Timur

Timur (1336–1405) was a Turco-Mongol conqueror from Transoxiana who founded the Timurid Empire. He was born near Kesh into the Turkified Mongol Barlas tribe. Around 1363 arrows wounded his leg and right hand, in one account while stealing a sheep, laming him: the Persian Temur-i Lang, Timur the Lame, inspired the name Tamerlane.

Not Genghis Khan's descendant, he ruled as emir behind a puppet Chagatai khan. By 1370 he held the western Chagatai Khanate, and from Samarkand conquered Persia, defeated Tokhtamysh in 1395, sacked Delhi in 1398 and crushed the Ottomans at Ankara in 1402, capturing Bayezid. Scholars estimate his wars killed millions.

In December 1404 he marched against Ming China, fell ill beyond the Syr Darya and died at Farab in February 1405, and was buried at Gur-e-Amir. The empire fragmented; his grandson Ulugh Beg ruled in 1411–1449 and his descendant Babur founded the Mughal Empire.