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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Coming up soon on the show, we

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Speaker 1: have an episode on someone who had an encounter with

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Speaker 1: two Moore, founder of the Tumoraid Empire in the fourteenth century,

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Speaker 1: and his assessment of tour is very different from today's

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Speaker 1: classic episode called tamer Lane and the Battle of men Carra. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: in terms of the people who's more conquered did not

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Speaker 1: generally have a favorable opinion of him. This episode originally

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Speaker 1: came out on August eleven from past host Sarah and Dablina.

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Speaker 1: We are putting it in the feed today for our

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Speaker 1: extra a little bit of context for that forthcoming episode,

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Speaker 1: So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Deblina Chuck reboarding, and I'm stared out

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Speaker 1: and we've we've really enjoyed the topics that we've been

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Speaker 1: covering lately. But there's one thing that's been missing, and

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Speaker 1: we've really been missing it, and that is a proper exhimation.

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Speaker 1: And that's why I really perked up when listener Will

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Speaker 1: suggested a podcast on tamer Lane, which offers us not

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Speaker 1: only an exhamation and a curse but as he describes it,

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Speaker 1: a person who is a patron of the arts, a

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Speaker 1: military genius, and a bloodthirsty conqueror all wrapped up in

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Speaker 1: one sounds right up our alley. It does. And it

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Speaker 1: was funny because when Will suggested this, he mentioned that

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Speaker 1: he found it because he had just moved to a

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Speaker 1: new city and he didn't know anybody, so he was

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Speaker 1: researching bloody conquests. That's some a little ominous Will. It does.

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Speaker 1: I can't say well that that's going to make you

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Speaker 1: a lot of friends, but it definitely gets us on

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Speaker 1: your side. But back to tamer Lane. He's also known

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Speaker 1: as Teamre and he wasn't your average ruthless warrior. He

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Speaker 1: conquered an empire that stretched from the Aegean to the Ganges,

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Speaker 1: and he's been called the last great nomad predator, one

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Speaker 1: of history's most notorious psychopaths, and the score of God.

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Speaker 1: He's even claimed ascent from Genghis Khan, which is going

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Speaker 1: to make sense when we look at his life a

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Speaker 1: little later. So with that kind of street cred, it's

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Speaker 1: clear that there are a lot of stories that we

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Speaker 1: could tell about this guy. But to keep things simple,

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Speaker 1: we're going to focus on his last major battle, which

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Speaker 1: was the Battle of Ankara, in which he went up

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Speaker 1: against another great force, the Ottoman Empire, and you really

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Speaker 1: get to see the tactics that made him who he

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Speaker 1: was when when you look at this battle closely, and

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Speaker 1: the battle itself is pretty famous. It makes an appearance

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Speaker 1: in our old friend Christopher Marlowe's play Timberland the Great,

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Speaker 1: and even though in that case, you know it's been dramatized,

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Speaker 1: the events surrounding our protagonist in this player fictionalize. So

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Speaker 1: we're going to start with some something with some real

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Speaker 1: historical truth to it. The early days of Timor's life. Yes,

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Speaker 1: he was born with the name Tiamore, which means iron

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Speaker 1: in Turkic, on April thirteen thirty six and Kesh, which

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Speaker 1: is south of Summer Kand in what is now Uzbekistan.

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Speaker 1: And his father was a minor chief of the Barlass

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Speaker 1: tribe and settled in that area at the heart of

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Speaker 1: the crumbling Mongol Empire, which was breaking apart into warring

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Speaker 1: factions ruled by descendants of Genghis Khan. And these were

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Speaker 1: the three factions, the Chogatai Khanate, the ill Knni dynasty

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Speaker 1: and the so called Golden Horde. So the Barlass were

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Speaker 1: part of the Chagatai Khanate, which had its own trouble

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Speaker 1: with tensions between nomadic tribes and those who wanted to

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Speaker 1: settle life. So there was a lot of tribal in fighting, yeah,

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Speaker 1: as well as these grander model in fighting tensions. So

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Speaker 1: a lot going on. But Teamur came up in this

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Speaker 1: environment and started out as kind of a bandit really,

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Speaker 1: probably participating in these intertribal disputes, but also doing just

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Speaker 1: some plain old criminal stuff. It was during a raid

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Speaker 1: while he was still a young man. Some say he

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Speaker 1: was stealing sheep, that he was injured in his right

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Speaker 1: arm and leg, and his right arm was just left

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Speaker 1: completely useless, and because of the injuries in his right leg,

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Speaker 1: he walked with a limp. So this is what actually

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Speaker 1: led to that western name. Tamberlaine was originally timor e

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Speaker 1: Lenk or two more the lame, which was obviously not

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Speaker 1: a flattering title. It was something used by his enemies

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Speaker 1: to to mock him. Yeah, But even after those injuries,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting he was still a force to be reckoned with.

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Speaker 1: He was a big, strong guy with a large head

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Speaker 1: and a long beard. Of a reddish hue, or that's

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Speaker 1: what said of him anyway, And he became a skilled

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Speaker 1: horseman and a superior soldier, and he quickly built up

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Speaker 1: a following. And then in thirteen sixty one, Teamore took

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Speaker 1: charge of the area around Summer cond when he swore

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Speaker 1: allegiance to took Look, who had taken over the Chogata Khanate.

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Speaker 1: And when took Look died not long after, Teamore actually

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Speaker 1: formed an alliance with another tribal chief named Hussain, and

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Speaker 1: they split up the areas and kind of put down

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Speaker 1: the other war tribes and took over ruling this area. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but eventually Timour even turned on Who's saying and defeated him.

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Speaker 1: So working his way up all the while, and by

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Speaker 1: thirteen seventy he was just in his early thirties. He

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Speaker 1: was at that point the ruler of the Chugatai Khanate,

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Speaker 1: which had its capital at Summer Kan. So he had

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Speaker 1: gone from just being the son of one of these

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Speaker 1: local tribes to ruling the whole khan Yeah, and this

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Speaker 1: is the point that also he starts claiming to be

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Speaker 1: a descendant of Genghis Khan. The more most sources indicate

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Speaker 1: that this is probably unlikely, and he's announcing his goal

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Speaker 1: of re establishing the Mongol Empire. So he's establishing the

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Speaker 1: strategy of war abroad and peace or a more subtle

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Speaker 1: life at home, which satisfies kind of everyone. It satisfies

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Speaker 1: those who want new conquests as well as those who

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Speaker 1: wanted the more stable, settled life. He re establishes and

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Speaker 1: monopolizes the Silk Road and spends the thirteen eighties and

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Speaker 1: nineties and evading and conquering many areas, including Persia, Iraq, Armenia,

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Speaker 1: Georgia and Anatolia, Syria, all of Central Asia, Northern India

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Speaker 1: and the approaches to China, and much of southern Russia too.

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Speaker 1: Probably his longest struggle, though, was that against the Golden Horde,

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Speaker 1: one of those original warring factions that we talked about,

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Speaker 1: and he finally defeated them in thirt So we've got

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Speaker 1: to talk about how he did all of this. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's a pretty impressive list you just rattled off there. Toblina.

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Speaker 1: First of all, he was really scary. I mean, that

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Speaker 1: was his prime way of conquering all of these territories.

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Speaker 1: He served up his invasions with a keeping helping of violence.

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Speaker 1: You could say he would basically come in destroy entire cities,

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Speaker 1: massacre their entire populations, and then build towers or pyramids

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Speaker 1: out of their severed heads. Seriously, Yeah, that was kind

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Speaker 1: of his trademark. It was in Isfahan and Central Asia,

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Speaker 1: for example, he demanded that each of his soul just

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Speaker 1: take a severed head and it amounted to seventy thousand

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Speaker 1: total that were built into towers, and in another city,

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Speaker 1: two thousand people were cemented together to make a living tower. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you hear numbers like this all the time.

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Speaker 1: Seventy thousand, nine twenty thousand. These are the numbers that

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Speaker 1: were involved in these massacres, and it's sort of amazing, well,

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Speaker 1: and it makes you reconsider what he was actually out

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Speaker 1: there doing to Richard Cavendish in History Today called these

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Speaker 1: quote more in the nature of large scale looting expeditions

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Speaker 1: than empire building, and it it does seem that way.

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Speaker 1: And it's really no wonder that people were so afraid

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Speaker 1: of him because he used fear as a compelling weapon

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Speaker 1: as much as any of his other tactics, which also

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Speaker 1: included things like lightning advances and feigned retreats and ambushes.

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Speaker 1: So he was smart in a military sense, but it

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Speaker 1: was this spear tactic that really accomplished things in the end.

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Speaker 1: He would even send secret agents ahead of troops to

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Speaker 1: spread rumors about atro city so cities would get scared

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Speaker 1: and sort of lay down their arms. Not that that

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Speaker 1: would really help them very much in the end. No,

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Speaker 1: it didn't done a lot of cases. But Teamore was

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Speaker 1: also somewhat contradictory and that he wasn't just a killing machine.

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Speaker 1: He was also a fine chess player. He actually created

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Speaker 1: the game of Tamerlane chess, and he enjoyed a good

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Speaker 1: theological discussion now and again. He engaged scholars in debate.

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Speaker 1: He also did a lot to beautify his capital summercand

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Speaker 1: he encouraged art, their literature, science, and public works. And

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Speaker 1: it seems like the one group of people that he

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Speaker 1: consistently spared when he did loot these towns where the

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Speaker 1: cities artisans, they're fine craftsmen. He would bring them back

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Speaker 1: to to his capital and have them beautify it and

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Speaker 1: build new buildings and and just make it a better place.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of ironic, though, when you consider that Timore

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Speaker 1: himself spent very little time in his capital. No, he

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Speaker 1: usually only stayed there for a few days at a time.

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Speaker 1: He was truly a nomad. He personally led all of

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Speaker 1: his campaigns and he was constantly campaigning. He was in

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Speaker 1: summer con for about two years at the end of

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Speaker 1: the thirteen nineties, but then invaded India in officially because

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Speaker 1: the Sultan of Delhi wasn't persecuting the Hindus enough, but

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Speaker 1: it kind of just seemed like an excuse to get

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Speaker 1: out of the house exactly, and he ended up destroying

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Speaker 1: Delhi and he killed a hundred thousand civilians and according

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Speaker 1: to most sources, this took more than a century for

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Speaker 1: the city to recover from. So even after that bloody

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Speaker 1: Indian campaign, he still had a couple empires left Polish off.

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Speaker 1: One was the mom Luke Empire in Syria in Egypt,

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Speaker 1: and he sacked Damascus in fourteen o one. Classic fear

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Speaker 1: tactics kind of stuff went on there. And then the

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Speaker 1: only place left standing was the Ottoman Empire in Herkey,

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Speaker 1: which at the time was led by Sultan by a

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Speaker 1: z the First and by a Ze who was also

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Speaker 1: known as the Thunderbolt. Wasn't really a guy to be

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Speaker 1: messed with. I mean, if anybody was going to go

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Speaker 1: up against Tamerlane, it seemed like the sultan would be

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Speaker 1: the guy to do it. Definitely. He was also a

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Speaker 1: proven general. He had defeated the Serbs at Kosovo in

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Speaker 1: nine and then killed his own brother to solidify his

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Speaker 1: position at the head of the empire, so absolutely seems

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Speaker 1: like someone who could go toe to toe with Teamore,

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Speaker 1: and that Kosovo victory had also launched a European crusade

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Speaker 1: against him, which by a Ze'd also put down. So

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Speaker 1: like Tiamore, he had a very disciplined army, though many

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Speaker 1: of them were Christian drawn from conquered lands in Europe.

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Speaker 1: The most famous part of this army of his, though,

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Speaker 1: is probably his elite Janissary infantry. They were taken from

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Speaker 1: their families at an early age and educated in war

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Speaker 1: and in Islam, and their single mission in life would

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Speaker 1: be to fight for their faith. They had a cavalry

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Speaker 1: to and a more significant infant tree. Even then, Teamore

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Speaker 1: had so a lot to go up against, so it

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Speaker 1: was clear that defeating by a Zeed wasn't going to

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Speaker 1: be simple. But Teamwore couldn't ignore him either. By a

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Speaker 1: Zeed had antagonized him by giving refuge to Teamor's enemies

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Speaker 1: and attacking areas that were under his control. He had

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Speaker 1: to be put down, essentially, and negotiations had been going

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Speaker 1: on between the two men for some time, but by

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Speaker 1: this point the situation had devolved into essentially an exchange

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Speaker 1: of insults. War had to had to finally follow that.

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Speaker 1: So Teamor's forces invaded the Ottoman domain in the spring

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Speaker 1: of fourteen o two, and they felt pretty ready because

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Speaker 1: they had already laid waste to all of the regions

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Speaker 1: surrounding the empire, so they didn't have to worry about

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Speaker 1: anybody immediately rushing into the aid of by A Zeed.

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Speaker 1: And to add to that, Teamur's army had also called

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Speaker 1: up some fresh reserves from samarcand so they were really

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Speaker 1: ready to go out and and fight the janissaries and

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Speaker 1: and fight by A Z's army. Yeah, they started up

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Speaker 1: by trying to use that fear thing with the last

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Speaker 1: Ottoman delegation that had come to negotiate with them. They

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Speaker 1: kind of showed off their reserves, you know, showed off

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Speaker 1: their elephants and everything that they had with them, and

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Speaker 1: and it kind of worked by a Zeed's army. They

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Speaker 1: were probably pretty impressed by this, But by A Zied

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Speaker 1: at the time had his forces concentrated in a Cura,

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Speaker 1: which was a city that commanded the approaches to Constantinople

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Speaker 1: and the Ottoman capital of Brusa. So at this point

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Speaker 1: he's really at a crossroads. He has a decision to

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Speaker 1: make do I stay here or do I go out

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Speaker 1: and meet Teamore's army head on, and he decides to

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Speaker 1: march eastward toward Teamore, acting on the information that Teamour's

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Speaker 1: forces are marching northwest. Took cot so he thinks he

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Speaker 1: knows where he's going, and he thinks he has the

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Speaker 1: advantage over Teamore at this point. But that's not Teamor's

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Speaker 1: plan after all. Maybe it was because that proposed approach

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Speaker 1: was too mountainous. Maybe because Teamore knew that by Ze

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Speaker 1: expected him to go northwest. Teamoor instead moved southwest and

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Speaker 1: made this loop north and then further west again, all

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Speaker 1: the way back around to Ankara, where he laid siege

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Speaker 1: to the city, and Team Or actually suits up for this.

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Speaker 1: He's sixty six years old, but he's not about to

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Speaker 1: miss any campaign after this long military career. Yeah, by

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Speaker 1: A Zede had figured out the location of teamors Forces

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Speaker 1: through a couple of skirmishes and rushes back to Ankara.

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Speaker 1: And here's where by a Zeede misses a really key opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Instead of catching Team More off guard and attacking immediately,

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Speaker 1: he chooses to give battle the following day to give

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Speaker 1: his forces a chance to rest. Seems to make sense, right,

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Speaker 1: but this takes away the surprise advantage and also gives

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Speaker 1: them plenty of time to dehydrate in the heat of

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Speaker 1: July because Teamore has actually diverted the only available water supply.

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Speaker 1: He's been really busy he has while waiting for Bayazed's army.

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Speaker 1: Teamors Forces had built a diversion dam up street on

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Speaker 1: Kubuk Creek with a breach in it that would let

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Speaker 1: the creek and you flowing downstream until they decided to

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Speaker 1: close it. So see if you look like it was flowing, Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: Then they made a reservoir on a western tributary downstream

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Speaker 1: and a canal was dug from the diversion dam to

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Speaker 1: the reservoir to funnel off the streams remaining water when

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Speaker 1: the dam was sealed off. And this was made possible,

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Speaker 1: I mean it may seem just completely unbelievable, but it

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Speaker 1: was possible because of the thousands of men that were

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Speaker 1: available and by Team Wars trained elephants, which were trophies

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Speaker 1: of his victory in India that he'd brought along with him.

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Speaker 1: So when Bayazet arrived, he saw the Kobook Creep flowing,

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Speaker 1: but downstream it was actually dry and there was no

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Speaker 1: other source of water available to the Ottoman army. Thousands

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Speaker 1: of soldiers and horses were involved here, so you definitely

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Speaker 1: needed water to keep going. Exactly so this day of

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Speaker 1: resting up turns out to be a day of trying

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Speaker 1: out in the July heat and giving team more the

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Speaker 1: advantage to knowing that you're there. The actual battle finally

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Speaker 1: took place on July twenty fourteen o two, and according

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Speaker 1: to an article by Simon Craig in Military History, one

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Speaker 1: of our favorite sources for battle information, there were between

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Speaker 1: two hundred thousand and four hundred thousand troops on the

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Speaker 1: field altogether, and the numerical advantage probably was with team

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Speaker 1: or so Team were organized his forces into eight different detachments,

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Speaker 1: and he himself controlled the center detachment. One of his

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Speaker 1: sons commanded the left wing and another son commanded the

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Speaker 1: right wing, and that really fresh reserve from back home

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Speaker 1: was placed at the rear between the main body of

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Speaker 1: the army and the still defiant city of Ankara. So

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Speaker 1: try to imagine all of that set up, and then

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Speaker 1: imagine those elephants fresh from all of these canal projects. Apparently,

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Speaker 1: um they are wearing armor of painted leather, and the

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Speaker 1: men on top of the elephants who are who are

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Speaker 1: all in front, by the way, had flame throwers, and

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Speaker 1: the elephants, them elves, had these curved blades attached to

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Speaker 1: their tusks. And we're trained actually advance with a plunging

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Speaker 1: motion to just create as much havoc as possible as

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Speaker 1: if an elephant charging towards you wasn't scary enough. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's assumed that these were mostly there for

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Speaker 1: intimidation or mostly their first show, but I mean, a

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Speaker 1: bladed elephant, it sounds really scary. Yeah, they could really

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Speaker 1: do some damage. So the Ottoman four set up across

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Speaker 1: for them on some low hills near Mountain Era and

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Speaker 1: Bayazid commanded the center, with the Army of Ramelia supported

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Speaker 1: by tatars to his left, and that of Anatolia backed

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Speaker 1: up by Serbs to his right, and the first clash

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Speaker 1: was between the Ottoman left and Teamar's right. The Ottomans

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Speaker 1: were repulsed at this point um, so Teamore side was

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Speaker 1: winning on that end. But then Teamore launched his left

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Speaker 1: wing against the Serbs on the Ottoman right and that

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Speaker 1: didn't go so well for Team Or. His forces were

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Speaker 1: driven back at first, and it really seemed like the

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Speaker 1: Ottoman forces had the advantage at that point, But then

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Speaker 1: there was a twist by ZEDs touch our forces on

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Speaker 1: the left turn against him and joined up with Teamor,

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Speaker 1: and most people think that Teamor's agents had been there

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Speaker 1: for a little bit. Another another problem about waiting for

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Speaker 1: a day Teamor's agents that had time to sneak in,

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Speaker 1: start talking to people and and turn some turn some

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Speaker 1: opinions regardless, though, this allowed Teamor to focus on by

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Speaker 1: A Zeed's center as by Zis left just completely crumbled,

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Speaker 1: so some of the soldiers on buy Z's right ended

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Speaker 1: up switching teams as well, and by that point it

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Speaker 1: was pretty much decided. With so much betrayal on the

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Speaker 1: Ottoman forces side, um it was clearly Teamor's battle. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and just a note about the role of betrayal here,

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Speaker 1: because obviously played a really big role. In his article,

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Speaker 1: Craig says that the root of this treachery probably low

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Speaker 1: morale among bias EDS troops as cold hearted as Team

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Speaker 1: wore seemed. In fact, he placed a big importance on

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Speaker 1: the morale of his troops. So for example, if they

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Speaker 1: need a little boost in morale, he would bring in

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Speaker 1: some astrologers who would predict a victorious outcome a lot

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Speaker 1: of heads in their future. But yeah, exactly, and I mean,

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Speaker 1: come to think of it, that's what happened, right, So,

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Speaker 1: I mean it seemed to work for them, but BIASEDS

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Speaker 1: troops weren't so lucky by as he tried to hold

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Speaker 1: his ground for a while, but he eventually tried to

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Speaker 1: flee and was captured himself. He was transported to summercond

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Speaker 1: after that and imprisoned, where he died a year later.

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Speaker 1: Some say from despair. Although I'm not sure how much

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Speaker 1: I really buy into being team or as prisoner. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I imagine that would be difficult. It's kind of amazing

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Speaker 1: that he was even kept as a prisoner in the

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Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, I don't know what the reasoning behind

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Speaker 1: that was he would think that someone is ruthless as

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Speaker 1: Teamore would just sort of have him killed off right away.

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Speaker 1: But not so. And tamer Lane at this point, now

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Speaker 1: approaching seventy, he's not taking a break, even though he's

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Speaker 1: finally defeated his biggest foe at the time. He is,

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Speaker 1: at that point seventy years old, planning his next campaign

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Speaker 1: in China. But he died on route to China February

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Speaker 1: oh five, luckily for the people where he was headed.

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Speaker 1: So after Teamor's death, his empire pretty much became engulfed

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Speaker 1: in civil war and disintegrated. Teamoor himself never really bothered

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Speaker 1: with administration, so there was no social, economic, or political cohesion,

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Speaker 1: just this fear of Team More apparently, and as Craig

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Speaker 1: puts it, the battle was sort of the end in

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Speaker 1: itself for teamer and he's quote perhaps best understood as

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Speaker 1: a sort of career criminal, a gangster on the grand scale.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, it makes sense that without that compelling figure

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Speaker 1: behind it all, the empire is not going to last.

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Speaker 1: But even though his empire didn't last, Team Wore himself

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Speaker 1: is still revered and was after that he was buried

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Speaker 1: and sarcophagus covered by a huge slab of jade and

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Speaker 1: a mausoleum known as Guri Amir. I think that's the

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Speaker 1: closest I can get to a good pronunciation of that.

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Speaker 1: If anyone has any better corrections, please let me know,

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Speaker 1: or if you've visited. If you've visited, because apparently it's

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Speaker 1: still called one of the greatest treasures of Islamic architecture,

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Speaker 1: and that mausoleum is still shrouded in mystery. Legend has

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Speaker 1: it that the disturber of his tomb would be cursed,

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Speaker 1: and no one really tempted fate there. No one really

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Speaker 1: tried to disturb his tomb for more than five hundred

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Speaker 1: years until in June one, the Soviet Archaeological Commission opened

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Speaker 1: the tomb and examined the skeleton within, and the remains

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Speaker 1: included hairs, including a few bristles of chestnut mustache, and

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Speaker 1: fragments of skin and muscle tissue, and the measurements of

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Speaker 1: the skeleton revealed that at around a hundred seventy centimeters,

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Speaker 1: team War was actually tall for the time and very powerful,

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Speaker 1: and the injuries on his right side were confirmed. Then

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Speaker 1: he was in fact lame because right leg was shorter

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Speaker 1: than his left and his whole frame was kind of twisted,

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Speaker 1: and one scientist involved actually used the skull to make

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Speaker 1: a facial reconstruction so we can see what his features

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Speaker 1: look like. What about the curse? What about the curse?

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Speaker 1: It's a good question. Well, some say it came true.

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Speaker 1: It was Soviet scientists involved, and days after the tomb

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Speaker 1: was opened, Hitler attacked Soviet Russia. Yeah, that's a pretty

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Speaker 1: serious curse. That is a pretty serious curse. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode

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Speaker 1: is out of the archive, if you heard an email

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Speaker 1: address or a Facebook U r L or something similar

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of

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