Perhaps, the largest number information about the glorious past of the great Tartaria has come down to us thanks to such a bright personality as. Without a doubt, he was an outstanding man, one of the greatest rulers in world history. That is why so many medieval authors wrote about the period of his reign. And one of the most significant works, containing a great many amazing details about the socio-political and, as well as the customs and customs of its inhabitants, was left by the ambassador of the King of Castile, Ruy Gonzalez De Clavijo. But let's start in order.

. Christopher Del Altissimo. (1568)

Quite a lot of information has been preserved about the identity of this person, and, as is usually the case when it comes to those whose deeds changed the course of history, the conjectures and fabrications contained in this information are much more than the truth. Take at least his name. IN Western Europe he is known as Tamerlane, in Russia he is called Timur. Reference literature usually contains both of these names:

“Tamerlane (Timur; April 9, 1336, the village of Khoja-Ilgar, modern Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan - February 18, 1405, Otrar, modern Kazakhstan; Chagatai تیمور (Temür‎, Tēmōr) - “iron”) - a Central Asian conqueror who played a significant role in the history of Central, South and Western Asia, as well as the Caucasus, the Volga region and Rus'. An outstanding commander, emir (since 1370). Founder of the Timurid Empire and Dynasty, with its capital in Samarkand. (Wikipedia)

However, from the Arabic-language sources left to us by the descendants of Tamerlane-Timur himself, it turns out that his real lifetime name and title sounded like Tamurbek-Khan Ruler of Turan, Turkestan, Khorassan and further on the list of lands that were part of Great Tartaria. Therefore, he was briefly called the Ruler of the Great Tartaria. The fact that today people with external features of the Mongoloid type live on these lands misleads not only the layman, but also orthodox historians.

Everyone is now convinced that Tamerlane looked like an average Uzbek. And the Uzbeks themselves have no doubt that Tamerlane is their distant ancestor and the founder of the nation. But this is not so either.

From the genealogy of the Great Khans, confirmed chronicle sources, it is clearly seen that the ancestor of the Uzbeks is another descendant of Genghis Khan, Uzbek Khan. And, of course, he is not the father of all living Uzbeks, who were so named according to the territorial principle.

Let's start from the end. Here is what is known from official sources about the death of the “Great Lame”: “As soon as the Egyptian sultan and John VII (later co-ruler of Manuel II Palaiologos) stopped resisting. Timur returned to Samarkand and immediately began to prepare for an expedition to China. He spoke at the end of December, but in Otrar on the Syrdarya River he fell ill and died on January 19, 1405 (other sources indicate a different date of death - 02/18/1405 - my comment.).

Tamerlane's body was embalmed and sent in an ebonite coffin to Samarkand, where he was buried in a magnificent mausoleum called Gur-Emir. Before his death, Timur divided his territories between his two surviving sons and grandsons. After many years of war and enmity over the left will, the descendants of Tamerlane were united by the younger son of the khan, Shahruk.

The first thing that raises doubts is the various dating of Tamerlane's death. When you try to find more reliable information, you inevitably stumble upon one single "true" source of all the myths about the "Uzbek" clone of Alexander the Great - the memoirs of Tamerlane himself, which he personally titled as follows: "Tamerlane, or Timur, the Great Emir." Sounds provocative, right? This contradicts the basic principles of the worldview inherent in the representatives of the Eastern civilization, which honors modesty as one of the highest virtues. Asian etiquette prescribes to praise your friends and even enemies in every possible way, but not yourself.

Immediately there is a suspicion that this "work" was titled by a person who has the most remote understanding of the culture, customs and traditions of the East. And the validity of this suspicion is confirmed as soon as you ask yourself the question of who became the publisher of Tamerlane's memoirs. This is one John Hern Sanders.

I believe that this fact is already enough to not take the "memoirs of the Great Emir" seriously. One gets the impression that everything in this world was created by British and French Freemasons, intelligence agents. This is no longer surprising, not even annoying. Egyptology was invented by Champillon, Sumerology by Layard, Tamerlanology by Sanders.

And if everything is very clear with the first two, then no one knows who Sanders is. There is fragmentary information that he was in the service of the King of Great Britain and regulated complex diplomatic issues in India and Persia. And so they refer to him as an authoritative specialist - "tamerlanologist".

Then it becomes clear that it is time to stop puzzling over the question of why suddenly the Uzbek leader unselfishly delivered the alien country of infidel Christian Russians from the yoke of the Golden Horde and defeated it (the horde) utterly.

Now is the time to remember the legendary opening of Tamerlane's tomb in June 1941. I will not go into a description of all the "mystical" signs and strange events, they are probably known to everyone. This is me about the prophecies on the tomb and in the old book, that if you disturb the ashes of Timur, then a terrible war will certainly break out. The tomb was opened on June 21, 1941, and on June 22, the next day, something happened that is known to every inhabitant of Russia and the republics of the former USSR.

Much more interesting is another "mystical" circumstance: the reasons that prompted Soviet scientists to open the tomb - that's where to start. On the one hand, everything is very clear, the goal was to study historical material. On the other hand, what if this was done to refute or, conversely, to confirm historical myths? I think that the main motive was just that - to prove to the whole world the greatness and antiquity of the great Uzbek people, which is part of the great Soviet people.

And this is where the magic begins. Something didn't go according to plan. First, clothes. The emir was dressed like a medieval Russian prince, the second - a light red beard and hair and fair skin. The famous anthropologist Gerasimov, a well-known specialist in the reconstruction of appearance from skulls, was amazed: Tamerlane did not at all resemble those of his rare images that have come down to us. The fact is that they can be called portraits with a very big stretch. They were written after the death of the "Iron Lame" by Persian masters who had never seen the conqueror.

So the later artists portrayed a typical representative of the Central Asian peoples, completely forgetting that Timur was not a Mongol. He was a descendant of a distant relative of Genghis Khan, who was from the kind of great Moghuls, or Mogulls, as Genghis Khan himself said. But the Moghuls have nothing to do with the Mongols, just as the province of Turana Katai has nothing to do with modern China.

Mogulls outwardly did not differ from the Slavs and Europeans. Everyone who has had time to live in the USSR knows that in every union republic, local artists painted portraits of Lenin, endowing him with the external features of their own people. So in Georgia, on large street posters, Lenin looked exactly like a Georgian, and in Kyrgyzstan, Lenin was portrayed, well, too “Mongolian”. So, it's all very clear. The history of the conclusion about the causes of death is not clear.

There are testimonies of contemporaries who claimed that Gerasimov repeatedly stated orally that his first reconstruction of the appearance of Tamerlane was not approved by the leadership, and he was "recommended" to bring the portrait to the generally accepted standard: Tamerlane is an Uzbek, a descendant of Genghis Khan. I had to make him a Mongoloid. Against a saber, a bare heel is a dubious argument.

Further, it is necessary to mention the undisguised facts of the study of the tomb. So, everyone knows that despite the advanced age of the deceased, he had excellent strong teeth, very strong smooth bones. That is, Timur was quite tall (172 cm), a strong, healthy man. The discovered injuries of the hand and patella could not play a fatal role. If so, then what was the cause of death? The answer may lie in the fact that someone for some reason separated Timur's head from the body. It is clear that the members of the expedition would not disassemble the body into "spare parts" without good reason.

The first probable reason for this barbarism, the desecration of the ashes, is the substitution of the head. Perhaps the original white head was replaced with a head of a representative of the Mongoloid race. The second version is that he was already decapitated in the coffin. Then the question arises about the possible murder of Timur. And now the time has come to recall the long-running "duck" about the causes of Timur's death.

I don’t even remember now the publication that published the “secret” confession of the pathologist who took part in the study of Tamerlane’s body. According to rumors, allegedly, Tamerlane was shot from a firearm! I would not like to replicate false sensations, but what if it's true? Then such secrecy of this “archaeological enterprise” becomes clear.

Tamerlane is a Mongol? In my opinion, a very European-looking man, with a rod symbolizing Rarog, who is also the Slavic god Khors. One of the incarnations of Ra is a sunny half-man half-falcon. Maybe the European artist did not know what "wild tartars" look like?

But we translate the inscription from Latin into Russian:

"Tamerlane, the ruler of Tartaria, the lord of the wrath of God and the forces of the Universe and the blessed country, was killed in 1402." The main word here is "killed". It follows from the inscription that the author treats Tamerlane with extreme respect, and for sure, when creating the engraving, he relied on the well-known lifetime images of Tamerlane, and not on his own fantasies. However, the number of well-known portraits painted in the Middle Ages does not even leave any doubt that this is exactly what the “Lord of God’s Wrath…” looked like.

This is the reason for the emergence of many of all myths. Discarding later fantasies about Timur, looking at this evidence with a clear eye, we come to the following conclusions:

• Tamerlane is the Ruler of the Great Tartaria, of which Rus' was also a part, therefore the symbolism of the "Mongol" is quite understandable to the Russian people.
• Power was given to him by a higher power.
• In 402 AD (I.402) he was killed. Perhaps they were shot.
• Tamerlane, judging by the symbolism (Magendavid with a crescent), belonged to the same diaspora as Sultan Bayazid, who commanded the horde of Anatolia and owned Constantinople. But let's not forget that the vast majority of the Russian aristocracy, including the mother of Peter I, had family emblems the same characters.

But that's not all. Noteworthy is the sign on the cap of Tamerlane. If he is the Ruler, then the version that this is an ordinary ornament does not stand up to criticism. On the headdresses of monarchs there is always a symbol of the state religion.

Distinctive signs on headdresses are not the most ancient tradition, but firmly entrenched even before the accession to the throne of Tamerlane. And it became law after the introduction of the uniform, which first appeared in the world in medieval Russia.

And guardsmen wore black uniforms:

On the sleeve they had almost this sign embroidered:

Why did the boyars cry out so much at the introduction of the oprichnina? I believe that everything we are told about the "National Guard" of Ivan the Terrible is an analogue of the modern indignation of human rights activists and dishonest officials. Hence the myths about the cruelty of the monarch.

Previously, soldiers, tax collectors and other sovereign people dressed in the service, whatever they had to. Fashion, as such, appeared only after the emergence of manufactory production, so the attempts of modern scientists to study the "ancient fashion", which are trying to identify differences in the national costumes of the Middle Ages, look quite funny. There were no "national" costumes. Our ancestors treated clothing in a completely different way than we do, and therefore dressed almost the same in Persipolis, and in Tobolsk, and in Moscow.

Any item of clothing was strictly individual, sewn for a specific person, and wearing someone else's was simply suicide. This meant taking on all the ailments and ailments of the real owner of the clothes. In addition, people understood that they could harm the owner of the dress that they would like to try on. The clothes of each person were considered part of the spirit of its owner, which is why it was considered an honor to receive a fur coat from the royal shoulder. Thus, the recipient, as it were, was attached to the highest, royal, and therefore, to the divine. And vice versa. Convicted that he was trying on royal clothes, they were considered as encroaching on the health and life of the monarch, and, accordingly, they were executed at the frontal place.

And to imitate the clothes of others was considered the height of stupidity. Each nobleman tried to stand out with his clothes from both commoners and fellow classmates, so how many people existed, there were so many costumes. Of course, there were general trends, it is natural just like the fact that all cars have round wheels.

That is why I consider the surprised remarks of medieval travelers about the similarity of European and Russian costumes to be absurd. We live in roughly the same climatic conditions, we have approximately the same level of technology, it is absolutely normal that all people of the white race dressed in the same way. Except for the details, of course. Even on everyday clothes of peasants there were individual signs in the form of embroideries. Interestingly, the main thing in clothing was a belt. It had an individual ornament, and only the owner could touch it.

The belt was tied at the place where the chakra is located, called in Rus' "hara" (hence the origin of the concept of "character"), which is responsible for a person's life. That is why, they used to say “Not sparing their belly”, which was synonymous with the expression “not sparing their lives”.

So maybe Tamerlane's headdress is just an ornament? It signified his own unique personality, and therefore was unique, and there was no point in looking for similar images? May be. Or maybe not. Here is an engraving from the book of Adam Olearius with views of Russia:

I don't know if you can even call it crosses? This does not fit in with the objects that we see on the modern domes of modern places of worship. Although in Western Ukraine there are still churches with such crosses. But the analogy with the "cockade" of Tamerlane is too obvious to be a mere coincidence.

It remains only to figure out what it all means.

By and large, there is absolutely nothing to be surprised at. The tradition of decorating royal headdresses with crosses is not new.

However, it may well be that the very meaning of this is not completely clear to us. Yes, we found out that Tamerlane was depicted with a symbol of royal power - a cross, and the shape of the cross on his hat corresponds to the era in which the crosses on the temples were of this form, but questions remain. Were they Christian crosses? Did they have any connection with religion at all? And why did such hats come to replace those that were used earlier?

A huge help in the reconstruction of authentic historical events are the most nondescript, at first glance, documents. From a cookbook, for example, you can learn more information than from a dozen scientific works written by the most eminent historians. Cookbooks did not come to mind to destroy or forge. The same is true of various travel notes that have not become widely known. In our digital age, publications that were not even considered as historical sources, however, they often contain sensational information.

One of these, of course, is the report of Ruy Gonzalez De Clavijo, Ambassador of the King of Castile, about his journey to the court of the Ruler of the Great Tartary Tamerlane in Samarkand. 1403-1406 from the incarnation of God the Word.

A very curious report, which can be considered documentary, despite the fact that it was translated into Russian and published for the first time already at the end of the nineteenth century. Relying on known facts, about which today we already know with a high degree of certainty what exactly they were distorted in, one can draw up a very realistic picture of the era in which the legendary Timur ruled Tartaria.

The original version of the reconstruction of Tamerlane's appearance based on his remains, produced by Academician M.M. Gerasimov in 1941, but who was rejected by the leadership of the USSR Academy of Sciences, after which the appearance of Timur was given typical facial features characteristic of modern Uzbeks.

The report contains a lot of truly amazing information that characterizes the features of the history of the medieval Mediterranean and Asia Minor. When I began to study this work, the first thing that surprised me was that the official document, in which all dates are scrupulously recorded, geographical names, the names of not only nobles and priests, but even ship captains, are set out in a lively, bright literary language. Therefore, the document is perceived as an adventurous novel in the spirit of R. Stevenson or J. Verne.

From the first pages, the reader plunges into the outlandish world of the Middle Ages with his head, and it is incredibly difficult to tear himself away from reading, while, unlike Treasure Island, de Clavijo's Diary leaves no doubt about the authenticity of the events described. In great detail, with all the details and reference to dates, he describes his journey in such a way that a person who knows the geography of Eurasia well enough can trace the entire route of the embassy from Seville to Samarkand and back, without resorting to reconciliation with geographical maps.

First, the royal ambassador describes a carrack journey across the Mediterranean. And unlike the officially accepted version of the properties of this type of ship, it becomes clear that Spanish historians greatly exaggerated the achievements of their ancestors in shipbuilding and navigation. It is clear from the descriptions that the carrack is no different from Russian plows or boats. Carrack was not adapted for traveling on the seas and oceans, it is exclusively a coaster capable of moving within sight of the coastline only if there is a fair wind, making “throws” from island to island.

The description of these islands attracts attention. Many of them at the beginning of the century had the remains of ancient buildings and at the same time were uninhabited. The names of the islands are basically the same as modern ones, until travelers find themselves off the coast of Turkey. Further, all toponyms have to be restored in order to understand what city or island we are talking about.

And here we come across the first great discovery. It turns out that something, the existence of which to this day is not considered unconditional by historians, at the beginning of the fifteenth century did not raise any questions. To this day we are looking for the “legendary” Troy, and De Clavijo describes it simply and casually. She is as real to him as his native Seville.

Here is the place today:

By the way, not much has changed now. Between Tenio (now Bozcaada) and Ilion (Geyikli) there is a continuous ferry service. It is probable that even earlier large ships moored to the island, and between the port and Troy there was communication only by boats and small ships. The island was a natural fort that protected the city from the sea from the attack of the enemy fleet.

A natural question arises: where did the ruins go? There is only one answer: they were dismantled for building materials. Common practice for builders. The Ambassador himself mentions in the Diary that Constantinople is being built at a rapid pace, and ships with marble and granite flock to the moorings from many islands. Therefore, it is completely logical to assume that instead of cutting material in a quarry, it was much easier to take it ready-made, especially since hundreds and thousands of finished products in the form of columns, blocks, and slabs disappear in vain in the open air.

So Schliemann “discovered” his Troy in the wrong place, and tourists in Turkey are taken to the wrong place. Well... Absolutely the same thing is happening here with the site of the Kulikovo battle. All scientists have already agreed that the Kulikovo field is a district of Moscow called Kulishki. There is a Donskoy Monastery, and Krasnaya Gorka, an oak forest in which an ambush regiment was hiding, but tourists are still taken to the Tula region, and in all textbooks no one is in a hurry to correct the mistake of historians of the 19th century.

The second question that needs to be resolved is how did the seaside Troy end up so far from the surf line? I suggest adding some water to the Mediterranean. Why? Yes, because its level is constantly falling. According to the frozen lines on the coastal land areas, it is clearly visible at what mark the sea level was in what period of time. Since the De Clavijo embassy, ​​the sea level has dropped several meters. And if the Trojan War actually took place millennia ago, then you can safely add 25 meters, and this is the picture you get:

The hit is complete! Geyikli is ideally becoming a seaside town! And the mountains behind, exactly as described in the Diary, and a vast bay, like Homer's.

Agree, it is very easy to imagine the walls of the city on this hill. And the ditch in front of him was full of water. It seems that you can no longer look for Troy. One thing is a pity: no traces have been preserved, because Turkish peasants have been plowing the land there for centuries, and even an arrowhead cannot be found in it.

Until the nineteenth century, there were no states in the modern sense. Relations were of a pronounced criminal nature on the basis of the principle "I cover you - you pay." Moreover, citizenship therefore has the root “tribute”, which is not related to origin or location. The mass of castles in Turkey belonged to Armenians, Greeks, Genoese and Venetians. But they paid tribute to Tamerlane, as did the court of the Turkish Sultan. Now it is clear why Tamerlane called the largest peninsula in the Sea of ​​Marmara from Asia, "Turan". This is colonization. The large country of Turan, which stretched from the Bering Strait to the Urals, owned by Tamerlane, gave its name to the newly conquered land in Anatolia opposite the Marble Island, where there were quarries.

Further, the embassy passed Sinop, which at that time was called Sinopol. And they arrived in Trebizond, which is now called Trobzon. There they were met by Chakatai, the messenger of Tamurbek. De Clavijo explains that in fact “Tamerlane” is a contemptuous nickname meaning “crippled, lame-legged”, and the real name of the Tsar, by which his subjects called him, was TAMUR (iron) BEK (Tsar) - Tamurbek.

And all the warriors from the native tribe of Tamurbek-Khan were called chakatay. He himself was a chakotay and brought his fellow tribesmen to the Samarkand kingdom from the north. More precisely, from the coast of the Caspian Sea, where Chakatai and Arbals live to this day, tribesmen of Tamerlane, fair-haired, white-skinned and blue-eyed. True, they themselves do not remember that they are descendants of the Moguls. They are sure that they are Russians. There are no external differences.

But, by the way, after Tamurbek defeated Bayazet and conquered Turkey, the peoples of Kurdistan and southern Armenia breathed more freely, because in exchange for an acceptable tribute, they received freedom and the right to exist. If history develops in a spiral, then perhaps the Kurds again have hope for liberation from the Turkish yoke with the help of their neighbors from the east.

The next discovery for me was the description of the city of Bayazet. It would seem that more new things can be learned about this city of military Russian glory, but no. See:

At first I could not understand what it was about, but only after I converted the leagues into kilometers (6 leagues - 39 kilometers), I was finally convinced that Bayazet was called "Kalmarin" in the time of Tamurbek.

And here is the castle, which was visited during the embassy of Ruy Gonzalez De Clavijo. Today it is called Ishak Pash Palace.

The local knight tried to force the ambassadors to pay tribute, saying that the castle exists only at the expense of the taxes of passing merchants, to which the chakatay noted that they were guests himself ... The conflict was settled.

By the way, De Clavijo calls knights not only the owners of castles, but also Chakatays - officers of Tamurbek's army.

During the journey, the ambassadors visited many castles, and from their description it becomes clear their purpose and meaning. It is generally accepted that these are exclusively fortifications. In fact, their military importance is greatly exaggerated. First of all, this is a house that can withstand the efforts of any "safecracker". Therefore, "castle" and "castle" are the same root words. The castle is a storehouse of valuables, a reliable safe and a fortress for the owner. A very expensive pleasure, available to very wealthy people who had something to protect from robbers. Its main purpose is to hold out until the arrival of reinforcements, the squad of the one to whom tribute is paid.

A very curious fact: even at the time of the described embassy, ​​wild wheat grew in abundance at the foot of Ararat, which, according to De Clavijo, was completely unsuitable, because it had no grains in the ears. Like it or not, this fact indicates that Noah's Ark, as a repository of DNA samples, could well exist in reality and contributed to the revival of life from Ararat.

And from Bayazet the expedition went to Azerbaijan and to the north of Persia, where they were met by the messenger of Tamurbek, who ordered them to go south to meet with the royal mission. And travelers were forced to get acquainted with the sights of Syria. On the way, sometimes amazing events happened to them. What, for example, is this:

Did you understand? A hundred years before the discovery of America in Azerbaijan and Persia, people calmly ate corn, and did not even suspect that it had not yet been “discovered”. As they did not suspect that it was the Chinese who first invented silk and began to grow rice. The fact is that, according to the ambassadors, rice and barley were the main food products, both in Turkey and in Persia and Central Asia.

I immediately remembered that when I lived in a small seaside village not far from Baku, I was surprised that in every house of local residents one room was allocated for growing silkworms. Yes! In the same place, mulberry, or "here" as the Azerbaijanis call it, grows at every step! And the boys had such a duty around the house, every day to climb a tree, and tear the leaves for the silkworm caterpillars.

And what? Half an hour a day is not difficult. At the same time, eat plenty of berries. Then the leaves crumbled into newspapers, over the mesh of the armored bed, and hundreds of thousands of voracious green worms begin to actively chew this mass. Caterpillars are growing by leaps and bounds. A week or two, and silkworm pupae are ready. Then they were handed over to the sericulture state farm, and on this they had a significant extra income. Nothing changes. Azerbaijan was the world center for the production of silk fabrics, not Chin. Probably, until the very moment the oil fields were opened.

In parallel with the description of the journey to Shiraz, De Clavijo tells in detail the story of Tamurbek himself, and tells about all his exploits in a picturesque form. Some of the details are amazing. For example, I recalled an anecdote about how a boy in a Jewish family asks: “Grandfather, was it true that during the war there was nothing to eat”?

True granddaughter. There wasn't even a loaf. I had to spread butter directly on the sausage.

Rui writes about the same: “In times of famine, the inhabitants were forced to eat only meat and sour milk.” I'm so hungry!

Indeed, the description of the food of ordinary Tartar subjects is breathtaking. Rice, barley, corn, melons, grapes, flat cakes, mare's milk with sugar, sour milk (kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese, and cheese, as I understand it), wine, and just mountains of meat. Horse meat and lamb in huge quantities, in a variety of dishes. Boiled, fried, steamed, salted, dried. In general, the Castilian ambassadors, for the first time in their lives, ate like a human being during a business trip.

But then the travelers arrived in Shiraz, where a few days later they were joined by the mission of Tamurbek to accompany them to Samarkand. Here for the first time I had difficulties with identification with the geography of the campaign. Suppose Sultania and Orasania are parts of modern Iran and Syria. What then did he mean by "Little India"? And why is Hormuz a city if it is now an island?

Let us suppose that Hormuz broke away from the land. But what about India? According to all descriptions, India itself falls under this concept. Its capital is Delies. Tamurbek conquered it in a very original way: against the war elephants, he released a herd of camels with burning bales of straw on their backs, and the elephants, terribly afraid of fire by nature, trampled the Indian army in a panic, and ours won. But if so, what then is "Greater India"? Maybe the modern researcher I. Gusev is right, who claims that Greater India is America? Moreover, the presence of corn in this region makes us think about it again.

Then questions about the presence of traces of cocaine in the tissues of Egyptian mummies disappear by themselves. They did not fly on vimanas across the ocean. Cocaine was one of the spices, along with cinnamon and pepper, that merchants brought from Little India. Of course? will sadden fans of the work of Erich von Däniken, but what can you do if in fact everything is much simpler and without the participation of aliens.

OK. Let's go further. Parallel to detailed description On the way from Shiraz to Orasania, which bordered the Samarkand kingdom along the Amu Darya, De Clavijo continues to pay much attention to the description of the deeds of Tamurbek, which the envoys told him about. There is something to be horrified here. Perhaps this is part of the information war against Tamerlane, but hardly. Everything is described in too much detail.

For example, Timur's zeal for justice is striking. He himself, being a pagan, never touched either Christians or Muslims or Jews. For the time being. Until the Christians showed their lying greedy face.

During the war with Turkey, the Greeks from the European part of Constantinople promised help and support to Tamurbek's army in exchange for a loyal attitude towards them in the future. But instead, they supplied Bayazit's army with a fleet. Tamurbek Bayazit defeated simply brilliantly, in the best traditions of the Russian army, with low losses, defeating many times superior forces. And then he drove the captive Sultan together with his son in a golden cage mounted on a cart, like an animal in a zoo.

But he did not forgive the vile Greeks, and since then he has persecuted Christians mercilessly. Just as he did not forgive the tribe of White Tartars, who also betrayed him. In one of the castles, they were surrounded by Tamurbek's squad, and they, seeing that they could not get away from retribution, tried to pay off. Then the wise, just, but vindictive king, in order to save the lives of his soldiers, promised the traitors that if they themselves brought him money, he would not shed their blood. They left the castle.

Well? I promised you that I would not shed your blood?
- Promised! - White tartars began to sing in unison.
- And I, unlike you, keep my word. Your blood will not be shed. Bury them alive! - he ordered his "Commander-in-Chief of the Tartar Guards."

And then a decree was issued that every subject of Tamurbek was obliged to kill all the white tartars he met on the way. And if he does not kill, he will be killed himself. And the repressions of the Timurov reform began. Within a few years, this people was completely exterminated. Only about six hundred thousand.

Rui recalls how on the way they met four towers "so high that a stone cannot be dropped." Two were still standing, and two collapsed. They were built from the skulls of White Tartars, held together as mortar with mud. Such were the manners in the fifteenth century.

Another curious fact describes De Clavijo. This is what I described in detail in the previous chapter - the presence of a logistics service in Tartaria. Tamerlane significantly reformed it, and some details of this reform can serve as a clue to another mystery, what kind of mythical Mongols, together with the Tatars, “have been torturing unfortunate Russia for three hundred years”:

Thus, we are again convinced that "Tatar-Mongolia", in fact, is not Tataria and not Mongolia at all. - Yes. Mogulia - yes! Just an analogue of the modern Russian Post.

Next, we will talk about the Iron Gates. This is where the author most likely got confused. He confuses Derbent with the "Iron Gates" on the way from Bukhara to Samarkand. But not the point. Using the example of this passage, I highlighted the key words in the text in Russian with markers of various colors, and I highlighted the same words in the original text. This clearly shows what sophistication historians went to to hide the truth about Tartary:

It is possible that I am mistaken in the same way as the translator who translated the book from Spanish. And "Derbent" has nothing to do with it, but "Darbante" is something, the meaning of which has been lost, because there is no such word in the Spanish dictionary. And here are the original "Iron Gates", which, along with the Amu Darya, served as a natural defense of Samarkand from a sudden invasion from the west:

And now about the chakatas. My first thought was that this tribe could somehow be connected with Katai, who was in Siberian Tartaria. Moreover, it is known that Tamurbek paid tribute to Katai for quite a long time, until he took possession of it with the help of diplomacy.

But later another thought came. It is possible that the author simply did not know how to spell the name of the tribe, and wrote it down by ear. But in fact, not “chakatai”, but “chegodai”. After all, this is one of the Slavic pagan nicknames, such as chelubey, nogai, mother, run away, catch up, guess, etc. And Chegodai is, in other words, "The Beggar" (give me something?). Indirect confirmation that such a version has the right to life is the following find:

"Chegodaev - Russian surname, comes from male name Chegodai (in Russian pronunciation Chaadai). The surname is based on a proper male name of Mongolian origin, but widely known among the Turkic peoples. It is known and how historical name Chagatai (Jagatai), the second son of Genghis Khan, meaning brave, honest, sincere. The same name is known as an ethnonym - the name of the Turkic-Mongolian tribe Jagatai-Chagatai, from which Tamerlane came. The surname sometimes changed into Chaadaev and Cheodaev. The surname Chegodaev is a Russian princely family.

In general, the statement that Tamerlane is the founder of the Timurid dynasty is not true, because he himself was a representative of Genghisides, which means that all his descendants are also Genghisides.

It was interesting to understand the origin of the toponym "Samarkand". In my opinion, too many city names contain the root "samar". This is the biblical Samaria, and our metropolis on the Volga Samara, and before the revolution, Khanty-Mansiysk was called Samarov, and Samarkand itself, of course. We have forgotten the meaning of the word "Samar". But the ending "kand" fits perfectly into the system of formation of toponyms in Tartaria. This is Astrakh (k) an, and Tmu-cockroach, and many different "kans" and "vats" (Srednekan, Kadykchan) in the north-east of the country.

Perhaps all these endings are associated with the word "ham" or "khan". And we could have inherited from the Great Tartary. Surely, in the east, the cities were called by the name of their founders. As Prince Sloven founded Slovensk, and Prince Rus - Russu (now Staraya Russa), so Belichan could be the city of Bilyk Khan, and Kadykchan - Sadyk Khan.

And further. Do not forget about how the Magi actually named the pagan Ivan the Terrible at birth:

"Ivan IV Vasilyevich, nicknamed the Terrible, by the direct name of Titus and Smaragd, in the tonsure of Ion (August 25, 1530, the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow - March 18 (28), 1584, Moscow) - sovereign, Grand Duke Moscow and All Rus' since 1533, the first Tsar of All Rus'".

Yes. Smaragd is his name. Almost SAMARA-gd. And this may not be just a coincidence. Why? Yes, because when describing Samarkand, the word "emerald" is repeated dozens of times. There were huge emeralds (emeralds) on the cap of Tamurbek and on the diadem of his elder wife. Clothes and even numerous palaces of Tamurbek and his relatives were decorated with emeralds. Therefore, I would venture to suggest that "samara" and "smara" are one and the same. Then it turns out that the person in the title picture is the wizard of the Emerald City?

But this is a digression. Let's return to medieval Samarkand.

The description of the brilliance of this city is dizzying. For Europeans, it was a miracle of miracles. They did not even suspect that what they previously considered luxury is considered “jewelry” even among the poor in Samarkand.

Let me remind you that we were all told from childhood that the magnificent Tsaregrad was the pinnacle of civilization. But what a hitch... The author devoted several pages to the description of this Constantinople, of which only the church of John the Baptist is remembered. And in order to express the shock of what he saw in the "wild steppes", he needed fifty pages. Strange? It is obvious that historians are not telling us something.

There was absolutely everything in Samarkand. Powerful fortresses, castles, temples, canals, pools in the courtyards of houses, thousands of fountains, and much, much more.

Travelers were struck by the wealth of the city. The description of feasts and holidays merges into one continuous series of grandeur and splendor. So much wine and meat in one place in such a short period of time, the Castilians have not seen in their entire previous life. The description of the rituals, traditions and customs of the Tartars is noteworthy. One of them, at least, has come down to us in full. Drink until you drop. And mountains of meat and tons of wine from the palaces were taken out to the streets to distribute to ordinary citizens. And the Feast in the palace has always become a nationwide celebration.

Separately, I would like to say about the fight against corruption in the kingdom of Tamurbek. De Clavijo tells about one case when, during the absence of the Sovereign in the capital, an official who remained I.O. King, abused power and offended someone. As a result, I tried on a “hemp tie”. More precisely, paper, because in Samarkand everyone wore a natural cotton dress. Probably the ropes were also made of cotton.

Another official was also hanged, who was convicted of wasting horses from the giant herd of Tamurbek. Moreover, capital punishment was always accompanied by confiscation in favor of the state treasury under Timur.

People not of boyar origin were executed by beheading. It was worse than just death. By separating the head from the body, the executioner deprived the convict of something more important than just life. De Clavijo witnessed the trial and chopping off of the heads of a shoemaker and a merchant, who unreasonably raised the price during the absence of the Tsar in the city. That's what I understand, an effective fight against monopolies!

And here's another little discovery. For those who think that the Amazons were invented by Homer. Here it is, in black and white:

Witch? No, Queen! And that was the name of one of the eight wives of Timur. The youngest, and probably the most beautiful. That's how he was ... The Wizard of the Emerald City.

Modern archeological finds confirm that Samarkand was actually an emerald city during the time of Tamerlane. Today, these masterpieces are called so: “The Emeralds of the Great Moghuls. India".

The description of the ambassadors' way back through Georgia is interesting, of course, but only from the point of view of a novelist. Too many dangers and severe trials have fallen to the lot of travelers. I was especially struck by the description of how they ended up in snow captivity in the mountains of Georgia. Interestingly, today it happens that snow falls for several days and sweeps houses on the roof?

Pisconi is perhaps a profession, not a surname.

The exploits of Tamerlane, and not quite exploits

The story about the exploits of Tamurbek Khan would be incomplete if we did not turn to other sources that tell about the epochal events that occurred during his reign. One such source is a document known as Ivan Schiltberger's Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa from 1394 to 1427. I will omit descriptions of Europe and Africa, since within the framework of this topic, my goal was initially only to describe the past of our country in its most ancient period, when it was called Scythia, and then Tartaria.

Why does it make sense to dwell on this issue in more detail. The fact is that this is also our history. An attempt by historians to separate the history of Rus' from the history of the Great Tartary has led to what we have today. And we have a huge number of fellow citizens who question even the very existence of such a country in the past, not to mention the fact that Rus' was an integral part of it.

This is the strategy aimed at crushing great country. Having broken it into pieces in the past, it is very easy to break it into pieces in the present. Therefore, it is vital for every inhabitant of all countries that were until recently a single state - the Soviet Union, to know their history in order not to repeat mistakes in the future.

Today you cannot find a person who would not know the name of Tamerlane. But try to ask a casual passer-by about what the great politician and commander became famous for, and in about ninety percent of cases, you will hear nothing more than what was told in the commercial of one commercial bank. People will say that, they say, there was such a ferocious Mongol who only did what he conquered everyone, and at the same time did not spare either his own or others.

This is partly true. Timur was stern and merciless. But he was fair. He took care of his people, defended the peoples who submitted to him, and at the same time was not bloodthirsty. There was a time when the death penalty was the most effective tool of government. But Timur ruled not for the sake of his own ambitions, but for the benefit of the people, who considered him their father and protector. He even took the title of Khan shortly before his death.

Therefore, it is not enough to know that Tamerlane existed. You need to know exactly what he did and how. We must be fully aware that along with Ogus Khan, Genghis Khan, Batu Khan, Prophetic Oleg and Tsar Smaragd (Ivan the Terrible), Tamurbek Khan, we owe the existence of our modern country - Russia. So, let's turn to the facts presented by Ivan Shiltberger, which largely confirm and supplement the information provided by Abulgazi-Bayadur-Khan.

About the war of Tamerlane with the king-sultan

Upon his return from a happy campaign against Bayazit, Tamerlane began a war with the Sultan King, who occupies the first place among the pagan rulers. With an army of one million two hundred thousand people, he invaded the possessions of the Sultan and began the siege of the city of Galeb, in which there were up to four hundred thousand houses. It's hard to believe, but from somewhere Schiltberger took such figures.

The commander of the besieged garrison made a sortie with eighty thousand people, but was forced to return and lost many soldiers. Four days later, Tamerlane took possession of the suburb and ordered that its inhabitants be thrown into the city ditch, and logs and dung were thrown on them so that this ditch was filled up in four places, although it had twelve fathoms of depth. If this is true, and Tamerlane actually did this to innocent civilians, then undoubtedly he is one of the greatest villains of all times and peoples. However, one should not forget that the information war was not invented today or yesterday.

Fables are written about all the great rulers of Tartaria to this day, and this is normal. The more merit the ruler has, the more myths about his bloodthirstiness are added up. So the tales of the cruelty of Ivan the Terrible have long been exposed, but no one is still in a hurry to rewrite textbooks. The same, I think, is the case with the myths about Tamerlane.

Then Tamerlane proceeded to another city, called Urum-Kola, which offered no resistance, and to the inhabitants of which Tamerlane showed mercy. From there he went to the city of Aintab, the garrison of which refused to submit to the sovereign, and the city was taken after a nine-day siege. According to the customs of the war of those times, the unsubdued city was given to soldiers for plunder. After that, the army moved to the city of Begesna, which fell after a fifteen-day siege, and where the garrison was left.

The mentioned cities were considered the main ones in Syria after Damascus, where Tamerlane then went. Upon learning of this, the Sultan King ordered to ask him to spare this city, or at least the temple located in it, to which Tamerlane agreed. The temple in question was so large that it had forty gates on the outside. Inside, it was lit by twelve thousand lamps, which were lit on Fridays. On other days of the week, only nine thousand were lit. Among the lamps there were many gold and silver consecrated by king-sultans and nobles.

Tamerlane besieged Damascus, and the Sultan sent from his capital Cairo, where he was, an army of twelve thousand people. Tamerlane, of course, defeated this detachment and sent in pursuit of enemy soldiers who had fled from the battlefield. But after each overnight stay, they poisoned the water and the area before leaving, so because of the heavy losses, the chase had to be returned back. It appears to be one of ancient descriptions use of chemical weapons.

After a few months of siege, Damascus fell. One of the cunning qadi fell on his face before the conqueror and asked to negotiate a pardon for himself and other nobles. Tamerlane pretended to believe the priest and allowed all those who, in the opinion of the Qadi, were better than other civilians, to take refuge in the temple. When they took refuge in the temple, Tamerlane ordered to lock the gates from the outside and burn the traitors of his people. Such is the natural selection. Cruel? - Yes! Fair? Again - Yes!

He also ordered his soldiers to each present him on the head of an enemy soldier and after three days, used to carry out this order, he ordered to erect three towers from these heads.

Then he went to another region, called Shurki, which did not have a military garrison. The inhabitants of the city, famous for its spices and spices, supplied the army with everything necessary, and Tamerlane, leaving garrisons in the conquered cities, returned to his lands.

Conquest of Babylon by Tamerlane

Upon returning from the possessions of the king-sultan, Tamerlane with a million troops set out against Babylon.

By the way, if you think that the ancient city of Babylon is mythical, then you are deeply mistaken. Saddam Hussein's palace is on the edge of this city.

Upon learning of his approach, the king left the city, leaving a garrison in it. After a siege that lasted a whole month, Tamerlane, who ordered to dig mines under the wall, took possession of it and set it on fire. He ordered barley to be sown on the ashes, for he swore that he would destroy the city completely, so that in the future no one could even find the place on which Babylon stood. However, the citadel of Babylon, located on a high hill and surrounded by a moat filled with water, remained impregnable. It also contained the treasury of the Sultan. Then Tamerlane ordered to divert water from the ditch, in which three lead chests filled with gold and silver were found, each two fathoms in length and one fathom in width.

The kings hoped to save their treasures in this way if the city was taken. Commanding them to carry away these chests, Tamerlane also took possession of the castle, where there were no more than fifteen people who were hanged. However, four chests filled with gold were also found in the castle, which were taken away by Tamerlane. Then, having mastered three more cities, he, on the occasion of the onset of a sultry summer, had to retire from this region.

The conquest of India Minor by Tamerlane

Upon returning to Samarkand, Tamerlane ordered all his subjects to be ready for a trip to Little India, a four-month journey from his capital, after four months. Having set out on a campaign with a 400,000-strong army, he had to pass through a waterless desert, which took twenty days to cross. From there he arrived in a mountainous country, through which he made his way only in eight days with great difficulty, where he often had to tie camels and horses to boards in order to lower them from the mountains.

Further, Schiltberger describes the mysterious valley, "which was so dark that the warriors at noon could not see each other." As to what it was, one can now only guess. However, most likely it is not in the valley itself, but in some natural phenomenon, which coincided in time with the arrival of Tamerlane's troops in this area. Perhaps the reason for the long eclipse was a cloud of volcanic ash, or perhaps some more formidable natural phenomenon.

Then the army arrived in the mountainous country of a three-day stretch, and from there it got to the plain, where the capital of India Minor was located. Having set up his camp in this plain at the foot of a forest-covered mountain, Tamerlane ordered the messenger to say to the Ruler of the Indian capital: "Peace, Timur geldi," that is, "Surrender, sovereign Tamerlane has come."

The ruler preferred to oppose Tamerlane with four hundred thousand warriors and forty elephants trained for battle, carrying a tower with ten archers inside on his back. Tamerlane came out to meet him and would willingly start a battle, but the horses did not want to go forward, because they were afraid of the elephants placed in front of the formation. Tamerlane retreated and arranged a military council. Then one of his generals named Soliman Shah (a salty man, probably Suleiman, aka Solomon) advised to collect the required number of camels, load them with firewood, set them on fire and send them to the Indian war elephants.

Tamerlane, following this advice, ordered twenty thousand camels to be prepared and firewood laid on them. When they appeared to the sight of the enemy formation with elephants, the latter, frightened by fire and the cries of camels, fled and were partially killed by Tamerlane's soldiers, and partially captured as trophies.

Tamerlane besieged the city for ten days. Then the king began negotiations with him and promised to pay two hundredweights of Indian gold, which is better than Arabian. In addition, he gave him many more diamonds and promised to send thirty thousand auxiliary troops at his request. Upon the conclusion of peace on these terms, the king remained in his state, and Tamerlane returned home with a hundred war elephants and riches received from the king of India Minor.

How the governor steals great treasures from Tamerlane

Upon returning from the campaign, Tamerlane sent one of his nobles named Shebak with a corps of ten thousand to the city of Sultania to bring the five-year taxes stored there, collected in Persia and Armenia. Shebak, upon accepting this indemnity, imposed it on a thousand carts and wrote about this to his friend, the ruler of Mazanderan, who did not hesitate to come with a fifty-thousandth army, and together with his friend and with money returned to Mazanderan. Learning about this, Tamerlane sent a large army in pursuit of them, which, however, could not take Mazanderan because of the dense forests with which it is covered. Here we are once again convinced that the eastern part of the Caspian lowland was once covered with lush vegetation. Looking at these places today, it is hard to believe, but after all, several medieval authors could not be so cruelly mistaken at once.

Then Tamerlane sent another seventy thousand people with orders to make their way through the forests. Indeed, they cut down the forest for a mile, but they did not gain anything by this, so they were recalled by the sovereign back to Samarkand. For some reason, Schiltberger is silent about the further fate of the stolen treasures. It is hard to believe that embezzlement on such a scale could go unpunished. And most likely, the author simply did not know the end of this incident.

How Tamerlane ordered to kill 7,000 children.

Then Tamerlane bloodlessly annexed the kingdom of Ispahan with the capital of the same name to his state. He treated the people kindly and kindly. He left Ispahan, taking with him his king, Shahinshah, leaving a garrison of six thousand people in the city. But soon after the departure of Tamerlane's army, the inhabitants attacked his soldiers and killed everyone. Tamerlane had to return to Ispakhan and offer the inhabitants peace on the condition that they sent him twelve thousand archers. When these soldiers were sent to him, he ordered each of them to cut off the thumb on the hand and in this form sent them back to the city, which was soon taken by him by attack.

Gathering the inhabitants in the central square, he ordered to kill all those over the age of fourteen, thus sparing those who were younger. The heads of the dead were stacked in towers in the center of the city. Then he ordered the women and children to be taken to a field outside the city and children under seven years old to be placed separately. Then he ordered the cavalry to trample them with the hooves of horses. It is said that Tamerlane's own associates begged him on their knees not to do this. But he stood his ground and re-issued the order, which, however, none of the soldiers could dare to carry out. Angry, Tamerlane himself ran into the children and said that he would like to know who would dare not follow him. The warriors then were forced to imitate his example and trample the children with the hooves of their horses. There were about seven thousand of them in total.

Of course, this could be true, but in order to demonize a person, there is still no more effective method than accusing him of killing innocent children. The most famous of these legends entered the Bible as a chilling tale of the slaughter of infants by King Herod. However, now we already understand where the “ears grow” from this legend. Herod did not give the order to destroy all babies. He sent his archers in search of only one boy who, having become of age, could claim his throne, since he was his natural son from Mary, the wife of Herod, who was in exile before it turned out that she was pregnant by the monarch.

Tamerlane proposes to fight with the Great Ham

At about the same time, the ruler of Cathay sent envoys to the court of Tamerlane with a demand to pay tribute for five years. Tamerlane sent the envoy back to Karakurum with the answer that he considered the khan not the supreme ruler, but his tributary, and that he would personally visit him. Then he ordered to notify all his subjects so that they would prepare for a campaign in Turan, where he went with an army consisting of eight hundred thousand people. After a month's journey, he arrived at a desert that stretched for seventy days' journey, but after a ten-day journey, he had to return, having lost many soldiers and animals due to lack of water and the extremely cold climate of this country. Probably, Tamerlane planned to enter Katai through modern Tuva and Khakassia by the western route, along the Genghis Khan Road. But in the northern steppes of modern Kazakhstan, the campaign had to be interrupted and stopped in Otrar, where Tamerlane was killed by conspirators who, no doubt, were bribed by the people of the Great Ham.

On the death of Tamerlane

This part of the story is more like a script for a television series. Quoting the author:

“It can be seen that three troubles were the causes of Tamerlane's illness, which hastened his death. First, he was upset that his governor stole his tribute; then you need to know that the youngest of his three wives, whom he loved very much, in his absence, contacted one of his nobles. Having learned, upon his return, from the elder wife about the behavior of the younger, Tamerlane did not want to believe her words. Therefore, she told him to go to her and make her open the chest, where he would find a precious ring and a letter from her lover. Tamerlane did what she advised him, found a ring and a letter, and wanted to know from his wife who she got them from. She then threw herself at his feet and begged him not to be angry, since these things were given to her by one of his close associates, but without malicious intent.

Tamerlane, however, came out of her room and ordered her to be beheaded; then he sent five thousand horsemen in pursuit of a dignitary suspected of treason; but this latter, warned in time by the head of the detachment sent after him, escaped with his wives and children, accompanied by five hundred people, to Mazanderan, where he was not persecuted by Tamerlane. The latter took to heart the death of his wife and the flight of his vassal to such an extent that he died. His funeral was celebrated throughout the region with great triumph; but it is remarkable that the priests who were in the temple heard his groans at night for a whole year.

In vain did his friends hope to put an end to these cries by distributing much alms to the poor. Therefore, the priests, having consulted, asked his son to let go to their homeland the people taken by his father from different countries especially to Samarkand, where they sent many artisans who were forced to work there for him. They were all, indeed, set free, and immediately the cries ceased. Everything that I have described so far happened during my six years of service with Tamerlane.

Golubev Andrey Viktorovich (kadykchanskiy, Kadykchansky, notes of a Kolyma resident). Born July 29, 1969 in the village of Kadykchan, Susumansky district, Magadan region. Graduated from the Vyborg Aviation Technical School and the Russian Customs Academy. He worked in the 2nd Kuibyshev united air squadron. Served in the Pskov customs. Lawyer, writer, historian.

TIMUR, TAMERLANE, TIMURLENG (TIMUR-KhROMETS) 1336 - 1405

Central Asian commander-conqueror. Emir.

Timur, the son of a bek from the Turkicized Mongolian Barlas tribe, was born in Kesh (modern Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan), southwest of Bukhara. His father had a small ulus. The name of the Central Asian conqueror comes from the nickname Timur Leng (Lame Timur), which was associated with his lameness on his left leg. From childhood, he persistently engaged in military exercises and from the age of 12 began to go on campaigns with his father. He was a zealous Mohammedan, which played a significant role in his struggle with the Uzbeks.

Timur early showed his military abilities and the ability not only to command people, but also to subordinate them to his will. In 1361, he entered the service of Khan Togluk, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. He owned large territories in Central Asia. Pretty soon, Timur became an adviser to the khan's son Ilyas Khoja and the ruler (viceroy) of the Kashkadarya vilayet in the possessions of Khan Togluk. By that time, the Bek's son from the Barlas tribe already had his own detachment of mounted warriors.

But after some time, having fallen into disgrace, Timur with his military detachment of 60 people fled across the Amu Darya River to the Badakhshan Mountains. There his squad was replenished. Khan Togluk sent a thousand-strong detachment in pursuit of Timur, but he, falling into a well-arranged ambush, was almost completely exterminated by Timur's soldiers in battle.

Gathering strength, Timur entered into a military alliance with the ruler of Balkh and Samarkand, Emir Hussein, and began a war with Khan Togluk and his son-heir Ilyas Khoja, whose army consisted mainly of Uzbek soldiers. On the side of Timur came the Turkmen tribes, who gave him numerous cavalry. Soon he declared war on his ally, the Samarkand Emir Hussein, and defeated him.

Timur captured Samarkand, one of the largest cities in Central Asia, and intensified military operations against the son of Khan Togluk, whose army, according to exaggerated data, numbered about 100 thousand people, but 80 thousand of them were garrisons of fortresses and almost did not participate in field battles. Timur's cavalry detachment numbered only about 2 thousand people, but they were experienced warriors. In a number of battles, Timur defeated the khan's troops and by 1370 their remnants retreated across the Syr River.

After these successes, Timur went for a military trick, which he succeeded brilliantly. On behalf of the khan's son, who commanded the troops of Togluk, he sent an order to the commandants of the fortresses to leave the fortresses entrusted to them and to move beyond the Syr River with the garrison troops. So, with the help of military cunning, Timur cleared all the enemy’s fortresses from the khan’s troops.

In 1370, a kurultai was convened, at which the rich and noble Mongol owners were elected khan direct descendant Genghis Khan - Kobul Shah Aglan. However, Timur soon removed him from his path. By that time, he had significantly replenished his military forces, primarily at the expense of the Mongols, and now he could lay claim to independent khan power.

In the same 1370, Timur became emir in the Maverannakhr region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers and ruled on behalf of the descendants of Genghis Khan, relying on the army, nomadic nobility and Muslim clergy. He made the city of Samarkand his capital.

Timur began to prepare for large campaigns of conquest by organizing a strong army. At the same time, he was guided by the combat experience of the Mongols and the rules of the great conqueror Genghis Khan, which his descendants by that time had thoroughly forgotten.

Timur began his struggle for power with a detachment of 313 warriors devoted to him. They made up the backbone commanders the army he created: 100 people began to command dozens of soldiers, 100 hundreds and the last 100 thousand. The closest and most trusted associates of Timur received the highest military posts.

He paid special attention to the selection of military leaders. In his army, foremen were chosen by the ten soldiers themselves, but Timur appointed centurions, thousandth and higher commanders personally. The chief, whose power is weaker than a whip and a stick, is not worthy of the title, - said the Central Asian conqueror.

His army, unlike the troops of Genghis Khan and Batu Khan, received a salary. An ordinary soldier received from two to four horse prices. The size of such a salary was determined by the serviceman's service. The foreman received the salary of his ten and therefore was personally interested in the proper performance of the service by his subordinates. The centurion received a salary of six foremen, and so on.

There was also a system of awards for military distinctions. This could be the praise of the emir himself, an increase in salary, valuable gifts, rewarding with expensive weapons, new ranks and honorary titles such as, for example, Brave or Bogatyr. The most common measure of punishment was the deduction for a specific disciplinary offense of a tenth of the salary.

Timur's cavalry, which formed the basis of his army, was divided into light and heavy. Simple light horse warriors were required to be armed with a bow, 18-20 arrows, 10 arrowheads, an ax, a saw, an awl, a needle, a lasso, a tursuk bag (water bag) and a horse. For 19 such warriors on a campaign, one wagon relied. Selected Mongol warriors served in heavy cavalry. Each of her warriors had a helmet, iron protective armor, a sword, a bow and two horses. Five such horsemen relied on one wagon. In addition to the obligatory weapons, there were pikes, maces, sabers and other weapons. The Mongols carried everything necessary for camp life on spare horses.

Light infantry appeared in the Mongol army under Timur. These were horse archers (carrying 30 arrows) who dismounted before the battle. Thanks to this, the accuracy of shooting increased. Such horse archers were very effective in ambushes, during military operations in the mountains and during the siege of fortresses.

Timur's army was distinguished by a well-thought-out organization and a strictly defined order of formation. Each warrior knew his place in the ten, the ten in the hundred, the hundred in the thousand. Separate parts of the troops differed in the colors of horses, the color of clothes and banners, and combat equipment. According to the laws of Genghis Khan, before the campaign, the soldiers were reviewed with all the severity.

During campaigns, Timur took care of reliable military guards in order to avoid a sudden attack by the enemy. On the way or in the parking lot, security detachments were separated from the main forces at a distance of up to five kilometers. From them, sentinel posts were sent out even further, which, in turn, sent horse sentries ahead.

Being an experienced commander, Timur chose for the battles of his predominantly cavalry army flat terrain, with water sources and vegetation. He lined up the troops for the battle so that the sun did not shine in the eyes and thus did not blind the archers. He always had strong reserves and flanks to encircle the enemy involved in the battle.

Timur began the battle with light cavalry, which bombarded the enemy with a cloud of arrows. After that, horse attacks began, which followed one after another. When the opposing side began to weaken, a strong reserve was brought into battle, consisting of heavy armored cavalry. Timur said: ".. The ninth attack gives victory .." This was one of his main rules in the war.

Timur began his campaigns of conquest outside his original possessions in 1371. By 1380, he made 9 military campaigns, and soon all the neighboring regions inhabited by Uzbeks and most of the territory of modern Afghanistan were under his authority. Any resistance to the Mongol army was severely punished. After himself, the commander Timur left huge destruction and erected pyramids from the heads of defeated enemy soldiers.

In 1376, Emir Timur provided military assistance to Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Genghis Khan, as a result of which the latter became one of the khans of the Golden Horde. However, Tokhtamysh soon repaid his patron with black ingratitude.

The Emir Palace in Samarkand was constantly replenished with treasures. It is believed that Timur brought to his capital up to 150 thousand of the best craftsmen from the conquered countries, who built numerous palaces for the emir, decorating them with paintings depicting the conquests of the Mongol army.

In 1386, Emir Timur committed conquest to the Caucasus. Near Tiflis, the Mongol army fought the Georgian army and won a complete victory. The capital of Georgia was destroyed. The defenders of the fortress of Vardzia put up courageous resistance to the conquerors, the entrance to which led through the dungeon. Georgian soldiers repelled all enemy attempts to break into the fortress through an underground passage. The Mongols managed to take Vardzia with the help of wooden platforms, which they lowered on ropes from the neighboring mountains. Simultaneously with Georgia, neighboring Armenia was also conquered.

In 1388, after a long resistance, Khorezm fell, and its capital Urgench was destroyed. Now all the lands along the river Jeyhun (Amu Darya) from the Pamir Mountains to the Aral Sea became the possessions of Emir Timur.

In 1389, the cavalry of the Samarkand Emir made a campaign in the steppes to Lake Balkhash, to the territory of Semirechye? south of modern Kazakhstan.

When Timur fought in Persia, Tokhtamysh, who became the Khan of the Golden Horde, attacked the emir's possessions and plundered their northern part. Timur hastily returned to Samarkand and began to carefully prepare for a big war with the Golden Horde. Timur's cavalry had to travel 2,500 kilometers across the arid steppes. Timur made three big campaigns in 1389, 1391 and 1394-1395. In the last campaign, the Samarkand emir went to Golden Horde along the western coast of the Caspian through Azerbaijan and the fortress of Derbent.

In July 1391, the largest battle between the armies of Emir Timur and Khan Tokhtamysh took place near Lake Kergel. The forces of the parties were approximately equal to 300 thousand cavalry soldiers, but these figures in the sources are clearly overestimated. The battle began at dawn with a mutual skirmish of archers, followed by mounted attacks on each other. By noon, the army of the Golden Horde was defeated and put to flight. The winners got the khan's camp and numerous herds.

Timur successfully waged war against Tokhtamysh, but did not annex his possessions to himself. The Emir Mongol troops plundered the Golden Horde capital Saray-Berke. Tokhtamysh with his troops and camps more than once fled to the most remote corners of his possessions.

In the campaign of 1395, Timur's army, after another pogrom of the Volga territories of the Golden Horde, reached the southern borders of the Russian land and besieged the border fortress city of Yelets. Its few defenders could not resist the enemy, and Yelets was burned. After that, Timur suddenly turned back.

The Mongol conquests of Persia and neighboring Transcaucasia lasted from 1392 to 1398. The decisive battle between the army of Emir Timur and the Persian army of Shah Mansur took place near Patila in 1394. The Persians energetically attacked the enemy center and almost broke its resistance. Assessing the situation, Timur reinforced his reserve of heavy armored cavalry with troops that had not yet joined the battle, and he himself led the counterattack, which became victorious. The Persian army in the battle of Patila was utterly defeated. This victory allowed Timur to completely subjugate Persia.

When an anti-Mongol uprising broke out in a number of cities and regions of Persia, Timur again moved there on a campaign at the head of his army. All the cities that rebelled against him were destroyed, and their inhabitants were ruthlessly exterminated. In the same way, the ruler of Samarkand suppressed revolts against Mongol rule in other countries he conquered.

In 1398 the great conqueror invades India. In the same year, Timur's army besieged the fortress city of Merath, which the Indians themselves considered impregnable. After inspecting the city fortifications, the emir ordered digging. However, underground work progressed very slowly, and then the besiegers took the city by storm with the help of ladders. Bursting into Merath, the Mongols killed all its inhabitants. After that, Timur ordered the destruction of the Merath fortress walls.

One of the battles took place on the Ganges River. Here the Mongol cavalry fought with the Indian military flotilla, which consisted of 48 large river boats. The Mongol warriors rushed with their horses to the Ganges and swam attacked the enemy ships, hitting their crews with well-aimed archery.

At the end of 1398, Timur's army approached the city of Delhi. Under its walls, on December 17, a battle took place between the Mongol army and the army of the Delhi Muslims under the command of Mahmud Tughlaq. The battle began with the fact that Timur with a detachment of 700 horsemen, having crossed the Jamma River to reconnoiter the city fortifications, was attacked by the 5,000-strong cavalry of Mahmud Tughlaq. Timur repulsed the first attack, and soon the main forces of the Mongol army entered the battle, and the Delhi Muslims were driven behind the walls of the city.

Timur captured Delhi from battle, betraying this numerous and rich Indian city to plunder, and its inhabitants to massacre. The conquerors left Delhi, burdened with huge booty. Everything that could not be taken to Samarkand, Timur ordered to destroy or destroy to the ground. It took a whole century for Delhi to recover from the Mongol pogrom.

The cruelty of Timur on Indian soil is best evidenced by the following fact. After the battle of Panipat in 1398, he ordered the slaughter of 100,000 Indian soldiers who had surrendered to him.

In 1400, Timur began an aggressive campaign in Syria, moving there through Mesopotamia, which he had previously conquered. Near the city of Aleppo (modern Aleppo), on November 11, a battle took place between the Mongol army and the Turkish troops, commanded by the Syrian emirs. They did not want to sit in a siege behind the fortress walls and went out to battle in an open field. The Mongols inflicted a crushing defeat on the opponents, and they retreated to Aleppo, losing several thousand people killed. After that, Timur took and plundered the city, taking its citadel by storm.

The Mongol conquerors behaved in Syria in the same way as in other conquered countries. All the most valuable was to be sent to Samarkand. In the Syrian capital of Damascus, which was captured on January 25, 1401, the Mongols massacred 20,000 inhabitants.

After the conquest of Syria, a war began against the Turkish Sultan Bayezid I. The Mongols captured the border fortress of Kemak and the city of Sivas. When the Sultan's ambassadors arrived there, Timur, to intimidate them, reviewed his huge, according to some reports, 800,000 army. After that, he ordered the capture of crossings over the Kizil-Irmak River and laid siege to the Ottoman capital Ankara. This forced the Turkish army to accept a general battle with the Mongols under the camps of Ankara, it happened on June 20, 1402.

According to Eastern sources, the Mongol army numbered from 250 to 350 thousand soldiers and 32 war elephants brought to Anatolia from India. The army of the Sultan, consisting of Ottoman Turks, hired Crimean Tatars, Serbs and other peoples of the Ottoman Empire, numbered 120-200 thousand people.

Timur won a victory largely due to the successful actions of his cavalry on the flanks and the transfer of bribed 18 thousand mounted Crimean Tatars to his side. In the Turkish army, the Serbs, who were on the left flank, held out most staunchly. Sultan Bayazid I was taken prisoner, and the infantrymen, the Janissaries, who were surrounded, were completely killed. Those who fled were pursued by the emir's 30,000 light cavalry.

After a convincing victory at Ankara, Timur laid siege to the large seaside city of Smyrna and, after a two-week siege, took and sacked it. Then the Mongol army turned back to Central Asia, once again plundering Georgia along the way.

After these events, even those neighboring countries that managed to avoid the aggressive campaigns of Timur the Lame, recognized his power and began to pay tribute to him, if only to avoid the invasion of his troops. In 1404, he received a large tribute from the Egyptian sultan and the Byzantine emperor John.

By the end of Timur's reign, his huge state included Maverannahr, Khorezm, Transcaucasia, Persia (Iran), Punjab and other lands. All of them were combined artificially, through the strong military power of the conquering ruler.

Timur as a conqueror and great commander reached the heights of power thanks to the skillful organization of his large army, built according to the decimal system and continuing the traditions military organization Genghis Khan.

According to the will of Timur, who died in 1405 and was preparing a big campaign of conquest in China, his state was divided between his sons and grandsons. They immediately started bloody internecine war and in 1420 Sharuk, who remained the only one among the Timurov heirs, received power over his father's possessions and the emir's throne in Samarkand.

One of the most prominent Turkic statesmen and commanders was the great Tamerlane (Timur, Amir Teymur, Timur Gurigan, Teymur-leng, Aksak Teymur) - the Central Asian ruler and conqueror.

Tamerlane was born on April 8, 1336 in the village of Khoja-Ilgar near the city of Kesh (Kish). He came from a noble Turkic-Mongolian family Barlas (Barulas). His father, Targay, was a military man and a feudal lord. Tamerlane did not have a school education and was illiterate, but he knew the Koran by heart and was a connoisseur of culture.

During the infancy of Tamerlane, the Turkic Chagatai ulus collapsed. In Maverannahr, Turkic emirs seized power, under which the Chagatai khans were only nominal rulers. In 1348, the Mogul (Chagatai) emirs enthroned Khan Tugluk-Timur, who became the ruler of East Turkestan and Semirechye. This led to a new civil strife, during which the Turkic and Mogul rulers fought for power in Chagatai.

The first head of the Central Asian Turkic-Mogul emirs was Kazagan (1348-1360). In the same period, Timur entered the service of the ruler of Kesh - Hadji Barlas. In 1360, Maverannahr was conquered by Tugluk-Timur, as a result of which Hadji Barlas had to leave Kesh. Tamerlane entered into negotiations with the khan and was approved as the ruler of the Kesh region, but was forced to leave Kesh after the withdrawal of Tugluk-Timur's troops and the return of Hadji-Barlas.

In 1361, the Khan's troops again captured Maverannahr, and Hadji-Barlas fled to Khorasan, where he was killed. The following year, Tugluk-Timur left Maverannahr, transferring power in it to his son Ilyas-Khadji. Tamerlane was again approved as the ruler of Kesh and one of the prince's assistants. However, after the departure of Tugluk-Timur, the Mughal emirs, led by Ilyas-Khadzhi, conspired to eliminate Tamerlane. As a result, the latter had to retreat from the Moguls and go over to the side of the Turkic emir Hussein, who was at enmity with them. The detachment of Hussein and Timur went to Khorezm, but in the battle near Khiva was defeated by the local Turkic ruler Tavakkala-Kungurot. Tamerlane and Hussein retreated with the remnants of their army into the desert. Later, near the village of Mahmudi, they were taken prisoner by the people of the local ruler - Alibek Janikurban, in whose dungeon they spent 62 days. The prisoners were rescued by Alibek's elder brother, Emir Muhammadbek.

After that, Tamerlane and Hussein settled on the southern bank of the Amu Darya, where they waged a guerrilla war against the Moghuls. During a clash with an enemy detachment at Seistan, Timur lost two fingers on his hand and was wounded in the leg, which made him lame (hence the nickname Timur-leng or Aksak Teimur, that is, lame Timur).

In 1364, the Moghuls left Maverannahr, where Timur and Hussein returned, having placed Kabul Shah, who was descended from the Chagataid (Çağatai) clan, on the throne. However, the confrontation with the Moguls did not end there. On May 22, 1365, a major battle took place between the troops of Timur and Hussein and the Mogul army led by Ilyas-Khoja. During the battle, there was a downpour, due to which the soldiers got stuck in the mud. As a result, the opponents had to retreat to the opposite banks of the Syr Darya. Meanwhile, the Mogul army was expelled from Samarkand by local residents. Serbedar people's rule was established in the city. Upon learning of this, Timur and Hussein lured the leaders of the Serbedars into negotiations and executed them. Then the Samarkand uprising itself was suppressed. Maverannahr came under the rule of both rulers, who, however, wanted to rule alone. Hussein wanted to rule the Chagatai ulus like his predecessor, Kazagan, but power from time immemorial belonged to the Genghisides. Tamerlane opposed the change in customs and intended to proclaim himself emir, since this title was originally held by representatives of the Barlas clan. Former allies began to prepare for battle.

Hussein moved to Balkh and began to strengthen the fortress, preparing for the war with Timur. Hussein's attempt to defeat Timur by cunning failed. The latter gathered a strong army and crossed the Amu Darya, heading for Balkh, on the way to which many emirs joined Timur. This weakened the position of Hussein, who lost many of his supporters. Soon, Timur's army approached Balkh and after bloody battles, on April 10, 1370, took the city. Hussein was captured and killed. Tamerlane, who won the victory, proclaimed himself the emir of Maverannahr and located his residence in Samarkand. However, the wars with other Turkic and Mogul rulers did not end there.

Having united the entire Transoxiana, Timur turned his attention to neighboring Khorezm, which did not recognize his authority. Timur was also worried about the situation on the northern and southern borders of Maverannakhr, which were constantly disturbed by the White Horde and the Moguls. However, at the same time, the neighboring Turkic cities - Tashkent and Balkh - came under the supreme power of Timur-Amir, but Khorezm (also Turkic), relying on the support of the Kipchak nomads, continued to resist the emir. Timur tried to negotiate peacefully with the Khorezmian Turks, but, realizing the futility of trying to negotiate peace, he started a war against a recalcitrant neighbor. Timur Leng made five campaigns against Khorezm and finally conquered it in 1388.

Having achieved success in the fight against the Khorezmians, Timur decided to strike back at the Turkic ulus of Jochi (Golden and White Horde) and establish his power over the entire territory of the former Chagatai ulus. The Moghuls led by Emir Kamariddin had the same goals as Amir Timur. Mogul troops made constant attacks on Fergana, Tashkent, Turkestan, Andijan and other cities of Maverannahr. This led Timur to the need to curb the aggressive Moghuls, as a result of which he made seven campaigns against them and finally defeated Moghulistan in 1390. Despite its defeat, Moghulistan retained its independence and continued to be one of the numerous Turkic state formations Middle East.

Having secured the borders of Maverannahr from the raids of the Moghuls after his first campaigns, Tamerlane decided to start a confrontation with the ulus of Jochi, which by that time had disintegrated into the White and Golden Hordes. Amir Timur in every possible way prevented the unification of these territories by pitting Urus Khan, the ruler of the White Horde, and Tokhtamysh, who led the Golden Horde, against each other. However, soon Tokhtamysh began to pursue a policy hostile to Maverannahr. This led to three wars between Timur and Tokhtamysh, which ended in 1395 with a crushing defeat for the latter. The largest battles in this war were the battles on Kondurcha in 1391, and on the Terek in 1395, during which the victory remained with Timur.

After the defeat inflicted by Timur, Tokhtamysh fled to Bulgaria, and Amir Timur, meanwhile, burned the capital of the Golden Horde - the city of Sarai-Batu, and transferred power in the ulus of Jochi to the son of Urus Khan - Koirichak-oglan. At the same time, he defeated the Genoese colonies - Tanais and Kaffa.

Having defeated the Golden Horde, Timur went on a campaign to Rus'. His army passed the Ryazan land and captured the city of Yelets. Then Tamerlane headed towards Moscow, but soon turned back and left the borders of Rus'. It is not known what prompted Tamerlane to leave Rus', but according to the "Zafar-name" ("Book of Victories"), the reason for this was the persecution of the Horde detachments, which were overtaken and finally defeated on the territory of Rus', and the conquest and plunder of Russian lands itself was not in the plans of the conqueror. included.

Timur waged constant wars not only with the Moguls and the Horde. A very important opponent was the ruler of Herat - Giyasaddin Pir Ali II. Timur's attempts to negotiate peace did not lead to anything, and he had to start a war. In April 1380, Timur's army drove the Heratians out of Balkh, in February 1381 Timur occupied Khorasan, Jami, Kelat, Tuye, and then, after a short siege, took Herat itself. In 1382, Tamerlane defeated the Khorasan state of the Serbedars, and in 1383 he ravaged the Seistan region, in which he stormed the fortresses of Zire, Zaveh, Bust and Farah. The following year, Timur conquered such cities as Astarabad, Amul, Sari. In the same year, he reached Azerbaijan and captured one of its central cities, the capital of many Turkic states (Atabeks, Ilkhanids) of the Middle Ages - Tabriz. Together with these cities, a significant part of Iran passed under the rule of Amir Timur. After that, he conducted a three-year, five-year and seven-year campaigns, during which he defeated the Horde, Moguls, Khorezmians, defeated all of Northern India, Iran and Asia Minor.

In 1392, Tamerlane conquered the Caspian regions, and in 1393 captured Baghdad, the western regions of Iran and Transcaucasia, at the head of which he put his governors.

An important milestone in the history of Timur's conquests is the Indian campaign. In 1398, he went on a campaign against the Delhi Sultanate, defeated the detachments of the Kafirists, and near Delhi defeated the army of the Sultan and occupied the city, which his army plundered. In 1399, Amir Timur reached the Ganges, but then turned the army back and returned to Samarkand with a lot of booty.

In 1400 Timur starts a war with Ottoman sultan Bayazid the Lightning, whose army captured the city of Arzinjan, vassal to Amir Timur, as well as with the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Faraj. During the war with the Ottomans and Mamluks, Timur takes the fortresses of Sivas, Aleppo (Aleppo), in 1401 - Damascus.

In 1402, in the Battle of Angora (near Ankara), Tamerlane utterly defeated Bayezid's army, and captured him himself. During the period when the Ottomans smashed the European troops one by one, Timur literally saved them from the Ottomans. In honor of Tamerlane's victory over Bayezid, the Pope ordered three days in a row to ring all the bells in all the Catholic churches of Europe. This ringing thundered over the Turkic tragedy - for it taught the Europeans how to defeat the Turks in the future, pitting them against each other ...

... In 1403, Tamerlane ravages Smyrna, and then establishes order in the rebellious Baghdad. In 1404, Timur returned to Central Asia and began preparations for a war with China. On November 27, 1404, his army entered the Chinese campaign, but in January 1405, the great commander died in Otrar. He was buried in the Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand.

In our time, it is believed by many that Tamerlane was engaged only in military campaigns, conquests and plunder of neighboring lands, but this is not so. For example, he restored many cities: Baghdad (Iraq), Derbent and Baylakan (Azerbaijan). Tamerlane also made a great contribution to the development of Samarkand, which he turned into the main trade and craft center of the Middle East. Amir Timur contributed to the development of Islamic culture, architecture and literature. During his reign, masterpieces of medieval Muslim architecture were built in Samarkand: the mausoleums of Gur-Emir and Shakhi-Zinda, the tomb of Rukhabad, the tomb of Kutbi Chakhardakhum, the Bibi-Khanum madrasah, as well as many mosques, caravanserais, etc. Thanks to Tamerlane, the city was rebuilt Kesh (Kish, now Shakhrisabz), where cultural monuments of the Timur era are located: the tomb of Dar us-Saadat, the magnificent Ak-Saray palace, many madrasahs and mosques.

In addition, Timur made a great contribution to the development of Bukhara, Shakhrukhiya, Turkestan, Khujand and other Turkic cities. It should also be noted that under Tamerlane such sciences as mathematics, medicine, astronomy, literature, and history became widespread. In the era of Timur, such cultural figures as the astrologer Maulana (Movlana) Ahmad, theologian Ahmed al-Khorezmi, jurists Jazairi and Isamiddin and many others lived in Maverannahr. All this suggests that under Tamerlane not only constant wars were waged, but there was also a flourishing Eastern culture. Amir Timur had a great influence on the development of the entire Middle East, and he can rightly be considered not only a great commander, but also one of the greatest Turkic statesmen in the history of mankind.

The full name of the great conqueror of antiquity, which will be discussed in our article, is Timur ibn Taragai Barlas, but in literature he is often referred to as Tamerlane, or Iron Lame. It should be clarified that he was nicknamed Iron not only for his personal qualities, but also because this is how his name Timur is translated from the Turkic language. Lameness was the result of a wound received in one of the battles. There is reason to believe that this mysterious commander of the past was involved in the great blood shed in the 20th century.

Who is Tamerlane and where is he from?

First, a few words about the childhood of the future great khan. It is known that Timur-Tamerlane was born on April 9, 1336 on the territory of the present Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz, which at that time was a small village called Khoja-Ilgar. His father, a local landowner from the Barlas tribe, Muhammad Taragai, professed Islam, and raised his son in this faith.

Following the customs of those times, from early childhood he taught the boy the basics of military art - horseback riding, archery and javelin throwing. As a result, barely reaching maturity, he was already an experienced warrior. It was then that the future conqueror Tamerlane received invaluable knowledge.

The biography of this person, or rather, that part of it that became the property of history, begins with the fact that in his youth he won the favor of Khan Tuglik, the ruler of the Chagatai ulus, one of the Mongol states, on whose territory the future commander was born.

Appreciating the fighting qualities, as well as the outstanding mind of Timur, he brought him closer to the court, making him the tutor of his son. However, the entourage of the prince, fearing his rise, began to build intrigues against him, and as a result, fearing for his life, the newly-minted teacher was forced to flee.

At the head of a squad of mercenaries

The years of Tamerlane's life coincided with the historical period when it was a continuous theater of military operations. Fragmented into many states, it was constantly torn apart by civil strife of local khans, who were constantly trying to seize neighboring lands. The situation was aggravated by countless bands of robbers - jet, who did not recognize any power and lived exclusively by robberies.

In this situation, the failed teacher Timur-Tamerlane found his true calling. By uniting several dozens of ghulams - professional hired warriors - he created a detachment that surpassed all other surrounding gangs in its fighting qualities and cruelty.

First conquests

Together with his thugs, the newly-born commander made daring raids on cities and villages. It is known that in 1362 he stormed several fortresses that belonged to the Sarbadars - participants in the popular movement against Mongol rule. Having captured them, he ordered the surviving defenders to be immured into the walls. This was an act of intimidation for all future opponents, and such cruelty became one of the main features of his character. Very soon, the whole East learned about who Tamerlane was.

It was then that in one of the fights he lost two fingers of his right hand and was seriously wounded in the leg. Its consequences were preserved until the end of his life and served as the basis for the nickname - Timur the Lame. However, it did not prevent him from becoming a figure who played a significant role in the history of not only Central, Western and South Asia, but also the Caucasus and Rus' in the last quarter of the 14th century.

Military talent and extraordinary audacity helped Tamerlane to conquer the entire territory of Ferghana, subjugating Samarkand, and making the city of Ket the capital of the newly formed state. Further, his army rushed to the territory belonging to present-day Afghanistan, and, having ruined it, stormed the ancient capital of Balkh, the emir of which - Hussein - was immediately hanged. His fate was shared by most of the courtiers.

Cruelty as a weapon of intimidation

The next direction of his cavalry strike was the cities of Isfahan and Fars located south of Balkh, where the last representatives of the Persian Muzaffarid dynasty ruled. Isfahan was the first on his way. Having captured it and given it to his mercenaries for plunder, Timur the Lame ordered to lay the heads of the dead in a pyramid, the height of which exceeded the height of a man. This was a continuation of his constant tactics of intimidating opponents.

It is characteristic that the whole subsequent history of Tamerlane, the conqueror and commander, is marked by manifestations of extreme cruelty. In part, it can be explained by the fact that he himself became a hostage to his own politics. Leading a highly professional army, Lame had to regularly pay his mercenaries, otherwise their scimitars would turn against him. This forced them to seek new victories and conquests by any means available.

The beginning of the struggle with the Golden Horde

In the early 80s, the next stage in the ascent of Tamerlane was the conquest of the Golden Horde, or, in other words, the Dzhuchiev ulus. From time immemorial, it was dominated by the Euro-Asian steppe culture with its religion of polytheism, which had nothing to do with Islam, professed by the majority of its warriors. Therefore, the fighting that began in 1383 became a clash not only of opposing armies, but also of two different cultures.

Ordynsky, the one who in 1382 made a campaign against Moscow, wishing to get ahead of his opponent and strike first, undertook a campaign against Kharezm. Having achieved temporary success, he also captured a significant territory of present-day Azerbaijan, but soon his troops were forced to retreat, having suffered significant losses.

In 1385, taking advantage of the fact that Timur and his hordes were in Persia, he tried again, but this time failed. Having learned about the invasion of the Horde, the formidable commander urgently returned his troops to Central Asia and utterly defeated the enemy, forcing Tokhtamysh himself to flee to Western Siberia.

Continuation of the fight against the Tatars

However, the conquest of the Golden Horde has not yet ended. Its final defeat was preceded by five years filled with incessant military campaigns and bloodshed. It is known that in 1389 the Horde Khan even managed to insist that Russian squads support him in the war with the Muslims.

This was facilitated by the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy, after which his son and heir Vasily was obliged to go to the Horde for a label to reign. Tokhtamysh confirmed his rights, but subject to the participation of Russian troops in repelling the Muslim attack.

Defeat of the Golden Horde

Prince Vasily agreed, but it was only formal. After the defeat perpetrated by Tokhtamysh in Moscow, none of the Russians wanted to shed blood for him. As a result, in the very first battle on the Kondurcha River (a tributary of the Volga), they abandoned the Tatars and, having crossed to the opposite bank, left.

The completion of the conquest of the Golden Horde was the battle on the Terek River, in which the troops of Tokhtamysh and Timur met on April 15, 1395. Iron Lame managed to inflict a crushing defeat on his enemy and thereby put an end to the Tatar raids on the territories under his control.

The threat to Russian lands and the campaign against India

The next blow was prepared by him in the very heart of Rus'. The purpose of the planned campaign was Moscow and Ryazan, who until that time did not know who Tamerlane was, and paid tribute to the Golden Horde. But, fortunately, these plans were not destined to come true. The uprising of the Circassians and Ossetians prevented, which broke out in the rear of Timur's troops and forced the conqueror to turn back. The only victim then was the city of Yelets, which appeared on its way.

Over the next two years, his army made a victorious campaign in India. Having captured Delhi, Timur's soldiers plundered and burned the city, and killed 100 thousand defenders who were captured, fearing a possible rebellion on their part. Having reached the banks of the Ganges and captured several fortified fortresses along the way, the army of many thousands returned to Samarkand with rich booty and a large number of slaves.

New conquests and new blood

India's turn has come Ottoman Sultanate submit to the sword of Tamerlane. In 1402, he defeated the Janissaries of Sultan Bayezid, who had been invincible until then, and captured him himself. As a result, the entire territory of Asia Minor was under his dominion.

The Ionite knights, who held the fortress in their hands for many years, could not resist the troops of Tamerlane. ancient city Smyrna. Having repeatedly repulsed the attacks of the Turks before, they surrendered to the mercy of the lame conqueror. When the Venetian and Genoese ships with reinforcements arrived to their aid, the victors threw them from the fortress catapults with the severed heads of the defenders.

The idea that Tamerlane could not implement

The biography of this outstanding commander and evil genius of his era ends with the last ambitious project, which was his campaign against China, which began in 1404. The goal was to capture the Great Silk Road, which made it possible to receive a tax from passing merchants and replenish its already overflowing treasury due to this. But the implementation of the plan was prevented by a sudden death that cut short the life of the commander in February 1405.

The great emir of the Timurid Empire - under this title he entered the history of his people - was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A legend is connected with his burial, passed down from generation to generation. It says that in the event that the sarcophagus of Tamerlane is opened and his ashes are disturbed, then a terrible and bloody war will be the punishment for this.

In June 1941, an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences was sent to Samarkand to exhume the remains of the commander and study them. The grave was opened on the night of June 21, and the next day, as you know, the Great Patriotic War began.

Another fact is also interesting. In October 1942, a participant in those events, cameraman Malik Kayumov, meeting with Marshal Zhukov, told him about the fulfilled curse and offered to return the ashes of Tamerlane to their original place. This was done on November 20, 1942, and on the same day a radical change followed during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Skeptics tend to argue that in this case there were only a number of accidents, because the plan of attack on the USSR was developed long before the opening of the tomb by people who, although they knew who Tamerlane was, but, of course, did not take into account the spell that hung over his grave. Without entering into a debate, let's just say that everyone has the right to have their own point of view on this matter.

Conqueror Family

Timur's wives and children are of particular interest to researchers. Like all Eastern rulers, this great conqueror of the past had a huge family. He had 18 official wives alone (not counting concubines), the favorite of whom is considered to be Sarai-mulk xanim. Despite the fact that the lady with such a poetic name was barren, her master entrusted the upbringing of many of his sons and grandchildren. She also went down in history as the patroness of art and science.

It is quite clear that with such a number of wives and concubines, there was also no shortage of children. Nevertheless, only four of his sons took the places befitting such a high birth, and became rulers in the empire created by their father. In their face, the story of Tamerlane found its continuation.

Timur (Tamerlane, Timurleng) (1336-1405), commander, Central Asian emir (since 1370).

Born in the village of Hadzha-Ilgar. The son of Bek Taragay from the Mongol tribe Barlas grew up in poverty, dreaming of the glorious deeds of Genghis Khan. Those seemed to be gone forever. The young man had only clashes between the "princes" of small villages.

When the Mogolistan army arrived in Maverannahr, Timur happily went to serve the founder and khan of Mogolistan, Togluk-Timur, and was appointed governor of the Kashkadarya district. From the wound he received, he acquired the nickname Timurleng (Timur Khromets).

When the old khan died, Khromets felt himself an independent ruler, made an alliance with the emir of Balkh and Samarkand Hussein and married him. Together, in 1365, they opposed the new Khan of Mogolistan, Ilyas Khoja, but were defeated. drove out the conquerors
rebellious people, with whom Timur and Hussein then brutally dealt with.

After that, Timur killed Hussein and began to single-handedly rule Maverannahr on behalf of the descendants of Genghis Khan. Imitating his idol in the organization of the army, Timur convinced the nomadic and settled nobility that a place in a disciplined army of conquerors would give them more than living in their semi-independent possessions. He moved to the possessions of the Khan of the Golden Horde Mamai and took away South Khorezm from him (1373-1374), and then helped his ally, the Khan, Tokhtamysh, to take the throne.

Tokhtamysh started a war against Timur (1389-1395), in which the Horde was defeated, and its capital, Sarai, was burned.

Only on the border of Rus', which seemed to Timur an ally, did he turn back.

In 1398 Timur invaded India and took Delhi. The only opponent of his huge state, which included Central Asia, Transcaucasia, Iran and Punjab, was Ottoman Empire. Sultan Bayazid I the Lightning, who led her troops after his brother, right on the Kosovo field and utterly defeated the crusaders, entered into a decisive battle with Timur near Ankara (1402). Sultan Timur carried with him for a long time in a golden cage, showing the people. The emir sent the looted treasures to his capital Samarkand, where he carried out a large construction.