Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World
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A powerful account of the life of Tamerlane the Great (1336-1405), the last master nomadic power, one of history’s most extreme tyrants, and the subject of Marlowe’s famous play. Marozzi travelled in the footsteps of the great Mogul Emperor of Samarkland to write this wonderful combination of history and travelogue.The name of the last great warlord conjures up images of mystery and romance: medieval warfare on desert plains; the clash of swords on snow-clad mountains; the charge of elephants across the steppes of Asia; the legendary opulence and cruelty of the illiterate, chess-playing nemesis of Asia. He ranks alongside Alexander as one of the world’s great conquerors, yet the details of his life are scarcely known in the West.He was not born to a distinguished family, nor did he find his apprenticeship easy – at one point his mobile army consisted only of himself, his wife, seven companions and four horses – but his dominion grew with astonishing rapidity. In the last two decades of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth, he blazed through Asia. Cities were razed to the ground, inhabitants tortured without mercy, sometimes enemies were buried alive – more commonly they were decapitated. On the ruins of Baghdad, Tamerlane had his princes erect a pyramid of 90,000 heads.During his lifetime he sought to foster a personal myth, exaggerating the difficulties of his youth, laying claim to supernatural powers and a connection to Genghis Khan. This myth was maintained after his death in legend, folklore, poetry, drama and even opera, nowhere more powerfully than in Marlowe’s play – he is now as much a literary construct as a historical figure. Justin Marozzi follows in his path and evokes his legacy in telling the tale of this fabulously cruel, magnificent and romantic warrior.
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Justin Marozzi. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World
TAMERLANE. Sword of Islam,Conqueror of the World. JUSTIN MAROZZI
Dedication
Contents
A Note on Spelling and Terminology
1 Beginnings on the Steppe 1336–1370
2 Marlowe’s ‘Scourge of God’ 1370–1379
3 ‘The Greatest and Mightiest of Kings’
4 Conquest in the West 1379–1387
5 The Golden Horde and the Prodigal Son 1387–1395
6 Samarkand, the ‘Pearl of the East’ 1396–1398
7 India 1398–1399
8 ‘This Pilgrimage of Destruction’ 1399–1401
9 Bayazid the Thunderbolt 1402
10 The Celestial Empire 1403–1404
11 ‘How that Proud Tyrant was Broken & Borne to the House of Destruction, where he had his Constant Seat in the Lowest Pit of Hell’ 1404–1405
12 An Empire Dies, Another is Born
APPENDIX A Chronology of Temur’s Life
APPENDIX B Events in Europe in the Fourteenth Century
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Praise
By the Same Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
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This book is dedicated to my motherand to the memory of my father
Title Page
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‘The walls are panelled with gold and blue tiles, and the ceiling is entirely of gold work,’ noted the incredulous Clavijo. It is clear from his breathless narrative that the Spanish envoy was not expecting anything like this untold splendour. Nor at this time would any other European, for whom the Orient was a dark, barbaric world. ‘From this room we were taken up into the galleries, and in these likewise everywhere the walls were of gilt tiles,’ Clavijo continued.
We saw indeed here so many apartments and separate chambers, all of which were adorned in tile work of blue and gold with many other colours … Next they showed us the various apartments where Temur was wont to be and to occupy when he came here with his wives; all of which were very sumptuously adorned as to floors and walls and ceilings … we visited a great banqueting hall which Temur was having built wherein to feast with the princesses, and this was gorgeously adorned, being very spacious, while beyond the same they were laying out a great orchard in which were planted many and diverse fruit trees, with others to give shade. These stood round water basins beside which there were laid out fine lawns of turf. This orchard was of such an extent that a very great company might conveniently assemble here, and in the summer heat enjoy the cool air beside that water in the shade of these trees.
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