History has been a witness to the cruelty inflicted on innocent men and women though they had nothing to do with wicked persons, except that they had the bad luck of being the contemporaries of these notorious persons. Historians, unhesitatingly and with justification, have included Timur (1336 - 1405 AD) in the list. Historians are happy that the achievements of Timur have been described by himself in his autobiography titled Malfuzat – I - Timur.
Timur belonged to a Turkish tribe and was born in 1336 AD in a village called Kesh in Russia. His father Tarangi was the head of the tribe and had embraced Islam. Once Timur was wounded by an arrow in his leg in a battle and that made him lame throughout his life. His enemies called him Timur – I - lang (Timur the lame) and in the words of Europeans it became Tamarlen.
Being an over - ambitious person, he wanted to conquer the whole world on the model of the dreaded Chengez Khan. By this time the kingdom conquered by Chengez Khan had become independent and this was an open invitation to Timur to do what Chengaz failed to achieve. He went to Mongolia and joined hands with his brother – in - law Ilias Khoja, but killed him and occupied his territory and declared himself as the refounder of Mogolian Empire.
Subsequently, he defeated the Sultans of eastern Turkistan and occupied Kashgar, Herath, Iraq, Armenia, Mesopotamia and Georgia by 1394 AD. Later he defeated Tokhtamih and stayed for one year in what is now referred to as Moscow. Persians who revolted were mercilessly killed in thousands; cities were destroyed and women were made slaves.
These victories encouraged Timur to invade Hindustan. He has repeatedly stated in his autobiography that his main object in invading Hindustan was to punish the infidels (idol worshippers) and become a Ghazi (martyr). Further it was to loot the country and take away the wealth of this rich land, and to become a rich emperor in the entire world, and to use this wealth to conquer the other parts of the world.
First he went to the region between Kashmir and Kabul, and defeated the chiefs and killed the people who refused to accept his religion. Then he defeated Dhul Chand and plundered the city. He states, “in a short span of time the people in the fort were put to death and in the course of an hour, the heads of 10,000 were cut off. The fort became a spoil of my soldiers and they razed the buildings to the ground”. Then Timur crossed river Yamuna and captured Loni.
The Rajputs who saw the army of Timur felt that they would not win a victory over Timur. Fearing the consequences of a defeat, they kept their wives and children in their houses, locked houses and burnt them alive so that they would not be dishonoured. Sultan Mahmud of Delhi with the help of Rajputs opposed Timur's army in 1398 AD but Sultan Mahmud was easily defeated.
The Sultan fled from the battlefield and the remaining soldiers who were planning a secret revolt against Timur were put to death. Those who surrendered were made slaves.
This plunder of Delhi is considered as a tragic event. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday 15,000 Turks were engaged in slaying and looting. The booty they collected was immense. It included rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls and other gems; jewels of gold and silver; gold coins like ashrafi and tanka (Delhi Sultan). The entire heap exceeded all account. Timur disowned all responsibility for the sake of Delhi and said, by the will of God and by no wish or direction of mine, all the three cities of Delhi have been plundered. He stayed in Delhi for fifteen days and saw the devastation for himself.
It took almost a century for Delhi to come back to normalcy. His thirst for victory did not end here. He went to Meerut and plundered it. Then passing through Haridwar, he went to Kangra. From there he went to Jammu. On March 19, 1399, he crossed Sindhu and left for his hometown Samarkand. He had carried pillars, decorative pieces and polished granite slabs from India, along with Indian craftsmen and architects. With their help he built a mosque and many buildings in Samarkand and beautified this city. It is said that he used 90 elephants and hundreds of carts to carry all these materials. Before leaving India, he appointed a Governor who more or less became independent.
Not satisfied by these victories, he took another invasion against Mamluk Sultan of Egypt because he had helped the Sultan of Baghdad against Timur. Timur marched against the Sultan and took possession of Damascus, most famous and beautiful city in 1401 AD. He forcibly carried the Egyptian artistes and architects and sent them to Samarkand to build a Palace for himself. Then he proceeded to Baghdad and occupied it. He spent that winter in Georgia and invaded the country of Ottoman Sultan Bayazid and defeated him near the town of Ankara. The Sultan of Egypt surrendered to Timur completely and sent presents to him. Satisfied by this gesture, he gave up the idea of another invasion against Egypt and returned to Samarkand. He spent sometime in his Palace and took stock of the invasions and the wealth he looted from there. He built some more buildings in Samarkand and beautified his capital.
But he was not a man to keep quiet without wars, and invasions. It occurred to him that he had missed China in his series of invasions. In December 1404, he started with a huge army towards China. But unfortunately for him, he passed away on 19th December 1405 AD enroute to China. Thus his last wish remained unfulfilled. His body was brought to Samarkand and was buried with all honours in his favourite city. No tangible results could be seen by the invasion of Timur except that he was described as a cruel person by the posterity. With his death, he passed into oblivion.
