Timur empire: The rise and fall of a superpower

A small boy named Timur was born in Transoxiana near the city of Kesh in the once Chagatai Khanate. This name would later become the nightmare of millions of people in the Eurasian continent and will be remembered by history as one of the greatest conqueror and a undefeated commander. However, his empire was built on cruelty and stream of blood.

The story of Timur began with an invasion by the Moghulistan khanate in the East into his mongol tribe which is the tribe of Barlas. The chief of the Barlas tribe fled while Timur at 25, convinced Tughlugh Timur, the Khan of the Chagatai Khanate to appoint him as the new chief of the Barlas tribe. Timur is a strong young man at that time who inherited the toughness and agile of a nomadic mongol and a Persian culture based education which makes a perfect mix between the wisdom and hardiness. The Moghulistan invasion didn't last for long and Timur joined the campaign to ouest the Moghulistan invaders with Amir Hussein. During the fight, Timur and Hussein's fortunes ebbed and flowed and were once forced to steal and raid for supply. By 1365, Timur and Hussein drove the invaders out. However, Hussein alienated the local lords by various actions including moving the capitol out of transoxiana which resulted in his former comrade the charismatic leader Timur to launch a rebellion and defected Hussein which made Timur the leader of the Western Chagatai Khanate. However, since he is not an offspring of Genghis, he cannot proclaim himself as the Khan. thus, he appointed his own puppet ruler and married a Genghis princess but is still the de facto ruler of the Western Chagatai Khanate. With power in his hand, he now starts his journey of conquering. He designed a strong army with the elite soldiers from every corner of his vast country and replaced the chiefs of different tribes in his territory to his people enable to make sure their loyalty. he also kept his army constantly at war to ensure his generals don't have an fraction in the military and the military would keep up with battle experience. He carefully and throughly planned each campaign and gathered all valuable intelligence while leading every campaign which demonstrated his brilliant military tactics. He invaded and conquered Iran while eliminating all the small countries the collapse of Ilkhanate has left to Iran. He attacked Georgia and conquered the country. He conquered India and eliminated the Delhi Sultanate. he attacked the ottoman empire and captured the ottoman sultan. he conquered levant and captured the whole mesopotamia while twice defeating the Golden horde Khanate. Timur is the name that shook the world. His well trained and fierce troops leave only fire and corpses after they swept across the continent and expanding his empire. Timur have never experienced one defeat and his life is a life filled with victory and an ever expanding empire. However, this will not live long.

Timur died in 1405 while preparing to attack the Ming dynasty in China. His empire started disintegrating since his death in a very fast pace with his sons who acted as governors of different part of the grate empire. The far away part of his empire such as the Indian part, the Caucuses part, etc started fighting for their independence while actively disintegrating from the empire. Many of the governorships became independent and the central government now has very little control over the far away provinces with each governors and local chiefs gaining independence and control over their provinces with the control of the local armed forces. the empire is losing land that aren't their core territory. Anatolian and Caucasian territories were lost permanently in the 1430s while other parts are also disintegrating. Local leaders and chiefs started resisting the Timurid empire and most of them succeed in driving the Timurids back since the sons and grandsons of Timur are busy infighting over the throne. Civil war broke out and the empire is on the verge of collapse. The empire, exhausted, held on to some of its territories until the second half of the 15th century where another round of rapid disintegration and decline started. The monarchy started a wave of coups and infightings while the Aq Qoyunlu tribal confederation took back conquered most of Iran from the Timurids. By 1500s, the Timurid empire lost most of its territory and was pushed back in all fronts. The Timurid army was defeated by Safavid Iran and retreated. Leaving the last reminiscence of Timurid glory in middle east gone. The empire's central asian part is also pushed back by the Uzbecks and the Timurid empire collapsed.

What mede the empire collapse in such a fast speed? In my opinion, there are three points. First, most of the empire was conquered forcefully by Timur and have absolutely no cultural and ethnical similarity or national identity to his empire who ruled the empire in an iron fist. The Indians would not recognize the Timurids who came out of no way and massacred their people as their legal leader. and the same work for the Caucasus people, the Uzbeks, etc. They all have cultures that are far more sophisticated than Timurids and despise the Timurids, an "barbaric" mongol tribe that brought devastation to their home as their leader. The empire is like a keg of gown powder waiting to explode since most people who have been conquered by Timur would not recognize him and his empire as their government and are waiting for a chance to revolt and overthrow their mongol overlord. To simplify, most of the empire have a Centrifugal force that is pushing them away culturally from the empire and their loyalty to the empire is purely because of the pressure of Timur. In these circumstances, the empire would need a good system that ensures the stability of the empire and the loyalty of the military. However, Timur as a tactical genius turns out to be unwise in politics. He appointed his family members to key positions and governors and have control to their territory which decentralized the empire and spread out power. This can work if he is still alive since his strong force would crush any attempt to usurp power. However, after Timur's death, the empire lost a centralized leader and the absolute authority which led to rounds after rounds of succession war that weakens the country and led to the disintegration of those who Timur have conquered. The third reason is Timur's family. His sons are undoubtedly very competent since they followed Timur in his expansion and saw how war was to be fought. However, they are also cruel and would not care about how wether his enemy is his brother. all they care about is the throne and since the political system that is designed by Timur spread power to them, they would use the power fo fight one another for the throne of the empire.

In conclusion, Tiumur and his empire is undoubtedly legendary. He came from a mongol tribe and became the ruler of a global superpower. however, the key to the collapse of his empire is rooted in the foundation of the empire. His empire is together purely because of his pressure and he being the absolute single authority of the country. Without his supervision, the parts of his empire that has been conquered would rise up. Timurid empire is ruled by one great person rather than one grate system which plated the seed for the collapse of his empire.