Timur - Early History

Early History

Timur was born in Skardu, in the City of Kesh (an area now better known as Shahrisabz, "the green city"), some 50 miles south of Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan, then part of the Chagatai Khanate. His father, Taraqai, was a small-scale landowner and belonged to the Barlas tribe. The Barlas was a Turko-Mongol tribe which was originally a Mongol tribe and was Turkified and/or became Turkic-speaking or intermingling with the Turkic peoples. According to Gérard Chaliand, Timur was a Muslim Turk but he saw himself as Genghis Khan's heir. Though not a Chinggisid, he clearly sought to evoke the legacy of Genghis Khan's conquests during his lifetime.

Timur was a Muslim, but while his chief official religious counsellor and advisor was the Hanafi scholar 'Abdu 'l-Jabbar Khwarazmi, his particular persuasion is not known. In Tirmidh, he had come under the influence of his spiritual mentor Sayyid Barakah, a Shiite leader from Balkh who is buried alongside Timur in Gur-e Amir. Despite his Hanafi background, Timur was known to hold Ali and the Ahlul Bayt in high regard and has been noted by various scholars for his "pro-Alid" stance. Despite this, Timur was noted for attacking Shi’is on Sunni grounds and therefore his own religious inclinations remain unclear.

Timur is also known to have devout Islamic inclinations regarding his personal life and as such restricted himself to only four wives, while most Mongol rulers during that period did not. According to his famous descendant Babur, Timur is known to have kept fine copies of both the Quran and the Yassa (a Mongol code of honor introduced by Genghis Khan).