Timur
Timur, known in the West as Tamerlane (a corruption of Timur-e Lang, 'Timur the Lame'), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who claimed descent from Genghis Khan and rebuilt a vast Central Asian empire through some of the most brutal campaigns in history. Born in 1336 near Samarkand (in modern Uzbekistan), he rose through tribal warfare to seize control of Transoxiana by 1370, making Samarkand his magnificent capital. Over the following decades, Timur conducted campaigns of staggering violence across an immense arc: Persia, the Caucasus, India (where his sack of Delhi in 1398 killed tens of thousands), the Levant, and Anatolia (where he defeated and captured the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402). His signature was the construction of towers built from the skulls of his defeated enemies. Cities that submitted were often spared; those that resisted faced annihilation. His invasion of India so devastated the Delhi Sultanate that India's recovery took over a century. Yet Timur was simultaneously a magnificent patron of art and architecture. He filled Samarkand with grand mosques, madrasas, and gardens, importing craftsmen and scholars from his conquered territories. The Timurid Renaissance that flourished under his successors was one of the great flowerings of Islamic art and learning. He died in 1405 preparing a campaign against China. His mausoleum, the Gur-e-Amir in Samarkand, remains one of Central Asia's architectural masterpieces.
- Lived: 1336 CE – 1405 CE
- Nationality: uzbek
- Roles: military_leader, leader
