Timurid Empire

State · 1375–1528 CE · at its largest around 1402 CE

Timur's brutal conquests were followed by a remarkable flowering of Persian culture, with turquoise-domed mosques in Samarkand and Herat. His grandson Ulugh Beg built a famed observatory, and miniature painting and poetry thrived. Babur, a Timurid, went on to found Mughal India.

Its battles, in Battle View

First Battle of Panipat (1526 CE)

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.
Palmyra (c. 261–1929 CE): Capital of Palmyrene Empire (261–269).
Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 CE): Series of Muslim dynasties ruling from Delhi, beginning with Qutb ud-Din Aibak in 1206 and ending with the Lodi defeat at Panipat in 1526.
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.
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.
Ulugh Beg (1394 CE – 1449 CE): Timurid ruler of Samarkand and astronomer whose star catalogue was the most accurate of its era.
Diyarbakir (c. 1407 CE): Capital of Aq Qoyunlu (1407–1468).
Registan (1417 CE): Square in Samarkand framed by three madrasas, the first built by Ulugh Beg from 1417; a landmark of Islamic architecture.
Kazakh Khanate (c. 1465–1847 CE): State founded by the sultans Kerei and Janibek in the Chu valley around 1465, the forerunner of the Kazakh nation.
Guru Nanak (1469 CE – 1539 CE): Founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, born at Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.
Babur (1483 CE – 1530 CE): Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley who took Kabul in 1504 and founded the Mughal Empire after victory at Panipat in 1526.
Sikhism founded (c. 1499 CE): Monotheistic religion that emerged in the Punjab around the end of the 15th century from the teachings of Guru Nanak.
Safavid Empire founded (1501 CE): Ismail I proclaimed himself shah at Tabriz, founding the Safavid dynasty and making Twelver Shia Islam the state religion of Iran.
First Battle of Panipat (1526 CE): Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last Delhi sultan, using field artillery and cavalry tactics.