Tamerlane TIMURS INVASION 1398 99 Timur or Timurlane

Tamerlane

TIMUR’S INVASION (1398 -99) Timur or Timurlane was a mighty conqueror of Central Asia, who ruled from his capital at Samarqand. He invaded India in 1398 during the reign of Mahmud Tughlaq. He occupied Delhi on December 18, 1398 and remained there for 15 days. Delhi was sacked and plundered. The Tughlaq empire could never recover from such a terrible blow and came to an end in 1412.

TIMUR 1. Timur the Lame, so called because he walked with a limp since half of his body was paralyzed, was the warlord king of a nomadic tribe based in what is now present-day Uzbekistan. 2. His name was later Westernized to Tamerlane 3. Tamerlane (1336 -1405) led his tribal army all around Central Asia pillaging or plundering any towns he came across. 4. Though he thought of himself as the descendent of Genghis Khan destined to conquer an Empire greater than that of Alexander, he didn't have much interest in governing such a huge area. He would just invade a country, slaughter its citizens and plunder it of all its wealth. 5. When he conquered the Ottoman Empire, he ripped the Byzantine gates of the capital city and had them installed in his own capital.

TIMUR 6. Tamerlane, while reputedly intellectual and scholarly, was also ruthlessly bloodthirsty. He was notorious for creating gigantic pyramids of human skulls outside of towns he had sacked. His strategy was to be so ruthless that nobody in their right minds would cross him. 7. It only took the slaughter of a couple of towns before other towns facing similar misfortune in the event of a defeat, surrendered their freedom and all their worldly possessions to him. He was a brilliant military tactician 8. During his lifetime he conquered all of Central Asia, Turkey, India and parts of Mongolia, but died on his way to a full-scale invasion of Ming China

THE SAYYID DYNASTY (1414 -1450) After Mahmud Tughlaq, Delhi remained without a king for two years. Then Khizr Khan, the viceroy of Timur, ascended the throne in 1414. Khizr Khan was a Sayyid hence the dynasty is called the Sayyid dynasty. The four rulers dynasty neither assumed the title of sultan nor struck coins in their names. The last ruler Ala-ud-din Alam Shah gave up the kingdom to Bah. Iol Lodi, the Afghan governor of Punjab, in 1451. Thus began the rule of the Lodis.