APPENDIX A
Chronology of Temur’s Life

1336

9 April: The official date of Temur’s birth near Shakhrisabz, south of Samarkand. Scholars outside Uzbekistan believe he was born in the late 1320s or early 1330s.

1347

Amir Qazaghan deposes and kills Amir Qazan, the Chaghatay khan.

1355

Temur’s first-born, Jahangir, is born around this time. His second son Omar Shaykh follows soon afterwards.

1358

Assassination of Amir Qazaghan.

1360

Tughluk Temur, the Moghul khan, invades Mawarannahr. Temur pledges his loyalty to him, positioning himself to lead the Barlas tribe. After Tughluk Temur appoints his son Ilyas Khoja leader of Mawarannahr, Temur breaks from the Moghul leader and contracts an alliance with Amir Husayn, the aristocratic leader of Balkh. Their mission is to rid Mawarannahr of the Moghuls.

1362

Temur seals the alliance by marrying Aljai Turkhan-agha, Husayn’s sister. This is the nadir of his career. The would-be world conqueror and his wife are imprisoned for two months in a vermin-infested cowshed.

1365

The ‘battle of the Mire’. Ilyas Khoja sends Temur and Husayn into flight.

1366

Temur and Husayn seize control of Samarkand. Ilyas Khoja, by now the Moghul khan, is assassinated. Qamar ad-din is the new Moghul ruler. Birth of Miranshah around this time.

1366–70

Temur’s alliance with Husayn turns to rivalry.

1368

The Mongol Yuan dynasty in China is overthrown by the new Ming dynasty.

1370

Husayn is defeated at Balkh, captured and executed. Temur is crowned imperial ruler of Chaghatay, Lord of the Fortunate Conjunction. He marries Husayn’s widow, Saray Mulk-khanum, daughter of the Chaghatay khan Qazan and a princess from the line of Genghis Khan. The marriage allows him to style himself Temur Gurgan, son-in-law of the Great Khan. He installs Suyurghatmish as Chaghatay khan. Temur launches his first campaign against the Moghuls. More follow throughout the 1370s.

1372

Temur leads his army north against the Sufi dynasty of Khorezm, taking the city of Kat. As part of a peace treaty, the princess Khan-zada, also of the Genghisid line, is promised as a wife for Temur’s son Jahangir.

1373

Since no princess is forthcoming, Temur leads a second expedition. Khorezm comes to terms, Khan-zada arrives and the territory passes into Temur’s fledgling empire.

1375–76

Temur campaigns against Moghulistan.

1376

Jahangir dies. Tokhtamish, a prince of the Genghisid line who is aiming for control of the White Horde, takes refuge with Temur, who arms and supports him. Tokhtamish’s first attempt to seize the throne is unsuccessful.

1377

Birth of Temur’s son Shahrukh. Tokhtamish is defeated again.

1378

On his third attempt, Tokhtamish, with Temur’s assistance, is crowned khan of the White Horde.

1379

Temur summons the Kart prince of Herat to pay homage to him. Expedition against rebellious Khorezm. Temur sacks the city of Urganch.

1380

Tokhtamish becomes khan of the Golden Horde. Temur appoints Miranshah governor of Khorasan.

1381

Expedition against Khorasan. Temur takes Herat without a fight, before wintering around Bukhara.

1382

Campaigning in Mazandaran, Temur defeats the local ruler Amir Wali and seizes control of the Caspian territories. His army winters near Samarkand.

1383

Herat rebels. Temur returns to Khorasan where he takes two thousand prisoners in the city of Isfizar. To punish the rebellion, he has them cemented alive into towers.

1384–86

Temur takes Sistan and Kandahar. The capital of Zaranj is gutted. After the ignominious flight of its ruler, Sultan Ahmed Jalayir, the city of Sultaniya surrenders to Temur, who then returns to Samarkand. Tokhtamish sacks Tabriz.
The Three-Year Campaign against Persia begins. Tabriz is the first city to fall. First expedition against Georgia. Tiflis (Tbilisi), its capital, surrenders.

1387

Tokhtamish pillaging in the Caucasus. Temur campaigns in Armenia before moving west into Asia Minor. Isfahan surrenders but immediately rises up in rebellion. Temur orders a massacre. Shiraz falls without a fight. News reaches Temur that Tokhtamish has attacked Mawarannahr and put Bukhara under siege. He is laying waste to Temur’s homeland. Temur returns to Mawarannahr, forcing Tokhtamish north.

1388

Urganch is razed to the ground as punishment for its support of Tokhtamish’s raid.

1389–90

Temur suppresses a revolt in Khorasan. Campaigns against Moghulistan. Khizr Khoja, the Moghul khan, is defeated. Qamar ad-din attempts to replace him. Temur and Khizr Khoja come to terms.

1390–91

Temur winters in Tashkent, preparing for a major expedition against Tokhtamish. After a march of more than five months and almost two thousand miles, his horde encounters Tokhtamish’s army and defeats it at the battle of Kunduzcha in June. The Tatars celebrate their famous victory on the banks of the Volga.

1391–92

Temur winters in Tashkent before returning to Samarkand. He appoints his grandson Pir Mohammed, Jahangir’s son, to the governorship of Kabul.

1392

The Five-Year Campaign begins.

1393

Another expedition against Georgia. Temur marches through Mazandaran, destroying the rival Muzaffarid dynasties of Persia. The Muzaffarid princes are executed. He appoints his son Omar Shaykh ruler of Fars. Temur retakes Shiraz. Baghdad submits to him after its ruler, Sultan Ahmed Jalayir, flees again. Omar Shaykh dies. The Egyptian Sultan Barquq extends his protection to Sultan Ahmed and executes Temur’s ambassadors.

1394

Sultan Barquq contracts an alliance with Tokhtamish, who is assembling his forces for another expedition against Temur. Barquq readies his army and marches north to Damascus, thence to Aleppo, after reinstating Sultan Ahmed in Baghdad. Temur campaigns in Armenia and Georgia. Tokhtamish mounts another raid on the Caucasus, encroaching on Temur’s empire again.

1395

Temur defeats Tokhtamish for the second and last time at the battle of Terek. His armies continue their push north, utterly ravaging the Golden Horde, destroying its principal cities Tana and Saray and its capital Astrakhan.

1396

Returning south, Temur lays waste to the embattled kingdom of Georgia. He makes a triumphant homecoming to Samarkand and embarks on his most ambitious building programme. He remains in his imperial capital for two years, the longest stay of his career. The Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I routs his European adversaries at the battle of Nicopolis, the last Crusade. Shahrukh appointed governor of Khorasan.

1397

Pir Mohammed, son of Jahangir, is sent south to the Punjabi city of Multan amid preparations for Temur’s next expedition.

1398

The Indian Campaign begins. Temur crosses the Hindu Kush mountains and takes Multan. He orders the execution of one hundred thousand prisoners prior to engaging the Indian army. Outdoing both Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, he destroys Delhi, sacking the city so completely it takes it a century to recover.

1399

Temur returns to Samarkand. Work begins on the Cathedral Mosque, his most monumental building project. Death of Sultan Barquq. He is replaced by ten-year-old Sultan Faraj. The Seven-Year Campaign begins. Temur’s debauched son Miranshah is deposed as Temur marches west. Sultan Ahmed flees for the third time, taking refuge with Sultan Bayazid. Temur’s forces winter in the Qarabagh.

1400

After taking Sivas, Temur has three thousand prisoners buried alive. Aleppo is put to the sword. Twenty thousand Syrian skulls are piled into mounds around the city.

1401

Camped outside Damascus, Temur grants audiences to the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun. Damascus falls and is torched. The peerless Umayyad Mosque is ruined. After retaking Baghdad, Temur orders another massacre. This time, 120 towers of ninety thousand skulls mark his latest conquest. His army is rested during another winter in the pastures of the Qarabagh.

1402

Temur marches west to seek out Bayazid. In July he defeats the Ottoman forces at the battle of Ankara, his greatest victory yet. This is the only time in Ottoman history that the sultan is captured in person. Temur sacks Smyrna, the last Christian outpost in Asia Minor.

1403

Sultan Bayazid dies in captivity. Death of Mohammed Sultan, Jahangir’s first-born and Temur’s heir. Temur campaigns again in Georgia before wintering in the Qarabagh.

1404

Temur returns to Samarkand and begins new building projects. In August, the Castilian envoy Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo arrives in the imperial capital for audiences with the Tatar emperor. Temur holds a qurultay in the Kani-gil meadows around Samarkand. The uproarious, wine-soaked festivities last two months. Temur rides east for his last campaign, against the Ming emperor of China.

1405

In January Temur arrives at Otrar (Kazakhstan) and falls ill. 18 February: Death of Temur.

1941

22 June: Soviet archaeologist Professor Mikhail Gerasimov exhumes Temur’s body, confirming the injuries to both right limbs.

1991

31 August: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan declares independence under its leader Islam Karimov.

1993

1 September: During independence celebrations, President Karimov unveils a statue of Temur in Tashkent. The Tatar conqueror, long vilified by the Soviets, is the new national symbol of the motherland.

1996

As part of Uzbekistan’s celebrations of the 660th anniversary of Temur’s birth, a museum dedicated to the conqueror is opened in Tashkent. A new Order of Amir Temur is created to honour outstanding service to Uzbekistan.