Tamerlane is actually the name by which he became known to Europeans, who were largely spared the force of his wrath. Actually, his name was Timur (tee-MOOR), and an injury earned him the nickname Timur Lenk or "Timur the Lame," which became Tamerlane in European versions of his story.
He grew up in the region of the Chagatai khanate (chah-guh-TY KAHN-et), which included modern-day Uzbek-
"Timur... aspired to rival Chinghis [Genghis Khan]. In the extent of his conquests and the ferocity of his behavior, he did; he may even have been as great a leader of men. None the less, he lacked the statesmanship of his predecessors."
J. M. Roberts, The Age of Diverging Traditions
Portrait: Reproduced by permission of the Library of Congress.
Istan and other former Soviet republics in Central Asia. A century before his time, Genghis Khan had conquered the territory, which was named after one of his sons.
Tamerlane, who was born in 1336 near the city of Samarkand (sah-mur-KAHND) in what is now Uzbekistan, descended from the same Mongol stock as Genghis, though they were not related. His lineage was also partly Turkic, reflecting the heritage of other nomadic peoples who had swept over the region in centuries past. As a Muslim, he was thus related by both blood and religion to the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, who would later become some of his many victims.
World History
