#timur khan

[barbaruvian]

9/1/1401

Foreword: Two people who have always captivated my imagination met outside Damascus in 1401.  One was Timur Khan, or Tamarlane, a Mongol general, and the other was Ibn Khaldun, an intellectual completely out of his time.  I imagine their meeting might have gone something like this:

Ibn Khaldun, or, Damascus:

That day, aged seventy He abseils off of The walls of the city One man, facing an army He calmly eyes up the Mongolian cavalry Asks for their general He’s dressed like a Moor So they’ll know he’s exceptional They believe him, he’s lead Ahead to the warlord’s tent They make him wait there Stewing, impatient, In the night desert air With a translator at last He meets Timur Khan, Makes a supplicant gesture He offers him homage To share him his thoughts, Or to furnish him knowledge Conversation begins, Philosophy, combat, Great kings and religion Khaldun shares his masterpiece Explains asabiyya Timur is impressed And keeps questioning deeper

Then, in one moment Khaldun Does something amazing So brazen you’d never Expect him to utter The challenge he’s making He wants an assessment Of a man who has taken The whole of Persia to conquer He goes and plays chess with that leader Khaldun doesn’t say who the winner was either That means it was Timur

The respect is enormous Khaldun stays six weeks He gets himself passports Then returns to Damascus At the fall of the city Khaldun and his followers Are heading out safely When Tamarlane meets them He offers to purchase Ibn Khaldun’s grey ass That he’s riding away on As a mark of respect Khaldun offers to gift It.  Timur refuses Says he would be worthy Of money, rides away To plunder the city

Khaldun rides to Egypt Having met the deadliest Man until Stalin Disgusted at the bloodshed But not he who caused it He’s happy to have met It makes his biography The scholar, warrior  He’d wished to educate All his life, in the flesh The student he’d yearned for Was this great Uzbek This Turkic superman Lame and frail but still As strong as any man Who came before, and surely As strong as any man Who will come after Both of them

[zamankaybolmaz]

Özbekistan’ın Semerkant şehrinde Efrasiyâb Tepesi’nin yamacında, aşağıdan yukarıya gittikçe yükselen ve yer yer merdivenle çıkılan yolun iki tarafında yer alan türbeler topluluğuna verilen isimdir. Bu türbelerin çoğu 14. ve 15. yy’dan kalmadır ve Timur Hânın ailesinden olanlara ve yakınlarına aittir. Bunlardan Kusem bin Abbas radıyallahü anh’a ait olan türbe, Emir Timur devrinden önceye aittir. Semerkant’ı İslâma açan sahabelerden Kusem bin Abbas, bir Kurban Bayramı günü 672’de şehit olmuştur. “Şehitler sizin bilmediğiniz bir hayatla diridirler.” meâlindeki âyet-i kerîmeye dayanarak buraya Şah-ı Zinde denilmiştir.

Uluğ Beğ’in yaptırdığı tepenin eteğindeki taç kapıdan geçilince Şah-ı Zinde’ye girilir. Girilmesiyle lacivert, koyu ve açık yeşil, siyah, sarı, beyaz mor ve firûze mavisi çinilerle gözlerin kamaşması bir olur. Burada iki mescid bir de medrese bulunmaktadır. Şah-ı Zinde Türbeleri esas itibariyle kare yapılardır ve en dikkat çekici özelliği yüksek kasnaklı ve kavun biçimi kubbelerdir. İkinci bir özellik, Timur Hân devrinin en zengin süslemelerini üzerlerinde toplamalarıdır. Süslemelerde en büyük pay çinilere aittir. Yazıların bollukla süslediği türbeler, yalnız nisbetlerinin zarifliği bakımından değil, çini kaplamalarla mimarî arasındaki kaynaşma bakımından da birer güzellik örneğidir.

http://www.tarihgazetesi.net/index.php/tarihi-eser/978-sah-zinde-tuerbesi