Timurid Empire

Timur receiving Amir Husayn's envoy during his attack on Balkh (1370). Miniature painting from Mirkhvand's Rawzat al-Safa (Turkey, 1599).[35]

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 Isfahan in 1387, the removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and the expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad. In 1394–1395, 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. Timur subjugated Multan and Dipalpur in modern-day Pakistan in 1398. He also had several military successes in North India. In 1398, he sent an army led by his grandson Pir Muhammad to cross the Indus and attack Multan; the successful siege lasted six months. Later in the same year, Timur himself marched the main army across the Indus, and he took Loni and Bhatnair fort, seven miles northeast of Delhi. In December 1398, Timur engaged with the armies of Sultan Mahmud Shah and won. This led to his triumphal entry into Delhi, where he conducted a massacre but spared the craftsmen to be sent to Samarkand. He left Delhi in January 1399. During Timur's entry into India, he was faced by a sultanate that was already in decline.[36]

Later in 1400–1401 he conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia. In 1401 he destroyed Baghdad, and in 1402 he defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara. This made Timur the most preeminent Muslim ruler of the time, as the Ottoman Empire plunged into civil war. Meanwhile, he transformed Samarkand into a major capital and seat of his realm.

Detailed map of the Timurid Empire with its tributary states and sphere of influence in Western-Central Asia (1402-1403)

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, effectively weakening themselves, and many of the governors became conclusively 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, although the Anatolian and Caucasian territories were lost by the 1430s to the Qara Qoyunlu. Due to the fact that the Persian cities were desolated by wars, the seats of Persian culture were now in Samarkand and Herat, cities that became the centre of the Timurid renaissance.[37] The costs of Timur's conquests included the deaths of possibly 17 million people.[38]

Shahrukh Mirza, the fourth ruler of the Timurids, dealt with the Qara Qoyunlu, who aimed to expand into Iran. But in the wake of Shahrukh's death, the Qara Qoyunlu under Jahan Shah drove the Timurids out to eastern Iran after 1447 and also briefly occupied Herat in 1458. After the death of Jahan Shah, Uzun Hasan, bey of the Aq Qoyunlu, conquered the holdings of the Qara Qoyunlu 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/Mongol tradition of partitioning the empire as well as several civil wars. The Aq Qoyunlu conquered most of Iran from the Timurids, and by 1500, the divided and war-torn Timurid Empire had lost control of most of its territory, and in the following years it was effectively pushed back on all fronts. Persia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Eastern Anatolia fell quickly to the Shiite Safavid Empire, 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 when the remaining nominal rule of the Mughals was abolished by the British Empire following the 1857 rebellion.

During the Timurid era, Central Asian society was bifurcated, with the responsibilities of government and rule divided into military and civilian spheres along ethnic lines. At least in the early stages, the military was almost exclusively Turco-Mongolian, while the civilian and administrative element was almost exclusively Persian. The spoken language shared by all the Turko-Mongolians throughout the area was Chaghatay. The political organization hearkened back to the steppe-nomadic system of patronage introduced by Genghis Khan.[42] 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 or urban people. Timur was already steeped in Persian culture[43] 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.[44] Persian became the official state language of the Timurid Empire[41][45] and served as the language of administration, history, belles lettres, and poetry.[46] The Chaghatay language was the native and "home language" of the Timurid family,[8] while Arabic served as the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences.[9]

Folio of Poetry From the Divan of Sultan Husayn Mirza, c. 1490. Brooklyn Museum.

Illustration from Jāmī's Rose Garden of the Pious, dated 1553. The image blends Persian poetry and Persian miniature into one, as is the norm for many works of the Timurid era.

Persian literature, especially Persian poetry, occupied a central place in the process of assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture.[47] The Timurid sultans, especially Shāh Rukh Mīrzā and his son Mohammad Taragai Oloğ Beg, patronized Persian culture.[40] Among the most important literary works of the Timurid era is the Persian biography of Timur, known as Zafarnāmeh (Persian: ظفرنامه), written by Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi, which itself is based on an older Zafarnāmeh by Nizam al-Din Shami, the official biographer of Timur during his lifetime. The most famous poet of the Timurid era was Nūr ud-Dīn Jāmī, the last great medieval Sufi mystic of Persia and one of the greatest figures in Persian poetry.[48] Hearing of the Persian culture of the Timurid empire, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II encouraged those under his patronage to engage with the models provided by Persian cultural centers like Shiraz and Tabriz, and in particular by the Timurid court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. 1469–1506) in Herat.[49] Mehmed II was determined to foster the creation of a new language and literary-artistic culture for his burgeoning court in Istanbul.[49]

In addition, some of the astronomical works of the Timurid sultan Ulugh Beg were written in Persian, although the bulk of it was published in Arabic.[50] The Timurid prince Baysunghur also commissioned a new edition of the Persian national epic Shāhnāmeh, known as Shāhnāmeh of Baysunghur, and wrote an introduction to it. The Persian poet 'Ismat Allah Bukhari taught poetry to Khalil Sultan, grandson of Timur.[51] According to T. Lenz:[52]

It can be viewed as a specific reaction in the wake of Timur's death in 807/1405 to the new cultural demands facing Shahhrokh and his sons, a Turkic military elite no longer deriving their power and influence solely from a charismatic steppe leader with a carefully cultivated linkage to Mongol aristocracy. Now centered in Khorasan, the ruling house regarded the increased assimilation and patronage of Persian culture as an integral component of efforts to secure the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty within the context of the Islamic Iranian monarchical tradition, and the Baysanghur Shahnameh, as much a precious object as it is a manuscript to be read, powerfully symbolizes the Timurid conception of their own place in that tradition. A valuable documentary source for Timurid decorative arts that have all but disappeared for the period, the manuscript still awaits a comprehensive monographic study.

Following the publication of Mukhtar al-Ikhtiyar, a legal manual that was used until the twentieth century, by the head magistrate of Bayqara in Herat, Persian was used as a language of jurisprudence (fiqh) under the late Timurids.[53]

During the reign of sultan Husayn Bayqara, the Irshad al-zira'a, a Persian agricultural treatise, was written by Qasim b. Yusuf Abu Nasiri.[54][55] Based on in-depth, first-hand conversations with farmers, the Irshad al-zira'a, covered the agricultural development of Herat and included minor architectural suggestions for gardens.[55]

The Timurids also played a very important role in the history of Turkic literature. Based on the established Persian literary tradition, a national Turkic literature was developed in the Chagatai language. Chagatai poets such as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī, Sultan Husayn Bāyqarā, and Zāhiruddīn Bābur encouraged other Turkic-speaking poets to write in their own vernacular in addition to Arabic and Persian.[37] Nawa’i's work, predominantly based on Persian designs, was an attempt to create a culture that was specific to the Turkophone audience.[56] The Bāburnāma, the autobiography of Bābur (although being highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary),[57] as well as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī's Chagatai poetry are among the best-known Turkic literary works and have influenced many others.

Despite being spread throughout Central and South Asia, Chaghatai Turkic remained the junior partner to Persian, and was not promoted systemically in the Timurid Empire to replace Persian.[53] Chaghatai texts were found at Sultan Husayn Bayqara's court, but the Timurid chancery and court continued to use Persian.[58] Although the body of Turkic literature produced in Central Asia increased during the Timurid era of the fifteenth century—partially as a result of Mir 'Ali Shir Nawa'i's independent efforts toward the end of the Timurid century—it was still dwarfed by the Persian literary output that the Timurid elite supported.[59] There are no surviving Turkic historical work from the Timurids, although two Turkic histories seem to have been written during the Timurid period before the flowering of the Timurid historiography in Persian.[59]

Ten-Pointed Star Tile, mid-15th century. Brooklyn Museum, New York.

The golden age of Persian painting began during the reign of the Timurids.[60] During this period – and analogous to the developments in Safavid Iran – Chinese art and artists had a significant influence on Persian art.[37] Timurid artists refined the Persian art of the book, which combines paper, calligraphy, illumination, illustration and binding in a brilliant and colourful whole.[61] The Mongol ethnicity of the Chaghatayid and Timurid khans was the source of the stylistic depiction of Persian art during the Middle Ages. These same Mongols intermarried with the Persians and Turks of Central Asia, even adopting their religion and languages. Yet their simple control of the world at that time, particularly in the 13th–15th centuries, reflected itself in the idealised appearance of Persians as Mongols. Though the ethnic make-up gradually blended into the Iranian and Mesopotamian local populations, the Mongol stylism continued well after and crossed into Asia Minor and even North Africa.

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  Timurid deocrative element, Central Asia or Iran, 1375-1400
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  Fragmentary tombstone in the shape of a mihrab. Samarkand, 1385-1400. Louvre Museum OA 4080.[62]
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  The Angel Hinders the Offering of Isaac, Shiraz 1410.

Timurid architecture 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.[63] Timurid architecture is the pinnacle of Islamic art in Central Asia. Spectacular and stately edifices erected by Timur and his successors in Samarkand and Herat helped to disseminate the influence of the Ilkhanid school of art in India, thus giving rise to the celebrated Mughal (or Mongol) school of architecture. Timurid architecture started with the sanctuary of Ahmed Yasawi in present-day Kazakhstan and culminated in Timur's mausoleum Gur-e Amir in Samarkand. The 14th-century mausoleum of the conqueror is covered with "turquoise Persian tiles".[64] Nearby, in the center of the ancient town, a "Persian style madrasa" (religious school)[64] and a "Persian style mosque"[64] by Ulugh Beg is observed. The mausoleums of Timurid princes, with their turquoise and blue-tiled domes remain among the most refined and exquisite Persian architecture.[65] Axial symmetry is a characteristic of all major Timurid structures, notably the Shāh-e Zenda in Samarkand, the Musallah complex in Herat, and the mosque of Gawhar Shad in Mashhad. Double domes of various shapes abound, and the outsides are perfused with brilliant colors. Timur's dominance of the region strengthened the influence of his capital and Persian architecture upon India.[66] Timur used various tools for legitimisation, including urban planning in his capital, Samarkand.[67]

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  Akhangan's tomb, where Gawhar Shad's sister Gowhartāj is buried. The architecture is a fine example of the Timurid era in Persia.
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  Gur-e Amir, "Tomb of the King": Timur's tomb.
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  Façade of Bibi Khanym Mosque.
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  The Registan of Samarkand was first transformed into a monumental space during the Timurid period. Today, the Ulugh Beg Madrasa (left) still dates from this period.[68]

Eastern Mongol flags in the Catalan Atlas[77]

Possible "early Timurid" flag referenced by Kadoi.[77] The city in red script is camull (Khamil) in Xinjiang.[81]

Flag of the cities of Cathay (Mongol China) in the Catalan Atlas.[82][83][84]

Standards with a golden crescent are mentioned in different historical sources. Some miniatures depict the red banners of Timur's army. During the Indian campaign, a black banner with a silver dragon was used.[85] Before the campaign to China, however, Timur ordered the depiction of a golden dragon on the army's banners.[86]

There is little certainty about the actual flag of the Timurid Empire. Yuka Kadoi studied the possibility that the "brown or originally silver flag with three circles or balls" in the Catalan Atlas could be associated with the "earlier dominions of the Timurid Empire", specifically referencing a flag raised over the city of Camull (the modern city of Khamil in Xinjiang).[77][81]

Yuka Kadoi also noted the existence of Timur's umbrella detail with three-dots decorative motif, as well as some contemporary coins from Samarkand which also have the three circles as a motif.[77] Beyond that, the evidence remains scant and ambiguous, but according to Kadoi "one can reasonably conclude that the flag with a tri-partite motif had a certain iconographic association with the Timurid Empire".[87] For other authors, the flag with the three red crescent moons (), which is seen all over Mongol dominions in eastern Asia in the Catalan Atlas (dated to 1375), is simply intended as the flag of the Empire of the Great Khan (Yuan China).[84]

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  Timur's umbrella, with three golden dots symbols. Zafarnama of Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali, Yazdi. Shiraz, AH 839, 1436 CE (detail)
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  Timurid troops with red flag, in battle against Egyptian Mamluks, 1515.