Timurid Empire

The Timurids, also called the Timurid dynasty or Timurid Empire, was a Turkic dynasty that ruled over all of Central Asia and the Middle East during the late 14th century. The Timurids were named for Timur the Lame, the Turco-Mongol conqueror who established a short-lived empire that lasted from 1370 to 1507. His conquests were infamous for their brutality, as 17 million people were beheaded, and many of their heads made into pyramids to ward off any insurrection from any Timurid city. Following Timur's death, his empire fragmented due to infighting, and, in 1467, most of Persia was lost to the Aq Qoyunlu confederation, while Iraq fell to the Qara Qoyunlu, Central Asia to the Khanate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva, and the rest of Persia to Safavid Persia. The remnants of the Timurid Empire under Babur would go on to conquer Afghanistan from the local rulers and then invade India, where they formed the Mughal Empire.

History[]

Timur the Lame clamed descent from Genghis Khan and the Mongols, and was the leader of an Uzbek warband around Samarkand. He raided the lands of the Ill-Khanate and the other successor states of the Mongol Empire, from the 1360s onwards.

In the 1370s Timur invaded the Chagatai Khanate. He fought against the Chagatai repeatedly and campaigned in Transoxiana. In 1387, when Hodshah of Persia died, Timur invaded Persia. He wanted to make Isfahan pay tribute, and they did so. But when he left, they rebelled, so he returned and massacred 70,000 people.

After conquering Persia and Uzbekistan, he fought several battles with Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde and defeated him at the Battle of Terek in 1395, conquering the Mongol Golden Horde. Four years later he invaded the Mameluke Sultanate and destroyed Aleppo and Damascus. That same year, he attacked Ghorid Sultanate and defeated Shah Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah Tughluq's army at the Battle of Panipat, before destroying Delhi and nearly the sultanate.

In 1400 AD Timur was tired of attacking lesser foes and attacked into the Ottoman Empire, besieging the city of Ankara. Sultan Bayezid I of Turkey attempted to stop him with a large army but was defeated in the famous Battle of Ankara in 1402. The Ottomans were defeated and their siege of Constantinople ended, and Timur captured the crusader castle at Izmir a year later. By the time he died in 1405, his empire had controlled the Middle East (apart from Asia Minor, Arabia, and Egypt) and all of Central Asia.

After his death, the Timurid Empire experienced civil wars and rebellions. In 1501 the Safavid Empire seized control over Persia, and by the 1430s, the Caucasus and Anatolia had been recaptured by Timur's former foes. It endured in Central Asia in the 1490s under Babur, but it was conquered by Muhammad Shaybani and Babur was forced to flee Samarkand. The empire ended in 1507. Babur went on to lead his warband to India, which he conquered, founding the Mughal Empire. It would take over most of India but would be divided between the Mughals in the north and the Maratha Confederacy in the south in the 1660s.

Timurid Empire
Before: Barlas clan	1367-1507	After: Mughal Empire