Timur - Exchanges With Europe

Exchanges With Europe

Timur had numerous epistolary and diplomatic exchanges with Western, especially Spanish and French, rulers. Timur hoped for an alliance with the European states to act offensively against the Ottoman Turks then attacking Europe.

Relations between the courts of Henry III of Castile and that of Timur constituted the most important episode of medieval Spanish Castilian diplomacy. In 1402, the time of the Battle of Ankara, two Spanish ambassadors were already with Timur: Pelayo de Sotomayor and Fernando de Palazuelos. Later, Timur sent to the court of Castile and León a Chagatay ambassador named Hajji Muhammad al-Qazi with letters and gifts.

In return, the King Henry III of Castile sent a famous embassy to Timur's court in Samarkand in 1403–06, led by Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, with two other ambassadors, Alfonso Paez and Gomez de Salazar. On their return, Timur affirmed that he regarded the king of Castile "as his very own son".

According to Clavijo, Timur's good treatment of the Spanish delegation contrasted with the disdain shown by his host toward the envoys of the "lord of Cathay" (i.e., the Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor), the Chinese ruler. Clavijo's visit to Samarkand allowed him to report to the European audience on the news from Cathay (China), which few Europeans had been able to visit directly in the century that had passed since the travels of Marco Polo.

The French archives preserve:

• A 30 July 1402, letter from Timur to Charles VI, king of France, suggesting that he send traders to the Orient. It was written in Persian.
• A May 1403 letter. This is a Latin transcription of a letter from Timur to Charles VI, and another from Amiza Miranchah, his son, to the Christian princes, announcing their victory over Bayezid, in Smyrna.

A copy has been kept of the answer of Charles VI to Timur, dated 15 June 1403.