Timurid Empire
▶ Explore on the mapThe Timurid empire was built by Timur, or Tamerlane, and his descendants across Central Asia, Persia and northern India between 1370 and 1507. Timur, a Turco-Mongol emir who claimed descent from both Genghis Khan and the Prophet, took Samarkand in 1370 and spent thirty years campaigning: he defeated the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria at Aleppo in 1402, took Delhi in 1398, and left pyramids of skulls outside cities that resisted. He never kept the lands he took, ruling them through vassals, but he filled Samarkand with buildings: the Bibi-Khanym mosque, the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum where he lies, and observatories whose measurements were the best in the world. After his death in 1405 the empire was fought over by his sons and grandsons, yet this was the age of Ulugh Beg's star catalogue, of the miniature painters of Herat, and of the poet Jami. The dynasty produced Babur, who invaded India in 1526 and founded the Mughal empire. Uzbek tribes took Samarkand and Balkh by 1507, and the last Timurid rulers held only India. His grandson Ulugh Beg built an observatory whose star catalogue remained the most accurate in the world until Tycho Brahe. The empire's poets wrote in Persian, the language of its courts.