Bir Türko-Mongol kabileye ait olan Timur 1370’da Transoxiana’ya yerleşti, bölgenin egemeni oldu, ve Semerkant’ı imparatorluğuna başkent yaptı.
Otuz beş yıl içinde tüm Orta Asya’yı, İran’ın büyük bölümünü ve Irak’ı, güney Rusya’nın ve Hint yarımadasının büyük bölümlerini denetimi altına aldı.
Batıda, Timur’un orduları Suriye’de Memlük ve Ankara’da Osmanlı ordularını yendi (1400-02).
Timur 1405’te Çin’i ele geçirmeye hazırlanırken öldü.
Oğlu ve ardılı Shah Rukh (h. 1405-47) engin imparatorluğun sınırlarını korumayı ancak başarabildi.
Timur hanedanının sonraki prensleri kendi krallıklarını kurmaya çalıştılar ve iç çatışmaları ile imparatorluğu zayıf düşürdüler.
Sonunda Timur ailesine geriye yalnızca Horasan ve Transoxiana kaldı.
This hemispherical bowl belongs to a series of wares made from the second half of the fifteenth through the seventeenth century and now known as Kubachi, from the name of the town in the Caucasus where many of these pieces were found in the nineteenth century. This bowl is one of a rare early group in the series characterized by a design of ogee panels encircling a central roundel — all of which bear vegetal motifs — reserved on a black ground distinguished by incised, predominantly spiral designs. A brilliant turquoise glaze covers the entire bowl. The four known dated pieces of this group range from 1469 to 1495. They constitute the only three-dimensional ceramic objects that can be securely placed in fifteenth-century Iran.(L)
Egemenliğini kendisine öykündüğü Cengiz Han gibi terör ve kitle kıyımları üzerine kuran Timur fethedilen ülkelerden zanaatçıları başkenti Semerkant’a getirerek İslamik sanatta en parlak dönemlerden birini başlattı.
Salt dirimsiz nesnelere sınırlanan ve kendine tinsel güzellik idealini yadsıyan bu ürkek sanat insan biçiminden uzak durdu, tek-düze geometrik kalıpların yinelemesine yöneldi, resimde iki boyut ile yetindi, ve mimaride hantal bir görkem yarattı.
Tillya Kari Madrassah, The Registan, Samarkand (LINK)
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Tillya Kari Madrassah, The Registan, Samarkand
Tillya Kari Madrassah, The Registan, Samarkand (LINK)
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Timur döneminin sanatı Anadolu’dan Hindistan’a uzanan topraklarda esin kaynağı oldu.
Timurid egemenler Pers kültürüne duygudaş idiler ve yüksek saray kültürüne katkıda bulunmak üzere sanatçı, mimar ve yazarları Transoxina’ya çektiler.
Herat okulu elyazması süslemesinde Pers sanatının doruğu olarak kabul edilir.
Timur defeating the Mamluk Sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj of Egypt
Timur defeating the Mamluk Sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj of Egypt (LINK)
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imur Facial Reconstruction (Forensic Facial Reconstruction by M. Gerasimov, 1941).
Reign 9 April 1370 - 14 February 1405 Coronation 9 April 1370, Balkh Predecessor Amir Hussain Successor Khalil Sultan Born 9 April 133, 6 Kesh, Chagatai Khanate Died 19 February 1405 (aged 68),
Otrar, Farab, near Shymkent, Syr Darya Burial Gur-e-Amir, Samarkand Consort Saray Mulk Khanum Wives
Chulpan Mulk Agha
Aljaz Turkhan Agha
Tukal Khanum
Dil Shad Agha
Touman Agha
Other wives Full name Shuja-ud-din Timur House Barlas Timurid Father Amir Taraghai Mother Tekina Khatun Religion Islam
Timur ( 9 April 1336-18 February 1405), historically known as Amir Timur and Tamerlane ("Timur the Lame"), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror. As the founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia, he became the first ruler in the Timurid dynasty. According to John Joseph Saunders, Timur was “the product of an islamized and iranized society,” and not steppe nomadic.
Timur was the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian Steppe, and his empire set the stage for the rise of the more structured and lasting Gunpowder Empires in the 16th and 17th centuries.Timur envisioned the restoration of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan (died 1227). According to Beatrice Forbes Manz, "in his formal correspondence Temur continued throughout his life to portray himself as the restorer of Chinggisid rights. He justified his Iranian, Mamluk, and Ottoman campaigns as a re-imposition of legitimate Mongol control over lands taken by usurpers." To legitimize his conquests, Timur relied on Islamic symbols and language, referred to himself as the "Sword of Islam", and patronized educational and religious institutions. He converted nearly all the Borjigin leaders to Islam during his lifetime. Timur decisively defeated the Christian Knights Hospitaller at the Siege of Smyrna, styling himself a ghazi.By the end of his reign, Timur had gained complete control over all the remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, the Ilkhanate, and the Golden Horde, and even attempted to restore the Yuan dynasty in China.
Timur's armies were inclusively multi-ethnic and were feared throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, sizable parts of which his campaigns laid to waste. Scholars estimate that his military campaigns caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population at the time.
He was the grandfather of the Timurid sultan, astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Beg, who ruled Central Asia from 1411 to 1449, and the great-great-great-grandfather of Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal Empire, which ruled parts of South Asia for over three centuries, from 1526 until 1857. Timur is considered as a great patron of art and architecture, as he interacted with intellectuals such as Ibn Khaldun and Hafiz-i Abru.
Genealogical relationship between Timur and Genghis Khan Genealogical relationship between Timur and Genghis Khan
Timurid dynasty
1370-1507
Timur
1370-1405
Khalil
1405-1409
Shah Rukh
1405-1447
Ulugh Beg
1447-1449
'Abd al-Latif
1449-1450
'Abdullah
1450-1451
Abu Sa'id
1451-1469
Ahmad
1469-1494
Mahmud ibn Abi Sa'id
1494-1500
Timur certainly committed what we would describe today as war crimes; there definitely was an element of terrorism to his campaigns. In fact, as an admirer of architecture, he is known to have constructed pyramids of human skulls. Extant accounts describe him slaughtering 100,000 Indian prisoners following the Delhi uprising. But not all destruction was the same; and there was a definite difference between that of Genghis Khan and Timur. The emir’s annihilation of the region was not meant to serve a utilitarian purpose so much as to inflict suffering. Genghis Khan’s used terror as a method to protect his troops, whereas Timur engaged in terror and destruction
for pleasure. (LINK)
The Zafarnama (Persian: ظفرنامه, lit. Book of Victory) is a biography of Timur completed by the Persian historian Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi somewhere between 1424 and 28 (AH 828-832). It was commissioned by Ibrahim Sultan, Timur’s grandson, and remains one of the best-known sources on Timur's life. Yazdi relied heavily on another biography of Timur, also called the Zafarnama, completed by Nizam ad-Din Shami in 1404.
Timur granting audience on the occasion of his accession (plate 2) Zafaranama, ca 1467.
Garrett Library Manuscripts, 3
Painting by Bihzad
Destruction of the remnant of the Kipchak Army Zafaranama, ca 1467
Garrett Library Manuscripts, 3
Painting by Bihzad
Troops of Timur attacking the city of Khiva (plate 3) Zafaranama, ca 1467.
Garrett Library Manuscripts, 3
Painting by Bihzad
Album description
The Zafarnama, or Book of Victory, is the biography of Timur, known to the English world as Tamerlane. By the time of his death in 1405, he had conquered most of the known eastern world of his day. The text of the Zafarnama was the work of Sharaf al-Din 'Ali Yazdi and was commissioned by Sultan-Husayn Mirza, Timur's great-great grandson.
This 15th century Persian manuscript features illustrations by the renowned painter Bihzad.
Timur's legacy is a mixed one. While Central Asia blossomed under his reign, other places, such as Baghdad,Damascus, Delhi and other Arab, Georgian, Persian, and Indian cities were sacked and destroyed and their populations massacred. He was responsible for the effective destruction of the Nestorian Christian Church of the East in much of Asia. Thus, while Timur still retains a positive image in Muslim Central Asia, he is vilified by many in Arabia, Iraq, Persia, and India, where some of his greatest atrocities were carried out. However, Ibn Khaldun praises Timur for having unified much of the Muslim world when other conquerors of the time could not. The next great conqueror of the Middle East, Nader Shah, was greatly influenced by Timur and almost re-enacted Timur's conquests and battle strategies in his own campaigns. Like Timur, Nader Shah conquered most of Caucasia, Persia, and Central Asia along with also sacking Delhi.
Timur's short-lived empire also melded the Turko-Persian tradition in Transoxiana, and in most of the territories that he incorporated into his fiefdom, Persian became the primary language of administration and literary culture (diwan), regardless of ethnicity. In addition, during his reign, some contributions to Turkic literature were penned, with Turkic cultural influence expanding and flourishing as a result. A literary form of Chagatai Turkic came into use alongside Persian as both a cultural and an official language.
Tamerlane virtually exterminated the Church of the East, which had previously been a major branch of Christianity but afterwards became largely confined to a small area now known as the Assyrian Triangle.
Timur became a relatively popular figure in Europe for centuries after his death, mainly because of his victory over the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid. The Ottoman armies were at the time invading Eastern Europe and Timur was ironically seen as an ally.
Timur has now been officially recognized as a national hero in Uzbekistan. His monument in Tashkent now occupies the place where Karl Marx's statue once stood.
Turco-Mongol or the Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century,among the ruling elites of Mongol Empire’s successor states. These elites adopted Islam (from previous religions like Tengrism) while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions.
Background
The Mongols under Genghis Khan (1162-1227) created in 1206 one of the largest land-based empires in history, permanently joining much Eurasia into one political system. Since then, there has existed a portion of Mongolian society that adopted Turkic languages. For example, from the modern Mongolian ethnic group, the Uriankhai, who live in the Xinjiang (Western China) and in the western part of Mongolia, speak the Tuvan language (one of the Turkic languages) as their native language. Nations of Turkic nomadic people such as the Göktürks and Uighurs and ethnic groups that spoke Turkic languages such as Naimans and Ongud lived in the Mongolian Plateau during the time of Genghis Khan.
Subsequently, the Mongol Empire's domain was split between the Ilkhanate in western Asia, Chagatai Khanate in south-central Asia, and the Golden Horde in the northwestern sector. Since the Mongolians who emigrated towards these west areas were the minorities, and included some people who spoke Turkic languages, they assimilated into the native Turkic groups, soon adopting Turkic languages and Islam to their culture.
In Iran, which used to be a part of Ilkhanate, the native Iranians became civil officials, the Turkic nomads became soldiers, and the Mongolians are thought to have assimilated with the Turkic soldiers. People in the northwestern region of Iran (such as the regions of Azerbaijan) also become Turkic. Most of the native Turkic nomads in the Golden Horde were not Muslims, but converted to Islam, and the Kipchak language (one of the Turkic languages) became common in the Caucasus region.
Influences
Turco-Mongols had a great influence on many empires and dynasties. During the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and the Tang Dynasty (618-907) many Turco-Mongols were part of the political elite. In Turco-Mongol society, kinship was another major method used to maintain power.Turko-Mongols were often patrimonial rulers meaning all powers flowed directly from the ruler. However, many Turco-Mongol leaders viewed their kingdom as a family. They often had three types of clients: personal retainers, guard corps members, and chief of tribes and tribal unions.
Personal retainers living within the rulers boundaries were provided with food, drink, and clothing by the rulers themselves. The second group were important for maintaining control and militaristic power. They took up roles as bodyguards and also were part of military of individual tribes or larger khanates. The latter group played an important role in Turco-Mongol society as allegiances within these groups were necessary in order to build and maintain power. For Turco-Mongol leaders it was crucial for them to place loyal clients into positions with high authority in order to strengthen their rule on the steppe. One political strategy used to gain and maintain power was through diplomatic marriage. The Turco-Mongols would send family members to marry emperors from the Sui and Tang Dynasty. This was to provide economic and political alliances.
Many dynasties established between 1000 and 1500 BCE were founded by Turco-Mongol elites who had come from Inner Asia.The model of imperial confederacy was implemented by the Turco-Mongols. They implemented policies of extortion which were successful in Inner Asia. This facilitated imperial control over tribes and provinces.However, less successfully implemented policies included the Turco-Mongol tradition of increasing revenue by raiding or extortion. However, although these worked in Inner Asia, these policies was a threat for regional economic life
Sources The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane by By Beatrice Forbes Manz A brief history of eastern Asia by Ian C. Hannah Larousse Encyclopedia of Ancient and Medieval History by Marcel Dunan
📹 600-1450 Regional and interregional interactions — Khan Academy (VİDEO)
600-1450 Regional and interregional interactions — Khan Academy (LINK)
The Black Death ravages the Ilkhanate. Timur (Timurlane) establishes the Timurid Empire.
Capital Samarkand (1370-1405);
Herat (1405-1507) Common languages Persian (official, court language, high literature, lingua franca),
Chagatai Religion
State religion:
Sunni Islam (Hanafi)
Other religions:
Twelver Shia Islam, Ismail Shia Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hurufism, Nestorianism Government Monarchy emirate
Emir
• 1370-1405
Timur (first)
• 1506-1507
Badi' al-Zaman (last) Historical era Middle Ages
• Timur begins conquests
1363
• Establishment of Timurid Empire
1370
• Westward expansion begins
1380
• Battle of Ankara
20 July 1402
• Fall of Samarkand
1505
• Fall of Herat
1507
• Founding of the Mughal Empire
1526 Area 1405 est. 4,400,000 km2 Preceded by
Chagatai Khanate
Sufi Dynasty
Jalayirids
Kurt dynasty
Muzaffarids
Sarbadars
Marashis
Afrasiyab dynasty
Kara Koyunlu
Kingdom of Georgia Succeeded by
Khanate of Bukhara
Safavid dynasty
Khanate of Khiva
Kara Koyunlu
Aq Qoyunlu
Mughal Empire
Kingdom of Georgia
The empire was founded by Timur (also known as Tamerlane), a warlord of Turco-Mongol lineage, who established the empire between 1370 and his death in 1405. He envisioned himself as the great restorer of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan and, while not descended from Genghis, regarded himself as Genghis's heir and associated much with the Borjigin.
The ruling Timurid dynasty, or Timurids, lost most of Persia to the Aq Qoyunlu confederation in 1467, but members of the dynasty continued to rule smaller states, sometimes known as Timurid emirates, in Central Asia and parts of India. In the 16th century, Babur, a Timurid prince from Ferghana (modern Uzbekistan), invaded Kabulistan (modern Afghanistan) and established a small kingdom there, and from there 20 years later he invaded India to establish the Mughal Empire.
Timur conquered large parts of Central Asia, primarily Transoxiana and Khorasan, from 1363 onwards with various alliances (Samarkand in 1366, and Balkh in 1369), and was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of Suurgatmish, the Chagatai khan, he subjugated Transoxania and Khwarazm in the years that followed. Already in the 1360s he had gained control of the western Chagatai Khanate and while as emir he was nominally subordinate to the khan, in reality it was now Timur that picked the khans who became mere puppet rulers. The western Chagatai khans were continually dominated by Timurid princes in the 15th and 16th centuries and their figurehead importance was eventually reduced into total insignificance.
Timur began a campaign westwards in 1380, invading the various successor states of the Ilkhanate. By 1389, he had removed the Kartids from Herat and advanced into mainland Persia where he enjoyed many successes. This included the capture of Isfahanin 1387, the removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and the expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad. In 1394-95, he triumphed over the Golden Horde, following his successful campaign in Georgia, after which he enforced his sovereignty in the Caucasus. Tokhtamysh, the khan of the Golden Horde, was a major rival to Timur in the region. He also subjugated Multan and Dipalpur in modern-day Pakistan in 1398. Timur gave the north Indian territories to a non-family member, Khizr Khan, whose Sayyid dynasty replaced the defeated Tughlaq dynasty of the Sultanate of Delhi. Delhi became a vassal of the Timurids but obtained independence in the years following the death of Timur. In 1400–1401 he conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia, in 1401 he destroyed Baghdad and in 1402 defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara. This made Timur the most preeminent Muslim ruler of the time, as the Ottoman Empireplunged into civil war. Meanwhile, he transformed Samarkand into a major capital and seat of his realm.
Timur appointed his sons and grandsons to the main governorships of the different parts of his empire, and outsiders to some others. After his death in 1405, the family quickly fell into disputes and civil wars, and many of the governorships became effectively independent.
However, Timurid rulers continued to dominate Persia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, large parts of Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, minor parts of India, and much of Central Asia, though the Anatolian and Caucasian territories were lost by the 1430s. Due to the fact that the Persian cities were desolated by wars, the seat of Persian culture was now in Samarkand and Herat, cities that became the center of the Timurid renaissance. The cost of Timur’s conquests amount to the deaths of possibly 17 million people.
Shahrukh Mirza, fourth ruler of the Timurids, dealt with Kara Koyunlu, who aimed to expand into Iran. But, Jahan Shah (bey of the Kara Koyunlu) drove the Timurids to eastern Iran after 1447 and also briefly occupied Herat in 1458. After the death of Jahan Shah, Uzun Hasan, bey of the Ak Koyunlu, conquered the holdings of the Kara Koyunlu in Iran between 1469 and 1471.
The power of Timurids declined rapidly during the second half of the 15th century, largely due to the timurid tradition of partitioning the empire and by 1500, the divided and wartorn Timurid Empire had lost control of most of its territory, and in the following years was effectively pushed back on all fronts. Persia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Eastern Anatolia fell quickly to the ShiiteSafavid dynasty, secured by Shah Ismail I in the following decade. Much of the Central Asian lands was overrun by the Uzbeks of Muhammad Shaybani who conquered the key cities of Samarkand and Herat in 1505 and 1507, and who founded the Khanate of Bukhara. From Kabul, the Mughal Empire was established in 1526 by Babur,a descendant of Timur through his father and possibly a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. The dynasty he established is commonly known as the Mughal dynasty though it was directly inherited from the Timurids. By the 17th century, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India but eventually declined during the following century. The Timurid dynasty finally came to an end as the remaining nominal rule of the Mughals was abolished by the British Empire following the 1857 rebellion.
Although the Timurids hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Turkicized Mongol origin, they had embraced Persian culture, converted to Islam, and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. Thus, the Timurid era had a dual character, reflecting both its Turco-Mongol origins and the Persian literary, artistic, and courtly high culture of the dynasty.
Language
During the Timurid era, Central Asian society was bifurcated, with the responsibilities of government and rule divided into military and civilian spheres along ethnic lines. At least in the early stages, the military was almost exclusively Turko-Mongolian, while the civilian and administrative element was almost exclusively Persian.The spoken language shared by all the Turko-Mongolians throughout the area was Chaghatay. The political organization hearkened back to the steppe-nomadic system of patronage introduced by Genghis Khan. The major language of the period, however, was Persian, the native language of the Tājīk (Persian) component of society and the language of learning acquired by all literate and/or urban people. Timur was already steeped in Persian culture and in most of the territories he incorporated, Persian was the primary language of administration and literary culture. Thus the language of the settled "diwan" was Persian, and its scribes had to be thoroughly adept in Persian culture, whatever their ethnic origin. Persian became the official state language of the Timurid Empire and served as the language of administration, history, belles lettres, and poetry. The Chaghatay language was the native and "home language" of the Timurid family, while Arabic served as the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences.
The Battle of Ankara (or Angora) was fought on 20 July 1402 at the Çubuk plain near Ankara between the forces of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (Bajazet) and Timur (Tamerlane), ruler of the Timurid Empire. The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to a period of crisis for the Ottoman Empire (the Ottoman Interregnum). However, the Timurid Empire went into terminal decline following Timur's death just three years after the battle, while the Ottoman Empire made a full recovery, and continued to increase in power for another two to three centuries.
Battle of Ankara
Date
20 July 1402
Location
Çubuk plain near Ankara
Result
Timurid victory
Belligerents
Timurid Empire
Ottoman Empire
Moravian Serbia
District of Branković
Commanders and leaders
Timur
Shah Rukh
Khalil Sultan
Miran Shah
Abu Bakr
Sultan Husayn Tayichiud
Muhammad Sultan Mirza
Pir Muhammad
Shah-i-Shahan
Bayezid I (POW)
Süleyman
Mehmed
Stefan Lazarević
Đurađ Branković
Units involved
Unknown
Ottoman ghazi, Janissaries, and Balkan Christian vassals
Strength
140,000
85,000
Casualties and losses
up to 40,000
up to 40,000
Bayezid I being held captive by Timur.
Timur ‘the lame’, sought to emulate Genghis Khan, and resembled him in both the breadth of his conquests and appetite for destruction. Born in Transoxiana to minor nobility, he became first general to the proxy ruler of the western Chagatai Khanate. After conquering Persia in the 1380s, he turned on his northern rival, Tokhtamysh, Khan of the Golden Horde, destroying his capital at New Sarai in 1395. He then moved against the Tughlaq dynasty in India in 1398, capturing first Multan, then Delhi. In 1399–1400, he captured Baghdad, and invaded Armenia, the Mamluk Sultanate, and, for good measure, the Ottoman Empire. All these campaigns were victorious; the populace of Damascus were massacred, and the Ottoman Sultan, Bayezid I, who was captured at the Battle of Ankara, was paraded in a cage in front of Timur’s army. Timur died in 1405, en route to invading China. Without his ruthless presiding genius, his empire would soon disintegrate.
📹 Battle of Ankara 1402 / Ottoman-Timurid War (VİDEO)
Battle of Ankara, 1402 / Ottoman-Timurid War (LINK)
Despite heavy casualties during the battle of Kosovo (1389) against a broad alliance of the Balkan peoples led by Serbian lord Lazar and battle of Nicopolis (1396) against European Crusaders led by Jean of Never, Sigismund I of Hungary and Mircea I of Wallachia, Ottoman empire continued to expand under the leadership of sultan Yildirim Bayezid I. To the east new empire under amir Timur (Tamerlane) was on the rise and as the borders of two empires touched, the war was inevitable. The battle of Ankara of 1402 was one of the biggest fought between the Muslim empires. At the same time, results of this massive battle impacted Ottoman, Timurid, Byzantine empires and changed the course of the history of Europe, Asia, Middle East and Balkans.
Timurid dynasty, (fl. 15th–16th century CE), dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin descended from the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane). The period of Timurid rule was renowned for its brilliant revival of artistic and intellectual life in Iran and Central Asia.
After Timur’s death (1405), his conquests were divided between two of his sons: Mīrānshāh (died 1407) received Iraq, Azerbaijan, Moghān, Shīrvān, and Georgia, while Shāh Rokh was left with Khorāsān.
Between 1406 and 1417 Shāh Rokh extended his holdings to include those of Mīrānshāh as well as Māzanderān, Seistān, Transoxania, Fars, and Kermān, thus reuniting Timur’s empire, except for Syria and Khuzistan. Shāh Rokh also retained a nominal suzerainty over China and India. During Shāh Rokh’s reign (1405-47), economic prosperity was restored and much of the damage wrought by Timur’s campaigns was repaired. Trading and artistic communities were brought into the capital city of Herāt, where a library was founded, and the capital became the centre of a renewed and artistically brilliant Persian culture.
In the realm of architecture, the Timurids drew on and developed many Seljuq traditions. Turquoise and blue tiles forming intricate linear and geometric patterns decorated the facades of buildings. Sometimes the interior was decorated similarly, with painting and stucco relief further enriching the effect. The Gūr-e Amīr, Timur’s mausoleum in Samarkand, is the most notable example. The tiled dome, rising above a polygonal chamber, is fluted and slightly bulbous. Of the Ak-Saray, Timur’s palace built between 1390 and 1405 at Kesh, only the monumental gates remain, again with coloured-tile decoration.
The schools of miniature painting at Shīrāz, Tabriz, and Herāt flourished under the Timurids. Among the artists gathered at Herāt was Behzād (died c. 1525), whose dramatic, intense style was unequaled in Persian manuscript illustration. The Baysunqur workshops practiced leatherwork, bookbinding, calligraphy, and wood and jade carving. In metalwork, however, Timurid artistry never equaled that of earlier Iraqi schools.
Internal rivalry eroded Timurid solidarity soon after Shāh Rokh’s death. The years 1449-69 were marked by a constant struggle between the Timurid Abū Saʿīd and the Uzbek confederations of the Kara Koyunlu (“Black Sheep”) and Ak Koyunlu (“White Sheep”). When Abū Saʿīd was killed in 1469, the Ak Koyunlu ruled unopposed in the west, while the Timurids receded to Khorāsān. Nevertheless the arts, particularly literature, historiography, and miniature painting, continued to flourish; the court of the last great Timurid, Ḥusayn Bayqarah (1478–1506) supported such luminaries as the poet Jāmī, the painters Behzād and Shāh Muẓaffar, and the historians Mīrkhwānd and Khwāndamīr. The vizierhimself, Mīr ʿAlī Shīr, established Chagatai Turkish literature and fostered a revival in Persian.
Although the last Timurid of Herāt, Badīʿ az-Zamān, finally fell to the armies of the Uzbek Muḥammad Shaybānī in 1506, the Timurid ruler of Fergana, Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Bābur, survived the collapse of the dynasty and established the line of Mughal emperors in India in 1526.
Gur-e Amir (mausoleum of Timur), Samarkand, Uzebekistan.
Shāh Rokh, also called Shāh Rokh Mīrzā, Rokh also spelled Rukh, (born Aug. 30, 1377, Samarkand, Timurid empire [now in Uzbekistan]—died March 12, 1447, Fishawand, Timurid Iran), Timurid ruler of much of Central Asia, best known as a patron of the arts.
Shāh Rokh was the fourth son of Timur (Tamerlane), founder of the Timurid dynasty. At Timur’s death in 1405, a struggle for control of his empire broke out among members of his family. Shāh Rokh gained control of most of the empire, including Iran and Turkistan, and held it until his death. The only major areas of Timur’s empire outside of Shāh Rokh’s control were Syria and Khūzestān (now in southwestern Iran).
Shāh Rokh’s patronage of the arts was centred on his capital at Herāt in Khorāsān (now in western Afghanistan). Particularly important were the library and the school of miniature paintingthat developed and flourished there. One of his wives, Gawhar Shād, worked with the Persian architect Qavam ud-Din in the planning and construction of a series of magnificent public buildings there.
Continuing power struggles among various members of his own family forced Shāh Rokh to undertake a number of military campaigns to ensure his power. The settlements he was able to impose were temporary, and intrafamily power struggles eventually destroyed the dynasty.
Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū, in full ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lutf Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Bihdādīnī Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū, (born, Herāt, Khorāsān [now in Afghanistan]—died 1430, Zanjān, Azerbaijan), Persian historian, one of the most important historians of the Timurid period (1370–1506).
Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū was apparently educated in the city of Hamadān. Later he became an extensive traveler and went with the Turkic conqueror Timur on a number of campaigns, including those in the Middle East against Aleppo and Damascus in 1400–01. After the ruler’s death, Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū entered the service of Timur’s son, Shāh Rokh (1405–46), and his grandson, Prince Baysunqur (d. 1433), as court historian and thus settled in Herāt. He died on the return from Shāh Rokh’s second campaign in Azerbaijan in 1430.
Among his major works is the Majmūʿa (“Collected Work”), which was commissioned by Shāh Rokh; it is mainly a collection of three older well-known historical works with continuations and an introduction and index by Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū. His Majmaʿ al-tavārīkh (“The Compendium of History”) is a world history divided into four volumes (arbāʿ, “quarters”) that cover the pre-Islāmic prophets and ancient Iran, a history of Muḥammad and the caliphate up to 1258, Iran during the Seljuq and the Mongol periods, and, finally, Iran under the Timurid rulers. The last section was dedicated to Prince Baysunqur and has a separate title, Zubdat at-tavārīkh-i Bāysunghurī (“Baysunqur’s Cream of History”). He also translated a geographic work from Arabic, the Masālik al-mamālik wa suwar al-akālīm (“The Roads of the Kingdoms and the Forms of the Climes”), in which he included historical sections on various provinces of Iran.
Battle Scene at Camp of Oghuz Khan, 1425-1430 / Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū /
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper (LINK)
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 Zafaranama, ca 1467. Garrett Library Manuscripts, 3 Painting by Bihzad.jpg)
 Zafaranama, ca 1467. Garrett Library Manuscripts, 3 Painting by Bihzad.jpg)
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