The Mongol Empire and the emergence of Timur

We have surveyed the sieges of Europe (and Rus’), north Africa and the middle east during the first decades of the century in which gunpowder weapons appeared, a time marked by social upheavals and marred by plagues and apparently incessant warfare in every country. During this same period, the history of Asia came to be dominated by the extraordinary career of a single man, the creator of the last great nomad empire. The empire of Timur would stretch from the border of China to Asia Minor, from Delhi to the Russian steppe, and never during his life was this remarkable leader ever defeated. At his death, he was preparing an invasion of China, where the Ming dynasty had ruled since 1368, and who can say that the immense forces of Timur would not have repeated the conquests of his predecessors Genghis and Kubilai Khan had he survived a little longer? Timur has been an object of fascination or horror ever since. But his empire, constructed with extraordinary political skill as well as military prowess, would not survive him, as it was based on creating loyalty to him personally.

The Mongol empire, now divided into several khanates, disintegrated as rival local dynasties became established. The Golden Horde had divided into several parts, with the Blue Horde becoming established east of the river Volga, and the regime of the Ilkhanids based in Iran had fallen apart altogether after 1335. The situation was promising for an ambitious and capable leader. The early part of Timur's rise saw his progress from being, basically, a bandit with a small following among the Barlas tribe in that part of central Asia assigned previously to Ghengis's son Chaghadai, to the capture of sole power in that region, with a base at Samarkand, during the 1360s. By 1370 that task had been largely accomplished and the new emir (who had found himself a puppet Khan from the old ruling family to front his rule) could begin his path of wider conquest. During these years, there was little reason for siege warfare. The forces involved were nomads, and the settled populations of the towns and cities either were not involved in the conflicts at all, or else were inclined simply to admit the victors.