The lands that will eventually become Tajikistan are part of Turkic or Mongol states during the centuries following the Mongol Conquests.

The Persian language remains in use in government, scholarship, and literature.

Among the dynasties that rule all or part of the future Tajikistan between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries are the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, and the Timurids (Timur, or Tamerlane, and his heirs and their subjects).

Repeated power struggles among claimants to these realms take their toll on Central Asia.

The Mongol conquest in particular had dealt a serious blow to sedentary life and destroyed several important cities in the region.

The Timurids, although they had come in conquest, also patronize scholarship, the arts, and letters.