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The Mongol leader, Timur – or Tamerlane as he is referred to in the West – unwittingly came to the defence of Europe at the turn of the 15th century. Tamerlane had grown in power in the mid-14th century by taking advantage of the slow disintegration of the Chagatai Khanate, which had been ruled by a series of weak leaders. He was determined to make himself master of Central Asia. ‘As there is but one God in heaven,’ he said, ‘there ought to be but one ruler on earth.’ In an eight year rampage of destruction between 1396 and 1404 he conquered most of Central Asia, invaded northern India, executing up to 100,000 Indian prisoners in cold blood before the gates of Delhi, and destroyed Baghdad, slaughtering up to 20,000 of its inhabitants and making towers of their skulls. He also captured Syria, conquered Persia, and received submission from Egypt.
Tamerlane's campaign in the west was directed against two enemies: the Ottomans and the Mamluks. After defeating the Mamluks, he successfully defeated an Ottoman army at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, capturing Sultan Bayezid in the process. The Sultan died in captivity, after having been paraded around in a cage, an ignominious end for an Ottoman Sultan. The capture of the Sultan was greeted with rejoicing by the kings in the West, who even sent sycophantic messages to Tamerlane in the hope that that he would ally with them against the Turks. Mercifully for everyone, he died in 1405, at the age of 69, before any of his plans could be realised, and his Timurid Empire lasted only a short period after his death. His legacy did continue, however, in India, where his great-great-grandson Babur founded the Mughal Empire.