Timur << tih MOOR or TIHM ur >> (1336-1405) was an Asian conqueror who created a vast empire that extended from Syria to India. He was also called Amir Timur (Lord Timur), Timur the Lame, Tamerlane, or Tamburlaine << TAM uhr `layn` >>.
Timur was born near Samarqand in what is now Uzbekistan into a Turkic-speaking Mongol tribe. By 1370, he had defeated rival local leaders and gained control of an extensive kingdom. He made Samarqand his capital. A devout Muslim, he ordered the construction of many mosques and other buildings to make Samarqand one of the most splendid capitals in Asia. From the 1370’s to 1390’s, his armies struck into Afghanistan, Persia, Asia Minor, Caucasus, and southern Russia. He used terror as a tactic against cities that resisted or rebelled.
Timur invaded India in 1398, sacked Delhi, and massacred most of its people. In 1400 and 1401, he defeated the armies of the Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria, taking the Syrian cities Aleppo and Damascus. In 1402, he destroyed an Ottoman army sent against him. He next moved to conquer China but died before he could do so, on Feb. 19, 1405. His empire soon fell apart, though Samarqand flourished as a cultural center until the 1500’s under Timur’s descendants, the Timurids.
