Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret 

History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the 

Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Pen-

guin, 2004); Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (New 

York: Riverhead Books, 2003); Peter Marsden, The 

Taliban: War and Religion in Afghanistan (London: Zed 

Books, 2002); Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, 

Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000); Lawrence Wright, 

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New 

York: Random House, 2007).

Tamerlane

 

(Timur, Timur-e Lang)

   

(1336–1405)  great Mongol ruler who built an 

empire based in Central Asia, but whose armies 

devastated many Middle Eastern and Indian cities

Tamerlane, born the son of a nomadic chief, rose 

to become one of the great empire builders of 

history. By the time of his death, his kingdom 

stretched from i

ndia

 and Central Asia into Rus-

sia and t

Urkey

, and threatened c

hina

. He helped 

the main 

cities

 of his native land (now Uzbeki-

stan), b

Ukhara

 and Samarkand, become prosper-

ous trading centers along the Silk Road, but the 

peoples of the Middle East and India suffered as a 

result of his destructive conquests.

Genghis Khan (1167–1227) invaded Central 

Asia in 1219 and 1220, and the khan’s second 

son, Chagatai (d. 1241), was given the territory 

to govern. Tamurlane, born into the Barlas tribe, 

would, as he rose to power, claim descent from the 

great khan through Chagatai. As a young man, he 

was wounded with an arrow, and he would have 

limited use of one arm and leg as a result. His 

Westernized name means “Timur the Lame.”

Putting his own physical problems aside, how-

ever, in the 1360s Tamerlane began to take control 

of the lands inhabited by his tribe’s neighbors, 

and, by 1369, he took control of all the territory 

formerly ruled by Chagatai. He assumed sovereign 

powers and established his capital at Samarkand. 

He almost immediately began to add territory to 

his empire. Largely self-educated, he gradually 

became a most capable general and developed 

shrewd political skills. He invited the peoples he 

conquered into his rule and integrated them into 

his army. He pushed into India in the 1290s and 

after the turn of the century moved westward