Timur was born into the Turko-Mongol Barlas tribe of Central Asia that traced its lineage back to the Mongol commander Qarachar Barlas. His early history is a bit
obscure, with much of it now known to have been embellished after his lifetime. What is certain is that his tribe was part of the Chagatai Khanate, and Timur first rose to
prominence as a military leader while campaigning in the service of the Chagatai Khan circa 1360. His successes led to his appointment by Khan Tughluk Timur to head the Barlas
tribe. The death of the Tughluk in 1363 fractured the khanate, and precipitated a civil war between the various tribes. Timur took advantage of this situation, and was proclaimed
sovereign in 1370, but initially remained a nominal vassal of the Chagatai khan. The following decade saw his consolidation of power in his homelands around Samarkand, after which
time he began a series of military campaigns to expand his domain which lasted until his death in 1405. From 1383-1385, he conquered Persia, which had been in relative chaos
following the fall of the Ilkhanids in the mid-1300s. In 1385, the khan of the Golden Horde, Tokhtamysh, once an ally of Timur, invaded Azerbaijan, sparking a war between the two
that lasted over the next decade. With the defeat of Tokhtamysh at the battle of Kur River, Timur added most of the Horde's lands to his own domains. Although Tokhtamysh and the
remnants of his army held out in the Ukraine until his final defeat in 1399 at the battle of Vorskla River, Timur's primary attention turned to India, where he defeated the
Tughlaq sultan of Delhi in 1398. Timur's territories now included Transoxiana, Persia, the Caucasus, and northern India. Events then drew his attention to the West. Timur saw
himself as a decendant of Chinghiz Khan, somewhat legitimated by his marriage into the Khan's family, and he apparently sought to assert his control on the territories that had
been under Mongol rule. The sultan of the Ottoman Turks, Beyazid I, had annexed the territory of the Seljuks of Rum, who had been given their domains by the Mongols. As such, they
appealed to Timur, who then took up arms against the Ottomans and their ally, the Mamluks of Egypt. In 1399, Timur invaded Syria, defeated the Mamluk sultan, and captured Aleppo
and Damascus. Afterward, his army moved into Mesopotamia, conquering Baghdad in 1401, then turned to the northwest, invading Anatolia in 1402. Timur defeated the Ottoman army at
the battle of Ankara, and captured Beyazid (he died in captivity a few years later). After restoring the Seljuks, Timur returned to Samarkand, and prepared to attack China. The
Chinese Ming Dynasty had evicted the Mongols from China, and Timur intended to restore them. Operations began in 1404, and Timur's forces advanced to the Sihon (Syr-Daria), where
Timur became ill, dying shortly thereafter at Atrar in 1405. Timur was apparently paranoid of potential rivals, and had therefore installed weak rulers over the various parts of
his empire. The result was that after he died his empire immediately fractured into civil war. Although his dynasty quickly retained Transoxiana and Persia for another century,
their control of northern India was the most enduring. In 1526, Babur, a direct descendant of Timur, established the Mughal dynasty in India, which lasted until 1857.
Timur was known in the west as Tamurlane, which was a Latinized form of the name Timur-i Lang (Timur the Lame). This name was given to him for the limp he had from a leg injury
sustained early in his career. Although it is thought that his father, Taraghay, was an enlightened ruler in his tribe, Timur was certainly not. While he was a patron of the arts,
and was responsible for the development of a new style of architecture, his conquests were often accompanied by large-scale massacres, which gave him a reputation for severe
cruelty.
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