Timurid Empire

History Main articles: Timur , History of Central Asia , and History of Iran [ 1400 ] MOGHULISTAN GOLDEN HORDE MING DYNASTY FOUR OIRATS NORTHERN YUAN PHAGMODRUPAS JALAYI- RIDS VIJAYA- NAGARA Qara Qoyunlu GEORGIA TIMURID EMPIRE DELHI SULTANATE Tungus AVA KHMER OTTOMAN EMPIRE MAMLUK SULTANATE JO- SEON MAJAPAHIT MUSCOVY The Timurid Empire and contemporary polities, c.  1400 Timur conquered large parts of the ancient greater Persian territories in Central Asia, primarily Transoxiana and Khorasan , from 1363 onwards with various alliances. He took Samarkand in 1366 and Balkh in 1369. He was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of Suurgatmish , the Chagatai khan , he subjugated Transoxiana and Khwarazm in the years that followed. Already in the 1360s, he had gained control of the western Chagatai Khanate . While as emir he was nominally subordinate to the khan, in reality it was now Timur who picked the khans. These became mere puppet rulers. The western Chagatai khans were continually dominated by Timurid princes in the 15th and 16th centuries, and their figurehead importance was eventually reduced into total insignificance. Rise See also: Siege of Balkh (1370) Battle between Timur (left) and Tokhtamysh (right). Topkapi H.2153 , 1420–1440, possibly Herat . Timur began a campaign westwards in 1380, invading the various successor states of the Ilkhanate . By 1389, he had removed the Kartids from Herat and advanced into mainland Persia where he enjoyed many successes. This included the capture of Isfahan in 1387, the removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz after the Battle of Shiraz (1393) , and the expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad . Tokhtamysh , the khan of the Golden Horde , was a major rival to Timur in the region. In 1394–1395, he triumphed over the Golden Horde, following his successful campaign in Georgia , after which he enforced his sovereignty in the Caucasus . In 1398, the anarchy prevailing in the Delhi Sultanate had drawn Timur's attention. At the beginning of 1398, Timur sent an army led by his grandson Pir Muhammad to cross the Indus and attack Multan ; the successful siege lasted six months. Later in the same year, Timur himself marched the main army across the Indus, and after destroying Tulamba joined Pir Muhammad. At Sutlej , he defeated the Khokhar chief Jasrat and then took the Loni and Bhatnair forts , seven miles northeast of Delhi . In December 1398, Timur engaged with the armies of Sultan Mahmud Shah and won. This led to his triumphal entry into Delhi, where he conducted a massacre but spared the craftsmen to be sent to Samarkand. He left Delhi in January 1399. During Timur's entry into India, he was faced by a sultanate that was already in decline due to the secession of its richest provinces. [ 1 ] Later in 1400–1401 he conquered Aleppo , Damascus and eastern Anatolia . He destroyed Baghdad in 1401, and in 1402 he defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara . This made Timur the most preeminent Muslim ruler of the time, as the Ottoman Empire plunged into civil war . Meanwhile, he transformed Samarkand into a major capital and seat of his realm. Stagnation and decline Contemporary depiction of the Qara Qoyunlu forces of Qara Iskandar (left) in battle against the Timurid forces of Ibrahim Sultan (right) in April 1429. Shahnama of Ibrahim Sultan (c.1430) frontispiece. [ 2 ] Timur appointed his sons and grandsons to the main governorships of the different parts of his empire, and outsiders to some others. After his death in 1405, the family quickly fell into disputes and civil wars, effectively weakening themselves, and many of the governors became conclusively independent. Due to the fact that the Persian cities were desolated by wars, the seats of Persian culture were now in Samarkand and Herat, cities that became the centre of the Timurid renaissance . [ 3 ] The costs of Timur's conquests included the deaths of possibly 17 million people. [ 4 ] Shahrukh Mirza , the fourth ruler of the Timurids, dealt with the Qara Qoyunlu , who aimed to expand into Iran. But in the wake of Shahrukh's death, the Qara Qoyunlu under Jahan Shah drove the Timurids out to eastern Iran after 1447 and also briefly occupied Herat in 1458. After the death of Jahan Shah, Uzun Hasan , bey of the Aq Qoyunlu , conquered the holdings of the Qara Qoyunlu in Iran between 1469 and 1471. Fall The power of Timurids declined rapidly during the second half of the 15th century, largely due to the Timurid/Mongol tradition of partitioning the empire as well as several civil wars. The Aq Qoyunlu conquered most of Iran from the Timurids, and by 1500, the divided and war-torn Timurid Empire had lost control of most of its territory, and in the following years it was effectively pushed back on all fronts. Persia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Eastern Anatolia fell quickly to the Shiite Safavid Empire , secured by Shah Ismail I in the following decade. Much of the Central Asian lands was overrun by the Uzbeks of Muhammad Shaybani who conquered the key cities of Samarkand and Herat in 1505 and 1507, and who founded the Khanate of Bukhara . Mughal Empire Main article: Mughal Empire From Kabul, the Mughal Empire was established in 1526 by Babur , a Timurid prince, son of the Timurid governor of Fergana Umar Shaikh Mirza II , who was descendant of Timur through his father and possibly a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. The dynasty he established is commonly known as the Mughal dynasty though it was directly inherited from the Timurids. By the 17th century, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India but eventually declined during the following century. The Timurid dynasty finally came to an end when the remaining nominal rule of the Mughals was abolished by the British Empire following the 1857 rebellion . ^ Grousset, René (1970). The empire of the steppes; a history of central Asia (in English and French). Internet Archive. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press. pp.  444– 445. ISBN   978-0-8135-0627-2 . ^ Soucek, Priscilla (2000). "The Theory and Practice of Portraiture in the Persian Tradition" . Muqarnas . 17 : 105. doi : 10.2307/1523292 . ISSN   0732-2992 . JSTOR   1523292 . The double-page battle scene in which Ibrahim Sultan, on the right, is shown confidently leading his troops toward a Turkman force, on the left, headed by Iskandar b. Kara Yusuf, who turns back biting his finger in consternation (figs. 3-4). This image is the frontispiece for a copy of Firdawsi's Shāhnāma and is thus not accompanied by any explanatory text, but it does correspond to descriptions of a battle that occurred in April 1429 which are contained in Timurid historical sources. Although neither of these key figures is labeled, each of them would have been recognized by a contemporary viewer because of this event's notoriety. ^ "Timurids" . The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). New York City: Columbia University . Archived from the original on 2006-12-05 . Retrieved 2006-11-08 . ^ "Selected Death Tolls: Timur Lenk (1369–1405)" . Necrometrics.com . Retrieved 2013-02-11 . Read more on Wikipedia →

Culture Earliest known portrait of Timur , commissioned right after his death in 1405–1409, by his grandson Khalil Sultan . [ 1 ] Further information: Turco-Mongol tradition and Turco-Persian tradition See also: Timurid Renaissance Although the Timurids hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Turkicized Mongol origin, [ 2 ] they converted to Islam, and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan . Thus, the Timurid era had a dual character, [ 3 ] reflecting both its Turco-Mongol origins and the Persian literary, artistic, and courtly high culture of the dynasty. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Language During the Timurid era, Central Asian society was bifurcated, with the responsibilities of government and rule divided into military and civilian spheres along ethnic lines. At least in the early stages, the military was almost exclusively Turco-Mongolian, while the civilian and administrative element was almost exclusively Persian. The spoken language shared by all the Turko-Mongolians throughout the area was Chaghatay . The political organization hearkened back to the steppe-nomadic system of patronage introduced by Genghis Khan . [ 6 ] The major language of the period, however, was Persian , the native language of the Tājīk (Persian) component of society and the language of learning acquired by all literate or urban people. Timur was already steeped in Persian culture [ 7 ] and in most of the territories he incorporated, Persian was the primary language of administration and literary culture. Thus the language of the settled " diwan " was Persian, and its scribes had to be thoroughly adept in Persian culture, whatever their ethnic origin. [ 8 ] Persian became the official state language of the Timurid Empire [ 5 ] [ 9 ] and served as the language of administration, history, belles lettres, and poetry. [ 10 ] The Chaghatay language was the native and "home language" of the Timurid family, [ 11 ] while Arabic served as the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences. [ 12 ] Literature Persian Shah Rukh (right) makes a triumphal entrance in Samarkand in September 1394, after Timur names him Governor of the city, Zafarnama (1436) Persian literature, especially Persian poetry, occupied a central place in the process of assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture. [ 13 ] The Timurid sultans, especially Shāh Rukh Mīrzā and his son Mohammad Taragai Oloğ Beg , patronized Persian culture. [ 4 ] Among the most important literary works of the Timurid era is the Persian biography of Timur , known as Zafarnāmeh ( Persian : ظفرنامه ), written by Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi , which itself is based on an older Zafarnāmeh by Nizam al-Din Shami , the official biographer of Timur during his lifetime. The most famous poet of the Timurid era was Nūr ud-Dīn Jāmī , the last great medieval Sufi mystic of Persia and one of the greatest figures in Persian poetry . [ 14 ] Hearing of the Persian culture of the Timurid empire, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II encouraged those under his patronage to engage with the models provided by Persian cultural centers like Shiraz and Tabriz, and in particular by the Timurid court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. 1469–1506) in Herat. [ 15 ] Mehmed II was determined to foster the creation of a new language and literary-artistic culture for his burgeoning court in Istanbul. [ 15 ] In addition, some of the astronomical works of the Timurid sultan Ulugh Beg were written in Persian, although the bulk of it was published in Arabic. [ 16 ] The Timurid prince Baysunghur also commissioned a new edition of the Persian national epic Shāhnāmeh , known as Shāhnāmeh of Baysunghur , and wrote an introduction to it. The Persian poet 'Ismat Allah Bukhari taught poetry to Khalil Sultan , grandson of Timur. [ 17 ] According to T. Lenz: [ 18 ] Frontispiece from the Cairo Bustan , depicting Sultan Husayn Bayqara and his court. Herat, c. 1488 It can be viewed as a specific reaction in the wake of Timur's death in 807/1405 to the new cultural demands facing Shahhrokh and his sons, a Turkic military elite no longer deriving their power and influence solely from a charismatic steppe leader with a carefully cultivated linkage to Mongol aristocracy. Now centered in Khorasan, the ruling house regarded the increased assimilation and patronage of Persian culture as an integral component of efforts to secure the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty within the context of the Islamic Iranian monarchical tradition, and the Baysanghur Shahnameh, as much a precious object as it is a manuscript to be read, powerfully symbolizes the Timurid conception of their own place in that tradition. A valuable documentary source for Timurid decorative arts that have all but disappeared for the period, the manuscript still awaits a comprehensive monographic study. Following the publication of Mukhtar al-Ikhtiyar , a legal manual that was used until the twentieth century, by the head magistrate of Bayqara in Herat, Persian was used as a language of jurisprudence ( fiqh ) under the late Timurids. [ 19 ] During the reign of sultan Husayn Bayqara, the Irshad al-zira'a , a Persian agricultural treatise, was written by Qasim b. Yusuf Abu Nasiri. [ 20 ] [ 21 ] Based on in-depth, first-hand conversations with farmers, the Irshad al-zira'a , covered the agricultural development of Herat and included minor architectural suggestions for gardens. [ 21 ] Chagatai The Mira‘j nama was commissioned by Shahrukh and composed in 1436 in Chaghatai Turkic using the Uighur script , c.1436 in Herat. The multi-headed deity is inspired from the Chinese Buddhist Avalokitesvara . [ 22 ] The Timurids also played a very important role in the history of Turkic literature . Based on the established Persian literary tradition, a national Turkic literature was developed in the Chagatai language . Chagatai poets such as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī , Sultan Husayn Bāyqarā , and Zāhiruddīn Bābur encouraged other Turkic-speaking poets to write in their own vernacular in addition to Arabic and Persian. [ 3 ] Nawa’i's work, predominantly based on Persian designs, was an attempt to create a culture that was specific to the Turkophone audience. [ 23 ] The Bāburnāma , the autobiography of Bābur (although being highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary), [ 24 ] as well as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī's Chagatai poetry are among the best-known Turkic literary works and have influenced many others. Despite being spread throughout Central and South Asia, Chaghatai Turkic remained the junior partner to Persian, and was not promoted systemically in the Timurid Empire to replace Persian. [ 19 ] Chaghatai texts were found at Sultan Husayn Bayqara's court, but the Timurid chancery and court continued to use Persian. [ 25 ] Although the body of Turkic literature produced in Central Asia increased during the Timurid era of the fifteenth century—partially as a result of Mir 'Ali Shir Nawa'i's independent efforts toward the end of the Timurid century—it was still dwarfed by the Persian literary output that the Timurid elite supported. [ 26 ] There are no surviving Turkic historical work from the Timurids, although two Turkic histories seem to have been written during the Timurid period before the flowering of the Timurid historiography in Persian. [ 26 ] Art Main articles: Timurid art and Central Asian art Tumurid mo'araq mosaic. Ulugh Beg Madrasa , Samarkand , 1417-1421 The golden age of Persian painting began during the reign of the Timurids. [ 27 ] During this period – and analogous to the developments in Safavid Iran – Chinese art and artists had a significant influence on Persian art. [ 3 ] Timurid artists refined the Persian art of the book, which combines paper, calligraphy, illumination, illustration and binding in a brilliant and colourful whole. [ 28 ] The Mongol ethnicity of the Chaghatayid and Timurid khans was the source of the stylistic depiction of Persian art during the Middle Ages. These same Mongols intermarried with the Persians and Turks of Central Asia, even adopting their religion and languages. Yet their simple control of the world at that time, particularly in the 13th–15th centuries, reflected itself in the idealised appearance of Persians as Mongols. Though the ethnic make-up gradually blended into the Iranian and Mesopotamian local populations, the Mongol stylism continued well after and crossed into Asia Minor and even North Africa . Timurid deocrative element, Central Asia or Iran, 1375–1400 Fragmentary tombstone in the shape of a mihrab . Samarkand , 1385–1400. Louvre Museum OA 4080. [ 29 ] The Angel Hinders the Offering of Isaac. Anthology of Sultan Iskandar , Shiraz 1410. Architecture Main article: Timurid architecture Façade of the Ulugh Beg Madrasa at the Registan in Samarkand (1417–1420). The two other buildings of the Registan date from the Khanate of Bukhara in the 17th century. [ 30 ] Timurid architecture elaborated on the existing tradition of Iranian and Central Asian architecture that had grown up to the preceding Ilkhanid period. [ 31 ] The Timurid style is distinguished by large-scale buildings, layouts with strong axial symmetry , prominent double-shelled domes in bulbous form , rich exterior tile decoration (in both tile mosaic and banna'i techniques), and sophisticated interior vaulting . [ 32 ] [ 31 ] [ 33 ] Timur used various tools for legitimisation, including urban planning in his capital, Samarkand. [ 34 ] One of the earliest surviving Timurid monuments is the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in present-day Kazakhstan (1389–1399). [ 33 ] Many of the major imperial monuments of the era are found in Samarkand, including the Gur-i Amir Mausoleum (completed c.  1404 ), [ 31 ] the Bibi-Khanym Mosque (1399–1404), the Shah-i Zinda necropolis (late 14th to early 15th centuries), [ 33 ] and the Ulugh Beg Madrasa (1417–1420). [ 31 ] The most important patron of architecture in the 15th century was Gawhar Shad , whose constructions demonstrate a high quality of decoration and increasingly elaborate structural elements, with important examples being her religious and funerary complex in Herat and the mosque of Gawhar Shad in Mashhad . [ 32 ] The power and prestige of the empire, along with the scale of its patronage, ensured that its architectural style was a major subsequent influence in many regions. In Iran, it was inherited by the Safavids , while in the east it was inherited by the Mughals (of Timurid origin) on the Indian subcontinent, where it was blended with Indo-Islamic influences to create the Mughal style . [ 31 ] Further west, it also influenced early Ottoman architecture . [ 35 ] Gur-e Amir , "Tomb of the King": Timur's tomb in Samarkand Façade of the Bibi Khanum Mosque in Samarkand Akhangan Tower, the tomb of Gawhar Shad 's sister Gowhartāj, in Akhangan (northeastern Iran) ^ Droese, Janine; Karolewski, Janina (4 December 2023). Manuscript Albums and their Cultural Contexts: Collectors, Objects, and Practices . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 135. ISBN   978-3-11-132146-2 . To the best of my knowledge, the earliest portrait of Timur can be found in a genealogical scroll (Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum, H. 2152, fols 32-43"), produced shortly after his death in Samarqand (probably under the reign of Khalil Sultan, r. 1405-1409) ^ M. S. Asimov and C. E. Bosworth , History of Civilizations of Central Asia , UNESCO Regional Office, 1998, ISBN   92-3-103467-7 , p. 320: "One of his followers was ... Timur of the Barlas tribe. This Mongol tribe had settled ... in the valley of Kashka Darya, intermingling with the Turkish population, adopting their religion (Islam) and gradually giving up its own nomadic ways, like a number of other Mongol tribes in Transoxania ..." ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Columbia was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ a b B. Spuler, " Central Asia in the Mongol and Timurid periods ", in Encyclopædia Iranica . "Like his father, Olōğ Beg was entirely integrated into the Persian Islamic cultural circles, and during his reign Persian predominated as the language of high culture, a status that it retained in the region of Samarqand until the Russian revolution 1917 ... Ḥoseyn Bāyqarā encouraged the development of Persian literature and literary talent in every way possible ..." ^ a b Mir 'Ali Shir Nawāi (1966). Muhakamat Al-Lughatain (Judgment of Two Languages) . Robert Devereux (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill. OCLC   3615905 . LCC   PL55.J31 A43 . Any linguist of today who reads the essay will inevitably conclude that Nawa'i argued his case poorly, for his principal argument is that the Turkic lexicon contained many words for which the Persian had no exact equivalents and that Persian-speakers had therefore to use the Turkic words. This is a weak reed on which to lean, for it is a rare language indeed that contains no loan words. In any case, the beauty of a language and its merits as a literary medium depend less on size of vocabulary and purity of etymology that on the euphony, expressiveness and malleability of those words its lexicon does include. Moreover, even if Nawā'ī's thesis were to be accepted as valid, he destroyed his own case by the lavish use, no doubt unknowingly, of non-Turkic words even while ridiculing the Persians for their need to borrow Turkic words. The present writer has not made a word count of Nawa'i's text, but he would estimate conservatively that at least one half the words used by Nawa'i in the essay are Arabic or Persian in origin. To support his claim of the superiority of the Turkic language, Nawa'i also employs the curious argument that most Turks also spoke Persian but only a few Persians ever achieved fluency in Turkic. It is difficult to understand why he was impressed by this phenomenon, since the most obvious explanation is that Turks found it necessary, or at least advisable, to learn Persian – it was, after all, the official state language – while Persians saw no reason to bother learning Turkic which was, in their eyes, merely the uncivilized tongue of uncivilized nomadic tribesmen. ^ The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor . Translated, edited and annotated by W. M. Thackston (2002). Modern Library. ^ Gérard Chaliand, Nomadic Empires: From Mongolia to the Danube , translated by A. M. Berrett, Transaction Publishers, 2004. p. 75 ^ Beatrice Forbes Manz. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press, 1999. pg 109: "In Temür's government, as in those of most nomad dynasties, it is impossible to find a clear distinction between civil and military affairs, or to identify the Persian bureaucracy solely civil, and the Turko-Mongolian solely with military government. It is in fact difficult to define the sphere of either side of the administration and we find Persians and Chaghatays sharing many tasks. (In discussing the settled bureaucracy and the people who worked within it I use the word Persian in a cultural rather than ethnological sense. In almost all the territories which Temür incorporated into his realm Persian was the primary language of administration and literary culture. The language of the settled population and the chancery ("diwan") was Persian, and its scribes had to be thoroughly adept in Persian culture, whatever their ethnic origin.) Temür's Chaghatay emirs were often involved in civil and provincial administration and even in financial affairs, traditionally the province of Persian bureaucracy." ^ Spuler, Bertold. "Central Asia" . Encyclopædia Iranica . Retrieved 2008-04-02 . [Part] v. In the Mongol and Timurid periods: ... Like his father, Olōğ Beg was entirely integrated into the Persian Islamic cultural circles, and during his reign Persian predominated as the language of high culture, a status that it retained in the region of Samarqand until the Russian revolution 1917 ... Ḥoseyn Bāyqarā encouraged the development of Persian literature and literary talent in every way possible ... ^ B. F. Manz; W. M. Thackston; D. J. Roxburgh; L. Golombek; L. Komaroff; R. E. Darley-Doran (2007). "Timurids". Encyclopaedia of Islam (Online ed.). Brill Publishers . During the Timurid period, three languages, Persian, Turkish, and Arabic were in use. The major language of the period was Persian, the native language of the Tajik (Persian) component of society and the language of learning acquired by all literate and/or urban Turks. Persian served as the language of administration, history, belles lettres, and poetry. ^ B. F. Manz; W. M. Thackston; D. J. Roxburgh; L. Golombek; L. Komaroff; R. E. Darley-Doran (2007). "Timurids". Encyclopaedia of Islam (Online ed.). Brill Publishers . What is now called Chaghatay Turkish, which was then called simply türki, was the native and 'home' language of the Timurids ... ^ B. F. Manz; W. M. Thackston; D. J. Roxburgh; L. Golombek; L. Komaroff; R. E. Darley-Doran (2007). "Timurids". Encyclopaedia of Islam (Online ed.). Brill Publishers . As it had been prior to the Timurids and continued to be after them, Arabic was the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences. Much of the astronomical work of Ulugh Beg and his co-workers ... is in Arabic, although they also wrote in Persian. Theological works ... are generally in Arabic. ^ David J. Roxburgh. The Persian Album, 1400–1600: From Dispersal to Collection . Yale University Press, 2005. p. 130: "Persian literature, especially poetry, occupied a central in the process of assimilation of Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamicate courtly culture, and so it is not surprising to find Baysanghur commissioned a new edition of Firdawsi's Shanameh ..." ^ Green 2019 , p. 34. ^ a b Green 2019 , p. 77. ^ B. F. Manz, W. M. Thackston, D. J. Roxburgh, L. Golombek, L. Komaroff, R. E. Darley-Doran. "Timurids". In Encyclopaedia of Islam , Online Edition (2007), Brill. "As it had been prior to the Timurids and continued to be after them, Arabic was the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences. Much of the astronomical work of Ulugh Beg and his co-workers ... is in Arabic, although they also wrote in Persian. Theological works ... are generally in Arabic." ^ Manz 1989 , p. 109. ^ " BĀYSONḠORĪ ŠĀH-NĀMA " in Encyclopædia Iranica by T. Lenz ^ a b Green 2019 , p. 30. ^ Subtelny 2007 , p. 2. ^ a b Ruggles 2011 , p. 61. ^ Turks: a journey of a thousand years, 600-1600 . London : New York: Royal Academy of Arts ; Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Harry N. Abrams. 2005. p. 199. ISBN   978-1903973578 . ^ Green 2019 , p. 243. ^ Stephen Frederic Dale (2004). The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Babur and the Culture of Empire . Brill. p. 150 ^ Green 2019 , p.  30 "The appearance of Chaghatai texts at the court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. 1469–70, 1470–1506) never amounted to anything approaching a systematic Timurid program to promote Turkic at the expense of Persian: both the Timurid court and chancery remained wedded to Persian." ^ a b Green 2019 , p. 134. ^ Czechoslovak Society for Eastern Studies (1968). New Orient . p. 139. ^ John Onians, Atlas of World Art , Laurence King Publishing, 2004. p. 132. ^ "Pierre tombale fragmentaire en forme de mihrâb" . 1385. ^ Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S., eds. (2009). "Samarkand". The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture . Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. p. 176. ISBN   9780195309911 . ^ a b c d e Tabbaa, Yasser (2007). "Architecture". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three . Brill. ISBN   9789004161658 . ^ a b Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S., eds. (2009). "Architecture; VI. c. 1250–c. 1500; A. Eastern Islamic lands". The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture . Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195309911 . ^ a b c Hattstein, Markus; Delius, Peter, eds. (2011). Islam: Art and Architecture . h.f.ullmann. pp.  416– 425. ISBN   9783848003808 . ^ Malikov Azim, The cultural traditions of urban planning in Samarkand during the epoch of Timur. In: Baumer, C., Novák, M. and Rutishauser, S., Cultures in Contact. Central Asia as Focus of Trade, Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Transmission. Harrassowitz. 2022, p.343 ^ Blair, Sheila S.; Bloom, Jonathan M. (1995). The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800 . Yale University Press. p. 50. ISBN   9780300064650 . Read more on Wikipedia →

Military In the Chagatay translation of Ali Yazdi's Zafarnama , Timur's army is called a "Chagatay army" ( Čaġatāy čerigi ). [ 1 ] Potentially a reference to the Chagatai Khanate . Timur’s army consisted almost entirely of cavalry, and its main military force was the Chagatai people . [ 2 ] The Chagatais were descendants of Turkicized Mongol tribes that had belonged to the Chagatai ulus of the Mongol Empire and originated from the troops assigned to Chagatai by his father Genghis Khan . By the mid-14th century, this ulus included tribes of Mongol and Mongolic origin such as the Barlas , Arlat, Suldus , Jalayir , and Dughlat , as well as later formations such as the Qara'unas . Over time, the ulus split into eastern and western parts. The latter, located in Transoxiana, became the primary environment for the formation of Timur’s military and political support. Timur was able to reconcile the Chagatai tribes and transform them into a highly disciplined military force, devoted to their charismatic leader. [ 3 ] [ 2 ] The Timurids relied on the conscription of troops from settled populations. They were unable to fully subjugate many other nomadic tribes. This was not because of lack of military power as Timur succeeded in defeating them, but rather because he was unwilling to integrate autonomous tribes into his power structure due to his centralised governance. The tribes were too mobile to effectively suppress and the loss of their autonomy was unattractive to them. Hence, Timur was unable to win the loyalty of the tribes, and his hold over them did not survive his death. [ 4 ] The role of slave soldiers such as the ghilman and mamluks was considerably smaller in Mongol-based armies like the Timurids, as compared to other Islamic societies. [ 5 ] The Timurids had a contingent called the nambardar levy, which mostly consisted of native Iranians, and occasionally scholars and fiscal administrators. The nambardar were used to bolster the size of the army for large expeditions. [ 6 ] ^ János Eckmann (1966). "Chagatay Manual". In Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.). Uralic and Altaic Series . Vol. 60. Indiana University Publications. p. 3. ^ a b Sultanov, Tursun (2017). "K istoriografii etnopoliticheskoi istorii ulusov Dzhuchi i Chagataia" [On the historiography of the ethnopolitical history of the uluses of Jochi and Chagatai]. Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (in Russian). 5 (1): 82– 84. ^ Lee 2024 , p. 153: "The Turkic people who were known as Chaghatays in post-Mongol Central Asia were none other than the Chaghatayid ulus (people) of the Mongol empire, who were descended from the army units given to Chaghatay Khan (r. 1227–1241) by his father Chinggis Khan (r. 1206–1227).1 The Chaghatayid ulus on the eve of Temür’s rise to power in the mid-fourteenth century consisted of tribes of Mongol and Mongolic origins such as the Barlas, Arlat, Suldus, Jalayir, and Dughlat, and some newly formed or named tribes within the Mongol empire, such as the Qara’unas." ^ Forbes Manz, Beatrice (1999). The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane . Cambridge University Press. pp.  102– 106. ISBN   0521633842 . ^ University of Michigan. Center for Chinese Studies, Freer Gallery of Art, University of Michigan. Department of Fine Arts, University of Michigan. Department of the History of Art (1993). Ars Orientalis: The Arts of Islam and the East, Volume 23 . Freer Gallery of Art. p. 320. ^ Paul 2020 , pp. 60–61. Read more on Wikipedia →