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Timurid dynasty

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Flag of the Timurid Empire according to the Catalan Atlas c.1375

The Timurids (Persian: سلسلهٔ تیموریان, Silsila-ye Tīmurīyān), self-designated Gurkānī (Persian: گوركانى) , were a Muslim dynasty of originally Mongolian descent established by the Central Asian warlord Timur. At its zenith, the Timurid Empire included the whole of Central Asia and Iran, as well as large parts of Mesopotamia and Caucasus.

In the 16th century, Timurid prince Zahir ud-Din Babur, the ruler of Ferghana, invaded India and founded the Mughal Empire - the Timurids of India - who ruled the Indian sub-continent for 300 years.

History

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Timur conquered large parts of Transoxiana in modern day Central Asia and Khorasan in modern day Iran and Afghanistan, from 1363 onwards with various alliances (Samarqand in 1366, and Balkh in 1369), and was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of the Mongolian Chagatai ulus, he subjugated Transoxania and Khwarazm in the years that followed and began a campaign westwards in 1380. By 1389 he had removed the Kartids from Herat and advanced into mainland Persia from 1382 (capture of Isfahan in 1387, removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad). In 1394/95 he triumphed over the Golden Horde and enforced his sovereignty in the Caucasus, in 1398 subjugated what is today Pakistan and northern India and occupied Delhi, in 1400/01 conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia, in 1401 destroyed Baghdad and in 1402 triumphed over the Ottomans at Ankara.

Timurid continental map

In addition, he transformed Samarqand into the Center of the World.

After the end of the Timurid Empire in 1506, the Mughal Empire was later established in India by Babur in 1526, who was a descendant of Timur through his father and possibly a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. The dynasty he established is commonly known as the Mughal Dynasty. By the 17th century, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India, but later declined during the 18th century. The Timurid Dynasty came to an end in 1857 after the Mughal Empire was dissolved by the British Empire and Bahadur Shah II was exiled to Burma.



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Culture

Although the Timurids hailed from the Barlas tribe which was of Mongol origin, they had embraced Turkic and Persian culture (see Turco-Mongol, Turco-Persian), converted to Islam and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan.

Literature

The Timurid era revived the Persian civilization in Central Asia after the desasterous invasion by Genghis Khan, and Persian literature as well as the Persian language, which was the traditional vernacular of the Timurid courts, flourished throughout their empire. Herat and Samarqand, became centers of a renewed and artistically brilliant Persian culture. Among the most important literary works of the Timurid era is the Persian biography of Timur, known as "Zafarnāma" ( ظفرنامه), written by Sharaf ud-Dīn Alī Yazdī.

The Timurids also played a very important role in the history of Turkic literature. Based on the established Persian literary tradition, a national Turkic literature was developed, written in the Chagatay language, the native tongue of the Timurid family. Chagatay poets such as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī, Sultan Husayn Bāyqarā, and Zāher ud-Dīn Bābur encouraged other Turkic-speaking poets to write in their own vernacular in addition to Arabic and Persian. The Bāburnāma, the autobiography of Bābur, as well as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī's Chagatay poetry are among the best-known Turkic literary works and have fascinated and influenced many others world wide.

Architecture

Timurid architecture is the pinnacle of Islamic art in Central Asia. Spectacular and stately edifices erected by Timur and his successors in Samarkand and Herat helped to disseminate the influence of the Ilkhanid school of art in India, thus giving rise to the celebrated Mughal (or Mongol) school of architecture. Timurid architecture started with the sanctuary of Ahmed Yasawi in present-day Kazakhstan and culminated in Timur's mausoleum Gur-e Amir in Samarkand. The style is largely derived from Persian architecture. Axial symmetry is a characteristic of all major Timurid structures, notably the Shāh-e Zenda in Samarkand, the Musallah complex in Herat, and the mosque of Gowhar Shād in Mashhad. Double domes of various shapes abound, and the outsides are perfused with brilliantly colors.

Main article: Mughal architecture

Mughal architecture in India was a fusion of Persian and Indian elements. The Mughal emperor Akbar constructed the royal city of Fatehpur Sikri, located 26 miles west of Agra, in the late 1500s. The most famous example of Mughal architecture is the Taj Mahal, the "teardrop on eternity," completed in 1648 by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died while giving birth to their 14th child. The extensive use of precious and semiprecious stones as inlay and the vast quantity of white marble required nearly bankrupted the empire. The Taj Mahal is completely symmetric other than the sarcophagus of Shah Jahan which is placed off center in the crypt room below the main floor. This symmetry extended to the building of an entire mirror mosque in red sandstone to complement the Mecca-facing mosque place to the west of the main structure. Another structure built that showed great depth of Mughal influence was the Shalimar Gardens.

Rulers of Timurid Empire

Rulers of Mughal Empire

External links

Notes

  1. Zahir ud-Din Mohammad (2002-09-10). Thackston, Wheeler M. (ed.). The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. Modern Library Classics. ISBN 0375761373. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. Note: Gurkānī is the Persianized form of the Mongolian word kürügän , the title given to the dynasty's founder after his marriage into Genghis Khan's family (Thackston, Wheeler M. The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. Modern Library Classics. ISBN 0375761373)
  3. "Timur", The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-05 Columbia University Press, (LINK)
  4. "Consolidation & expansion of the Indo-Timurids", in Encyclopaedia Britannica, (LINK)
  5. ^ "Timurids", in Encyclopædia Britannica, Online Edition, (LINK)
  6. Lehmann, F. "Zaher ud-Din Babor - Founder of Mughal empire". Encyclopaedia Iranica (Online ed.). New York City: Columbia University Center for Iranian (Persian) Studies. pp. 320–323. Retrieved 2006-11-07. ... His origin, milieu, training, and culture were steeped in Persian culture and so Babor was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, the Mughals of India, and for the expansion of Persian cultural infleunce in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and historiographical results ... {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonth= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Timurids". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). New York City: Columbia University. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  8. "Mughal architecture", in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Online Version, (LINK)
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