1336 – 1405
Amir Timur (Tamerlane)
Conqueror, founder of the Timurid Empire
The conqueror who built a vast empire in the late 14th century, made Samarkand his capital and, with craftsmen carried off from conquered lands, turned it into the most splendid city of the East.
© Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0
From Kesh to the throne of Samarkand
Timur, son of Taraghay, of the Barlas tribe, was born near Kesh, today's Shahrisabz. The traditional date is 9 April 1336, given by the Timurid historian Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi, though some modern scholars place his birth in the 1320s. Battle wounds taken in his youth left him lame — the Persians called him Timur-i Lang, 'Timur the Lame', which Europe turned into Tamerlane.
In 1370, after defeating his ally-turned-rival Amir Husayn at Balkh, Timur became master of Transoxiana and chose Samarkand as his capital. Marriage to Saray Mulk Khanum, daughter of a Chinggisid khan, earned him the title Gurkan, 'royal son-in-law'. Over the next 35 years he campaigned in Khwarazm, Iran, the Golden Horde, northern India, Syria and Anatolia, capturing the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402. These wars brought the sack of cities and mass killings, which is why his legacy remains so contested.
Building a capital
After every campaign, architects, carvers, tile-makers and other artisans from Damascus, Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz and Delhi were resettled in Samarkand. The Kok Saray palace rose in the citadel; a colossal Friday mosque — today's Bibi-Khanym — was built in 1399–1404; and tiled mausoleums for Timur's relatives lined the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis. Gardens such as the Bagh-i Dilkusha, Bagh-i Chinar and Bagh-i Bihisht ringed the city, and, according to the chroniclers, Timur named nearby villages after Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Sultaniya and Shiraz.
The Castilian envoy Ruy González de Clavijo, who reached Samarkand in 1404, left a vivid account of the court feasts, gardens and building sites.
Gur-e-Amir and memory
Timur died at Otrar on 18 February 1405, on his way to invade Ming China. His body was brought back to Samarkand and laid in the Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum begun for his grandson Muhammad Sultan, who had died in 1403. Ulugh Beg later placed a single slab of dark green jade over his grave.
In June 1941 a Soviet team led by the anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov opened the tomb, confirmed the injuries to Timur's right leg and arm, and reconstructed his face from the skull. Germany's invasion of the USSR a few days later gave rise to the legend of 'Tamerlane's curse' — a story, nothing more. In 1996 a monument to Amir Timur was unveiled in Samarkand.
