Timurid Period 1383 - 1501
Timurid Period
1383 - 1501
Timurid dynasty was founded by Tamerlane, a Turkic ruler and conqueror, whose far-flung expeditions carried him from southern Russia to India and from Central Asia to Turkey. Tamerlane ruled Samarqand as his capital, enriching the city and surrounding region with the loot of his campaigns. From the region's mixed population, Tamerlane organized an efficient army of infantry, engineers, and cavalry, and over the next ten years began to expand his control over surrounding territory. Tamerlane and his successors built many spectacular palaces and mosques, and are noted for their patronage of scholarship, arts, Turkish and Persian literature, and revival of artistic and intellectual life in Iran and Central Asia.
1383 Timur began his conquests in Persia with the capture of Herat.
The Persian political and economic situation was extremely precarious. The signs of recovery visible under the later Mongol rulers suffered a setback after the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335. The vacuum of power was filled by rival dynasties, torn by internal dissensions and unable to put up resistance.
1385 Khorasan and all eastern Persia fell to Timur.
1385 Timur's palace was founded at Kish, his birthplace in Central Asia.
It was not quite finished 20 years later, when Clavijo, the ambassador of Henry III, king of Castile, saw it in 1405. No monarch in Asia could boast of anything comparable.
1389 Khajeh Bahaeddin Naqshband (b.1318), a renowned Sufi leader, died.
He founded the important and still active Naqshbandiyyeh Sufi order. In the extent of its diffusion, this order has been second only to the Qaderiyyeh.
1390 Hafez, commonly considered the pre-eminent master of the Ghazal form, died In Shiraz.
1390 The Qara Quyunlu ("Black Sheep") Turkmens, who already had under their control an area close to Lake Van and mountainous regions in Armenia, annexed Azerbaijan.
1391 Sheikh Sadreddin (b.1305), son of Sheikh Safieddin, died. He constructed the Safavid family mausoleum from 1324 to 1334. During his 57 years as head of the order, he witnessed the collapse of the Mongols.
1393 Timur conquered Baghdad.
1394 Timur became master of Fars, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Mesopotamia, and Georgia, the regions he had conquered between 1386 and 1394.
1396 Timur appointed his son, Shahrokh, as ruler of Eastern Persia.
Shahrokh had two wives, Gowharshad and Malikat.
1397 Umar al-Khalwati, founder of the highly diversified.and widespread mystical order of Khalwatiyyeh, died.
1398 Timur invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were showing excessive tolerance to their Hindu subjects.He crossed the Indus River and, leaving a trail of carnage, marched on Delhi. The army of the Delhi sultan was destroyed, and Delhi was reduced to ruins, from which it took more than a century to emerge.
1399 Timur set out on his last great expedition, to punish the Mamluk sultan of Egypt and the Ottoman sultan Bayazid I for their seizures of certain of his territories.
1400 Geoffrey Chaucer (b.ca.1343), the father of English poetry,died. His best-known work is The Canterbury Tales.
1401 Having restored his control over Azerbaijan, Timur marched on Syria; Aleppo was stormed and sacked, the Mamluk army defeated, and Damascus occupied.
1401 Timur conquered Baghdad.
20,000 of its citizens were massacred, and all its monuments were destroyed.
1402 Having wintered in Georgia, Timur invaded Anatolia and destroyed Bayazid's army near Ankara.
- Timur received offers of submission from the sultan of Egypt and from John VII (then co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire with Manuel II Palaeologus).
1402 Timur met the Sufi Khajeh Ali in Ardabil on the way back to Central Asia.
Khajeh Ali left so great an impression on him that he is said to have donated land to the shrine. Timur also issued decrees to exempt Sufi orders from tax, and to guarantee their safety.
1404 Timur returned to Samarqand and prepared for an expedition to China.
1404 The mosque of Bibi Khanum in Samarqand was completed after 6 years of construction.
The whole building, including its eight minarets and three domes, was covered with enameled tiles.
1405 Timur fell ill on his expedition to China and died at Otrar in February .
His body was embalmed, laid in an ebony coffin, and sent to Samarqand, where it was buried in the sumptuous tomb called Gur-e Amir ("Tomb of the Commander'').
- Timur's conquests were divided between two of his sons: Miranshah received Iraq, Azerbaijan, Moghan, Shirvan, and Georgia, while Shahrokh was left with Khorasan.
1406 Abd ur-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (b.1332), historian, sociologist and philosopher of Tunis, died.
He is one of the strongest personalities of Arabo-Muslim culture in the period of its decline.
1407 Miranshah died and Shahrokh became the undisputed king of Persia, Armenia, Georgia and Baghdad, and installed his son, Ulugh Beg, as governor of Samarqand while he remained in Herat.
1416 Gowharshad ordered extensive renovations to the shrine of Imam Reza (A), the eighth Shia Imam, in Mashad.
The purpose behind this project was primarily to satisfy the increasingly influential Shia community in Persia. She added a large Jame' mosque and two assembly halls, Dar alSiyada ("House for Sayyids") and Dar al-Huffaz House for Reciters''), to the pre-existing complex to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims.
- The architect Qavamoddin Shirazi used the traditional fourivan plan for the mosque, but ingeniously placed a dome over, not beyond, the Qibla ivan.
The mosque's Qibla ivan was distinguished by flanking minarets with lozenge decoration and a broad inscription band in tile mosaic, personally designed by Gowharshad's son Baysonghor, a renowned calligrapher and the leading bibliophile of the day.
1417 Shahrokh's son, Ulugh Beg, built a royal madrasa and Khaneqah facing the Ragistan, the town square of Samarqand.
1417 Gowharshad began a large complex in Herat.
It took two decades (1417-1438) for Qavamoddin Shirazi, the same architect Gowharshad had hired to work in Mashad, to complete the work which included a large rectangular Jame' mosque and a madrasa with a dynastic mausoleum. He ingeniously used an elaborate system of squinch-net vaulting in the Mausoleum that proves to be the most important innovation in Timurid architecture. Today only two minarets and the tomb, covered with the typical Timurid high double dome, remain.
1417 Shahrokh crushed local warlords and rebellious nephews attempting to seize control of Isfahan region.
1427 Khajeh AIi, who for the first time used Shia doctrine in the teachings of Safavid mystic order, died.
1427 Shahrokh was the target of an assassination attempt.
Stabbed in the stomach when leaving the Friday prayer, he made a full recovery.
1429 Ghiyasoddin Kashani, mathematician and astronomer, died.
He wrote in Persian and Arabic. He assisted in establishing Ulugh Beg's astronomical tables, and worked out the value of Π (pi=3.14) with extraordinary precision.
1430 Hafez Abru, Persian historian of the Timurid period and documenter of the reign of Shahrokh, died.
1431 Shah Nematollah Vali, Persian mystic and eponym of the Nematollahiyyeh order of Sufism, died.
He was a descendent of the fifth Imam of Shia. He is highly esteemed in Persia as a great saint and miracle-worker, and his tomb at Mahan is a popular place of pilgrimage.
The order was reintroduced into Persia in the late 18th century and became the most widely spread Sufi order in the country.
1435 Abdul Qadir Gheibi died.
He was the greatest of the Persian writers on music; his works are of great importance in the history of Persian, Arabian and Turkish music.
1436 The Shrine of Shah Nematollah Vali was built in Mahan under the patronage of his Indian disciple, Ahmad Shah Dakani.
1437 Mir Chakhmaq complex was founded in Yazd.
This complex was built under the patronage of Shahrokh's governor, Mir Chakhmaq, and his wife. It included a fourivan mosque, Khaneqah, qanat, cistern, and well, supported by a nearby bath house and caravanserai.
1440 German craftsman Johan Gutenberg invented a method of printing from movable type, used almost unchanged until the 20th century.
1444 The Ghiasiyyeh madrasa was built at Khargird in Khorasan province.
The architecture of this building reflects the height of the new types of vaults in early Timurid architecture. This is Qavamoddin's last work which was finished by his pupil, Ghiyasoddin Shirazi. Here one can find the elaboration of entrance complex as an architectural unit, which is a main characteristic of Timurid architecture.
1444 Shahrokh fell seriously ill, and Gowharshad, his wife, was promoted as the rightful heir apparent. His health improved.
1447 Sheikh Ebrahim, under whose leadership the Safavid Sufi order acquired exceptional wealth and influence, died.
1447 Shahrokh died.
During Shahrokh's reign, economic prosperity was restored and much of the damage wrought by Timur's campaigns was repaired. Trading and artistic communities were brought into the capital city of Herat, where a library was founded, and the capital became the center of a renewed and artistically brilliant Persian culture.
1453 Ottomans conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Mehmed the conqueror ordered the great Byzantine imperial church of Haghia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") to be transformed into the city's congregational mosque.
1454 Sharafeddin Yazdi, Persian poet and historian, died.
He wrote the history of Timur.
1454 The Darb-e Imam mausoleum was built in Isfahan.
This shrine has an exquisite tile mosaic portal which is one of the finest examples of decorated architecture in Persia, with symmetrically displayed panels containing arabesques, vases, and inscriptions that describe the building.
1457 Gowharshad, the formidable wife of king Shahrokh, died. After her death the house of Timur fell and the empire was fragmented.
1460 Sultan Jonaid, also known as Sheikh Joneid, was killed in battle.
He was the Sheikh of the Safavid Sufi order who for the first time used the title of Sultan instead of Sheikh. The title of Sultan denoted his leadership's military might and political ambition.
1465 The 'Kabud' (Blue) mosque was built in Tabriz.
The mosque, which takes its name from the superb tile revetment, was originally part of a multi functional complex, known as the Muzaffariyyeh after its patron Abol Muzaffar Jahanshah. The complex included a cistern, library, tomb, and Khaneqah for Sufis, but the identification of the surviving part is unclear.
1467 Aq Quyunlu C'White Sheep') Turkmens formed a dynasty under Ozun Hassan. 1481 The Spanish Inquisition was established.
1482 Abd ur-Razzaq Samarqandi (b.1413), a Persian historian,died.
He served several Timurid rulers in Samrakand and left an important source of historical information.
1487 Ismail, who became the founder of the Safavid dynasty and Shah of Persia, was born. Ismail was the son of Sultan Heidar and Martha.
Sultan Heidar (d.1488) was the son of Sultan Jonaid and Khajeh Beigom, Ozun Hassan's sister.
Martha (Almashah Beigom) was the daughter of Ozun Hassan and Dezpina, daughter of Kalo Yohans, ruler of Trabozan.
1488 Sultan Heidar, Ismail's father and head of a Shia group known as the Qizilbash C'Red Heads'), was killed in battle against the Sunni king of Shirvan.
Fearful that the Sunnis, the majority sect, would wipe out the entire family, Shia supporters kept Ismail's family members hidden for a number of years.
1490 Khajeh Obeidollah Ahrar (b. 1404), sheikh of Naqshbandiyyeh order of Sufism, died.
Under his guidance, the order became firmly rooted in Central Asia.
1490 Galatasaray, palace school in Galata, Turkey, was founded. 1492 Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)discovered the West Indies.
1492 Mowlana Nureddin Jami (b.1414), great Persian poet and mystic, died in Herat, Afghanistan.
He IS often regarded as the last mystical poet of Persia. His most famous collection of poetry is a seven-part compendium entitled 'Haft Owrang' ("The Seven Thrones").
1497 Vasco da Gama, Portuguese navigator, made his first voyage to India. In this way he opened up the sea route from western Europe to the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope and thus ushered in a new era in world history.
1501 Ismail emerged at the age of 14 to take his father's position as head of the Qizilbash. He quickly established a base of power in northwestern Persia.
1501 Ismail defeated and killed Farrokh Yasar, king of Shirvan.
1501 Leading an army of 7000, Ismail confronted an army of 30000 Aq Quyunlu men whom he managed to crush.