Scourge of God
Timur-the-Lame
Central Asia was the source of some of history's worst psychopathic gangsters. Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan are bywords of the genre. To these mass-murderers must be added Timur the Lame (or Tambourlane as he was more commonly called after Christopher Marlowe's English play in the late sixteenth century).
The Persian historian of the Timurids, Sharaf ad-Din 'Ali bYazdi, writes that "in the year of Mouse of Mongols on the 25th month Sha'ban, on Tuesday (the 8th of April in 1336) Tequina khatun and amir Taragai gave birth to Timur in the villyat of Kesh (the modern town of Shahrisabz in Uzbekistan)."
The Arab biographer of Timur, Ahmed Ibn 'Arabshah, presents various origin stories:
Timur and his father were from the tribe of the shepherds, who had not belief and intelligence
(Timur's father was a plain servant, Timur's father was a poor shoemaker)
OR
Timur's father was one of the pillars of Sultan Hussein's state
(Timur's father was an influential nobleman, Timur's was one of the amirs of Sultan Hussein).
Ibn 'Arabshah also reports the conventional medieval 'signs and wonders' accompanying the birth of someone of future significance, in this case possibly a meteor or comet: "They say that the night when Timur was born something has appeared, which was like an iron helmet, which then dropped and dissolved in the space. It seemed that the sparks and incandescent coal flew and that light gathered and filled the desert and the settled places."
One thing that the sources are sure about was that Timur was lame. They are less certain about how this came to be. Ahmed Ibn 'Arabshah favours a sheep-stealing narrative:
First he says that Timur tried to steal sheep in his youth and was caught in the act by their shepherd who shot him in the back and the leg with arrows. In another version he writes that Timur tried to steal sheep in Sistan to feed his friends, and this time he was wounded in his hand and his leg.
According to the Mulfuzat Timur (Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timur), a grander misadventure took place. In 1362 the lord of Sistan, Malik Mahmud, had been ousted. He asked Timur to help him restore his estates and power in return for a share of them. Timur, in alliance with amir Hussein succeeded in occupying some fortresses and regions, but Mahmud was afraid that Timur would keep all that he had captured. Mahmud then attacked Timur in Sisten and, during the ensuing fight, Timur was injured with an arrow in the right leg and hand.
(Margaryan Gor, 2018, 'Some Details About Timur Lang's Lameness and Origin', The Countries and Peoples of the Near and Middle East, XXXI, 69-76 [National Academy of Sciences of Armenia]).
Whatever the true version of events, whether common thief or robber baron, the following contemporary miniatures painted in the Timurid Era are strong evidence for the fact of the tyrant's lameness.
Timur's victory and accession to power at Balkh (1425)
The mirth court of prince Timur (1489)
Prince Timur celebrating the Eid
Prince Timur celebrating a victory in Samarkand
These 'snapshots' of the time indicate that Timur was crippled in the right leg, being unable to sit in the normal cross-legged way of nomads when not on horseback. He had to keep the injured limb out-stretched, often resting his foot on a stool.
(R Sayed, 2017, 'The description of Prince Timur's lameness in light of manuscripts illustrations and their recorded descriptions in the historical sources', Egyptian Journal of Archaeological and Restoration Studies, 7.1, 65-75 [Fayoum University, Egypt]).
In this and later centuries Timur developed the reputation as a near-invincible military commander. In the Late Medieval and Early Modern eras there was a "sentiment of popular hatred against the Ottoman Turks", who were considered "the present Terror of the World". It was in this context ― "of Tambourlaine's defeat of Ottoman emperor Beyazid I at Ankara in 1402", and the Byzantine city (and centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity) of Constantinople being "temporarily rescued" ― that Timur's public image was transformed.
He had, in Western European and Roman Catholic minds, prevented one of the "two lights of Christendom from falling into the hands of the sworn enemies of Christ", an action interpreted "as providential, albeit indirect, triumph for Christendom over the increasingly powerful forces of Islam". This event recast Tamer-the-Lame as military hero: "from a merciless tyrant, indulging in the unjust profiteering of plundering, ravaging and killing to satisfy his his insatiable lust for dominion, into 'The Scourge and Wrath of God', a divine agent adorned with God-ordained madness to mete out punishment to those who have sinned against God".
(Ipek Ulyger, 2014, 'Tambourlaine the Great: "The Scourge and Wrath of God"', Procedia, Social and Behavioural Sciences, 158, 155-159 [Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey]).
A very useful weapon in the armoury granted (figuratively) to God's ordained madmen is His ability to 'sow confusion among their enemies'. Timur certainly seems to have benefited from something of that sort in the momentous battle mentioned above.
"This battle occurred about one mile from the city of Angora [Ankara] on the fourth day of the week, the 27th of Zulhaj, in the year 804 [1402 CE], and most of the [Turkish] army was destroyed by thirst and heat, for it was the 18th of Tamuz." So says historian Ahmad ibn Arabshah. Timur's tactic of leading the Ottomans on a frustrating eight day chase through the southern mountains, and then preventing them from accessing water when they returned, was an obvious factor in their defeat. But so too was the number, and scale, of betrayals within the Sultan's forces.
First, "the Tatars withdrew from the army of Bayezid and joined Timur's army, according to the arrangement and plan; and they were the strength of the army and a numerous part among the host of Bayezid, so many that the multitude of the Tatars was about a third of that great and warlike army, nay, it is said that the whole host of the Tatars nearly equalled the army of Timur."
Second, "Bayezid had with him his eldest son, Amir Suleyman, who, when he saw the deeds of the Tatars, certain of the calamity which threatened his father, took the rest of the flower of his army and withdrew from the battlefield and turning his back abandoned his father in the fierce stress of battle and made his way with his men towards Brusa, and none remained with Bayezid except footmen, and those inferior, and a few mail-clad troops."
It is no wonder that in these circumstances, "Bayezid was taken and bound with fetters like a bird in a cage". Timur's biographer ibn Arabshah is not picking up on the courageous warrior theme here. He is emphasising the conqueror's cunning.
(DRM Peter, 2018, 'Sources on Tamerlane 1336-1405, including the Battle of Angora 1402', De Re Militari, The Society for Medieval Military History)
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An Eyewitness At Samarkand
A dictator can afford a range of emotions, with little risk of being reprimanded. In these miniatures taken from the Zafar Nama manuscript (by Sharaf al-dien Al-Yazdi and possibly dating from 1425) the central figure is Timur. The comparison implies that if you aren't fawning on him in some manner, then you aren't in the circle. And exclusion is deadly.
One European who got to observe Timur's court up close (and survived to publish a credible report) was Spaniard Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who was sent as part of a return embassy by Castilian king Henry III. His record, Embassy to Tamerlane 1403-1406, is reliable in the sense that he spent two to three months in close proximity to the autocrat, and this was during what turned out to be the last period of Timur's disturbing life.
1. APPROACHING THE PRESENCE
"Thus [on Monday the 8th of September] they brought us all forward till we came to where a certain great lord of the court, a very old man, was seated on a raised dais, he being indeed a nephew of Timur, the son of his sister, and we all made him obeisance. Then passing on we came before another dais where we found seated several young princes, the grandsons of his Highness, to whom we likewise paid our respects ...
Then coming to the presence beyond, we found Timur and he was seated under what might be called a portal, which same was before the entrance of a most beautiful palace that appeared in the background, but upon a raised dais before which there was a fountain which threw up a column of water backwards, and in the basin of which were floating red apples.
"His Highness had taken his place on what appeared to be small mattresses stuffed thick and covered with embroidered silk cloth, and he was leaning on his elbow against some round cushions that were heaped up behind him. He was dressed in a cloak of plain silk without any embroidery, and he wore on his head a tall white hat on the crown of which was displayed a balas ruby, the same being further ornamented with pearls and precious stones.
As soon as we came in sight of his Highness we made him our reverence, bowing and putting the right knee to the ground and crossing our arms over the breast. Then we advanced a step and again bowed, and a third time we did the same, but this occasion kneeling on the ground and remaining in that posture.
"Then Timur gave the command that we should rise to come nearer before him, and the various lords who up to this point had been holding us under the arms now left us for they dare not advance any nearer to his Highness. There were three nobles here whom we especially noticed standing in Timur's presence in waiting on him, for these his Highness' chief chamberlains ... These three now came forward and taking each of us ambassadors by the arm advanced with us to come to stand immediately before the place where Timur sat and here again they made us kneel.
His Highness however commanded us to stand close up to him that he might the better see us, for his sight was no longer good, indeed he was so infirm and old that his eyelids were falling over his eyes and he could barely raise them to see ...
We suitably answered and then proceeded to set out the message of our embassy at length, his Highness listening carefully to all we had to say. When we had finished Timur turned and proceeded to converse with certain of the great lords who were seated at his feet ..."
2. ASSEMBLING THE HORDE
"In the plain here [outside the city of Samarkand] Timur recently had ordered tents to be pitched for his accommodation, and where his wives might come, for he had commanded the assembling of the great Horde ... The whole of the Horde was now to come in, each clan taking up to its appointed place; and now we saw them here, pitching their tents, their womenfolk accompanying them ... From their custom as soon as the camp of his Highness had thus been pitched all these folk of the Horde exactly knew where each clan had its place ... Thus in the next few days we saw near twenty thousand tents pitched in regular streets to encircle the royal camp, and daily more clans came in from the outlying districts ...
"On Monday the 6th of October Timur gave orders for a grand feast to be made at his camp in the Horde ... known as the Royal Camp. To this feast his Highness had invited all his wives and the members of his family ... [T]he lords who were of the court all were bidden, as also all those chiefs who were in those encampments stationed round and about the city, these having been brought in by special command.
As regards us ambassadors we were that day taken over to the Horde, and in the great camp we found they had erected an innumerable number of extra tents ... and for the most part these were erected on the bank beside the river [Zarafshan] ... all are beside the other very closely pitched, and thither they conducted us through a roadway where all sorts of goods were exposed on sale suitable to the needs of those who might be later be set forth on the march of the army ...
"Now on that Thursday the 9th of October Timur commanded a feast to be made in honour of one of his grandsons whose marriage was about to be celebrated ... Further to celebrate this day of the royal wedding his Highness had given command by proclamation throughout the city of Samarqand that all the trading folk of the town, namely those who sold stuffs and those who sold jewels, with the hucksters and merchants for sale of goods of all and every sort, together with the cooks, butchers, bakers, tailors and shoemakers, in short all the craftsmen who were inhabitants of the capital, should betake themselves out for that day to the meadows where the great Horde was encamped ...
"Again in those quarters where the trades were thus congregated, and at several points where the diverse exhibition tents were numerous, Timur had commanded that great gallows should be set up. By proclamation at the same time he intended thus to gratify and give enjoyment to all the common-folk at his festival, he also intended to give a warning and example of these who had offended him and done evil deeds, and he would proceed to the public exhibition of the criminals."
3. MAKING ALL MEN TREMBLE
"The first of those to suffer his justice was the Mayor in Chief of Samarqand, a man whose name was Dina, a personage the greatest in all that land of his Empire. Aforetime when Timur had set out on his late expedition, namely six years and eleven months before his present date at which we were come, this man had been appointed to be chief magistrate, and Timur had left him to be governor of Samarqand. But his Highness since his return had come to know that this man had betrayed his trust using his office to misgovern and oppress the people. He therefore now commanded this Dina the Chief Mayor to be brought before him, and after judgment forthwith he was taken out and without delay hanged; all the wealth that he had so unjustly gathered to himself being forfeited to the state. This act of high justice condemning so great a personage to death, making all men to tremble, and notably he had been one in whom his Highness had reposed much confidence.
"Then in regard to a certain man the friend of that Dina and who had sought to intercede with Timur for his pardon, his Highness likewise caused him now to be hanged, thus sharing the fate of his companion.
"There was also a privileged and very favourite courtier of his Highness, whose name was Burunday Mirza [one of the three 'chamberlains' that had led the ambassadors toward the 'presence' of his Highness only one month before] and he too had interceded with Timur seeking to obtain the pardon of the Chief Mayor. To this intent he had offered his Highness to pay in ransom a sum of 400,000 Pesantes, and each of these Pesantes is of the value of a silver real ... Forthwith Timur had answered that gladly he would accept the gift, but the moneys had no sooner come into his treasury than he ordered torture be given to the unhappy man, if possible to get more money from him, and when none could be obtained it was ordered that he be hung on the gallows by the feet head downwards till he died.
"Next his Highness had ordered justice to be meted to a certain great lord of the court in whose care had been left three thousand horses of the government stud when Timur had set out on the late campaign. Because on his return those 3,000 were not yet all present that lord was now condemned to the gallows, and it served him naught that he had promised, if time were granted to him, in place of those 3,000 he would soon have 6,000 to bring before his Highness. It was ever after this or a similar fashion that Timur administered justice."
4. PERMISSION TO LEAVE
"On Thursday week, which was the 30th of October, Timur betook himself from his camp in the Horde back to the city of Samarqand, taking up his residence in a certain place adjacent to the Mosque which he had lately ordered to be built ... and Timur already twice had come into the city to see what progress had been made, on which occasions he had caused himself to be carried in a litter, for at his age he could no longer sit his horse ... Then ... a very privileged courtier, the chamberlain called Shah Melik Mirza , came up to us ambassadors and leading us forth, brought us into the presence of his Highness ... We therefore now ... made him our thanks and obeisance, as is customary, when he addressed us saying that we should come back to him the very next day to have speech with him, and be dismissed in a good hour for our return home to our lord the King of Spain ...
"On Friday the 1st of November we went to present ourselves before his Highness, as he had enjoined on us to do, hoping that he would give us licence to depart on our homeward journey ... his Highness sent to tell us to go home, for that day we must excuse his not receiving us in farewell audience as he had much other business to transact ...
The next day, which was Saturday, we again went and presented ourselves to attend on his Highness as we had been told to do but he did not appear coming out from his tent, for it was reported that he was ill ...
"On Sunday the following day we again went over to the palace to see whether perchance Timur would grant us audience. We were waiting there a long time, when at length those three Grand Chamberlains ... came out ... saying we were immediately to return to our lodgings for that his Highness could not receive us ... for Timur at that time was very ill, and all those of the court men and women were in a state of great anxiety ... Those ... who ruled the affairs of government being of the Privy Council, at that time scarce knew how to act. We were not therefore given leave to depart ... Then while we waited patiently in case his Highness should send for us and not daring to go and present ourselves again before him ... those Grand Chamberlains speaking as from Timur himself now had sent to us to let us know that we must immediately make ready to depart on the homeward journey ... [W]e immediately made our protest ... and forthwith repaired to the palace demanding an interview with the Grand Chamberlains ...
"The Grand Chamberlains in reply told us that we could not possibly now have audience of his Highness, nor remain any longer at court; we must hasten our departure and set out exactly as they had sent ... because his Highness was in a very weak state, having already lost all power of speech, and he might be at the very point of death according to what the physicians prognosticated. They plainly said that this haste in dealing thus with us and our mission was necessary from the fact that Timur appeared to be dying, for our own sakes we must be off and away before the news of his death was here made public, and above all before that news reached the provinces through which on our journey we would have to pass ...
"Thus matters undecided stood over from that day Monday [the 4th] till Tuesday fortnight the 18th of November, when the Grand Chamberlains sent ... four written passports and orders of the government, on four chief cities that we had to pass through on our journey and the orders stated that on arrival we ambassadors were to be supplied with fresh horses to carry us forward ... We again replied that we would not start without having first seen Timur or having received from his Highness his written order: but the man answered that whether we would or would not, we must forsooth depart and go. This indeed we had to do, for that day they took us from our lodgings and carried us forth to an orchard outside the city ... and we remained in camp that Tuesday of our coming ... [until] Friday following, which last was the 21st of November ... [when] we took our final departure from Samarqand."
(Clavijo Embassy to Tamerlane 1403-1406, Translated fro9m the Spanish by Guy le Strange, 1928, George Routledge & Sons, London, chs XI - XV, pp 200 - 300).
Internet Archive, funded <wellcomecollection.org/works/gsbahsgv/items?canvas+14>
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The BOOK of CONQUEST (1419-1425)
Zafar Nama (821-826)
"In 1419 Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi was summoned to Shiraz [Iran] by Ibrahim Sultan ibn Shahruk, governor of the province of Fars, to oversee the collection and codification of traditions and records relating to the life of Timur, and to produce from this material a revised and integral biography of the conqueror. One part of this project , the so-called Zafarnama, was apparently completed in 1424-25. In many ways it should be considered as a reworking and expansion of an earlier Zafarnama written in 1404 [one year after the tyrant's death] by Nizam al-Din Ali Shami.
"According to Yazdi, a team of scholars and writers began working under his supervision at the court of Ibrahim Sultan, scrutinizing and verifying all Persian and Chaghatay [Central Asian Mongol Khanate] accounts of Timur's life and deeds gathered from all over the Timurid empire. The Zafarnama begins with Timur's birth on April 8th, 1336 (25 Sha'ban 736) and ends with the enthronement of his grandson Khalil Sultan in Samarqand [Uzbekistan] on March 18, 1495 (16 Ramadan 807).
"The text of Yazdi's Zafarnama gives greater stress to Islamic elements [than earlier biographies by Ali Shami and Hafiz-i Abr], portraying the Timurids as pious Muslim rulers.
The manuscript includes twelve miniatures arranged as six pairs and consisting of four battle scenes, one court audience, and one construction of a mosque. Provision for the miniatures was made in advance even though the paintings may not have been done when the text was completed."
1. "Timur holds audience in Balkh on the occasion of his accession on 12 Ramadan 771 / April 9, 1370."
'In this first double page painting the artist introduces the two main characters who will be heroes in this series of illustrations. Timur [seated on couch, centre of right page] is always depicted as a slender figure with a pointed beard and wearing a green garment, while Umar Shaykh [his son, seated with brother Jahangir on low stools, upper left of left page]] is fatter, has a mustache, and is also dressed in green [tunic], with a turban.'
2. "Timur's army commanded by Umar Shaykh attacks Urgench/Khiva in the spring of 781 / 1379."
3. "Umar Shaykh outmaneuvers Ankatura in a night attack on the Syr-Darya in 790 / 1388."
'There is a problem with the description, "The army of Umar Shaykh crossing the Oxus to attack the forces of Ankatura". The text narrates that Ankatura attacked the Timurids, while the painting shows the Timurids crossing the river on rafts, which they hold in front of them as shields when they have reached the opposite bank and are charging. Whoever was attacking who, the battle was at night, since a crescent moon shines in a sky studded with stars and two torches are burning in the camp [upper right page].'
4. "Timur's army attacks the survivors of the town of Nerges, in Georgia, in the spring of 798 / 1396."
"In the text, the survivors of a town called Nerges were pursued into the mountains where they hid in caves and passageways high on the upper slopes. The Timurid army positioned itself above the caves, lowered soldiers down in baskets until they were face to face with the Georgians, and annihilated them. Timur's campaign against the Georgians is 'justified' in the text as jihad, a holy war against the Christian infidels ... The figure of Timur appears on the upper left of the left page ... Wearing his green robe, he is mounted on his horse ... In the background on the right page, the ruins of the conquered city are visible from afar."
5. "The Construction of the Great Mosque of Samarqand began on 14 Ramadan 801 / May 20 1399 "
"The illustration occurs in the middle of a famous poetic phrase which describes the mosque in its finished state, but the painting actually shows the construction of the mosque, and most of the figural groups and their activities are taken directly from the written description in the Zafarnama."
6. "Timur and his army storming the fortress of St John in Izmir on 6 Jumada 805 / December 2, 1402 "
"[A]n ideal description of a Timurid military campaign against a Christian enemy. The chapter is entitled 'The battle against the the infidels of Izmir'. The word jihad (holy war) is mentioned several times in the text, the messenger sent to call upon the Knights of St John to become Muslims is identified as rasul (messenger of God), the attacking army is lashkar Islam (army of Islam), and the knights of the fortress called kafir (infidels) ... Timur on horseback directed the attack, and the engineers built a bridge to approach the castle ... The castle of the Christian knights is decorated with inscriptions in Arabic, and the knights themselves wear helmets and turbans exactly like those worn by their Muslim enemies. Here as elsewhere [No. 4], the Christians are dressed the same, even turbans, and only position and size differentiate the two opposing forces. In the foreground of the picture on the right, Timur, dressed in green and seated on a horse, supervises the operations."
(Mika Natif, 2002, 'The Zafarnama [Book of Conquest] of Sultan Husayn Mirza', In Papers of the Index of Christian Art, 211-228, <academia.edu/23289107/-The-Zafarnama-of-Sultan-Husayn-Mirz->)
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When God Designs A Thing
"When God designs a thing, he disposes the causes, that whatever he hath resolved on may come to pass : thus he destined the empire of Asia to Temur and his posterity because he foresaw the mildness of his government, which would be the means of making his people happy." (Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi, Zafarnama of Sultan Husayn Mirza).
'Had they been consulted, the countless millions who lost their lives over the course of the next four decades ― buried alive, cemented into walls, massacred on the battlefield, sliced in two at the waist, trampled to death by horses, beheaded, hanged ― would surely have differed on the subject of the emperor's mildness."
(Justin Marozzi, 2004, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, Harper Collins, London, pp 46-47)
"The fascination with Tamerlane has long survived his death, and he shares with Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, an infamy as a ruthless barbarian conqueror."
In his 2023 history Empires of the Steppes, Kenneth Harl makes the connection between the three characters by naming chapters after them. Chapter 12 is called Attila the Hun: the Scourge of God, Chapter 19 is Genghis Khan: the World Conqueror, and Chapter 24 is Tamerlane: Prince of Destruction. These titles are interchangeable, which is why all of them score so significantly on this particular leagues-table of charismatic mass-murderers.
"Although Tamerlane styled himself as the Sword of Islam, he sacked numerous Muslim cities, and he slaughtered many more Muslims than victims of other faiths. Ironically, Tamerlane was most respected by contemporary Western Europeans, who never experienced the fury of Tamerlane's hordes. At a safe distance, the Pope and princes of Latin Christendom saw in this conqueror a possible ally against the Ottoman sultans who threatened Constantinople ..."
(Kenneth W Harl, 2023, Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization, Hanover Square, Toronto, pp 388-389)
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