Connexions module: m17827 1
Central and Northern Asia: A.D.
1301 to 1400
∗
Jack E. Maxeld
This work is produced by The Connexions Project and licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License
†
1 CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ASIA
Back to Central and Northern Asia: A.D. 1201 to 1300
1
The old Kipchak area (Turkistan to South Russia) and most of Siberia fell in this century to the last
tornado of nomadism Timurlane
2
. This man, descended in the female line from Genghis Khan, but
otherwise chiey Turkish in origin, was born south of Samarkand in 1336 and developed into a nomad of
the old savage school, creating an empire of desolation and piles of skulls. As a young man he was made
governor of a large area under the Mongol conqueror, Tughlak Timor Khan and then drove the invaders out
of Transoxiana (now Uzbekistan) by the time he was 33 years old. For four decades he rampaged through
Asia. With one of the greatest armies ever seen on the- Siberian steppe, he campaigned against Toktamish
of the Golden Horde and soon ruled a vast land south of Moscow. His warriors wore armor of link mail,
carried two bows - one for rapid shooting and one for long distance, as well as 30 arrows, a small shield and
a scimitar. Each man had two horses. Timur spoke both Turkic and Persian and surrounded himself with
scholars, historians and poets. He resurrected Samarkand, bringing scientists and philosophers and building
schools and libraries, wide avenues and glittering palaces and mosques. At its height his empire extended
from Turkey to Moscow to Mongolia to Delhi. As the century ended he was temporarily in control of all of
Iraq, Persia and central Asia - the area known as the Timurid Emirate. (Ref. 220
3
)
In the meantime, the Chinese Ming armies had gained complete control of Inner Mongolia by 1370 and
then they pushed the Mongols out of Manchuria and Outer Mongolia beyond Karakorum, almost to Lake
Baikal and northwest to Hami, in modern Sinkiang province, opening the gateway to central Asia. In western
Asia (and eastern Russia) the Mongols were not driven out but became assimilated into the numerically
superior Turkish-speaking warrior population. Subordination to the Great Khan in Peking ceased to have
even ritual signicance.
NOTE: Insert Map 42. Asia c1300 and The Empires of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane
It has been mentioned several times in this outline that the Mongol horsemen brought plague-infected
rodents or at least carried the disease organism from India into the Eurasian steppe. In this 14th century
the bacillus became endemic among burrowing rodents in the steppe and the nomad populations became
∗
Version 1.2: Oct 14, 2008 10:11 pm GMT-5
†
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
1
"Central and Northern Asia: A.D. 1001 to 1100" <http://cnx.org/content/m17825/latest/>
2
Also known as Timur-i-lend (the Persian for "Timur the Lame), Tamerlane or simply as Timur
3
"A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [220]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twotwozero>
http://cnx.org/content/m17827/1.2/
