Chagatai Khanate

State · 1294–1462 CE · at its largest around 1294 CE

Genghis Khan's son Chagatai and his heirs ruled the Silk Road heartland of Central Asia, where nomad khans slowly became Muslim and Turkic. The Chagatai Turkic language named after them became a great literary tongue, and from the khanate's turmoil rose the conqueror Timur.

On its lands while it lasted

Silk Road (c. 130 BCE – c. 1450 CE): A network of overland caravan routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, along which silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies and diseases travelled for more than 1,500 years.
Qarshi (c. 1294 CE): Capital of Chagatai Khanate (1294–1462).
Almaliq (c. 1294 CE): Capital of Chagatai Khanate (1294–1462), Moghulistan (1463–1518), Eastern Chagatai Khanate (1492–1511), and 2 more.
Timur (1336 CE – 1405 CE): Turco-Mongol conqueror born near Kesh (Shahrisabz) who built an empire from Anatolia to India, sacked Delhi in 1398 and made Samarkand his capital.
Herat (c. 1344 CE): Capital of Kartids (1344–1381), Timurid Empire (1405–1507).
Baramulla (c. 1344 CE): Capital of Kashmiri Sultanate (1344–1587).
Campaigns of Timur (1370–1405 CE): From Samarkand, Timur (Tamerlane) campaigned across Persia, the Golden Horde, India (sacking Delhi in 1398), Syria and Anatolia, where he captured the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402. He died at Otrar in 1405 while marching on China.
Timurid Empire (1370–1507 CE): Empire founded by Timur in 1370; under his successors Samarkand and Herat became centres of a Persianate cultural flowering.
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (1389 CE): Unfinished Timurid mausoleum in Turkistan, Kazakhstan, commissioned by Timur in 1389 over the tomb of a 12th-century Sufi poet.
Ulugh Beg (1394 CE – 1449 CE): Timurid ruler of Samarkand and astronomer whose star catalogue was the most accurate of its era.
Gur-e-Amir (1404 CE): Mausoleum of Timur in Samarkand with a ribbed turquoise dome, a model for later Mughal tombs such as the Taj Mahal.
Registan (1417 CE): Square in Samarkand framed by three madrasas, the first built by Ulugh Beg from 1417; a landmark of Islamic architecture.
Ali-Shir Nava'i (1441 CE – 1501 CE): Poet and statesman of Timurid Herat, regarded as the greatest classical writer in the Chagatai Turkic language.