The grandiose campaigns of conquest of Genghis Khan and his descendants led to the appearance on the political map of the world of a huge empire stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf. The lands of Central Asia were given to the second son of Genghis Khan - Jagatay. However, the sons and grandsons of Chinggis quickly quarreled among themselves, as a result, most of the members of the Jagatai house were exterminated and for a short time the rulers of the Golden Horde came to power in Maverannahr - first Batu Khan, and then Berke. However, in the 60s of the XIII century, the grandson of Jagatai Alguy managed to defeat the henchmen of the Golden Horde khans and become the ruler of his hereditary lands. Despite the absence of strong external enemies, the Dzhagatai ulus did not last long and at the beginning of the XIV century. split into two parts - Maverannahr and Mogolistan. The reason for this was the struggle between the Mongolian clans, some of which (Jelair and Barlas) fell under the spell of Islamic culture and settled in the cities of Maverannahr. In contrast to them, the Mongols of Semirechye continued to preserve the purity of the nomadic tradition, calling the Barlas and Dzhelaiirs karaunas, that is, mestizos, half-breeds. Those, in turn, called the Mongols of Semirechye and Kashgar dzhete (robbers) and viewed them as backward and rude barbarians. Despite the fact that the nomads of Mogolistan for the most part professed Islam, the inhabitants of Maverannahr did not recognize them as Muslims and until the 15th century they were sold into slavery as infidels. However, the Jagatays of Maverannahr retained many of the habits of their Mongolian ancestors (for example, a braid and the habit of wearing an uncut mustache hanging over the lip), and therefore the inhabitants of the surrounding countries, in turn, did not consider them "their own: for example, in 1372 the ruler of Khorezm Hussein Sufi told Ambassador Timur: "Your kingdom is an area of war (ie, the possession of the infidels), and the duty of a Muslim is to fight you."
The last Chingizid in the Maverannakhr part of the Dzhagatai ulus, Kazan Khan, died in an internecine war led by a supporter of the old traditions, Bek Kazagan (in 1346). The winner did not accept the khan's title: confining himself to the title of emir, he started dummy khans from the clan of Genghis Khan at his court (later Timur and Mamai followed this path). In 1358 Kazagan was killed while hunting and Maverannahr plunged into a state of complete anarchy. Shakhrisabz obeyed Haji Barlas, Khujand obeyed Bayazed, the head of the Jelair clan, Balkh obeyed Kazagan's grandson Hussein, and numerous petty princes ruled in the Badakhshan mountains. As a result of these events, Maverannahr turned out to be the prey of Toklug-Timur Khan of Mogolistan, who in 1360-1361. invaded this country. And then our hero - the son of the Barlas Bek Taragai Timur - appeared on the stage of history.
Timur. Conqueror's bust
According to an ancient legend, Timur was born gray-haired and with a piece of caked blood in his hand. It happened on the 25th of Shaban 736, i.e. April 9 (according to other sources - May 7) 1336 in the village of Khoja Ilgar near the city of Shakhrisyabz. Since childhood, Timur loved horses, was an excellent archer, early showed the qualities of a leader, and therefore, already in his youth, he was surrounded by his peers.
"They say, - wrote the ambassador of the Castilian king Henry III, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, - that he (Timur), with the help of his four or five servants, began to rob his neighbors one day of a ram, another day of a cow."
Gradually, a whole detachment of well-armed people gathered around the successful young bek-robber, with whom he attacked the lands of neighbors and caravans of merchants. Some sources (including Russian chronicles) claim that it was during one of these raids that he was wounded in his right arm and right leg. The wounds healed, but Timur remained lame forever and received his famous nickname - Timurleng (lame) or, in European transcription, Tamerlane. However, in fact, this wound was received by Timur much later. The Armenian chronicler Thomas of Metzop, for example, reports that Timur "was wounded by two arrows in 1362 in a battle with the Turkmen in Seistan". And so it was. Many years later (in 1383) Timur met the leader of his enemies in Seistan and ordered to shoot him with bows.
The Russian chronicle calls Timur Temir-Aksak ("Iron Lamer"), claiming that he was "an iron blacksmith" and even "bound his broken leg with iron". Here the Russian author identifies with Ibn Arabshah, the author of the book "Miracles of Predestination in the Events (Life) of Timur", who also mentions this profession of the future ruler of half the world.
In May-June 1941 M. Gerasimov made an attempt to create a sculptural portrait of Tamerlane based on the study of the structure of his skeleton. For this purpose, the tomb of Timur was opened in the Gur-Emir mausoleum. It turned out that the height of the conqueror was 170 cm (in those days, people of this height were considered tall). Based on the structure of the skeleton, it was concluded that Tamerlane was indeed wounded by arrows in his right arm and leg, and traces of numerous bruises remained. In addition, it was found that Tamerlane's right leg was affected by a tuberculous process and this disease probably caused him great suffering. The researchers suggested that when riding a horse, Timur should have felt better than when walking. When examining the bones of the pelvis, vertebrae and ribs, it was concluded that Tamerlane's torso was skewed in such a way that the left shoulder was higher than the right, however, this should not have affected the proud head position. At the same time, it was noted that at the time of Timur's death, there were almost no signs of age-related phenomena associated with the general decrepitude of the body, and the biological age of the 72-year-old conqueror did not exceed 50 years. The remnants of hair made it possible to conclude that Timur had a small, thick wedge-shaped beard and a long mustache hanging freely over his lip. Hair color - red with gray hair. The data of the studies carried out coincide with the memories of Timur's appearance left by some contemporaries: Thomas Metsopsky: Lame Timur … from the offspring of Chingiz in the female line. their nomads in Asia, were people of tall stature, red-bearded and blue-eyed).
Ibn Arabshah: "Timur was well built, tall, had an open forehead, a large head, a strong voice, and his strength was not inferior to his courage; a bright blush enlivened the whiteness of his face. He had broad shoulders, thick fingers, long hips, strong muscles He wore a long beard, his right arm and leg were mutilated. His gaze was rather affectionate. He neglected death; and although he lacked a little until the age of 80, when he died, he still had not lost either his genius or his fearlessness. He was the enemy of lies, jokes did not amuse him … He loved to listen to the truth, no matter how cruel it was."
The Spanish ambassador Clavijo, who saw Timur shortly before his death, reports that the lameness of the "seigneur" was invisible when the body was upright, but his eyesight was very weak, so that he could barely see the Spaniards very close to him. Timur's finest hour came in 1361. He was 25 years old when Toklug-Timur, Khan of Mogolistan, without meeting any resistance, seized the lands and cities of Maverannahr. The ruler of Shakhrisyabz, Haji Barlas, fled to Khorasan, while Timur chose to enter the service of the Mongol khan, who handed over the Kashka-Darya vilayet to him. However, when Toklug-Timur, leaving his son Ilyas-Khoja in Maverannahr, left for the steppes of Mogolistan, Timur stopped reckoning with the nomads and even freed 70 descendants of the prophets of Muhammad, who were imprisoned by newcomers from the north. Thus, Timur from an ordinary bek-robber turned into one of the independent rulers of Maverannahr and gained popularity both among devout Muslims and among patriotic fellow countrymen. At this time, he became close to the grandson of the bek of Kazagan Hussein, whose sister he married. The main occupation of the allies was campaigns against neighbors, the purpose of which was to subjugate the new regions of Maverannahr. This behavior of Timur naturally displeased the Khan of Mogolistan, who ordered to kill him. This order fell into the hands of Timur and in 1362 he was forced to flee towards Khorezm. One of the nights of that year, Timur, his wife and Emir Hussein were captured by the Turkmen leader Ali-bek, who threw them into prison. The days spent in captivity did not pass without leaving a trace: "Sitting in prison, I made up my mind and made a promise to God that I would never allow myself to put anyone in prison without examining the case," Timur wrote many years later in his Autobiography ". After 62 days, Timur received a sword from the guards he had bribed:
"With this weapon in hand, I rushed at those guards who did not agree to free me, and put them to flight. I heard shouts all around:" I ran, I ran, "and I felt ashamed of my act. I immediately went straight to Ali -Bek Dzhany-Kurban and he … felt respect for my valor and was ashamed "(" Autobiography ").
Ali-bey did not argue with a person who makes claims waving a naked sword. Therefore, Timur "soon left there, accompanied by twelve horsemen and went to the Khorezm steppe." In 1365, the new khan of Mogolistan, Ilyas-Khodja, set out on a campaign against Maverannahr. Timur and Hussein went out to meet him. At the moment of the battle, a heavy downpour began and the allied cavalry lost their maneuverability. The "mud battle" was lost, Timur and Hussein fled, opening the way for the steppe people to Samarkand. The city had no fortress walls, no garrison, no military leaders. However, among the inhabitants of the city there were many seberdars - "gallows" who argued that it is better to die on the gallows than to bend your back before the Mongols. At the head of the militia were the student of the madrasah Maulana Zadeh, the cotton rake Abu Bakr and the archer Khurdek i-Bukhari. On the narrow streets of the city, barricades were erected in such a way that only the main street remained free for passage. When the Mongols entered the city, arrows and stones fell on them from all sides. Having suffered heavy losses, Ilyas-Khoja was forced to first retreat, and then completely leave Samarkand without receiving either ransom or loot. Learning of the unexpected victory, Timur and Hussein entered Samarkand in the spring of next year. Here they treacherously captured the leaders of the Seberder who believed in them and executed them. At the insistence of Timur, only Maulan Zadeh was saved. In 1366 friction arose between the allies. It began with the fact that Hussein began to demand large sums of money from Timur's associates, which were spent on the conduct of the war. Timur took these debts upon himself and, in order to pay off creditors, even sold his wife's earrings. This confrontation reached its apotheosis by 1370 and resulted in the siege of the city of Balkh belonging to Hussein. Tamerlane promised only life to the surrendered Hussein. He really did not kill him, but he did not protect him from blood enemies, who soon saved Timur from his former comrade-in-arms. Timur took four wives from Hussein's harem, among them was the daughter of Kazan Khan Saray Mulk-khanum. This circumstance gave him the right to the title of "khan's son-in-law" (gurgan), which he wore throughout his life.
Despite the fact that after the death of Hussein Timur became the actual master of most of Maverannahr, he, reckoning with traditions, allowed one of the descendants of Jagatay, Suyurgatamysh, to be elected khan. Timur was a barlas, perhaps that is why representatives of another Mongolian tribe, Maverannahr (Jelair, who lived in the Khujand region), expressed disobedience to the new emir. The fate of the rebels was sad: the ulus of Dzhelairov ceased to exist, its inhabitants were settled throughout Maverannahr and gradually they were assimilated by the local population.
Timur easily managed to subjugate the lands between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, Fergana and the Shash region. It was much more difficult to return Khorezm. After the conquest by the Mongols, this region was divided into two parts: North Khorezm (with the city of Urgench) became part of the Golden Horde, South (with the city of Kyat) - into the Jagatai ulus. However, in the 60s of the XIII century, North Khorezm managed to get out of the Golden Horde, moreover, the ruler of Khorezm Hussein Sufi also captured Kyat and Khiva. Considering the seizure of these cities illegal, Timur demanded to return them. Military operations began in 1372 and by 1374 Khorezm had recognized the power of Timur. In 1380 Tamerlane conquered Khorassan, Kandahar and Afghanistan, in 1383 the turn came to Mazanderan, from where Timur's troops headed to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. This was followed by the capture of Isfahani and Shiraz, but then Timur learned that Khorezm, which had entered the orbit of his interests, attracted the attention of the new ruler of the Golden Horde. This ruler was Khan Tokhtamysh, who became famous for having burned Moscow just two years after the Battle of Kulikovo. The Western (Golden) and Eastern (White) hordes were part of the ulus of the eldest son of Chingis Jochi. This division was associated with the Mongol traditions of organizing the army: the Golden Horde supplied soldiers of the right wing from among its population, the White - soldiers of the left wing. However, the White Horde soon separated from the Golden Horde, and this became the cause of numerous military conflicts between the descendants of Jochi.
In the period from 1360-1380. The Golden Horde was going through a protracted crisis ("the great zamyatnya") associated with a permanent internecine war, in which both mediocre Chingizids and rootless, but talented adventurers took part, the brightest of which was the temnik Mamai. In just 20 years, 25 khans were replaced in Sarai. It is not surprising that the ruler of the White Horde, Uruskhan, decided, taking advantage of the obvious weakness of his western neighbors, to unite the entire former ulus of Jochi under his rule. This greatly worried Timur, who seized a piece of the Golden Horde territory and now sought to prevent the strengthening of the northern nomads. The Russian chroniclers who traditionally painted Temir-Aksak in black did not even suspect what a powerful ally Russia had in 1376. Timur knew nothing about his Russian allies. It was just that that year, Tsarevich-Chingizid Tokhtamysh fled from the White Horde and, with the support of Timur, opened military operations against Urus-Khan. The commander Tokhtamysh was so unimportant that even with the magnificent Timurov troops at his disposal, he twice suffered a crushing defeat from the army of the steppe inhabitants of Urus Khan. Things got better only when Tamerlane himself set out on a campaign, thanks to whose victories in 1379 Tokhtamysh was proclaimed khan of the White Horde. However, Tamerlane was mistaken in Tokhtamysh, who immediately demonstrated his ingratitude, becoming an active successor to the policy of Timur's enemy Urus Khan: taking advantage of the weakening of Mamai, who was defeated in the Battle of Kulikovo, he easily defeated the Golden Horde troops on Kalka and, having seized power in Sarai, almost completely restored ulus Jochi.
As already mentioned, Timur was the consistent enemy of all nomads. LN Gumilev called him "the paladin of Islam" and compared him with the son of the last Khorezm Shah - the furious Jalal ad-Din. However, none of the opponents of the all-powerful emir even remotely resembled Genghis Khan and his famous associates. Timur began with battles against Ilyas-Khodja, and then, after the assassination of this khan by the emir Kamar ad-Din, he made campaigns against the usurper six times, ruthlessly ruining the encampments and stealing cattle, thereby dooming the steppe inhabitants to death. The last campaign against Kamar ad-Din was made in 1377. Tokhtamysh was next in line, whose head was spinning with success and who clearly overestimated his capabilities. Having seized the throne of the Golden Horde in 1380, brutally ravaging Ryazan and Moscow lands in 1382, organizing campaigns to Azerbaijan and the Caucasus in 1385, Tokhtamysh in 1387 struck at the possessions of his former patron. Timur was not in Samarkand at that time - from 1386 his army fought in Iran. In 1387, Isfahan (where, after an unsuccessful uprising, towers of 70,000 human heads were built) and Shiraz (where Timur had a conversation with Hafiz, which was described above) were taken. Meanwhile, the troops of the Golden Horde, countless like raindrops ", marched through Khorezm and Maverannahr to the Amu Darya, and many residents of Khorezm, especially from the city of Urgench, supported Tokhtamysh. vast territory: they fled, leaving Khorezm to its fate. In 1388 Urgench was destroyed, barley was sown on the site of the city, and the inhabitants were resettled to Maverannahr. Only in 1391 Timur ordered to restore this ancient city and its inhabitants were able to return to Having dealt with Khorezm, Timur overtook Tokhtamysh at the lower reaches of the Syr Darya in 1389. The troops of the Golden Horde consisted of Kipchaks, Circassians, Alans, Bulgarians, Bashkirs, residents of Kafa, Azov and Russians (among others, Tokhtamysh's army was also expelled by his nephews from Nizhny Novgorod, the Suzdal prince Boris Konstantinovich) Having been defeated in several battles, this army fled to the Urals. Timur turned his troops to the east and inflicted a crusher a strong blow to the Irtysh nomads, who attacked his state at the same time as the Horde. In the midst of the events described (in 1388), Khan Suyurgatmysh died and his son Sultan Mahmud became the new nominal ruler of Maverannahr. Like his father, he did not play any political role, did not interfere with Timur's orders, but enjoyed the respect of the ruler. As a military leader, Sultan Mahmud participated in many military campaigns, and in the battle of Ankara he even captured the Turkish Sultan Bayezid. After the death of Sultan Mahmud (1402), Timur did not appoint a new khan and minted coins on behalf of the deceased. In 1391 Timur launched a new campaign against the Golden Horde. On the territory of modern Kazakhstan, near the Ulug-tag mountain, he ordered to carve an inscription on a stone that the Sultan of Turan Timur with a 200,000-strong army went through the blood of Tokhtamysh. (In the middle of the twentieth century, this stone was discovered and is now kept in the Hermitage). On June 18, 1391, in the area of Kunzucha (between Samara and Chistopol), a grandiose battle took place, which ended in the defeat of the troops of the Golden Horde.
A stone at the site of the battle of Timur and Tokhtamysh in 1391.
Tokhtamysh counted on the help of his vassal, the Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich, but, fortunately for the Russian squads, they were late and returned home without loss. Moreover, taking advantage of the weakening of the Golden Horde, the son of Dmitry Donskoy in 1392 knocked out his enemy and ally Tokhtamysh Boris Konstantinovich from Nizhny Novgorod, annexing this city to the Moscow state. The defeated Tokhtamysh needed money, so in 1392 he favorably accepted the "exit" from Vasily Dmitrievich and gave him a label to reign in Nizhny Novgorod, Gorodets, Meshchera and Tarusa.
However, this campaign of Timur did not yet mean the collapse of the Golden Horde: the left bank of the Volga remained untouched, and therefore already in 1394 Tokhtamysh gathered a new army and led it to the Caucasus - to Derbent and the lower reaches of the Kura. Tamerlane made an attempt to make peace: "In the name of Almighty God, I ask you: with what intention did you, Kipchak Khan, ruled by the demon of pride, take up arms again?" your strength, wealth and power? Remember how much you owe me. Do you want peace, do you want war? Choose. I'm ready to go for both. But remember that this time you will not be spared. " In his reply, Tokhtamysh insulted Timur and in 1395 Tamerlane led his troops through the Derbent passage and crossed the Terek, on the banks of which a three-day battle took place on April 14, which decided the fate of Tokhtamysh and the Golden Horde. The number of enemy troops was approximately equal, but Timur's army was served not by shepherds-militiamen, albeit accustomed to life in the saddle and constant raids, but professional warriors of the highest class. It is not surprising that Tokhtamysh's troops, "countless like locusts and ants," were defeated and fled. To pursue the enemy, Timur dispatched 7 people from every dozen - they drove the Horde to the Volga, pausing the path 200 miles away with the corpses of opponents. Timur himself, at the head of the remaining troops, reached the Samara bend, destroying on his way all the cities and villages of the Golden Horde, including Saray Berke and Khadzhi-Tarkhan (Astrakhan). From there he turned to the west, the vanguard of his army reached the Dnieper and not far from Kiev defeated the troops of Bek-Yaryk's subordinate Tokhtamysh. One of Timur's detachments invaded the Crimea, the other captured Azov. Further, individual units of the Timurov army reached the Kuban and defeated the Circassians. In the meantime, Timur captured the Russian border fortress Yelets.
The icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, who was credited with the miraculous salvation of Russia from the invasion of Timur, is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery
According to reports from Sheref ad-Din and Nizam al-Din, this small town received “ore gold and pure silver, which eclipsed the moonlight, and canvas, and Antiochian homespun fabrics … shiny beavers, myriad black sables, ermines … lynx fur … shiny squirrels and ruby-red foxes, as well as stallions that have never seen horseshoes. " These messages shed light on Timur's mysterious retreat from the Russian borders: "We weren't driving them, but God drove them out with his invisible power … not our governors drove Temir-Aksak away, not our troops frightened him …", - the author of "The Tale of Temir -Aksaka ", attributing the miraculous deliverance of Russia from the hordes of Tamerlane to the miraculous power of the icon of the Mother of God brought to Moscow from Vladimir.
Apparently, the Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich managed to buy the world from Timur. From this year, the real agony of the Golden Horde began. Russia stopped paying tribute to Tokhtamysh, who, like a hunted animal, rushed across the steppe. In search of money in 1396, he tried to capture the Genoese city of Kafa, but was defeated and fled to Kiev to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt. Since then, Tokhtamysh no longer had the strength for independent action, therefore, in exchange for help in the war against Timur's henchmen (the khans of Edigey and Temir-Kutlug), he ceded to Vitovt the right to Muscovite Rus, which was considered the ulus of the Golden Horde.
Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, a monument in Kaunas
The situation seemed to be favorable to the plans of the Allies, tk. the victorious army of Timur in 1398 went to the Indian campaign. However, for Vitovt, this adventure ended in a cruel defeat in the Battle of Vorksla (August 12, 1399), in which, in addition to thousands of ordinary soldiers, 20 princes died, including the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo Andrei and Dmitry Olgerdovich, as well as the famous voivode Dmitry Donskoy Bobrok -Volynsky. Tokhtamysh himself was the first to flee from the battlefield, while Vitovt, while retreating, got lost in the forest, from which he managed to get out only after three days. I think the name of Elena Glinskaya is known to readers. According to legend, Vitovt managed to get out of the forest with the help of the ancestor of Ivan IV's mother, a certain Cossack Mamai, who was awarded the princely title and the Glina tract for this service.
And Tokhtamysh, who was left without allies and deprived of the throne, wandered in the Volga region. After the death of Timur, he made a last attempt to return to the throne of the Golden Horde, was defeated by his brother Temir-Kutlug Shadibek and was soon killed near the lower reaches of the Tobol.
For a campaign in Hindustan, Timur took 92,000 soldiers. This number corresponded to the number of the names of the Prophet Muhammad - thus Timur wanted to emphasize the religious character of the future war. This relatively small army was enough for Tamerlane to completely defeat India and capture Delhi. The Hindus were not helped by the fighting elephants: to fight them, the warriors of Tamerlane used buffaloes, to whose horns bundles of burning straw were tied. Before the battle with the Sultan of the city of Delhi, Mahmud, Timur ordered the killing of 100 thousand captured Indians, whose behavior seemed suspicious to him. This decision, one must think, was not easy for him - since among the slaves there were many skilled craftsmen, whom Tamerlane always considered the most valuable part of the war booty. In many other cases, Timur preferred to take risks, throwing only a small part of the army into battle, while the main forces escorted a million captive artisans and a wagon train filled with gold and jewelry. So, in January 1399, in the gorge called the Ganges font, the 1,500-strong detachment of Timur was opposed by 10 thousand hebras. However, only 100 people entered the battle with the enemy, led by Tamerlane himself: the rest were left to guard the prey, which consisted of camels, cattle, gold and silver jewelry. The horror in front of Timur was so great that this detachment was enough to turn the enemy to flight. In early February 1399 Timur received news of the mutinies in Georgia and the invasion of the Turkish Sultan Bayazid's troops into the border possessions of his empire, and in May of the same year he returned to Samarkand. A year later, Tamerlane was already in Georgia, but he was in no hurry to start a war against Bayazid, having entered into a correspondence with the Ottoman ruler, in which "all the swear words allowed by Eastern diplomatic forms were exhausted." Timur could not fail to take into account the fact that Bayazid became famous in victorious wars with the "infidels" and therefore enjoyed high prestige in all Muslim countries. Unfortunately, Bayezid was a drunkard (that is, a violator of one of the basic commandments of the Koran). In addition, he patronized the Turkmen Kara-Yusuf, who made robbery of trade caravans of two holy cities - Mecca and Medina his profession. So a plausible pretext for war was found.
Sultan Bayezid
Bayezid was a worthy opponent of the invincible Tamerlane. He was the son of Sultan Murad, who crushed the Serb kingdom in the Battle of Kosovo (1389), but he himself was killed by Milos Obilic. Bayazid never defended himself or retreated, he was swift in campaigns, appearing where he was not expected, for which he was nicknamed Lightning Fast. Already in 1390 Bayezid captured Philadelphia, the last stronghold of the Greeks in Asia, the next year he took Thessaloniki and undertook the first, unsuccessful experience of the siege of Constantinople. In 1392 he conquered Sinop, in 1393 he conquered Bulgaria, and in 1396 his army defeated a hundred thousandth army of crusaders at Nikopol. Inviting 70 of the most notable knights to the feast, Bayezid then released them, offering to recruit a new army and fight with him again: "I liked to defeat you!" In 1397 Bayezid invaded Hungary, and now he was preparing to finally take possession of Constantinople. Emperor Manuel, leaving John Palaeologus as governor in the capital, traveled to the courts of the Christian monarchs of Europe, asking in vain for their help. On the Asian coast of the Bosphorus, two mosques already towered, and the Ottoman ships dominated the Aegean Sea. Byzantium was supposed to die, but in 1400. Timur's troops moved west. First, the fortresses of Sebast and Malatia in Asia Minor were captured, then the hostilities were transferred to the territory of Syria, a traditional ally of Egypt and the Turkish sultans. Upon learning of the fall of the city of Sivas, Bayezid moved his army to Caesarea. But Timur had already gone south, rushing to Aleppo and Damascus, and Bayazid for the first time in his life did not dare to follow the enemy: having spent his forces on a clash with the Arabs, Timur will go to Samarkand, he decided, and turned his troops back. Aleppo was ruined by the self-confidence of his military leaders, who dared to withdraw their troops to fight outside the city walls. Most of them were surrounded and trampled by elephants, which were led into battle by Indian drivers, and only one of the detachments of the Arab cavalry managed to break through to the road to Damascus. Others rushed to the gate, and after them the soldiers of Tamerlane burst into the city. Only a small part of Aleppo's garrison managed to hide behind the walls of the inner citadel, which fell a few days later.
The vanguard of the Central Asian army under the command of Timur's grandson Sultan-Hussein went to Damascus following a detachment of Arab cavalry retreating from Aleppo and broke away from the main forces. In an effort to avoid the assault, the people of Damascus invited the prince to become the ruler of the city. Sultan-Hussein agreed: he was the grandson of Tamerlane from his daughter, not from one of his sons, and, therefore, he did not have a chance to occupy a high position in the empire of his grandfather. The Arabs of Damascus hoped that Timur would spare the city ruled by his grandson. However, Tamerlane did not like such arbitrariness of his grandson: Damascus was besieged and during one of the sorties Sultan-Hussein was captured by his grandfather, who ordered to punish him with canes. The siege of Damascus ended with the fact that the inhabitants of the city, having received permission to buy off, opened the gates to Tamerlane. Further events are known from the message of the Armenian chronicler Thomas Metsopsky, who, referring to eyewitness accounts, claims that the women of Damascus appealed to Timur with a complaint that "all the men in this city are villains and sodomites, especially the deceitful mullahs." At first Timur did not believe it, but when “the wives, in the presence of their husbands, confirmed everything that was said about their illegal deeds,” he ordered his troops: “I have 700,000 people today and tomorrow, bring me 700,000 heads and build 7 towers. if he brings his head, his head will be cut off. And if someone says: "I am Jesus," - you cannot approach him "… The army carried out his order … The one who could not kill and chop off his head bought it for 100 tanga and gave it to the account." As a result of these events, fires began in the city, in which even mosques were destroyed, only one minaret remained, on which, according to legend, "Jesus Christ must descend when it is necessary to judge the living and the dead."
V. V. Vereshchagin. The apotheosis of war
After the fall of Damascus, the Sultan of Egypt Faraj fled to Cairo, and Timur, after a two-month siege, took Baghdad. True to his habits, he erected 120 towers of human heads here too, but did not touch the mosques, educational institutions and hospitals. Returning to Georgia, Tamerlane demanded that Bayazid extradite the already familiar Kara-Yusuf, and, having received a refusal, in 1402 moved his troops to Asia Minor. Having besieged Ankara, Timur was expecting Bayazid here, who soon appeared to defend his possessions. Tamerlane chose the battlefield at a distance of one passage from Ankara. The numerical superiority was on the side of Timur, nevertheless, the battle was extremely stubborn, and the Serbs showed the greatest stamina in the ranks of the Turkish troops, repelling the blow of the right wing of Tamerlane's army. But the attack of the left wing was successful: the Turkish commander Perislav was killed, and some of the Tatars who were part of the Turkish army went over to Timur's side. With the next blow, Timur tried to separate the fiercely fighting Serbs from Bayazid, but they managed to break through the enemy ranks and united with the reserve units of the Turks.
"These rags fight like lions," said the surprised Tamerlane, and he himself moved against Bayezid.
The head of the Serbs, Stefan, advised the sultan to flee, but he decided to stay with his janissaries in place and fight to the end. Bayazid's sons left the Sultan: Mohammed retreated to the mountains of the northeast, Isa to the south, and Suleiman, the eldest son and heir of the Sultan, guarded by the Serbs, went west. Pursued by Timur's grandson Mirza-Mohammed-Sultan, he nevertheless reached the city of Brus, where he boarded a ship, leaving the winners with all the treasures, the library and Bayazid's harem. Bayazid himself repelled the attacks of the superior forces of Tamerlane until nightfall, but when he decided to flee, his horse fell and the ruler, who feared the whole of Europe, fell into the hands of the powerless Khan of the Jagatai ulus Sultan Mahmud.
“God must have little value in power on Earth, since he gave one half of the world to the lame and the other half to the crooked,” Timur said when he saw the enemy who had lost his eye in a long-standing battle with the Serbs.
According to some reports, Tamerlane put Bayazid in an iron cage, which served as a footboard for him when boarding a horse. According to other sources, on the contrary, he was very merciful to the defeated enemy. One way or another, in the same 1402 Bayazid died in captivity.
"The human race is not even worth it to have two leaders, only one should rule it, and that is ugly, like me," Timur said on this occasion.
There is information that Timur intended to end the Ottoman state forever: to continue the war, he demanded 20 warships from the emperor Manuel, and he asked Venice and Genoa for the same. However, after the Ankara battle, Manuel did not fulfill the terms of the treaty and even provided assistance to the defeated Turks. This was a very short-sighted decision, which resulted in the fall of the Byzantine Empire 50 years after the events described. After the victory over Bayazid, Timur was at the zenith of glory and power, not a single state in the world possessed a force capable of resisting him. The state of Tamerlane included Maverannahr, Khorezm, Khorassan, Transcaucasia, Iran and Punjab. Syria and Egypt recognized themselves as Timur's vassals and minted coins with his name. Appointing rulers in the areas left and giving orders to rebuild Baghdad, Tamerlane went to Georgia, the king of which, by offering tribute, managed to avoid a new devastating invasion. At that time, Timur received ambassadors from the Spanish king and entered into correspondence with the monarchs of France and England. It follows from Timur's letters that he was not going to continue the war in the West, proposing to King Charles VI of France "to ensure freedom of trade relations for the merchants of both countries by concluding an appropriate agreement or treaty." Returning to Samarkand, Tamerlane surrendered to his main passion, i.e. decorating the beloved Samarkand, ordering the masters who had been taken away from Damascus to build a new palace, and the Persian artists to decorate its walls. However, he could not stay at home for a long time: already 5 months after his return, Timur, at the head of a 200,000-strong army, moved east. The target of the last campaign was China. According to Tamerlane, the war with the Chinese pagans was to serve as an atonement for the Muslim blood shed by his army in Syria and Asia Minor. However, the more likely reason for this campaign should still be considered Timur's desire to crush the last great state located on the borders of the state he created and, thereby, facilitate the rule of his successor. On February 11, 1405, Timur arrived in Otrar, where he caught a cold and became terminally ill. Nizam ad-Din reports that "since Timur's mind remained healthy from beginning to end, Timur, despite severe pains, did not stop inquiring about the condition and position of the army." However, realizing that his "illness was stronger than drugs," Timur said goodbye to his wives and emirs, appointing his grandson from Jekhangir's eldest son, Pir-Muhammad, as his heir. On February 18, the heart of the great conqueror stopped. Timur's associates tried to hide the death of the leader in order to carry out at least part of his plan and strike a blow at the Mongol uluses of Central Asia. Failed to do this either. Timur ruled for 36 years, and, as Sheref ad-Din noted, this number coincided with the number of his sons and grandchildren. According to "Tamerlane's Bloodline", "Amir Temir's heirs mainly killed each other in the struggle for power." Soon the multinational state of Timur disintegrated into its constituent parts, in the homeland the Timurids gave way to the rulers of other dynasties, and only in distant India until 1807 ruled the descendants of Babur - the great-grandson and the last great son of the famous conqueror who conquered this country in 1494.
Samarkand. Gur-Emir, tomb of Timur
