The Confrontation between Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane: A View from Turan
Portrait of Tamerlane from the early 15th century
On the way to Kondurcha
In the Golden Horde cycle, it was started by the article The Golden Horde on the Path to Traditional Islam: From Batu to Berke — the defeat of Tokhtamysh by Timur in the Battle of Kondurcha on June 18, 1391 was mentioned.
It seems that this was not only a turning point in stories the ulus of Jochi, but also Eurasia as a whole, changing the military-political appearance of the region in favor of the rising Moscow.
Following Kondurcha came the destruction of the Golden Horde cities, which were unprotected by walls, which, by and large, doomed the state created by Batu's descendants to absorption by more powerful neighbors.
The destruction of the cities, in my opinion, deprived Sarai of the prospect of developing a manufacturing base, even one dependent on supplies of raw materials and skilled labor from outside. Access to the Black Sea and control over Genoese and Venetian trading posts allowed Sarai to solve this problem.
Most importantly, the formation of a bureaucratic apparatus from the sedentary urban population, it seems, gave the Golden Horde khans a chance to transform the nomadic chiefdom – a term coined by historian N. N. Kradin – into an empire.
The Iranian monarch followed this path in the 17th century – see: Through Thorns to the Shah: The Journey of Russian Diplomat Grigory Vasilchikov to the Court of Abbas I, who placed his bets on the Persian sedentary bureaucracy instead of the Qizilbash nomadic aristocracy.
Of course, we're talking about Sarai's hypothetical chances of transforming the chiefdom into an empire, given the many "buts." Nevertheless, I believe there were chances before June 18, 1391.
Ultimately, Moscow's rise was determined not by its advantageous geographic location—Tver's was incomparably more advantageous—but by personality and circumstance. For Sarai, this could have worked both ways.
It might have been, if not for the crushing blow of Tamerlane, who achieved victory largely due to the more developed type of socio-economic relations in his state - the Persian historian Sharaf ad-din Ali Yazdi called it Turan - which allowed him to create the strongest army in the world at that time.
It should be noted, however, that Timur only partially solved the problem of transforming a chiefdom into an empire, as he also relied, among other things, on the Turkic-Mongol nomadic aristocracy, which will be discussed in more detail in a subsequent article, when we discuss the structure of the conqueror's army. Likewise, as historian A. M. Kylychev notes, Tamerlane possessed a mindset typical of "for the nomadic feudal lord of that time".
However, I would like to add a little to the esteemed researcher: Timur’s worldview combined both nomadic features and those characteristic of the ruler of a sedentary state.
The first was expressed in the modest title of "emir," which Tamerlane bore, since, not being a Chingizid, he had no claim to the khan's throne. In this regard, he followed Yasa.
As for the second, Yasa in Timur’s worldview coexisted with the norms of Sharia, and his state itself bore both nomadic and sedentary agricultural features, reminiscent of the state of the Khorezmshahs, defeated by Genghis Khan in 1221.
In fact, a more advanced type of government, in comparison with other nomadic chiefdoms—the Golden Horde or Moghulistan, located to the east of Turan—allowed Timur to form an army that turned out to be the strongest in the world at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.
This article will discuss some of Tamerlane's steps in state building.
Sofas as a step towards empire
The features of the sedentary agricultural civilization inherent to Timur's empire found expression in the creation of a ramified system of central divans (departments), according to historian T. T. Daubaeva, which controlled key spheres of state life and were managed by a staff of officials from the sedentary population.
Indeed, why are the divans described in the subtitle as a step toward imperial, that is, truly state-building? Their activities contributed to the formation of a diversified bureaucratic apparatus, which led to the transformation of chiefdoms into empires. This is precisely the path taken by Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire.
Thus, the divan-i-ala—in other words, the supreme divan—was responsible for coordinating the activities of government institutions. The divan-i-istifa was the financial department. The divan-i-arz was the prototype for the ministry of war. Its effective functioning made it possible to organize the registration of the sedentary population of Transoxiana and Khorasan recruited into the army.
At one time, the eminent orientalist V. V. Bartold drew attention to a detail relevant to the topic we are considering, concerning the socio-economic development of these two agricultural regions with a ramified irrigation system in the pre-Mongol period: the nomads who conquered them gradually came under the influence of the sedentary population, which stood at a higher cultural and religious level, distancing themselves from the ethnically related nomads of the aforementioned Moghulistan, which arose a little earlier than the reign of Timur on the ruins of the Chagatai ulus.
The Emir understood the importance of these regions for the cultural and military-economic development of his state:
“Grand irrigation works,” wrote V.V. Bartold, “were carried out by Timur not only in his native Maverannahr and neighboring Khorasan, but in such remote areas as the Mugan steppe and the Kabul basin.
The role of the Serbedars
The role of agricultural regions in the development of Turan will be discussed below. Here, a few words about the Serbedar movement—which translates from Persian as "gallows"—played a significant role in the development of Timur's empire, affecting Transoxiana, Khorasan, and Iran. According to historian A.P. Novoseltsev, it represented a revolt by various social strata of the sedentary population against the dominance of the nomadic nobility.
The movement itself needs to be discussed separately, but for our topic it is important to emphasize that, with the support of the Serbedars, Timur expelled Iliyas-Khoja, the governor and son of the first khan of Moghulistan, Tughluk Timur, who ruled the strategically and economically important Transoxiana, from its ruler.
However, later the emir, with the help of the agricultural feudal nobility, frightened by the radicalism of the dervish wing of the Serbedars, who defended the ideas of social equality, suppressed the movement.
Factor of Sayyids and Sufis
Another aspect of Timur's domestic policy should be mentioned: the influence of the Sayyids, the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and grandson Hussein.
They remain respected in the Islamic world to this day, especially in the Shiite world. A prime example is Ali Khamenei, whose assassination was considered sacrilege by many Iranians.
So, the Seyids, according to V.V. Bartold,
were in his (Timur’s - I.Kh.) state, perhaps, the only people whose lives were considered inviolable.
Vasily Vasilyevich described the influence of one of them on the emir as follows:
Timur acquired a new spiritual patron, Seyyid Bereke; there are conflicting reports regarding his origins. Seyyid remained in Timur's kingdom and received the city of Andkhoy as an appanage, which remained in the control of his descendants into the 15th century. According to Sheref ad-Din (a 15th-century Persian historian and poet – I.Kh.), Seyyid always accompanied Timur thereafter; after their death, they were buried in the same mausoleum, with Timur's face turned toward Seyyid.
The Sayyids' influence primarily affected the realm of ideology, which is also important for our topic, since, pardon the tautology, an empire is impossible without ideology. Just as, thanks to them, Timur's empire increasingly began to live not by pagan customs, but by the norms of Sharia. The latter, in turn, experienced, according to the historian H.N. Behruz, the influence of Roman law.
In the process of transforming the pagan worldview of the nomads into a Muslim one, the Sufis also played an important role, whose merit, as the historian L. A. Verdieva notes, "the role of Islamization and pacification of nomadic tribes was great"On the role of Sufism in the development of Islam in the region from the Volga to the territory of modern Kazakhstan, see: Golden Horde: from Yasa to the Koran.
It is noteworthy that the departure from the Tengrian customs formed within the framework of nomadic culture found expression in an area directly related to the state's defense capability:
From the very beginning of his reign, wrote V.V. Bartold, Timur built fortresses, surrounded cities with walls, and thereby violated the covenants of Genghis Khan.
And equally indicative is the reaction of some part of the nomadic elite to the violation of the covenants of the “Shaker of the Universe”:
The creation of a fortified capital caused, writes historian T. M. Sultanov, a conspiracy against Timur and unrest in the country.
However, the conspiracy was suppressed. I repeat what I said above: most Golden Horde cities lacked fortified walls, which doomed them to destruction during the invasion of Tamerlane's army.
Maverannahr – the key to the empire
But perhaps the main aspect of Tamerlane's superiority over Tokhtamysh was his possession of Maverannahr and Khorasan.
Understanding the military-economic importance of the former in particular for the development of the state he was forming, the emir immediately, according to A. M. Kylychev, placed Maverannahr in the position of his personal ulus, bestowing upon it care and privileges.
Maverannahr is the economic and political heart, as well as the lungs of Timur's powers
Concern was expressed, for example, in the integration of a significant proportion of prisoners brought from conquered lands into the economic life of Maverannahr, as well as into urban construction.
The pace of development in the region under Timur was so high that it gave Uzbek economists M. M. Mukhammedov and D. Kh. Aslanova reason to write about the formation of the beginnings of nothing less than a capitalist manufacturing industry.
In making such a bold assertion, the researchers base their argument on the development of the economies of Maverannahr and Khorasan, which, according to them, contributed to the consolidation and concentration of production.
According to the scientists mentioned:
Weaving establishments, or "baytuttiroz," operating in Bukhara and Merv (according to Narshahi al-Utbi), despite the fact that they employed free laborers, serfs, captives, and slaves, were examples of feudal cooperatives. A large weapons factory in Samarkand belonged to the category of similar medieval enterprises. Similar capitalist institutions developed on the basis of large state-owned workshops and the experience of organizing labor in family cooperatives. Thus, in Central Asia, in the real world—in small-scale handicraft production and in various institutions of family cooperation—the conditions for the emergence of capitalist manufacturing were ripening.
I believe the origins of the latter should still be considered debatable, especially given the apology for Tamerlane in modern Uzbekistan. But for us, it's important to note two aspects.
First. In any case, capitalism is identical to entrepreneurship.
Timur himself spoke about his positive attitude towards this quality:
My experience has shown that a person possessing the qualities of determination, enterprise, vigilance, a warrior, courage, and fearlessness is preferable to those who are unenterprising and indifferent. A person with experience provides employment to thousands. From experience, I have learned that one can become a winner with the help of the Almighty and the enterprise of His servant.
It is clear that the above reasoning mostly concerns the military sphere, but I think it can also be applied to the economic sphere.
The second aspect: The development of these agricultural regions allowed Timur to form a combat-ready infantry from the sedentary agricultural population. The almost decisive role of this infantry in the Battle of Kondurcha will be discussed in the article devoted specifically to the war between Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane.
Contours of the abyss
At the same time, of course, I am far from idealizing Timur’s domestic policy and am inclined to see that the steps he took to transform the nomadic chiefdom into a full-fledged empire were half-hearted and inconsistent.
Firstly, the development of some regions – the same Maverannahr, where the capital Samarkand was located – occurred at the expense of other lands, in particular Iran, conquered by Timur, and the territory of modern Azerbaijan, as A. M. Kylychev writes.
According to his findings:
To consolidate his power, he (Timur – I.Kh.) settled nomadic tribes, primarily Turks of the Kipchak language group, in various regions of the country, primarily in Azerbaijan, whereas previously Iran had been populated primarily by Turkmen tribes. This gave new impetus to the further Turkification of the population of Southern Azerbaijan. Apparently, the Turkification of the Iranian-speaking population of this historical region was finally completed in the 14th–15th centuries.
In other words, during the reign of Timur, at least part of Iran and, to a greater extent, Southern Azerbaijan experienced a decline, including as a result of the spread of nomadism in their territory, which was hardly on the same level as the more developed agricultural-sedentary Islamic culture.
Well, the emir had an excellent sense of the political situation and, when he considered it necessary, supported the nomadic elite, even if this was to the detriment of the economic development of his state.
Moreover, Timur unwittingly planted a time bomb under the future of Turan. This involved conquered lands or the possessions of defeated political opponents, which the emir distributed to his supporters.
Grants of this kind were called suyurgal. They represented a hereditary estate, which, after Timur's death, became one of the reasons for the disintegration of the state.
Thus, the edifice created by Timur was unstable and collapsed after his death, though not immediately. However, the emir lived long enough—69 years, a respectable age by medieval standards—to benefit from the economic prosperity of key regions, albeit isolated ones.
The Gur-Emir Mausoleum of Tamerlane in Samarkand
Developed sedentary agricultural systems made it possible to supply the army with food and, as mentioned above, to supply it with infantry. Thanks to the steppe regions, Tamerlane had excellent cavalry.
However, we still have a lot to discuss about Timur's army. The next article will focus on Tokhtamysh: what motivated him in his confrontation with Timur, and what was his empire like?
References
Bartold V.V. Works. Vol. II, Part 2. Works on Selected Problems of the History of Central Asia. Moscow, 1964
Behruz. H.N. On the influence of Roman law on Islamic law
Verdieva L.A. Conflicts of Sufi mentors with Timur (1336 – 1405) in the Muslim hagiographic tradition // Vestn. Moscow University. Series 13. Oriental Studies. 2022. No. 3. Pp. 82 – 92
Daubaeva T.T. The system of government of Amir Timur and the principles of centralized power
Clavijo, Rui González de. Journal of a Journey to Samarkand to the Court of Timur (1403–1406). Translated from Old Spanish, preface and commentary by I.S. Mirokova. – Moscow: Nauka. Main Editorial Board of Eastern Literature, 1990
Kylychev A.M. Central Asia and adjacent territories during the time of Tamerlane
Muminov I. The role and place of Amir Timur in the history of Central Asia in light of written sources. – Tashkent: FAN, 1968
Mukhamedov M. M., Aslanova D. Kh. The economic policy of Amir Timur and the development of productive forces in Uzbekistan during the Timurid era
Novosel'tsev, A.P. Genesis of Feudalism in the Countries of Transcaucasia. (An Essay on Comparative Historical Research). Moscow: Nauka, 1980.
Sultanov T.M. On the historiography of the ethnopolitical history of the uluses of Jochi and Chagatai
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