Conquests of Timur

Episode 20 Timur aka Tamerlane

The Mongol Empire

Dr Craig Benjamin (2020)

Film Review

In this lecture, Benjamin describes the early life of Timur (Tamerlane) in Transoxiana (near Samarkhan) and his efforts to build his own empire as central power disintegrated in the Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate and Golden Horde khanates.

Born in the 1320s Mogulistan,* Timor’s father was a chieftain in  Balas Muslim Turkic tribe. At that time Persians and Turks controlled Transoxiana citie, which were heavily involved in the Silk Road trade, while Mongols controlled the countryside.

Timur became lame as a teenager, after being shot with an arrow while raiding commercial caravans. A military genius and chess player,** Timur spoke Persian, Mongol and several Turkic dialects.

Triumphing militarily over a number of opponents, Timur eventually became khan of Moghulistan after the Chaggatai Khanate split into two independent states (Mogulistan and Transoxiana) around 1336.

1375 – Timur helps Tokhtamysy assume supreme power in the White Horde (the western Golden Horde) and conquer the Blue Horde (the eastern Golden Horde), briefly reuniting them.

1379-80 – Timur sacks the Khorasan region of Persia (formerly the Ilkhanate), capturing artists and intellectuals to send back to Mogulistan and slaughtering all remaining civilians.

1381 – Timur installs his third son Miran Shah as ruler of Khorasan and begins conquering other Persian cities and appointing puppet princes to rule them.

1384-1395 – Golden Horde ruler Toktamish allies with the Egyptian Mamaluks to resist Timur’s claims on Azerbaijan. After allying himself with Timur’s old tribal enemies, he attacks Transoxiana and decimates a number of Khorasan cities. the long war plays a key role in the decline of Mongol power over the Russian principalities. Meanwhile Timur’s renews military incursions campaign into Persia

1395 – During Battle of Terek River, Tokhtamsh’s allies defect to Timur, who destroys the Golden Horde city by city, with Moscow surviving by a religious miracle. Dethroned, Tokhtamish flees to Lithuania where he forms an alliance with the grand duke.

1399 His army crushed, Tokhtamish flees to Siberia, where one of Timur’s allies kills him.

*Moghulistan, also called the Moghul Khanate or the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, was a Mongol breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate.

**He invented a new chess game incorporating camels and elephant.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12373094/12373134