Timur (1336-1405, fl. 1370-1404)

by Prajakti Kalra (See Chinese translation)
Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Jesus College, University of Cambridge

Timur was born in 1336 near Kesh in the Chagatai Khanate. Originally from the Mongolian Barlas tribe of Transoxiana (in present-day Uzbekistan), he was of Turco-Mongolian heritage. Although he was related to the royal household of the Chagatai Khanate, he was not a direct descendant of Chinggis Khan, and was therefore not allowed to become a khan himself. He was highly ambitious, however, regarding himself as the heir of Chinggis Khan, and envisioning himself as the great restorer of the Mongol Empire (Beatrice Forbes Manz, 2016, p. 286). In fact, he wanted to rule both the Mongol Empire and the Muslim world. This set him on a quest for legitimacy as a ruler which lasted throughout his life.

Little is known about his father Taraghai but he is thought to have been a magnate in the court of Amir Husayn Qara’unas (Arabshah and McChesney, 2017, p. 4). (Amir was a title that meant “military general”; the Qara’unas were a powerful non-tribal military group under Amir Husayn’s control.) According to Beatrice Forbes Manz, Timur’s father was probably quite wealthy and influential, and may have had connections with the then ruler of Moghulistan. (Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, Zafarnama, 1424-1428, p. 75)

Timur displayed leadership qualities, strategic and military talents and ambition early in life. He lived in chaotic times, when the Chagatai Khanate was begining to fall apart. Belonging to a group of young men who ambushed travellers and stole their goods and animals, he spent his youth as an adventurer and has even been described as a brigand.

As time went on, these activities evolved into aggressive military campaigns. By about 1360 he began to attract followers – mostly Turkish tribesmen – and to build up a power base. At first, he carried out military campaigns within the army of the Chagatai Khan in Transoxiana, gaining a reputation as a brilliant military commander. Later, as the political turmoil continued, he joined forces with other prominent military leaders, such as Amir Qazaghan, who headed the powerful Qara’unas forces.

Amir Qazaghan first appears in the story in 1343, when Qazan Khan ibn Yasa’ur (r. 1343-1346) was Chagatai Khan. Amir Qazaghan revolted against Qazan Khan in 1345 and killed him in the following year. He then appointed a puppet ruler (Danishmendji) as a new Khan, thus making himself the effective ruler of the Chagatai Khanate. After this point, the Chagatai Khanate broke up into a loose confederation of tribes.

There were disputes between the northern tribes (Yasa’uri, Barlas and Jalayir) and the southern Qara’unas, together with the Apardi and Arlat. However, the more significant division that emerged was between the Western Chagatai Khanate based in Transoxiana, headed by Amir Qazaghan, and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate in Moghulistan, led by Tughlugh Timur. The adventurer Tughlugh Timur (1312/13-1363) had been appointed Khan of Moghulistan (the Eastern Khanate) in 1347 by the Dughlat amir Bulaji. In 1348, Amir Qazaghan killed the puppet Khan Danishmendji, whom he had instated three years before, and installed Bayan Qulï as Khan.

The Qara’unas had a long history of involvement with India. In 1238, they had settled near the Indian border to face the military forces of the Delhi Sultanate. The occasion came up in 1350-1351 for them, led by Amir Qazaghan, to quash a rebellion against Sultan of Delhi (Mohammad ben Tughlugh), and support his son (Firuz Shah Tughlugh). They also helped defend against raids by the Kartids in Khorasan, and sacked their capital of Herat.

This military diversion was combined with political disorder. In 1357/8, Amir Qazaghan was assassinated by the son of Borolday, and was succeeded as chief of the Qara’unas by his son Abdullah. He had the Khan Bayan Qulï killed, which angered Hajji Beg, Timur’s uncle, who was then in charge of the Barlas tribe. The Suldus and Barlas tribes both revolted against Abdullah. After Hajji Beg drove Abdullah into exile and death, Buyan Suldus became Amir of the Qara’unas, and he was followed by Amir Husayn.

Tughlugh Timur took advantage of the distractions and political chaos in the region at the time, and invaded Transoxiana (1360). Most of the amirs submitted willingly to him, but several did not, including Timur’s uncle Hajji Beg of the Barlas tribe, who fled to Khorasan. Timur submitted to Tughlugh, and when Hajji Beg was assassinated in Khorasan, Timur became head of the Barlas tribe.

When Tughlugh attempted to centralise power in Transoxiana there was further opposition, including from Amir Husayn. Tughlugh either executed or pursued the remaining amirs and temporarily reunified the Chagatai Khanate. He appointed his son Ilyas Khoja as viceroy of Transoxiana and returned to Moghulistan. In 1363 Tughlugh died from a surfeit of drink at the age of 34.

Amir Husayn and Timur then charged back and, using the combined forces of the Qara’unas and the Barlas tribes, retook Transoxiana from the Moghuls, forcing Ilyas Khoja to flee. During the following year, Timur was seriously wounded in the leg, and acquired the epithet “Timur the Lame”, or Tamerlane, which stayed with him for the rest of his life. Amir Husayn and Timur then co-ruled Transoxiana, after installing another puppet Khan. In 1365 Ilyas Khoja invaded Transoxiana and laid siege to Samarkand, but he was forced to retreat due to an epidemic in his army.

At this point, the alliance between Amir Husayn and Timur began to break down. Husayn built himself a capital in Balkh, perhaps as a stepping-stone to Samarkand, and this antagonised Timur. In 1366 Amir Husayn made more blatant moves against Timur to the point of capturing Samarkand and driving Timur out of Transoxiana. He also took the city of Qarshi (Karshi), southwest of Samarkand. In the face of these actions, Timur retreated to Khorasan and went into exile there for 2 years to regroup. Meanwhile, Ilyas Khoja was murdered by Qamar-ud-din Khan Dughlat in 1368, who usurped the title of Khan in Mogulistan.

In 1370, when Timur emerged from his seclusion, he revolted against Amir Husayn, and defeated and killed him. He seized Balkh and Husayn’s belongings, including his harem. In the harem was Saray Mulk Khanum, daughter of the late Chagadai ruler Qazan Khan and descendant of Chinggis Khan. She became Timur’s principal wife, providing him with his long-sought-after legitimacy.

These events marked a breakthrough for Timur. He founded the Timurid Empire and became head of the Chagatai Khanate. He broke the power of the Qara’unas and made them his army. He began to develop Samarkand as his capital, rebuilding most of the city and populating it with artisans and craftsmen from across the empire. Although he still could not call himself a Khan, he adopted the title Amir, proclaimed himself Sultan of the Timurid Empire, and was also called the Imperial Son-in-Law (Timur Gurgan, son-in-law of the Great Khan). He also enthroned Suurgatmish as yet another puppet Khan. This was when he truly rose to power as founder of an Empire that would last until 1507.

Timur's victory in Balkh and subsequent founding of the Timurid Empire was followed by 35 years of wars and expeditions. The cities and other places he subjugated are listed in the Itinerary. At its peak, his empire stretched from the western parts of the four Khanates of the Mongol Empire founded by Chinggis Khan: the Chaghatai Khanate (Central Asia), the Ilkhanate (Persia) and the Golden Horde (Russia and surrounding regions). He even attempted to restore the Yuan dynasty in China.

Contacts with Western Europe and East Asia

Timur had several positive contacts with Europe, particularly with Spain, France and Byzantium. Two Spanish ambassadors visited Samarkand from the court of Henry III of Castille in 1402, and another group of envoys, headed by Ruy González de Clavijo, travelled there for an extended stay in 1403-1404. Clavijo left a fascinating travel account, describing many aspects of the region and of Timur's regime, and even recounting how in 1404 he and his colleagues received the news that Timur was fatally ill and were ordered to make a hasty departure in November of that year.

Several letters were exchanged between Timur and Charles VI of France between 1402 and 1403; they are preserved in Le Musée de l'Histoire de France. Also extant is a letter from the Byzantine Emperor John VII Palaiologos, who sent a Dominican friar to Timur in 1401, and proposed paying tribute to Timur instead of the Turks, once the latter were defeated (Nicol, 1993, p. 314).

Tribute and trade missions had been going back and forth between Ming China and the Timurids during the reign of Emperor Hongwu 洪武 (1368-1398), with the earliest recorded in the Ming Shilu 明实录 in 1387. Timur is there referred to as the fuma (son-in-law) of Samarkand 撒马儿罕驸马帖木儿. The Shilu entries record the Timurids presenting tribute consisting of horses and camels, and their Chinese hosts giving them cash, ingots, and paper money as well as silks and other textiles. The Shilu does not include all the references to their contacts; some additional records appear only in the Ming shi 明史 (Official History of the Ming).

In the Ming shi we learn that in 1394 Hongwu’s ambassadors presented Timur with a letter addressing him as a subject, to which Timur took great offense. He saw himself as someone who received tribute from others; it was beneath his dignity for him to pay tribute to anyone else. Enraged, he had the Chinese ambassadors Fu An 傅安, Guo Ji 郭骥 and Liu Wei 刘炜 detained. Three years later (1397), Hongwu sent another ambassador, Chen Dewen 陈德文, but he too was detained, and members of the subsequent delegation who went to announce Emperor Yongle’s 永乐 accession in 1403 were all executed.

Meanwhile, still angry about being called a subject, Timur was making preparations to invade China. After he returned to Samarkand from his expeditions in India and Central Asia, and rested for a number of months, he uncharacteristically set out for China during the winter of 1404. He usually conducted military expeditions in the spring. He made it as far as Otrar in the cold of December, but luckily for China, he was taken seriously ill along the way, and died early the following year (1405). Thus China was saved from a potentially catastrophic invasion. Some of the Ming ambassadors were finally released under Timur’s successor Khalil Sultan, and returned to China in 1407, thirteen years after they had first arrived. This was under Emperor Yongle (r. 1403-1424).