Timurid Empire: Map & History

History

Timur conquered large parts of the greater Persian territories in Central Asia, primarily Transoxiana and Khorasan, from 1363 onwards with various alliances. He took Samarkand in 1366 and Balkh in 1369. He was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of Suurgatmish, the Chagatai khan, he subjugated Transoxiana and Khwarazm in the years that followed. Already in the 1360s, he had gained control of the western Chagatai Khanate. While as emir he was nominally subordinate to the khan, in reality it was now Timur who picked the khans. These became mere puppet rulers. The western Chagatai khans were continually dominated by Timurid princes in the 15th and 16th centuries, and their figurehead importance was eventually reduced into total insignificance.

Military

In the Chagatay translation of Ali Yazdi's Zafarnama, Timur's army is called a "Chagatay army" (Čaġatāy čerigi). Potentially a reference to the Chagatai Khanate.

Timur’s army consisted almost entirely of cavalry, and its main military force was the Chagatai people. The Chagatais were descendants of Turkicized Mongol tribes that had belonged to the Chagatai ulus of the Mongol Empire and originated from the troops assigned to Chagatai by his father Genghis Khan. By the mid-14th century, this ulus included tribes of Mongol and Mongolic origin such as the Barlas, Arlat, Suldus, Jalayir, and Dughlat, as well as later formations such as the Qara'unas. Over time, the ulus split into eastern and western parts.

Culture

Although the Timurids hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Turkicized Mongol origin, they converted to Islam, and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. Thus, the Timurid era had a dual character, reflecting both its Turco-Mongol origins and the Persian literary, artistic, and courtly high culture of the dynasty.

During the Timurid era, Central Asian society was bifurcated, with the responsibilities of government and rule divided into military and civilian spheres along ethnic lines. At least in the early stages, the military was almost exclusively Turco-Mongolian, while the civilian and administrative element was almost exclusively Persian. The spoken language shared by all the Turko-Mongolians throughout the area was Chaghatay.