Tamerlane’s Last Battle
The raw-edged wind moaned through the tent stays. Sleet and flecks of snow reinforced its sting. Groups of shaggy ponies stood side by side, nose to tail, seeking to shelter themselves from its bite. Soldiers drew their heads between their shoulders to escape the agony of cold that ached in their joints and cracked their cheeks.
Inside the largest tent of all, in the central cluster of the encampment that sprawled for miles across the dull plain, an old man lay dying. The scene was Central Asia, some three hundred miles from Samarkand. The time was exactly 567 years ago.
The aged warrior beneath the furs was Tamerlane, now 70 years old, born the son of a minor chieftain in the fertile land of Cash. From this humble origin, not much better than that of a peasant, his ambition, energy, and ruthlessness had driven him ceaselessly to conquer kingdom after kingdom. In his long life, he soldiered on 35 campaigns, and among the fruits of victory, he had some 27 regal crowns placed upon his prematurely white head.
As a young man, he became a rebel in a land that was then in disorder. The khans of Transoxiana had died out, and his leaderless homeland had been invaded by Uzbecks. He organized a rising against the foreign tyranny and waited with 60 warriors in the hills above Samarkand for the war chiefs of Transoxiana to rally to his aid.
They did not come, and after waiting seven days, he and his loyal band took to the desert, where they were forced to battle with a thousand pursuers. They beat them off with ferocious slaughter. After the battle, Tamerlane was left with but seven companions and four horses… and a reputation as a courageous and terrible fighting man.
It was said that during his desert wanderings, he received a wound in the foot that left him lame for the remainder of his days. (Timurlenk means Timur the Lame, which has been corrupted into Tamerlane.) Other authorities say that he was born with a crippled foot and arm.
Tamerlane spent several years wandering and fighting in the desert. Gradually, his band of followers grew until they were strong enough to drive the Uzbecks right out of the kingdom. Thus, at the age of 36, Tamerlane had won his first crown, the fertile kingdom of Transoxiana. Fabulous Samarkand was his capital.
One kingdom was not enough for Tamerlane, a man of voracious ambition. He claimed descent or kinship from the mighty Genghis Khan, the conqueror of all Asia from China to the gates of Europe.
For over 40 years, the vast lands of Persia had been without a ruler. Tamerlane set out with his army to end that state of disorder. One by one, he defeated the petty chieftains that opposed him, cities opened their gates to him or were starved and battered into submission. His troops advanced to the mouth of the Persian Gulf and captured the fabulously wealthy city of Ormuz. He then set out on a merciless Holy War against the Christians who lived in the mountains around Tiflis between the Black and Caspian Seas.
In 1390, when over 50 years old, he marched his warrior armies across the Russian plains and through the endless forests of Siberia. This mighty host of invaders lived off the land, stripping it of crops and game animals, for none could escape. Villages vanished beneath pillars of smoke, the occupants were slaughtered, and their farm animals devoured.
After months of wandering in the Russian domains of the Golden Horde of Tartary, the massive armies met in headlong conflict at the battle of Urtupia and again four years later on the banks of the Terek. Laden with vast quantities of spoil, his great triumphant armies abandoned the desolate landscape without actually reaching Moscow.
Now the old man who had conquered kingdoms and empires from the Persian Gulf to Muscovy lay restless with fever and delirium. His servants chilled his perspiring body with icy water. He shuddered and fell back to his dreams of glory. He had many.
For Tamerlane had marched his great armies across the mountains and deserts into India. He arrived before the gates of Delhi in 1308 and lured the Sultan Mahmoud and his 50,000 warriors from the fortress to do battle on the plain.
One hundred and twenty elephants advanced with the Sultan’s army but turned in panic when faced with ditches filled with fire and ramparts of iron spikes and bucklers. The monstrous beasts caused more havoc in their own army than among the invading foe.
Delhi was captured and admired enough by Tamerlane for him to copy its style in Samarkand before he leveled it to the ground!
Hunger for power and conquest burned fiercely throughout the long life of Tamerlane. Already his armies had ranged far to the north, the south, and the east.
In the west was the powerful Moslem empire of Sultan Bajazet, and beyond that the great powers of Europe. Tamerlane marched into Turkey, besieging and destroying cities that barred his way. Four thousand Armenian defenders were buried alive for daring to oppose the armed might of Tamerlane.
He swung south into Syria, and with elephants and Greek fire, he routed the crack regiments of Mamelukes who rushed to the defense of Aleppo. The city was entered, almost the entire population was slaughtered, and their skulls were piled high in grotesque pyramids in honor of the Mogul victory. The ancient city of Damascus was later reduced to smoldering ashes.
Nothing could withstand the terror and the destructive power of Tamerlane. Baghdad he laid in ruins in the summer heat of July 1401, and 90,000 heads were stacked in a gruesome triumphal pyramid on the debris.
By this time, Tamerlane had the experience of 30 years of almost continual warfare behind him. His massed foot soldiers advanced in disciplined order. His squadrons of cavalry swirled around the enemy like flames, destroying blades of dry grass.
Bajazet, so it was said, was captured and placed in an iron cage until he died. The ravening hordes of Tamerlane were let loose to plunder and burn the wealthy cities of the Sultanate.
Tamerlane returned to Samarkand in triumph. There were celebrations, carnivals, feasts, and the marriage of six grandsons. Massive quantities of meat and flasks of wine were gathered for the occasion, whole forests were cut down to provide cooking fuel, tents, and pavilions crammed with the spoil looted from many nations and empires covered acres of ground. Thousands attended the banquets, which lasted for two joyous months!
Although now 70 years old, Tamerlane’s ambition would not let him rest content. He must move on – many kingdoms and empires were his, but not the whole world. His spies had informed him of disunity and weakness in the great Empire of China.
A campaign was organized. Depots were set up along the intended line of march. In the winter of 1405, he set out, with 200,000 veteran warriors following his standard. Five hundred wagons carried baggage and supplies. China would soon be listed among the conquests of Tamerlane…
But 300 miles from Samarkand, age and fever struck him down. He died in his tent, and with him died the empire that had been built at the cost of unknown millions of lives, the destruction of cities by the score, and villages and settlements by the thousand.
