Tamerlane

Timur, or Tamerlane, was the last great nomadic nomadic conqueror of Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire and Dynasty. During his zenith, he commanded an empire which stretched from modern-day Turkey to Nepal. Most of Timur's life was spent in military conquest. His military expansions often involved the wholsale slaughter and genocide of the conquered peoples, leaving dead hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers and civilians. The life and analysis of Timur's reign can be divided into three areas: military conquest, governance, and downfall. Upon examination of these three areas, one can understand the basic framework of Timur's life and rule, as well as his failures.

Before discussing Timur's military conquests and concurrent rise to power, it is necessary

to provide some background of his early life. Timur was born in modern-day Uzbekistan in 1336. He was born into the clan Barlas, of which his father was the head of. He grew up in an area an region which had no central government, and was basically a confederation of loosely-knit Turco-Mongolian tribes, known as the Ulus Chaghatay, which was the product of the Ghenghis Khan Empire a few generations before. Timur never learned to read or write, but despite his illiteracy, historical records show him to be very intelligent with a strong intellectual curiosity. Timur is also known as Tamerlane, which means to "Tamer the Lame" and refers to a physical handicap in which the left part of his body was partially paralyzed due to an injury sustained in battle. The word "timur" means "iron" in mongolian. In 1941, Russian anthropologist Mikhail M. Gerasimov exhumed the skeleton of Timur, and found him to be 5' 8" tall, which was tall for his era and race, and also ascertained Timur's physical disability.

The emergence of Timur as a military and tribal leader began when he became head of the Barlas tribe. Timur was the hereditary recipient of this position when his father retired to a Muslim monastary, telling Timur that "the world is a beautiful vase filled with scorpions." Timur had a personal, non-tribal following in addition to command of the Barlas, and gradually maneuvered himself to be head of the Ulus Chaghatry, by means of engaging in strategic military attacks with allies, and political manipulation. Becoming leader of the Ulus Chaghatry is a crucial development in Timur's rise to military leader, because it gave him leverage over other tribal leaders and allowed him to tap and command resources required for military expeditions. The particulars of this political system will be discussed later. Timur's first projection of military power was towards the north in Moghul territory, which hitherto had been a sanctuary for political dissidents. This was done not necessarily conquer or pilage, but to send a message

...