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Setting the scene
By 1370, the Mongol Empire had fragmented into competing khanates. Central Asia was divided among warlords. Timur (Tamerlane), born around 1336 near Samarkand to a minor Turco-Mongol noble family, was a brilliant but ruthless military leader. He was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, so could not claim the title of Khan, instead using the title Amir (commander). Timur was lame in one leg (from an early wound, hence 'Timur-i Lang' or Tamerlane), but compensated with strategic genius and charisma.
What happened
In 1370, Timur seized control of the Chagatai Khanate in Transoxiana, making Samarkand his capital. Over the next 35 years, he built an empire through relentless conquest, defeating the Golden Horde, the Delhi Sultanate (sacking Delhi in 1398 and massacring 100,000), the Ottomans (capturing Sultan Bayezid at Ankara in 1402), and the Mamluks. Timur claimed to be restoring the Mongol Empire and waged war as a ghazi (holy warrior), though his campaigns were primarily for plunder and power. He was a patron of art and architecture, transforming Samarkand into a magnificent city.
Why it still matters
Timur created the last great nomadic empire, stretching from India to Turkey at his death in 1405. His conquests killed an estimated 17 million people (5% of world population), with pyramids of skulls marking his victories. Yet Timur also facilitated cultural exchange and his descendants, the Timurids, fostered a renaissance in Central Asia—his great-great-grandson Babur founded the Mughal Empire in India in 1526. Timur's empire collapsed after his death, but his legacy shaped Central Asian and Islamic history. He demonstrated that nomadic warfare remained effective in the gunpowder age and represents the final flowering of steppe empire-building tradition.
Background
His campaigns reshaped politics from Persia to India. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.