-tamerlane-

prop. n. A Tatar conquerer, also called Timur or Timour (tē*môr") 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 Bāyezīd) had so triumphantly erected was shattered to the ground. This terrible conquerer was Timūr the Tatar, or as we call him, “Tamerlane”. Timūr was of Turkish race, and was born near Samarkand in 1333. He was consequently an old man of 70 when he came to encounter Bāyezīd 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. Timūr 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' (Mā-warā-n-nahr) as the Arabs called the country north of the Oxus. Once fairly established in this province, Timūr began to overrun the surrounding lands, and during thirty years his ruthless armies spread over the provinces of Asia, from Delhi 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 Timūr brought down from Central Asia. One and all, the kings and princes of Persia and Syria succumbed, and Timūr 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 Bāyezīd unmolested; partly because he was too powerful to be rashly provoked, and partly because Timūr respected the Sultan's valorous deeds against the Christians: for Timūr, though a wholesale butcher, was very conscientious in matters of religion, and held that Bāyezīd's fighting for the Faith rightly covered a multitude of sins. Poole, Story of Turkey, p. 63 [Century Dict. 1906]

Timour (tī*m&oomacr_;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 ]

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 ]

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 façade 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 https://web.archive.org/web/20110607205608/http://www.cpamedia.com/articles/20010215/) [ PJC ]

prop. n. A Tatar conquerer, also called Timur or Timour (tē*môr") 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 Bāyezīd) had so triumphantly erected was shattered to the ground. This terrible conquerer was Timūr the Tatar, or as we call him, “Tamerlane”. Timūr was of Turkish race, and was born near Samarkand in 1333. He was consequently an old man of 70 when he came to encounter Bāyezīd 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. Timūr 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' (Mā-warā-n-nahr) as the Arabs called the country north of the Oxus. Once fairly established in this province, Timūr began to overrun the surrounding lands, and during thirty years his ruthless armies spread over the provinces of Asia, from Delhi 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 Timūr brought down from Central Asia. One and all, the kings and princes of Persia and Syria succumbed, and Timūr 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 Bāyezīd unmolested; partly because he was too powerful to be rashly provoked, and partly because Timūr respected the Sultan's valorous deeds against the Christians: for Timūr, though a wholesale butcher, was very conscientious in matters of religion, and held that Bāyezīd's fighting for the Faith rightly covered a multitude of sins. Poole, Story of Turkey, p. 63 [Century Dict. 1906]

Timour (tī*m&oomacr_;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 ]

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 ]

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 façade 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 https://web.archive.org/web/20110607205608/http://www.cpamedia.com/articles/20010215/) [ PJC ]