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Timur: Brutal Empire Builder

Timur, known as Tamerlane, terrorized Asia in the 14th century. This Turkic warlord founded a vast empire but ruled through fear. His conquests shocked the world with savage brutality.

Key Facts

Born 1336, died 1405: Lived during a chaotic era, claiming Mongol bloodlines.

Timurid Empire (1370-1507): Centered in modern Uzbekistan, with glittering capital Samarkand.

Conquests everywhere: Swept Central Asia, Russia, Middle East, and India.

Terror tactics: Built pyramids of skulls to crush enemies—pure violence for power.

No real legacy: Ignored governance or improving lives; conquest was his only goal.

Historical Context

Timur rose as a Muslim chieftain in turbulent Central Asia after the Mongol Empire crumbled. He united fractured tribes through ruthless campaigns starting in 1370. His empire briefly dazzled with Samarkand's splendor, but rested on fear alone.

Historical Significance

Timur's rampages killed millions and scarred regions from Delhi to Damascus. Surprise fact: He inspired both dread and awe—his descendants built cultural wonders like the Taj Mahal's architects. Yet his rule showed conquest's dark side: glory without stability, echoing Genghis Khan but ending in ruins.

Learn More: Timur: The Brutal Conqueror of Central Asia

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Sultan Bayezid Imprisoned by Timur, by Stanisław Chlebowski, 1878. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Scanned from album "Malarstwo Polskie w zbiorach za granicą" by Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Wydawnictwo Kluszczyński, 2003.

The Elephant and the Thunderbolt

In the year 1402, on a plain just outside of Ankara, Türkiye, a battle between two great Islamic powers shook the Ottoman realm to its core. A battle which quartered the empire between four brothers and nearly destroyed it entirely. On one side, the Turco-Mongolian empire of the Timurids, a force unlike any that the world had seen since the days of Genghis Khan. On the other, the Ottoman forces of Bayezid the Thunderbolt. It was the Battle of Ankara.

Bayezid was besieging Constantinople when the Timurids began to aggress against the Ottomans. The Eastern Romans(Byzantines) had been a thorn in the Ottoman's sides for a century. Their capital of Constantinople had been a launchpad for Crusaders seeking to end the House of Osman's advancement since the earliest days of the empire.

Bayezid I(Bayezid the Thunderbolt) Turkish sultans, sultanas and other historical figures. By Jungwierth, Veronese, 1766 CE. The Victoria and Albert Museum.

Constantinople should have been the apex of Bayezid's reign. He had been besieging the city for some eight years. The great shadow of Tamerlane however cast itself over the Ottoman realm and changed the trajectory of Bayezid's life....very much for the worse.

Tamerlane's interest in the region was egged on by his feuding with the Mamluks over Syria. The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria went to war with Tamerlane. In 1400 Tamerlane sieged and conquered the city of Damascus, taking control of the region around it, and thus bordering the Ottoman Empire.

Battleground of Timur and Egyptian King, by Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād Herawī, a painter from Herat, c. 1494–1495, Timurid era. Golestan Palace, Tehran, Iran. Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

Rewind a few years. In 1398 Tamerlane invaded Delhi in India using a civil war in the region as an excuse. Truthfully Tamerlane had heard of great wealth in the region and used religious strife as his excuse for waging war. He had already conquered Iran(Persia) so waging war on India was not much of a stretch for him. Interestingly, while being a self proclaimed Muslim, Tamerlane had mostly declared war on other Islamic powers.

He had fought the greatest Islamic powers on Earth at the time. Iran, Delhi, the Mamluks, and eventually the Ottomans all butted heads with Tamerlane and lost. Towers of human skulls littered the many cities that he conquered. Despite being a Muslim Tamerlane killed more Muslims than any Crusader that came before him.

The Sultanate of Delhi was no different. Taking advantage of the local fauna, the Sultanate of Delhi used Asiatic elephants in the battle. Thinking that the elephants would scare away the Turco-Mongolians, the Sultan was perhaps overly confident. While the elephants did frighten Tamerlane's horses at first, Tamerlane developed a rather unorthodox method of dealing with the elephants.

Tamerlane gathered a herd of camels, caught the camels on fucking fire, and sent them running scared into the elephants. Frightened out of their goddamn minds, the war elephants ran away from the screaming flaming camels right into the Delhi army. It was a relatively easy victory for Tamerlane.

The Defeat by Timur of the Sultan of Delhi, Nasir Al-Din Mahmum Tughluq, in the winter of 1397-1398; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The Sultanate of Delhi defeated, their elephants stolen by Tamerlane, the Timurids moved west, took Damascus from the Mamluks, and now bordered the Ottoman realm. One by one Tamerlane had conquered the majority of great Islamic powers. It was just the Turks and the Timurids eyeing each other from across Anatolia.

Using their feuding with the wild eastern Turkic nomads of eastern Anatolia as an excuse, Tamerlane wrote Bayezid a mean letter demanding he kneel before him and submit. Obviously Bayezid declined. A Sultan of a budging empire wasn't about to take the knee when he was on the verge of conquering the Eastern Romans. The offer was very likely made to simply give Tamerlane an excuse to invade. By making such unrealistically high demands Tamerlane was sure to infuriate the Ottomans and thus rationalize his own wrathful response. He got what he wanted.

A series of insane trashtalking letters were exchanged between Bayezid and Tamerlane while Bayezid was besieging Constantinople. They called each other every slur and insult in the book. They accused one another of being thieves, bandits, weaklings, small fish in a big pond, a bug standing before an elephant. Et cetera. Everything short of "bitch" or "weakass".

After this insane bout of mean letters seemingly justified Tamerlane's invasion the war between two Islamic giants was finally on. Tamerlane invaded and Bayezid was forced to lift his siege of Constantinople. Ironically, Tamerlane had saved a Christian power, the East Romans, and postponed their extinction by another fifty years. Thus Tamerlane was ironically praised by the Christian world.

As Bayezid marched to meet Tamerlane in battle Tamerlane managed to sneak past him and besiege cities closer to the Ottoman heartland. When Bayezid found out that Tamerlane was behind him, at Ankara, he fled backwards to confront the wily warlord.

By the time the Turks caught up with the Timurids they were exhausted. Worse still were the Delhi elephants that the Timurids had brought with them. While not prone to utilizing elephants that much in battle, it was undoubtedly a frightening sight for the Ottomans who were unaccustomed to such large beasts.

Both sides prayed to Allah for salvation and victory. Both sides had experienced horsemen. Both sides fought bravely. Tatar horsemen were sent barreling into the Ottomans. Oddly enough it was Christian Serbs, led by Lazarovic, who did the best against the Tatar horsemen. Tamerlane himself was awestruck by the bravery of the Christian Serbs. The rest of the Ottoman side did not fair as well.

Mongolian archers flooded the Ottoman side with arrows. Horse archers and cavalry butted into the Turks with thunderous speed. Seeing the turn of the tide, some of the Tatar mercenaries who had allied with Bayezid betrayed him and fled to the Timurid side. Storming forward, firing arrows from the backs of elephants, the Timurids rammed into the Janissaries. While the Janissary held firm, even they could not prevent the Timurid flood.

Bayezid was taken prisoner. His army defeated. The great warlord Tamerlane had defeated the only other great Islamic ruler left in the Asiatic. His many sons were left behind to fight one another for the remainder of the Ottoman realm. The empire was divided in what would later be called the Interregnum period. It wasn't until Mehmed the Restorer killed his brothers decades later that the Ottomans would recover. As to what happened to Bayezid, the results are inconclusive. Timurid sources claim Bayezid was treated as a friend by Tamerlane. Ottoman sources claim he was put in a cage and forced to watch his daughter copulate with Tamerlane. "He said, she said" but nobody has solid proof one way or the other. What is known is that Bayezid was caught alive and never again sat on the throne.

Some sources and further reading below.

Printed plate entitled 'Baiazeth.P.IIII', depicting Bayezid I, after a drawing by Veronese, from a series of prints (259), pasted on 26 loos

The Battle of Ankara, fought in 1402, was a significant military confrontation between the forces of Timur (Tamerlane) and the Ottoman Sulta

The Battle of Ankara occurred on July 20, 1402, between forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I and those of the Turkic ruler Timur. Bayezid’

Timur, also called Timur the Lame and Tamerlane, Turkic conqueror, chiefly remembered for the barbarity of his conquests from India and Russ

At Ankara, Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, nicknamed the Thunderbolt, confronted Mongol leader Tamerlane, who had his own nickname— Prince of Dest

How did Bayezid, fourth sultan of the mighty Ottoman Empire, lose his life in captivity at the court of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur the

Sci-Hub | | 10.1017/chol9780521382960.040

Sci-Hub | | 10.1017/s1356186311000204

Sci-Hub | | 10.1017/byz.2017.12

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