TIMUR, TIMUR-BEG, TAMERLANE, or TIMUR-LENG (Timur the Lame) (1336-1405). A Mongol conqueror, born at Kesh or Sebz, 40 miles from Samarkand. At this time the real power over Turkestan was in the bands of in dependent chiefs of Alongol blood. each of whom chose a prominent city of the kingdom. and thence ruled the surrounding country. One of these chiefs. Plaji Berlas, the uncle of had established himself at Kesh, and here the future conqueror passed the first twenty-four years of his life. In 1360 the KaImucks of Jet tali. led by Tughlak Timur. subjugated Turkestan. Declining to aceompany his uncle in his flight, Timur met Tughlak, who made him governor of Kesh. and appointed him one of the principal ministers of his son, the new monarch of Turkestan. The Kalmucks were ultimately expelled in 1305. and Turkestan was divided between its two libera tors, Hussain and Timur. In 1369 war broke out between them, Hussain Was defeated and slain, and Timur became lord of Turkestan. He did not, however, assume the rank of a sovereign, but, elevating one of the royal race to the throne, reserved for himself the real authority and the title of Emir. lie then proceeded to take ven geance on the KaInnicks and turned westward to punish the predatory tribes of Khwaresm. who had plundered Bokhara. He spent the interval between these campaigns in supporting Tok temesh Khan. one of the claimants to the throne of Kiptchak, whom he placed in 1376 in undis puted possession. In 1383 the people of Herat, whom he had subdued a short time before, rebelled and murdered his envoys. In punishment for this 2000 of the garrison, built up with alter nate layers of brick and mortar into the form of a pyramid, were left by Timur as a reminder of the consequences of rebellion. Scistan was next reduced, and the Afghans of the Suleiman Koh were conquered. In the following year he invaded Mazanderan, and by the close of 1387 the whole of the country east of the Tigris. from Tiflis to was subdued. Those chiefs who vol untarily submitted were mostly confirmed in their governments, but the inhabitants of Iva han,who, after a pretended submission. suddenly rose against the Tatar garrison and massacred 3000 of them. were almost completely extermi nated.
Meanwhile. Toktemesh Khan invaded Thin] es tern tori es on the Anon. Tinier brought him to hay on the banks of the Bielaya ( a tributary of the Kama), June 18, 1391, where he almost anni hilated his forces. In 1392 Timur crossed the Ti gris. subdued the numerous and warlike princi palities to the east of the Euphrates. then advanced northward, through the gates of Derbcnd. to the
Volga, in 1395 again routed Toktemesh on the banks of the Terek, and then turned west as far as the Dnieper, and then north to Moscow, return ing by Astrakhan and the Caucasus, leaving death and desolation in his track. In 1398 Timm- en tered India by the passes of the Hindu Kush, near Kabul. and routed the armies which opposed him. till the number of prisoners became so great that four days before the great battle at Delhi he ordered the murder. in cold blood, of all the males (said to be 100.000 in number), and then took the capital. After advancing to the Ganges, Timur returned to Samarkand, where he expended the spoils of the expedition in the adornment of his city. In the following year he attacked the Egyptian Empire in Syria. Tie was as nsual completely successful. Timor's aid was then invoked by the Emperor of the East and several princes of Asia Minor to help them defeat the Turks led by Bajazet I. (q.v.). The two hosts met at Angora on July 20, 1402, and after a long and obstinate contest the Turks were totally routed and Bajazet captured. The con quest of the whole of Asia Minor speedily fol lowed. The Byzantine Emperor did homage to the victor, as (lid also the Turkish ruler of Thrace, and the Knights of Saint John were ex pelled from Smyrna. On his return Timur con quered Georgia, where he passed the winter, and, resuming his march in the following year by way of Mery and Balkh, he reached Samarkand in 1404. Dere he resumed preparations for his long projected invasion of China, and was march ing along the Silum when he was attacked by ague, and died after a week's illness, Febru ary 17, 1405.
Timm- did much to promote the arts and sci ences throughout his dominions, and, despite his cruelty in war, Was an able, politic, and kindly ruler in time of pence, although the speedy dis solution of his empire deprived his labors of any permanent utility. Two works are attribut ed to him, entitled Malffiziit, or Annals, trans lated by Stewart (London, 1830), and Tuklizat, or Ordinances, translated by Davy-White (Ox ford, 1783) and Langles (Paris, 1787). Their authenticity is neither proved nor disproved. In literature Timur is best known through Marlowe's (q.v.) drama Tamburlaine the Great. Consult: Sharaf ud-din Ali Yazdi, Zafarnamah, translated by Petis de la Croix, Histoirc de Timur-Bee, sur lc nom du grand Tamerlan (Paris, 1722) ; _Manger, Vita Timuri, a translation of the Arabic biography by lbn Arabshah (Leovardae, 1767 7'2) ; Born, "Geschichte hails in islamitischer Zeit," in Geiger and Kuhn, Grundriss der ira &schen Philologic, vol. ii. (Strassburg, 1900).