Tamerlane

Tamerlane

Author – Justin Marozzi

Publisher – Harper Perennial

Pages – 424

Dedication – “This book is dedicated to my mother and to the memory of my father”

Tamerlane – Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justin Marozzi is a biography of Tamerlane (1336-1405), the Mongol turned Islamic conqueror of Central Asia. Marozzi details the gruelling marches through the Asian vastness, grim tales of death, destruction, pillage and lust. Being a travelling historian, he visited Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to find the prominent places in the tale at first hand. Samarkhand and Bukhara still survives, the former being the capital of Temur. The post Soviet era Uzbekistan has identified Temur with the national identity and he is celebrated as a hero. Temur’s dynasty fell into fratricidal and patricidal warfares soon after his death and was out of the scene in less than a century.

Some quotations from the book showing the fanatically religious nature of Temur

In March 1398, Temur made clear his unswerving intention.

‘Although the true faith is observed in many places in India, the greater part of the Kingdom is inhabited by idolaters. The Sultans of Delhi have been slack in their defence of the Faith. The Muslim rulers are content with the collection of tribute from these infidels. The Koran says that the highest dignity a man can achieve is to make war on the enemies of our Religion. Mohammed the Prophet counselled like wise. A Muslim warrior thus killed acquires a merit which translates him at once into Paradise. Now that the empires of Iran and Turan and most of Asia are under our domination, and the world trembles at the least movement we make, Destiny has presented us with the most favourable opportunities. The troops will ride south, not east. India through her disorders has opened her doors to us. (p 239)

The first skirmish came when Temur’s reconnaissance party of seven hundred cavalry was attacked by the forces of Mallu Khan, who was then ruling Delhi through Sultan Mahmud Khan. The Tatars held off the Indians, and returned safely to camp, but there were important consequences. First, Temur had managed to tempt Mallu Khan into battle, albeit little more than a scuffle. This augured well. After the interminable siege of Multan, Temur was minded to take Delhi as quickly as possible. He did not want to be forced to sit and wait for the city to surrender from starvation. Far better to lure Mallu into a pitched battle and settle the issue without delay. Second, the rush of troops against the Tatars had been met with roars of approval from the hundred thousand Hindus taken prisoner en route to Delhi. Such was the fervour of their reaction, born out of hopes of liberation, that Temur, fearing a rebellion in his rearguard, gave orders for each and every one to be killed on the spot. The command was to be obeyed on pain of death. Even the holy men travelling with Temur’s army were required to act as executioners, and many were their tears as they sent innocent men and women to their deaths in cold blood. ‘The history of mankind cannot furnish another example of so horrid an act of deliberate cruelty’, wrote the 19^th century historian Sir Malcolm Price, ‘yet the being who perpetrated it has been exalted by historians and poets into a demi-god; and severalm not contented with ascribing to him that valour, policy and martial skill, which he undoubtedly possessed, have extolled him for this numberless virtues; and above all, for this justice and clemency’. (p 264-65)

Casting scorn on the Indians’ feeble resistance, Ferishta portrays the terrors of a city given over to fire and the sword.

“The Hindus, according to custom, seeing their females disgraced, and their wealth seized by the soldiery, shut the gates, set fire to their houses, murdered their wives and children, and rushed out on their enemies. This led to a general massacre so terrible that some streets were blocked by the heaps of the dead; and the gates being forced, the whole Mongol army stormed inside, and a scene of horror ensued easier to be imagined than described. The desperate courage of the Delhians was at length cooled in their own blood, and throwing down their weapons, they at last submitted like sheep to the slaughter…. In the city the Hindus were atleast ten to one superior in number to the enemy, and had they possessed souls, it would have been impossible for the Mongols, who were scattered about in every street, house and corner, laden with plunder, to have resisted.” (p 270-71)

Laden with booty, the army made laborious progress on its north-ward journey, some times as little as 4 miles in a day. One of Temur’s first stops was the celebrated marble mosque built by Sultan Firuz Shah on the banks of the Jumna, where the emperor gave thanks to Allah for his recent success, and which may have inspired Temur’s monumental Cathedral Mosque in Samarkand.

This was to be no leisurely return, however. More battles awaited the Tatars, for the Jihad had not ended. There were still many more infidels to be killed or converted. First the army swung round to the north-east, sacking the stronghold of Meerut before reaching the Ganges and slaughtering 48 boat loads of Hindus in addition to an undisclosed number of Zoroastrians. Into the foot hills of Kashmir and the Himalayas Temur’s forces continued, fighting 20 or so pitched battles and plundering profitably wherever and whenever the occasion presented itself. The Muslim shah of Kashmir submitted with promises of a vast tribute. The Hindu Raja of Jammu was captured in an ambush and hastily converted to the True Faith. An expedition was sent against Lahore to punish a prince who had already submitted to Temur but had conspicuously failed to reappear as instructed. Lahore was seized and the careless prince executed. (p 273)

Faced with another Tatar invasion,the Georgians retreated to higher ground, secreting themselves in impenetrable mountain caves. The difficult terrain and the unexpected tactics of his adversary demanded a new approach. First, Temur had baskets worn that were big enough to hold a man. Archers stepped inside them and were lowered over the cliffs until they reached the mouths of the caves. Once there, they fired flaming arrows soaked in oil into the farthest recesses, smoking the enemy out and sending them to agonizing deaths. The capital, Tiflis, first seized by Temur in 1386, was stormed again. Within a short space of time, mosques, minarets and muaddin occupied the ground on which the Christian churches and their priests had stood. At the point of a sword, pragmatic Georgians recited the sacred words which defined themselves as Muslims: “La ilahah Illallah, Mohammedan razul’Allah”. Death was the penalty for those who clung on to Christianity. (p 283-84)

The Tatar, who had long aspired to recognition within the Islamic world as the greatest defender of the faith, took pains to inflict miserable deaths on the city’s Christian community. While the sipahis were buried alive, others had their heads tied between their thighs before being thrown into the moat to drown. According to Johann Schiltberger, the Bavarian squire captured by Temur in 1402, 9000 virgins were carried off into captivity. Those who were fortunate enough to escape the slaughter fled from Sivas in horror. As for the city itself, it was, reported Arabshah, ‘utterly destroyed and laid to waste’. (p 288)