Timur (Tamerlane) and the Timurid Empire in Central Asia

Abstract

The political vacuum created in Central Asia in the early fourteenth century wreaked political chaos throughout the region. Numerous Turkic and Mongol clans were powerful enough to raid each other’s territory, to wage campaigns and sometimes even to storm large cities, but they were too disunited and too disorganized to establish stable states or to lay the foundations of economic recovery and growth. In this environment, the major urban centers were interested in investing in and supporting a capable leader who could bring stability into Transoxiana.