns to Mogolistan

Fight against the Golden Horde

Campaigns in Iran and the Caucasus

Three great campaigns of Timur

Three year hike

[edit] Five year trip

Campaign to India

Seven Year Campaign

Beginning of the campaign to China

Diplomatic Relations

Children

Death

A look at Tamerlane in the light of history and culture

Code of laws

Army of Tamerlane

banners

Urban planning and architecture

The development of science and painting

The legend of the tomb of Tamerlane

Tamerlane's name

Personality of Tamerlane

Biography

Childhood and youth

The appearance of Timur

Parents, brothers and sisters of Timur

Spiritual guides of Timur

Timur's language skills

Timur's wives

Rise of Timur

Start of political activity

Composition of Timur's troops

Campaigns to Mogolistan

Three great campaigns of Timur

Three year hike

Death

A look at Tamerlane in the light of history and culture

Code of laws

Army of Tamerlane

banners

Tamerlane in art

In literature

historical

Collection of ideal social studies essays

Anti-Soviet rebellion in Hungary (1956)