Timur

Timur, Tarmashirin Khan, Emir Timur (late 1320s to April 9, 1336 – February 18, 1405), historically known as Tamerlane (from Persian: Timūr-e Lang, Aksak Timur "Timur the Lame" in Turkish), is a Turkic ruler.

He conquers West, South and Central Asia and founds the Timurid dynasty.

He is the grandfather of Ulugh Beg, who rules Central Asia from 1411 to 1449, and the great-great-great-grandfather of Babur Beg, founder of the Mughal Empire, which rules South Asia for centuries.

Timur is considered the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian Steppe, and his empire sets the stage for the rise of the more structured and lasting Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires in the 1500s and 1600s.

Born into the Barlas confederation in Transoxiana during the 1320s or 1330s, Timur gains control of the Western Chagatai Khanate by 1370.

From this base, he leads military campaigns across Western, South and Central Asia and emerges as the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world after defeating the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire and the declining Delhi Sultanate.

From these conquests he founds the Timurid Empire, although it will fragment shortly after his death.

Timur envisions the restoration of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan.

Unlike his predecessors Timur is also a devout Muslim who refers to himself as the Sword of Islam, converting nearly all the Borjigin leaders to Islam during his lifetime.

His armies are inclusively multiethnic.

During his lifetime Timur emerges as the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world after defeating the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire and the declining Sultanate of Delhi.

Timur has also decisively defeated the Christian Knights Hospitaller at Smyrna; styling himself a Ghazi.

Timur's armies, which are inclusively multiethnic, are feared throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, sizable parts of which are laid to ruin by his campaigns.

Scholars estimate that his military campaigns caused the deaths of seventeen million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population.

On the other hand, Timur is also recognized as a great patron of art and architecture, as he interacts with Muslim intellectuals such as Ibn Khaldun and Hafiz-i Abru.

Later Timurid dynastic histories claim that he was born on April 8, 1336, but most sources from his lifetime give ages that are consistent with a birthdate in the late 1320s.

Historian Beatrice Forbes Manz suspects the 1336 date was an invention designed to tie Timur to the legacy of Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, the last ruler of the Ilkhanate descended from Hulagu Khan, who died in that year.

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