A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Timur and the Timurids 125
in which he showed a mastery and endurance quite comparable to
Genghis Khan’s.In one respect, however, he never could match his
model’s stature: that of the legitimacy of rule.While Genghis Khan was
unencumbered by the overpowering prestige of any rival regal figure or
dynasty during his arduous beginning and ultimate hegemony, Timur’s
rise and hold on power was in this sense more difficult: by his time, the
charisma of Genghisid descent was so great that virtually no nomadic
ruler in Inner Asia, from those of the Golden Horde all the way to those
of Sinkiang and Mongolia, felt legitimate unless he possessed it or could
state that he was ruling in a Genghisid’s name.There were various ways
to do the latter: alliance through marriage or setting a puppet scion of
the house of Genghis Khan on the throne and ruling in his name were
the most frequent ones, and Timur had recourse to both.He thus never
assumed the supreme title of khan but only that of amir and gurgan,more
correctly küregen, a Mongol term meaning son-in-law – by virtue of his
marriage to a princess of the Genghisid line.A symptom of the purely
formal value of the second stratagem, that of setting up puppet khans
of Genghisid descent, and of the latter’s function as tools in Timur’s
hands, is the fact that the specific line he chose in 1370 was Ögedeyid
rather than Chaghatayid.On the other hand, unlike Genghis Khan,
Timur could claim the right to rule in virtue of being an Islamic
monarch whose success reflected God’s will.It seems, however, that this
posture played a rather marginal role in Timur’s case, and that the main
thrust of his confidence and authority was generated by his political and
military genius.
Timur’s military exploits were spectacular.His campaigns spanned
Eurasia from eastern Sinkiang to southern Russia – Moscow escaped
sack by sheer luck – to India, Syria, and Anatolia.Sacked or conquered
cities such as Delhi, Isfahan, Baghdad, Damascus, Saray, and Izmir
reveal their range.He won signal victories over such adversaries as
Tokhtamish, khan of the Golden Horde, in 1395, Nasir al-din
Mahmudshah, the sultan of Delhi, in 1398, and Bayezid I, the Ottoman
sultan, in 1402.Nevertheless, the empire he founded was in no way comparable
to that established by Genghis Khan, either in size or structure;
and his sons and grandsons themselves lacked the conquering verve of
the successors of Genghis Khan.In this may lie one secret of “Genghisid
charisma,” derived from an altogether unprecedented, and subsequently
unequaled, imperial edifice.
Timur died in 1405 at Otrar – a curious coincidence, for that was the
locality where the incident of 1218 provoked Genghis Khan’s invasion