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1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)
Timur
    n 1: Mongolian ruler of Samarkand who led his nomadic hordes to
         conquer an area from Turkey to Mongolia (1336-1405) [syn:
         Tamerlane, Tamburlaine, Timur, Timur Lenk]

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tamerlane \Ta*mer*lane"\ (t[a^]*m[~e]r*l[=a]n"), prop. n.
   A Tatar conquerer, also called Timur or Timour
   (t[=e]*m[^o]r") or Timur Bey, also Timur-Leng or
   Timur-i-Leng ('Timur the Lame'), which was corrupted to
   Tamerlane. He was born in Central Asia, 1333, a member of the
   Barslas, a Turkish Mongol tribe which had converted to Islam.
   He died 1405. Though he claimed descent from Jenghiz Khan, it
   is believed that he was in fact descended from a follower of
   the Khan. By 1370, Tamerlane, a renowned warrior, began
   consolidating his power among the various nomadic tribes of
   Central Asia by conquering the entire region. He became a
   ruler about 1370 of a realm whose capital was Samarkand;
   conquered Persia, Central Asia, and in 1398 a great part of
   India, including Delhi; waged war with the Turkish Sultan
   Bajazet I. (Beyazid), whom he defeated at Ankara in 1402 and
   took prisoner; and died while preparing to invade China. By
   the end of his life in 1405, after 35 years of campaigns and
   wars that left hundreds of thousands dead and enslaved, he
   had successfully defeated Ottoman Turks, Hindus, The Golden
   Horde, and other peoples and controlled an empire stretching
   from the Aegean to the River Ganges and threatened the
   trembling Kingdoms of Europe and the Eastern Roman Empire. He
   is the Tamerlaine of the plays.
   [Century Dict. 1906 + PJC]

         Just at the moment when the Sultan (Bajazet) seemed to
         have attained the pinnacle of his ambition, when his
         authority was unquestioningly obeyed over the greater
         part of the Byzantine Empire in Europe and Asia, when
         the Christian states were regarding him with terror as
         the scourge of the world, another and greater scourge
         came to quell him, and at one stroke all the vast
         fabric of empire which Bayezid (Beyazid or
         B[=a]yez[imac]d) had so triumphantly erected was
         shattered to the ground. This terrible conquerer was
         Tim[=u]r the Tatar, or as we call him, "Tamerlane".
         Tim[=u]r was of Turkish race, and was born near
         Samarkand in 1333. He was consequently an old man of 70
         when he came to encounter B[=a]yez[imac]d in 1402. It
         had taken him many years to establish his authority
         over a portion of the numerous divisions into which the
         immense empire of Chingiz Khan had fallen after the
         death of that stupendous conqueror. Tim[=u]r was but a
         petty chief among many others: but at last he won his
         way and became ruler of Samarkand and the whole
         province of Transoxiana, or 'Beyond the River'
         (M[=a]-war[=a]-n-nahr) as the Arabs called the country
         north of the Oxus. Once fairly established in this
         province, Tim[=u]r began to overrun the surrounding
         lands, and during thirty years his ruthless armies
         spread over the provinces of Asia, from Dehli to
         Damascus, and from the Sea of Aral to the Persian Gulf.
         The subdivision of the Moslem Empire into numerous
         petty kingdoms rendered it powerless to meet the
         overwhelming hordes which Tim[=u]r brought down from
         Central Asia. One and all, the kings and princes of
         Persia and Syria succumbed, and Tim[=u]r carried his
         banners triumphantly as far as the frontier of Egypt,
         where the brave Mamluk Sultans still dared to defy him.
         He had so far left B[=a]yez[imac]d unmolested; partly
         because he was too powerful to be rashly provoked, and
         partly because Tim[=u]r respected the Sultan's valorous
         deeds against the Christians: for Tim[=u]r, though a
         wholesale butcher, was very conscientious in matters of
         religion, and held that B[=a]yez[imac]d's fighting for
         the Faith rightly covered a multitude of sins. --Poole,
                                                  Story of
                                                  Turkey, p. 63
   [Century Dict. 1906]

   Note: Timour (t[imac]*m[=oo]r"), Timur, or TAMERLANE, was the
         second of the great conquerers whom central Asia sent
         forth in the middle ages, and was born at Kesh, about
         40 miles southeast of Samarkand, April 9, 1336. His
         father was a Turkish chieftain and his mother claimed
         descent from the great Genghis-Khan. When he became
         tribal chieftain, Timour helped the Amir Hussein to
         drive out the Kalmucks. Turkestan was thereupon divided
         between them, but soon war broke out between the two
         chiefs, and the death of Hussein in battle made Timour
         master of all Turkestan. He now began his career of
         conquest, overcoming the Getes, Khiva and Khorassin,
         after storming Herat. His ever-widening circle of
         possessions soon embraced Persia, Mesopotamia, Georgia,
         and the Mongol state, Kiptchak. He threatened Moscow,
         burned Azoo, captured Delhi, overran Syria, and stormed
         Bagdad, which had revolted. At last, July 20, 1402,
         Timour met the Sultan Bajazet of the Ottoman Turks, on
         the plains of Ankara, captured him and routed his army,
         thus becoming master of the Turkish empire. He took but
         a short rest at his capital, Samarkand, and in his
         eagerness to conquer China, led his army of 200,000
         across the Jaxartes on the ice, and pushed rapidly on
         for 300 miles, when his death, Feb. 18, 1405, saved the
         independence of China. Though notorious for his acts of
         cruelty -- he may have slaughtered 80,000 in Delhi --
         he was a patron of the arts. In his reign of 35 years,
         this chief of a small tribe, dependent on the Kalmucks,
         became the ruler of the vast territory stretching from
         Moscow to the Ganges. A number of writings said to have
         been written by Timour have been preserved in Persian,
         one of which, the Institutions, has been translated
         into English. --The Student's Cyclopedia, 1897.
         [PJC]

   Note: There is a story about an incident when an
         archaeologist opened Timur's tomb at the Gur-Amir
         mausoleum in Samarkand, which was erected in 1404.
         Timur and several of his descendants, including Ulugh
         Beg, are interred in that magnificent structure in the
         south-western side of Samarkand. In the mausoleum,
         mosaics made out of light- and dark-blue glazed bricks
         decorate the walls and the drum, and the tiled
         geometrical designs of the cupola shine brightly in the
         sun. Restoration work was started in 1967; the exterior
         cupola and glazed decorations were restored before
         that, in the 1950s. The mausoleum holds tombstones made
         of marble and onyx, the tombstone of Timur is carved
         from a slab of nephrite. The burials proper are placed
         in a crypt under the mausoleum.
         In 1941, a distinguished Soviet scientist, M.
         Gerasimov, received permission to exhume Tamerlane's
         body. On June 22, 1941, working in the Samarkand crypt,
         he opened the sarcophagus to study the body and found
         the inscription: "Whoever opens this will be defeated
         by an enemy more fearsome than I." Hours later, Hitler
         invaded Russia. Five weeks after the great Emir was
         reinterred in 1942, the Germans surrendered at
         Stalingrad.
         Examination of the remains in Timur's tomb confirmed
         that the body was tall, as was reported in the
         histories, and had been wounded in the leg and arm.
         The actual inscription on the tomb has been reported
         variously:
         "He whomsoever shall disturb the earthly resting place
         of Timur-i-Lenk (Tamerlane), then his country shall
         suffer such terrible retribution as the Hand of Allah
         shall visit upon it."
         "When I rise, the World will Tremble".
         [PJC]

               Timur's Legacy: The Architecture of Samarkand
               Let he who doubt Our power and munificence look
               upon Our buildings
               Amir Timur, 1379 AD
               Timur, better known in the West as Tamerlane from
               his nickname Timur-i-leng or "Timur the Lame",
               was the last of the great nomadic warriors to
               sweep out of Central Asia and shake the world. As
               befits a man styled "World Conqueror", we know a
               lot about him -- and not all of it good. In 1336,
               at Shakhrisabz in present-day Uzbekistan, the
               wife of a minor chief of the Mongol Barlas clan
               gave birth to a son with blood-filled palms, a
               sure omen that the infant was predestined to
               cause the death of many. He was given an
               appropriate name -- Timur means "iron" in Turkish
               -- and raised in the Turkic-Islamic tradition of
               the surrounding steppe as a rider, archer and
               swordsman.
               Even by the harsh standards of the Mongol hordes,
               Timur excelled. Before he was twenty years old he
               had attracted a band of followers with whom he
               ranged across the steppe raiding caravans and
               rustling horses. In 1360 his skills as a
               commander were rewarded when he was recognised as
               chief of the Barlas clan. Over the next ten years
               he steadily extended his influence over
               Transoxiana -- the region between the Oxus and
               Jaxartes Rivers centred on present-day Uzbekistan
               -- acquiring wounds to his right arm and leg in
               the process, and hence his nickname. In 1370 he
               conquered Turkistan, the last surviving Mongol
               Khanate, and declared himself Amir or
               "Commander". He made the Silk Road city of
               Samarkand his capital, and then embarked on a
               series of military conquests that rocked Asia and
               Europe to their very foundations.
               For 35 years Timur's forces ranged far and wide,
               repeatedly sweeping across Central Asia, Iran,
               Turkey and northern India. In 1405 Timur was
               preparing his greatest expedition ever, aimed at
               conquering China, when he was struck down by
               fever. Despite the best efforts of his doctors,
               to the sound of massive thunderclaps and "foaming
               like a camel dragged backwards by the rein",
               Timur finally succumbed. The Ming Emperor must
               have breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief when he
               eventually heard the news.
               Historians estimate that Timur, who personally
               led his forces as far afield as Moscow and Delhi,
               may have been responsible for the death of as
               many as 15 million people. Yet he made little
               attempt to consolidate his conquests, preferring
               to mount regular, devastating attacks against his
               neighbours before returning to his native
               Transoxiana. As a consequence, the dynasty he
               established proved to be short-lived, though in
               1526 Timur's great, great, great grandson Babur
               restored the family fortunes by conquering Delhi
               and founding the resplendent Mogul Empire.
               Timur must have been an enigma to his
               contemporaries. Brutal and utterly ruthless, he
               was nevertheless a man of culture. He is said to
               have been illiterate, but fluent in Turkish and
               Persian. Sources speak of his sharp wit and
               hunger for knowledge. When not out and about
               slaughtering his neighbours, he indulged in
               passionate debate with scholars of history,
               medicine and astronomy. He enjoyed playing chess.
               Above all, he seems to have loved his capital,
               Samarkand, and he spent much time between
               campaigns embellishing this previously
               undistinguished city. To help in this great
               enterprise, he plundered cities like Damascus,
               Baghdad, Isfahan and Delhi not just for the loot,
               but for their skilled artisans, who were brought
               back to make Samarkand a city worthy of the
               "World Conqueror". As a consequence the warlike
               Timur's most lasting and unlikely legacy remains
               the unsurpassed architectural jewel of Central
               Asia.
               With Timur's death Transoxiana began a long
               period of decline, culminating in gradual Russian
               conquest during the 19th century. Samarkand had
               long been inaccessible to outsiders because of
               the xenophobia and religious bigotry of the
               ruling amirs. This situation was compounded in
               1920, when the Red Army seized control of the
               region and began a process of Sovietisation. In
               1924 Samarkand was included within the frontiers
               of the new Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, and a
               curtain of silence fell across the region with
               Westerners, in particular, being rigorously
               excluded.
               Only in the 1980s did the veil begin to rise, and
               then within a few short years the former USSR
               disintegrated, resulting in the birth of
               independent Uzbekistan in 1991. Although ruled by
               a suspicious and innately cautious former Soviet
               aparatchik, Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan is today
               slowly opening to foreign tourism. It should do
               well. The cities of Bukhara and Khiva, together
               with Timur's capital at Samarkand, are truly
               magnificent. In places, it's as though time stood
               still. It didn't of course. The Soviets worked
               long and hard to restore what remained of Timurid
               Samarkand, and Uzbekistan stands to benefit
               greatly as a result. Moreover, the process
               continues apace, both in spiritual terms -- Timur
               is now an Uzbek national hero -- and at a more
               mundane level. Everywhere the chip of
               stonemasons' hammers is to be heard, and a whole
               new generation of skilled craftsmen is being
               trained to restore the architectural legacy of
               the "Iron Limper".
               The historic heart of Samarkand is the Registan,
               an open square dominated by three great madrassa,
               or Islamic colleges. George Curzon, later to
               become Viceroy of India, visited in 1899 and was
               moved enough to describe the Registan as "the
               noblest public square in the world". He
               continues: "No European spectacle can be
               adequately compared to it, in our inability to
               point to an open space in any western city that
               is commanded on three of its four sides by Gothic
               cathedrals of the finest order". The architecture
               is distinctively Timurid, being characterised by
               an extraordinarily lavish use of colour,
               especially emerald, azure, deep blue and gold.
               The great domes are fluted, the vast porticoes
               richly decorated with corkscrew columns and
               intricately-patterned glazed tiles.
               Astonishingly, the fa�ade of the Shir Dor
               Madrassa on the east side of the square is
               decorated with half-tiger, half-lion creatures
               stalking deer, whilst a blazing sun with a human
               face rises behind the beast of prey's back. In
               Islam, such representational art is generally
               forbidden, and it is wonderful that these clearly
               heretical images have survived through the long
               centuries since they were created.
               Samarkand -- let alone Uzbekistan -- has too many
               Timurid gems to describe in one short article,
               but after the Registan, the monumental Bibi
               Khanum Mosque is perhaps the most extraordinary
               sight in the city. Built for Timur's chief wife,
               Saray Mulk Khanum, this magnificent building was
               financed by the plunder brought back from Delhi
               in 1398; it is said that 95 elephants were used
               in hauling marble for the mosque. On Bibi
               Khanum's completion a chronicler was moved to
               write: "Its dome would have been unique had it
               not been for the heavens, and unique would have
               been its portal had it not been for the Milky
               Way". Even so, historians have shown that in his
               plans for the Bibi Khanum, Timur's vision
               exceeded the architectural possibilities of the
               time. Quite simply, the lofty iwan (portico) and
               the towering minarets were too ambitious for the
               technology of the time -- especially in a land
               prone to violent earthquakes. By all accounts,
               parts of the giant mosque began to collapse
               within months of its consecration. Today all
               three massive azure domes have been restored, and
               work still continues, though this time with
               ferro-concrete supports hidden behind the
               elaborate glazed tilework, on the lofty iwan and
               minarets. When the restoration is complete in
               around 2002, Uzbekistan will have yet another
               architectural marvel to draw visitors.
               Finally and fittingly we turn to the Gur-i Amir,
               or "Tomb of the Ruler", Timur's own last resting
               place. This fabulous structure, which was
               completed in 1404, is dominated by the octagonal
               mausoleum and its peerless fluted dome, azure in
               colour, with 64 separate ribs. Within lie the
               remains not only of Timur, but also of various
               members of his family, including his grandson the
               scholar-king Ulugh Beg. Timur's tomb is protected
               by a single slab of jade, said to be the largest
               in the world. Brought back by Ulugh Beg from
               Mongolia in 1425, it was broken in half in the
               18th century by the Persian ruler Nadir Shah, who
               tried to remove it from the chamber. Carved into
               the jade is an inscription in Arabic: "When I
               rise, the World will Tremble".
               Coincidence, no doubt, but on the night of June
               22, 1941, the Russian Scientist M. Gerasimov
               began his exhumation of Timur's remains. Within
               hours Hitler's armies crashed across the Soviet
               frontier signalling the beginning of the Nazi
               invasion. Gerasimov's investigations showed that
               Timur had been a tall man for his race and time,
               lame, as recorded, in his right leg, and with a
               wound to his right arm. Surprisingly, red hair
               still clung to the skull from which Gerasimov
               reconstructed a bronze bust. Eventually Timur's
               remains were reinterred with full Muslim burial
               rites, giving truth to the message thundered in
               Arabic script three metres high from the
               cylindrical drum of the great conqueror's
               mausoleum: "Only God is Immortal".
                                                  --Andrew
                                                  Forbes/CPA
         (Text copyright 2001.)
         (from http://www.cpamedia.com/articles/20010215/)
         [PJC]

3. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Timur \Timur\, Timur-leng \Timur-leng\prop. n.
   See Tamerlane.

   Syn: Tamerlane, Timour.
        [PJC]

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