The Timurids and the Aftermath of the Battle of Ankara

The OTTOMANS, the MAMLUKS, and the MING HIST 1301 | History The Timurids and the Aftermath of the Battle of Ankara Timur was a Mongol who belonged to the Barlas tribe and was exposed to and integrated into Turkic culture. In the 1320s or 1330s, he was born in a region of central Asia that was then a part of the Chagatai Khanate (present-day Uzbekistan). He had an injury at some time in his early youth that left him minus two fingers and lame in one leg. Some accounts claim that he was injured while trying to steal sheep, although it's possible that he was injured in combat. Timur aimed to reestablish the empire that Chinggis Khan ruled over before he passed away. He was unable to prove his lineage back to Chinggis, hence he was unable to claim the title of khan. He took over a portion of the Chagatai Khanate in the 1360s, putting Soyurgatmish, a descendant of Chinggis, on the throne and claimed to be acting on his behalf. In addition, he wed a female Chinggis descendent and took on the title "Royal Sonin-Law." In search of territory to conquer, Timur quickly moved outside Central Asia. He subjugated Syria, parts of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Persia in the 1380s and 1390s. He dispatched talented artisans to labour in Samarkand, his capital, and levied high taxes on the citizens of defeated cities, but he spared no one's life. On the other hand, cities that refused to capitulate suffered greatly. For instance, he showed the citizens of Isfahan, Persia, leniency after they quietly submitted. But Timur's response to the people's subsequent uprising was clear-cut: he slaughtered a significant number of the city's populace—some accounts put the death toll between 100,000 and 200,000. According to eyewitness accounts, his forces were gathering up a lot of decapitated heads. After that, Timur's army headed north into Russian territory held by Tokhtamish, the khan of the Golden Horde, a former adherent who was pursuing the same territories in central Asia that Timur had claimed. Following the destruction of Ryazan and Astrakhan in Russia, Timur routed Tokhtamish's army in 1391. Timur went eastward towards India in the late 1390s. He launched an invasion on Delhi in 1398, the capital of the Delhi Sultanate, which was governed by Muslims. Timur's soldiers were terrified when the sultan's army entered the fight atop war elephants covered in chain mail since they had never seen an elephant before. Timur put bales of hay on his camels' backs, lit the bales on fire, and then unleashed his terrified, burning beasts into the enemy's ranks, dispersing the elephants. After winning, Timur demolished Delhi. Timur also desired territories in Anatolia that the Ottomans claimed, as well as areas in Syria under the Mamluk Sultanate. Throughout Anatolia, Bayezid I had been progressively subduing weaker kings and making them his vassals. After overthrowing the beylik of Karaman in 1397, he proceeded to annex minor Anatolian principalities. However, Timur became the method by which Turkish tribes and Ottoman vassals, whom Bayezid I felt owed him loyalty, might gain independence from Ottoman control, and they were unwilling to submit to his domination. Timur's adversaries, including Sultan Ahmed of the Persian Mongol Jalayir dynasty, whose territories Timur had captured, and Kara Yusuf, the chief of the Black Sheep Turks, went to Bayezid for support. In a letter to Bayezid, Timur demanded that the Ottoman emperor stop supporting his adversaries. In response, Bayezid insulted Timur and sent his army to assault one of his allies in Armenia. Timur retaliated in 1400 by demolishing Sivas, a city in Anatolia that was under Bayezid's control. He continued to fight the Mamluk sultans in Egypt and Syria, keeping Bayezid from asking for their assistance. He also gathered armies from all around his realm and made his way to Anatolia, siding with the Byzantines against the Ottomans. Breaking off from his 1396 siege of Constantinople, Bayezid hurried to meet him. Timur's forces engaged the Ottoman army in combat in the Battle of Ankara in July 1402, in Anatolia. One of the biggest flaws in Bayezid's Ottoman state was exposed on the pitch in Ankara. By subjugating neighbouring Turkish republics and assimilating their rulers and their heirs into their government, the Ottomans had established their empire in Anatolia. These men were reluctant vassals of Bayezid and had no desire to put their lives in danger for their Ottoman masters. Furthermore, Bayezid had made the decision to reside mostly in Edirne, Thrace. He had assimilated aspects of Greek culture and had acquired several non-Turkish women as concubines or spouses, including Prince Lazar's daughter, as part of his effort to form alliances with foreign kings. He became much more apart from Anatolian Turkish elite as a result of this action. Consequently, many of Bayezid's Turkish vassals fled the battlefield and left Bayezid to his destiny when Timur's soldiers struck at Ankara, glad to be free of Ottoman rule. After the Ottomans were routed, Timur seized Bayezid along with his sons Musa and Mustafa. Bayezid was in Timur's custody until a few months after his passing. After defeating the Ottomans and taking control of the majority of Chinggis Khan's realms, along with those of his sons and grandsons, Timur moved east to take his final prize: China. The Yuan dynasty of Mongols ended in 1368 in China. Timur's empire's capital, Samarkand, is located in the Mongol heartland close to Timur's birthplace. The Chinese Ming dynasty, which succeeded it, attempted to establish a tributary vassal relationship with Timur. However, Timur's warriors and ambassadors were imprisoned in Samarkand. Timur began his journey across central Asia in December 1404, intending to reach China. But after a few months, he became sick, and in February 1405, he passed away. The Chinese emissaries were freed, and the invasion of China was called off before it ever started. Timur had seized much of the territory that Chinggis Khan and his heirs had originally claimed as part of their Mongol conquests when he passed away. But unlike them, Timur didn't really try to establish authority in the territories he conquered outside of Persia. His soldiers overran, pillaged the wealth of the vanquished cities, apprehended craftsmen and everyone else who may be of service to Timur, and then brought the spoils and the captured people to Samarkand. As a result, most of the areas that Timur had conquered found it simple to reclaim their freedom. One such instance is Anatolia. Timur left after defeating Bayezid I, leaving his sons to fight among themselves for possession of their father's territories. Timur did not support Bayezid's son Mehmed in his civil war against his siblings, despite Mehmed declaring himself a subject of Timur. Timur's own sons and descendants battled over the kingdoms he had conquered after his death. His son Shah Rukh emerged in 1409 as his heir apparent and the future ruler of the Timurids, the name given to Timur's dynasty. Timur was a hero among the Turks and Mongols of central Asia, despite the fact that many others in Asia saw him negatively. The Muslim historian from North Africa, Ibn Khaldun, gave him credit for uniting all Muslims worldwide under one rule. Maybe Timur's creative legacy will live on the most. While the vanquished people may have suffered much, artisans, architects, and craftspeople were spared and relocated to Samarkand. The city was always under renovation throughout Timur's reign, and structures like the Bibi Khanum Mosque were constructed or renovated to suit his needs. Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveller, lauded the city's beauty and how its gardens helped guests forget about the surrounding parched regions. Timur's grandson Ulugbek made Samarkand a significant centre of learning in the fifteenth century by constructing a madrasa (an Islamic school) and an observatory there and by bringing Muslim astronomers and mathematicians to the city. At the same time, Timur—also known as Tamerlane, or "Timur, the Lame"—was considered a hero by many Europeans.