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

2. Since childhood, he loved hunting and war games, Timur was a strong, healthy, physically developed person. Anthropologists who studied the commander’s tomb 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 Tamerlane's appearance based on his skull. Mikhail Mikhailovich Gerasimov, 1941 Photo: Public Domain

3. From the time of Genghis Khan Only the Chingizids could bear the title of Great Khan. That is why Timur formally bore the title of emir (leader). At the same time, in 1370 he managed to become related to the Chingizids by marrying his daughter Kazan KhanBarn-mulkHanim. After this, Timur received the prefix Gurgan to his name, which means “son-in-law,” which allowed him to live and act freely in the houses of the “natural” Chingizids.

4. In 1362, Timur, who was waging a guerrilla war against the Mongols, was seriously injured during the battle in Seistan, losing two fingers on his right hand and receiving a severe wound to his right leg. The wound, the pain from which haunted Timur for the rest of his life, led to lameness and the appearance of the nickname “Timur the Lame.”

5. Over several decades of virtually continuous wars, Timur managed to create a huge state, which included Transoxiana (the historical region of Central Asia), Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He himself gave the created state the name Turan.

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

7. In 1395, Timur’s army found itself in Russian lands for the first and last time. The conqueror did not consider Russian territories as an object for annexation to his power. The cause of the invasion was Timur’s struggle with the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. And although Timur’s army devastated part of the Russian lands, capturing Yelets, in general the conqueror, with his victory over Tokhtamysh, contributed to the fall of the influence of the Golden Horde 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 a very talented and capable person. According to the chronicles, he spoke several languages, loved to talk with scientists and demanded that works on history be read 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 his campaigns not only material booty, but also scientists, artisans, artists, and architects. Under him, there was an active restoration of cities, the founding 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-Turkana yeah And Barn-mulk Hanim. 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 Sarai-mulk khanum is his widow.

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

Tomb of Tamerlane. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

12. One of the most famous legends associated with the name of the great commander is associated with the “curse of Tamerlane’s grave.” Allegedly, immediately after the opening of Timur’s grave, 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 the Great Patriotic War. Skeptics, however, recall that the plan to attack 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 were no different from similar ones made on other burials of Timur’s era, and were intended to scare away tomb robbers. It is worth noting one more point - the famous Soviet anthropologist and archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov, who not only participated in the opening of the tomb, but also restored Timur’s appearance from his skull, lived safely until 1970.

In 1336 in the village. Khoja-Ilgar, near Keshe (the territory of present-day Uzbekistan), a son, Timur ibn Taragai Barlas (history is known as Timur Tamerlane), was born into the family of a bek from the Barlas tribe. In Mongolian, the name Timur means "iron".

Timur Tamerlane is an emir who is associated with the last conquests of the Mongols in Asia. He led the Mongols and was only an emir, since not being a descendant of the house of Genghisids, he could not be a khan and bear this title. Although in 1370 he intermarried with this house and became their relative, taking the name Timur Gurgan.

For the first time, historical sources remember him starting in 1361 - this is the year of the beginning of his political career. This year he began to serve under Khan Togluku - a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.

He quickly increased his influence: first he was appointed to the post of adviser to the son of Khan Ilyas - Khoja - the ruler of Maverannehr, then he received the post of governor of the Kashkadarya vilayet (the khan's possession). He always had his own cavalry detachment of 60 people with him.

After a couple of years, Timur became disliked by the khan and therefore was forced to flee. Having concluded a military alliance with Emir Hussein, he began to fight against the Mongols.

As a result of these wars, in 1370 he captured Transoxiana and became an emirate, taking the oath. The capital became Samarkand, an important center in Asia at that time.

Beginning in 1371, Tamerlane's army began to conquer new territories - until 1380, many of the neighboring territories and most of the territory of Afghanistan were captured. Over the next 10 years, Tamerlane conquered Georgia, Armenia, Khorezm, and in 1388 Tamerlane came into possession of the lands from the Pamirs to the Aral Sea.

Since 1389, the emir was at war with the Golden Horde. His main opponent was Tokhtamysh (descendant of Genghis Khan), whom he helped become khan of the Golden Horde in 1376.

In 1391, after the defeat of Tokhtamysh’s troops, Tamerlane ravaged the capital of the Horde, Sarai-Berke.

In 1394 Tamerlane conquered Persia, in 1398 he plundered Delhi, the capital of India, in 1401 he captured Damascus and conquered Syria, and in 1402 he plundered Ankara, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

All his campaigns are divided into three large ones:

• three-year (campaign in Persia);
• five-year (war with the Golden Horde);
• seven years (campaign in Iran and war with the Ottoman Empire).

Tamerlane died in 1405 during a campaign in China. After him, his grandson Khalil Sultan seized control.

Tamerlane had 18 wives and four sons.

Timur did not even have a school education, but he knew the Persian language and loved history (they say that with his knowledge in this area he amazed Ibn Khaldun, the most famous Muslim historian).

Islam-today

Timur Tamerlane (Iron Lame) is an outstanding Central Asian commander who lived in 1336-1405. He died at the age of 68, having founded the Timurid Empire (1370-1507). This man played an important political role in the history of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Rus'. He came from the Mongolian family of Barlas, but did not belong to the Genghisids (descendants of Genghis Khan). He was a zealous Muslim and knew Persian and Turkic languages ​​well.

Being an experienced warrior, he was also a writer and was a prominent representative of his era. It was characterized by a shift in the traditions and customs of the Mongol ulus at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. Iron Lame developed the traditions of Islamic culture, not the Yasa of Genghis Khan. In his activities he relied on the Muslim population of the oases of Central Asia.

Genghis Khan's army consisted of nomads, each of whom was excellent at riding and shooting with a bow. But Timur’s army was formed on a different basis. It made no sense for him to mobilize farmers into his army, who could not even hold a saber in their hands. Therefore, military forces were recruited from professional warriors - ghulams (daring men). They risked their lives not in vain: they were paid a very good salary.

But in order to receive such a salary, the ghoul had to prove his skills to everyone. At full gallop, he had to remove the ring with the tip of the spear, which the inspector was holding with two fingers. It is not difficult to guess how much effort was spent on such preparation. At the same time, iron discipline and unquestioning submission to their commanders, the emirs, were demanded from the ghulams.

Childhood and youth of Timur Tamerlane

The father of the great commander was the small landowner Muhammad Taragay (died in 1361). He professed Islam, and faith in Allah became the faith of his son. A boy was born from his first wife, Tekina Khatun. Then this woman apparently died, and the father remarried. In total, Timur had 2 sisters and 3 brothers. The family lived in the village of Khoja-Ilgar (modern Uzbekistan). It was there that the future famous conqueror was born on April 8, 1336.

The boy learned to ride a horse at an early age, practiced archery and javelin throwing. Being a very young man, he became an experienced warrior. At that time, the lands where Timur lived were part of the Chagatai ulus, one of the Mongol states. The young man was taken into his service by Khan Tughluk-Timur and made his young son Ilyas-Khoja an assistant. However, the prince’s entourage began to plot intrigues against the new assistant. They became so dangerous that Timur was forced to flee in 1362.

At that time, Central Asia was one continuous theater of military operations. The Mongol khans fought with their emirs, and the latter, in turn, fought with jete - bandits. Such gangs lived by robbery and did not recognize any bosses. They created their state of Mogulistan in Semirechye, where the Turkic rather than Mongolian population lived mainly.

During this period of the final collapse of the Mongol states and the war of all against all, Timur gathered the ghouls around him and turned out to be the most successful military leader. He entered into confrontation with the city militias of the Sarbadars and completely defeated them. The fortresses of the Sarbadars were taken, and all those who resisted were walled up alive in the walls.

During one of the skirmishes in 1362, Timur Tamerlane lost 2 fingers on his right hand and was wounded in his right leg. The wound turned out to be so serious that the future great conqueror remained lame for life. This is where the historical name of this extraordinary personality came from: Timur is iron, and Tamerlane is lame. It turns out the Iron Lame, about which the whole East spoke with fear and respect in the last third of the 14th century.

Army of Timur Tamerlane

After the victory over the Sarbadars, the successful and talented military leader conquered the entire Fergana (historical region) and subjugated Samarkand. He made the city of Ket (now Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan) his capital. In 1370 he captured Balkh. His Emir Hussein surrendered on condition of saving his life. However, he could not stand the nervous tension and fled. The emir was caught and executed on the orders of Timur, since he believed that the emir had violated the treaty by escaping.

In the south, the Iron Lame was opposed by the Muzaffarids (the last Persian dynasty). They ruled in Fars and Isfahan. The conqueror captured Isfahan and destroyed this city. A pyramid was made from the heads of the slain to intimidate the Muzaffarids. However, they continued to resist, and then it was Shiraz’s turn. This city was taken and plundered.

An interesting case is connected with Shiraz. The poet Hafez, famous in the Muslim East, lived in the city. Among his poems he wrote the following quatrain:

If this beautiful Turkish woman
He will carry my heart in his hands,
For her only birthmark
I will give up both Samarkand and Bukhara.

Timur Tamerlane knew these verses. And so, having captured Shiraz, he sat on a carpet in the middle of the square amid a sea of ​​violence and cruelty. The Ghulams robbed houses, drove away prisoners, killed children, raped women, and slaughtered the last resisting men. Not paying any attention to this, the formidable commander ordered Hafiz to be brought to him. Very soon he was brought in, dressed in an old, shabby robe.

And the conqueror said to the poet, hinting at the quatrain: “Unfortunate, I spent my whole life to decorate and exalt my two favorite cities - Samarkand and Bukhara, and you want to give them for the birthmark of some stupid woman!” To this Hafiz replied: “O Commander of the Faithful, it is because of my generosity that I am in such poverty.” Iron Lame appreciated the poet’s intelligence and resourcefulness. He laughed, ordered Hafiz to be given a luxurious robe and sent him away in peace.

All the conquests of the formidable commander were accompanied by incredible cruelty. They can be condemned, but it is unlikely that he could have acted differently. Having started a military campaign, Timur had to continue it in order to pay the ghulams. It was the war that fed the army. But if Tamerlane had stopped, he would have been left first without an army, and then without his head.

War with the Golden Horde

In the Golden Horde or Dzhuchiev ulus, the steppe Eurasian culture dominated. It had nothing in common with Islamic culture, of which Timur was a representative. And he restored the former power of the Muslim armies and became a serious threat to the Golden Horde. We must also not forget that according to the will of Genghis Khan, the entire Khorezm oasis belonged to the descendants of Jochi, but was captured by Tamerlane.

In 1383, Khan of Dzhuchiev ulus Tokhtamysh made the first attempt to take away Khorezm. He succeeded for a while, and with this daring act a war began between the two cultures. In 1385, Tokhtamysh carried out a second campaign into the possessions of Timur Tamerlane. The army of the Golden Horde passed through the Daryal Gorge and captured Tabriz in Azerbaijan, which, according to the division of Genghis Khan, should have belonged to the Jochi ulus. But Timur’s army drove away the Tatar army and captured many.

After 2 years, Tokhtamysh with a large army passed through the Kazakh steppe, crossed the Betpak-Dala desert and reached Termez. Along the way, the Tatars plundered all the villages, but did not take a single fortress, since they were reliably fortified. The formidable conqueror was at that time with his army in Persia. Having learned about the Tatar invasion, he returned to Central Asia, and Tokhtamysh began to retreat, but was overtaken and defeated. With the remnants of the army, he fled to Western Siberia.

Empire of Timur Tamerlane on the map

The Golden Horde was protected from the encroachments of Timur by the huge steppe. To overcome it, it was necessary to have a large number of horses, fodder and pasture. The steppes separating the Volga from Central Asia are not covered with grass all year round. And yet, the formidable commander decided to launch a campaign against the Dzhuchiev ulus. He took into account the fact that in the spring grass first begins to grow in the south, then in the central regions, and only then in the north. And the army of Timur Tamerlane set out on a campaign against the main enemy “following the spring.”

Tokhtamysh did not expect the rapid rush of the Muslims across the steppe. He began to quickly gather the forces he had, not bypassing Rus'. In 1389, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich died. He bequeathed the reign to his son Vasily. And only the khan of Dzhuchiev ulus could approve such a decision.

Tokhtamysh confirmed Vasily's rights to the throne, but demanded help from him. Prince Vasily brought an army, but after the destruction of Moscow in 1382, the Russian people had no desire to fight for the Tatars. And the Iron Lame, having made a rapid transition, pressed Tokhtamysh’s army to the Volga. The Tatars suffered a crushing defeat in the battle near the Kondurche River (one of the tributaries of the Volga). The khan himself escaped by crossing the river, but his cause was lost.

The Russian squads, seeing this course of events, went to the lower reaches of the Kama. Timur did not cross the river and pursue the Moscow prince. And he, thus, successfully avoided a collision. The formidable commander himself turned back and left the same way he came in the spring. He managed to safely bring most of his army to the fertile lands of Central Asia.

The campaign against the Golden Horde was victorious, but the main task - protecting their own lands - was not solved. Samarkand and Bukhara remained defenseless from Tatar raids. And indeed, soon Tokhtamysh again opposed Timur. He moved from the Volga steppes south along the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Iron Khromets came out to meet, and both troops met on the Terek on April 15, 1395. In this battle, the Tatar army suffered a crushing defeat.

The Golden Horde Khan fled, and the army of the Iron Lame passed through the Caspian steppes and invaded the Volga-Don interfluve. The formidable commander decided to go to Rus' and capture Ryazan and Moscow. However, in the rear of his army, Circassians, Ossetians and Tatars rebelled. Timur was forced to turn back on August 26, 1395. Thus, only the Russian city of Yelets was affected.

The great conqueror crossed Perekop, collected tribute on the Crimean peninsula and fed his army. Then he passed through the steppe, which the Circassians had burned out, and inflicted a crushing defeat on them. They took refuge in the mountains, and Timur’s army entered Azerbaijan through the Derbent Passage. Here it liquidated the fortresses of the rebels and returned to Samarkand - a city like paradise.

The last years of the life of Timur Tamerlane

In 1402, Timur Tamerlane defeated the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid, manned by the invincible Janissaries. Then the formidable commander found himself near the walls of Smyrna, occupied by a garrison of Johannite knights. The Turks could not break this garrison for 20 years, and the Iron Lame took the fortress by storm in a few days. Soon, however, Genoese and Venetian ships arrived at Smyrna with help and supplies for the besieged. But Timur’s warriors threw them with the heads of the knights of the Order of John from catapults. After this, the ruler of the East returned to Samarkand again for another rest.

Already an old man, the formidable conqueror began to prepare a military campaign against China. He set himself the goal of seizing the Great Silk Road in order to receive the maximum tax from merchants and thereby ensure the prosperity of his lands. He declared that there could not be two rulers in the world, meaning himself and the Chinese emperor.

In the fall of 1404, the campaign against China began. But it turned out to be the last for the great conqueror. Severe frosts struck, which stopped the army, and in February 1405 the Iron Lame died. He died in the same way as Genghis Khan, on a campaign, but his death was not kept secret. Tamerlane's grave did not become a great secret either. The Lord of the East was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A spell was placed at the burial site so that no one would dare open the sarcophagus containing the body of the conqueror. However, in June 1941, desperate heads were found who dared to open the mogul. But this is not relevant to this story.

Alexander Semashko

• Timur was born in 1336 in Kesh (now Shakhrisabz), a city south of Samarkand (region of modern Uzbekistan).
• Timur's father, Taragai, most likely was the leader of the Mongol-Turkic Barlas tribe and descended from Genghis Khan.
• In his youth, Timur served in the army of Kazgan, the ruler of Mesopotamia.
• Around 1361 - Timur becomes the son-in-law of Kazgan's grandson, Emir Hussein.
• Throughout his life, Tamerlane would have several dozen wives and a corresponding number of children. The sons of the conqueror became governors of the conquered lands.
• 1361 - 1370 - Timur and Hussein fight in Mesopotamia, trying to conquer it.
• Around 1370 - Timur rebels against Hussein and takes him prisoner. After this, he announces that he is a descendant of Genghis Khan and intends to revive the Mongol empire. Timur made Samarkand the capital of his empire.
• Famous for his extraordinary cruelty, Timur strives for the equally extraordinary grandeur and beauty of his capital. The beauty and luxury of Samarkand are more than once enthusiastically described by travelers of that time.
• 1370 - 1380 - Tamerlane goes towards his goal. He fights with numerous khans and conquers Khorezm. Timur is known as an extremely cruel conqueror, and many cities themselves open their gates to him, solemnly welcoming their conquerors.
• 1380 - Timur intervenes in the conflict between the Golden Horde and Rus'. He helps Khan Tokhtamysh defeat the ruling Khan Mamai and take the throne. Thanks to this, Moscow was captured in 1382 in revenge for the defeat on the Kulikovo Field.
• 1381 - Timur conquers Persia.
• 1382 - 1385 - Khorasan and Eastern Persia were conquered.
• 1386 - 1387 - Tamerlane conquers Fars, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
• 1389 - campaign in the Mongol possessions. In the northern direction, Timur then reaches the Irtysh.
• 1389 - 1395 - during this period, Timur periodically and with varying success fought with Tokhtamysh.
• 1391 - during his campaign against the Golden Horde, Timur reaches the Volga.
• 1394 - Mesopotamia and Georgia come under the rule of Timur.
• 1395 - Tokhtamysh leads his troops to the Caucasus. Timur finally defeats him on the Kura River and pursues him across Russian territory. Here the conqueror invades the Ryazan lands and ravages Yelets. After this, his army stood motionless for two weeks.
• Realizing the threat to Moscow, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily I Dmitrievich leads his army to the banks of the Oka River near Kolomna. The Moscow troops are smaller in number than the Mongol ones, and many fear that the Russians will not survive the first battle. Then Metropolitan Cyprian orders the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God to be brought from Vladimir. On August 26, the icon is brought to Moscow, and on the same day (according to legend) Tamerlane’s army turns back. Since then, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God has been considered the patroness of Moscow, and August 26 is the Orthodox church holiday of the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The Russian epic describes this incident; Timur in these sources is called “Temir Aksak-Tsar”.
• A more official version of the fact that Tamerlane did not go to Moscow is the need to return to Persia, where uprisings constantly break out, and therefore the presence of a tyrant is required. On the way, Timur burns the cities of Saray, Azak (Azov), Astrakhan, Kafa (modern Feodosia). In one of the battles he was seriously wounded in the leg and remains lame forever. This is where his nickname Tamerlane (“The Iron Lame”) comes from.
• The cruelty with which Timur suppressed the uprisings in Persia became legendary. Cities were completely destroyed. Residents were exterminated without exception, and their heads were embedded in the walls of the towers.
• 1396 - Tamerlane returns to Samarkand.
• 1398 - the beginning of the campaign in India. On September 24, Timur's army enters Delhi. After this, the city was restored for more than 100 years... In April of the following year, Tamerlane returned to his capital with rich booty.
• 1399 – the beginning of the “Seven Years” Campaign. In one of the previously conquered regions, where Timur's son was the governor, unrest occurs, which the conqueror's heir is not able to cope with. The father comes to the aid of his son, deposes him and drives his enemies out of his area.
• 1400 - war with the Ottoman Sultan Bayazet and at the same time with the Egyptian Sultan Faraj. Both wars end successfully for Tamerlane. He goes through all the cities of Asia Minor, robbing them and killing the inhabitants.
• 1401 - Timur regains power in Baghdad, killing just under 90,000 of its population.
• 1404 - Timur begins a campaign against China, for which he has been preparing for several years.
• January 1405 - the army arrives in the city of Otrar.
• February 15 or 18, 1405 - Tamerlane dies of illness in Orar.

Tamerlane (1336-1405) was a Turko-Mongol conqueror whose victories, characterized by acts of inhuman cruelty, made him master of much of Western Asia.

Tamerlane or Timur (Timur-Lang, "Timur the Lame") belonged to the Turkified Mongol clan Barlas, whose representatives, as the Mongol armies advanced westward, settled in the Kashka Valley, near Samarkand. Tamerlane was born near Shakhrisabz on April 9, 1336. This place is located on the territory of modern Uzbekistan between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and at the time of his birth these lands belonged to Chagatai Khan, named after the founder of his clan, the second son of Genghis Khan.

The European version of the name Timur - “Tamerlane” or “Tamberlane” goes back to the Turkic nickname Timur-i-Lenga, which means “Timur the Lame”. Evidence of Timur's lameness was found in 1941 when his grave was opened by a team of Soviet archaeologists led by Mikhail Gerasimov. Traces of two wounds were found on the femur of Timur’s left leg. The reasons for Timur's lameness are interpreted differently in different sources. According to some sources, he began to limp as a child, when he once fell from a horse, and the nickname Timur the Lame Stuck to him thanks to his peers. Other authors claim that Tamerlane's lameness was the result of a battle wound he received in 1362. Historians also disagree on which leg Timur was limping on. However, most historians claim that the conqueror’s sore leg was the left one, which, however, was quite convincingly confirmed by Soviet archaeologists.

In 1346 – 1347 Kazan Khan Chagatai was defeated by the Emir of Kazgan and was killed, as a result of which Central Asia ceased to be part of his khanate. After the death of Kazgan (1358), a period of anarchy followed, and the troops of Tughlaq Timur, ruler of the territories beyond the Syr Darya known as Moghulistan, invaded Transoxiana, first in 1360 and then in 1361 in an attempt to seize power.

Timur declared himself a vassal of Tughlaq Timur and became the ruler of the territory from Shakhrisabz to Karshi. He soon, however, rebelled against the rulers of Moghulistan and formed an alliance with Hussein, the grandson of Kazgan. Together in 1363 they defeated the army of Ilyas-Khoja, the son of Tughlak-Timur. However, around 1370, the allies fell out and Timur, having captured his comrade-in-arms, announced his intention to revive the Mongol Empire. Tamerlane became the sole master of Central Asia, settling in Samarkand and making this city the capital of the new state and his main residence.

Map of Chagatai Khanate

Expansion of the empire

Tamerlane's first campaigns were directed against Khiva and Mogulistan. And after 1381 he turned his attention to the west, launching expeditions to Iran, Iraq, Asia Minor and Syria.

The rulers of the conquered principalities were unable to effectively resist Timur's well-organized army. Eastern Persia and Khorasan were completely conquered in 1382 - 1385; Fars, Iraq, Armenia and Azerbaijan fell between 1386 and 1394; Georgia and Mesopotamia came under the control of Tamerlane in 1394.

While engaged in the conquest of Asia, Timur did not forget about the fight against the Golden Horde and personally against Khan Tokhtamysh. In 1391, pursuing Tokhtamysh, Timur reached southern Rus', where he defeated the Horde khan. Tokhtamysh's attempt to rectify the situation in 1395 and his invasion of the Caucasus were unsuccessful, and he was finally defeated on the Kura River.

Timur, who had already ravaged Astrakhan and Sarai, was distracted from planning a campaign against Moscow by the powerful Persian uprising, which was subsequently suppressed with the cruelty characteristic of Tamerlane. Throughout Persia, entire cities were destroyed, residents were killed, and their skulls were walled up in the walls of city towers.

Timur defeats the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Sultan Nasir Adin Faraj

Tamerlane's seven-year campaign

In 1399, Tamerlane invaded India. As a result of the brutal sack of Delhi, 90 elephants were loaded, carrying a variety of cargo - from stones for the construction of a mosque in Samarkand to jewelry. Tamerlane's famous Seven Years' Campaign (1399-1403) began with his campaign in India, during which the conqueror got involved in a confrontation with the two most powerful rulers of Western Asia - the Sultan of Turkey and the Sultan of Egypt.

Syria, then part of Egypt, was completely captured by the spring of 1401. Tamerlane's further path lay to Baghdad, defended by the troops of Sultan Ahmad, who offered stubborn resistance to the conquerors. Baghdad was captured in a successful assault in June 1401. The massacre carried out by Tamerlane in the captured city was terrible. The heads of the murdered townspeople were stacked in 120 towers. Baghdad was completely sacked.

Tamerlane spent the winter of 1401–1402 in Georgia. And already in the spring of 1402 he began an offensive in Anatolia. In the battle of Ankara on July 20, 1402, Tamerlane defeated the army of his main enemy, the Turkish Sultan Bayazid (Bayazet), capturing him himself.

The inhuman imprisonment of Bayazet in an iron cage intended for wild animals has gone down in history forever. However, some researchers argue that the story of the cell is nothing more than the result of a misinterpretation of the historian Arabshah’s record, which, however, does not in any way detract from Tamerlane’s obvious inhuman cruelty towards his defeated opponents.

Timur ended his Seven Years' Campaign by reaching Samarkand in August 1404. However, by the end of the same year, he started an even more ambitious undertaking - a campaign in China, which had gained independence from the Mongols only 30 years earlier. However, his plans to conquer China were not destined to come true - while in Otrar, on the eastern bank of the Syr Darya River (modern South Kazakhstan), Tamerlane became seriously ill and died on February 18, 1405.

Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin. Doors of Timur (Tamerlane). 1872

Tamerlane's legacy

Thanks to his truly remarkable military skill and incredible force of personality, bordering on demonism, Tamerlane was able to create an empire stretching from Russia to India and from the Mediterranean to Mongolia.

Unlike the conquests of Genghis Khan, the conquests of Tamerlane were not aimed at opening new markets or revitalizing trade routes. The goal of all the campaigns of the Iron Lame was the total robbery of the vanquished.

Despite the colossal size of the Timurid empire, it was not destined to last long, because Tamerlane did not bother to create a clear structure of government in the conquered territories; he only destroyed the previously existing order, offering nothing in return.

Although Tamerlane strived to be a good Muslim, he clearly felt no remorse for destroying Muslim cities by massacring their inhabitants. Damascus, Khiva, Baghdad - these ancient centers of Islam forever remembered the cruelty of Timur. The conqueror's ruthless attitude towards the ancient Muslim centers was probably due to his desire to make his own capital, Samarkand, the main city of Islam.

According to a number of modern sources, about 19 million people died at the hands of Tamerlane’s soldiers. Although the number of victims of the conquests of Lame Timur is probably exaggerated, they clearly number in the millions.

In post-Soviet Uzbekistan, Tamerlane was made a national hero. However, residents of such Uzbek cities as Khiva have a very ambivalent attitude towards this undoubtedly great personality - their genetic memory stores memories of his atrocities.