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The Rise of Tīmūr and Western Diplomatic Response, 1390–1405

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Adam Knobler
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Extract

Tīmūr (or Tamerlane), the Barlas tribesman whose empire stretched from the Mediterranean to India in the early fifteenth century has been a much studied and much romanticized figure in the history of Central Asia. His displays of macabre and often brutal intimidation of enemies have become almost as legendary as his military prowess. Indeed, Western legend of Tīmūr is as full of spine-tingling grotesquerie as any Gothic novel, and has been embellished far beyond plausibility.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 341 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1995

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References

1 No less a historian than Arnold Toynbee wrote of Tīmūr that “To the vast majority of those to whom his name means anything at all, it commemorates a militarist who perpetrated as many horrors in the span of twentyfour years as the last five Assyrian kings perpetrated in a hundred and twenty…The crack-brained megalomania of [a] homicidal madman whose one idea is to impress the imagination of mankind with a sense of his military power by a hideous abuse of it…” Toynbee, A.J., A Study of History, iv (Oxford, 1939), p. 500.Google Scholar

2 de Sacy, S., “Mémoire sur une correspondance inédite de Tamerlan avec Charles VI”, Mémoires de l'Institut Royal de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, VI (1822), pp. 470–522.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Barker, J. W., Manuel II Palaeologus (1391–1425): A Study in late Byzantine Statesmanship (New Brunswick, 1969), pp. 504–509.Google Scholar

4 Setton, K. M., The Papacy and the Levant (Philadelphia, 1976–1984), i, p. 376Google Scholar, mentions Tīmūr only briefly. Likewise, Manz, B. F., whose recent book on Tīmūr's method of governance [The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane (Cambridge, 1989)]Google Scholar is a seminal work on the topic, and the first scholarly monograph of note on Tīmur by an English-language scholar in over a century, barely mentions his relations with the West.

5 News could have reached the West through several sources. The first might have been through Christian Georgia, which came under attack in 1386/7. Another would have been through Russia itself. The khan of the Golden Horde, Toqtamish, formerly a protégé of Tīmūr, was a skilled diplomat and had made agreements with Poland, Lithuania and Moscow early during his struggles against his former overlord. Cf. Crummey, R. O., The Formation of Muscovy 1304–1613 (London and New York, 1987), p. 64.Google Scholar It should be noted that it was to Toqtamish the Venetians first turned for protection of Tana against any possible Tartar incursions. (See below.) On Tīmūr's impact on Christian Russia, cf. Halperin, C.J., “The Russian land and the Russian Tsar: the emergence of Muscovite ideology, 1380–1408”, Forschungen zur osteuropaischen Geschichte, XXIII (1976), pp. 48–52.Google Scholar

6 Registres des délibérations du sénat de Venise concernant la Romanie, ed. Thiriet, F. E. (The Hague, 1958–1961)Google Scholar, no. 860. I would wager that the Venetians were in error as to the identity of Tīmur's foe. The dates of the Venetian reports do not occur in a period of any Tīmūrid-Ottoman conflict [cf. Togan, A. Z. V., “Timurs Osteuropapolitik”, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, CVIII (1958), pp. 279–98]Google Scholar. Rather, I think it likely that these reports came in response to the sack of Baghdad and the flight of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir in the summer of 1393. It is possible that these reports came through Venetian traders/diplomats in Damascus or Egypt, where the sultan fled.

7 Registres …du sénat, nos. 898, 927, 981; Délibérations des assembliées Vénitiennes concernant la Romanie, ed. Thiriet, F. E. (Paris, 1971)Google Scholar, no. 933.

8 Looting of Saray is briefly noted by Manz, Rise and Rule, p. 72.

9 Nicopolis, despite its important position in the history of the later crusades, has rarely been the subject of any detailed research. A. S. Atiya wrote the last monograph on the Crusade of which I am aware: The Crusade of Nicopolis (London, 1934; reprinted New York, 1978)Google Scholar. Other, shorter studies can be found in Setton, The Papacy and the Levant, i, chap. 14; Housley, N., The Later Crusades: from Lyons to Alcazar, 1274–1580 (Oxford, 1992), pp. 76ffGoogle Scholar; Palmer, J. J. N., England, France and Christendom (Chapel Hill, 1972), pp. 202–7Google Scholar; Tipton, C. L. “The English at Nicopolis“, Speculum, XXXVII (1962), pp. 528–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rosetti, R., “Notes on the Battle of Nicopolis”, Slavonic Review, XV (1937), pp. 629–8.Google Scholar

10 On Franco-Byzantine relations at this time, cf. Barker, , Manuel II Palaeologos, pp. 154–69.Google Scholar Much has been written on Manuel's subsequent journey to the West in search of aid [notably, Ibid.; Nicol, D. M., “A Byzantine emperor in England: Manuel II's visit to London in 1400–1401”, University of Birmingham Historical journal, XII (1971), pp. 204–25Google Scholar; Schlumberger, G., “Un Empereur de Byzance à Paris et à Londres”, in Byzances et croisades: pages meédiévales (1927), pp. 87–147]Google Scholar, but this lies somewhat outside the scope of the present article.

11 De Sacy [“Memoire”, p. 514] was of the opinion that Sandron was with the French contingent at Nicopolis and made his way eastward from there, though his evidence is quite sketchy. Two later scholars of Nicopolis [Roulx, J. M. A. Delaville le, Le France en Orient au XIVe siecle: expéditions du maréchal Boucicaut (Paris, 1886)Google Scholar and Atiya, Crusade of Nicopolis], make no mention of Sandron as a member of the French contingent.

12 Roemer, H. R., “Timur in Iran”, in The Cambridge History of Iran 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods, eds. Jackson, P. and Lockhart, L. (Cambridge, 1986), p. 77.Google Scholar On the European community in Damascus, cf. Fischel, W.J., “A new Latin source on Tamerlane's conquest of Damascus (1400/1401)”, Oriens, IX (1956), p. 205, n. 3Google Scholar; and de Meneses, A. Lopez, “Los consuldados catalanes de Alejandriá y Damasco en el reinado de Pedro el Ceremonioso”, Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragon, VI (1956).Google Scholar On these campaigns see, very briefly, Manz, , Rise and Rule, p. 73.Google Scholar

13 “Item, narat [sic] suprascriptus quod die xviiij augusti applicuit Peyram una galea armata Ianuensium veniens de Trapesonda cum qua venerunt duo ambaxatores Timerbey, quorum unus vocatur frater Franciscus, ordine praedicatorum…qui venerunt ad imperatorem Romanie et ad illos de Peyra pro hortando eos quod stent in suis terminis quod non faciant pactum cum Turcho quia post collectores bladorum dictus Timerbeg [sic]; debebat ire contra Basaithum Turchum…” Dennis, G.T., “Three reports from Crete on the situation in Romania, 1401–1402”, Studi Veneziani, XII (1970), p. 245Google Scholar [reprinted in his Byzantium and the Franks (London, 1982)Google Scholar]. This visit is confirmed by several entries in the Peran Register of Accounts. Cf. Iorga, N., “Notes et extraits pour servir à I'histoire des croisades au XVe siècle, I”, Revue de l'Orient Latin, IV (1896), pp. 81–4.Google Scholar

14 “Post ejus legationis prolatum, elevatum fuit Peirae vexillum magnum ipsius Domini Tamborlani vocati cum honore et multa laetitia.” Stella, G., Annales Genuenses ab anno 1298 usque ad finem anni 1409 in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ed. Muratori, Ludovico (Milan, 1730), xvii, p. 1194d.Google Scholar

15 Alexandrescu-Dersca, M.-M., Le campagne de Timur en Anatolie (Bucharest, 1942; reprinted London, 1977), PP. 123–4.Google Scholar

16 On this dating of the battle of Ankara, cf. Ibid., pp. 116–19, who is followed by Roemer, , “Timur in Iran”, p. 78.Google Scholar

17 “De Sacy, , “Mémoires”, pp. 473–4, 478–80.Google Scholar

18 “Pro quibus omnibus magnifice Princeps amicitiae vestrae referimus…gratiarum eandem ex corde rogantes de vestra penes nos et nostros concinuanda benivolentia, et ut nostri mercatores ad vestra dominia de beneplacito vestro personaliter accedere valeant prout nobis complacet ut et vestri mercatores ad nostra dominia poterint se conferre.” Henry IV to Tīmūr, (Westminster, c. 1403) in Original Letters Illustrative of English History, including numerous royal letters from autographs in the British Museum, the State Paper Office and one or two other collections, ed. Ellis, H., (London, 1846; reprinted London, 1969), 3rd series, i, pp. 54–8.Google Scholar

19 “Intelleximus etiam ex dictarum continentia litterarum qualiter ad partes Thurciae noviter accedentes nostrum vestrumque veterem Inimicum Baazitam scilicet et totam ipsius patriam infra modici temporis spatium suffragante Domino conculcastis. Unde spiritum consolationis et gaudii suscepimus vehementer.” Original Letters, p. 57.

20 De Sacy, , “Memoires”, pp. 521–2.Google Scholar

21 “Eo tempore allata sunt nova in Angliam per mercatores Graecos, quod multum lactificaverunt Imperatorem Constantinopolim et amicos ejus. Nunciatum est siquidem regnum suum hostili terrore vacuatum, et quod Rex de Letto, commisso bello contra Bassak, filium Bathardan illustrem, quern <Admiratum> appellant, eundem Bassak in bello peremerit, et destruxerit Ierusalem et in circuitu regionem; et quod idem Rex de Letto conversus sit ad Christianitatis ritum, propter tarn gratiosam victoriam a coelo sibi datam, cum sexaginta millibus hominum sectae suae; qui, in signum suae fidei, jam utuntur albis vestibus supra armaturam suam, insertis crucibus rubri coloris in eisdem vestimentis.” Walsingham, Thomas, Annales Ricardi Secundi et Henrici Quarti regum Angliae in Johannis de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneford Chronica et Annales, ed. Riley, H. T. (Rolls Series, London, 1866Google Scholar), sub anno 1401. Cf. also Walsingham, T., Historia, sub anno 1401.Google Scholar The same story is repeated in English by Capgrave, John, [The Chronicle of England, ed. Hingeston, F. C., (London, 1858)Google Scholar, sub anno 1401].

22 On the conversion stories regarding Ghazan, cf. Schein, S., “Gesta Dei per Mongolos 1300. The genesis of a non-event”, English Historical Review, XCIV (1979), pp. 805–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the use of the conversion motif in other Western chronicles and accounts of the East, cf. my article, “Pseudo-conversions and patchwork pedigrees: the Christianization of Muslim princes and the diplomacy of Holy War”, journal of World HistoryGoogle Scholar (forthcoming).

23 Adam, of Usk, Chronicon, ed. Thompson, E. M. (London, 1904)Google Scholar, sub anno 1402.

24 Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys, contenant le règne de Charles VI., de 1380 à 1422, ed. Bellaguet, L. F. (Paris, 1839–1852), iii, pp. 46–7.Google Scholar

25 de Monstrelet, Enguerrand, La chronique d'Enguerran de Monstrelet (Paris, 1857–1862), i, p. 85.Google Scholar

26 On the identity of John and his later writings and work, cf. Kern, A., “Der ‘Libellus de Notitia Orbis’ Iohannes’ III (De Galonifontibus?) O. P. Erzbischofs von Sultanyeh”, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, VIII (1938)Google Scholar, and Papacostea, ş., “Un Călător în Tările Române la Începtul Veacului al XV-lea”, Studii, Revistá de Istorie, XVIII (1965).Google Scholar

27 Kern, , “Der ‘Libellus…’”, pp. 82–4.Google Scholar He posits either French or Italian.

28 Henry IV to Prester John, 1400, in Royal and Historical Letters during the Reign of Henry the Fourth, King of England and of France, and Lord of Ireland, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C. (London, 1860–1865), i PP. 419–20.Google Scholar Wadding claimed that his actual name was John Greenlaw, cf. Wadding, Luke, Annales minorum, seu Trium ordinum a S. Francisco institutorum (Rome/Naples/Ancona, 1731–1933), ix, p. 248.Google Scholar

29 Kern, , “Der ‘Libellus …’”, p. 84Google Scholar, n. 8; that John was in Venice is attested to by two letters written by him in Venice, which are reproduced in a tract by Tomasso Antonio Caffarini written in the first decade of the fifteenth century. He can be placed there in January and February of 1403. As the letters, which were addressed to Cosimo Gentile de Meliorati, the bishop of Bologna, are unrelated in content to the present work, they need no further comment other than that they place John in Venice at that time. Cf. Caffarini, Tommasso Antonio, Tractatus super informatione originis, et processus, ac lenariae approbationis et confirmationis Fratrum, et Sonorum Ordinis de Poenitentia Sancti Dominki Fundatoris, et Paris Ordinis Fratrum Praedkatorum in Ecclesiae venetae antiquis monumentis mine etiam primum editis illustratae ac in decades distributii, ed. Cornaro, Flaminio (Venice, 1749), xi, i, pp. 45, 49–51.Google Scholar

30 The text in the Chronographia is in Latin. Chronographia Regum Francorum, ed. Moranvillé, H. (Paris, 1891–1897), iii, pp. 191–233.Google Scholar A French version of the same text has appeared independently. Cf. Moranvillé, H., “Mémoire sur Tamerlan et sa cour par un Dominicain, en 1403”, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, LV (1894), pp. 433–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 “…aux autres qui feroient aucune chose contre lui ou qui contrediroient sa volulonté il est très cruel et les fait mourir de cruelle mort et leur fait souffrir divers tourmens;…”, Ibid., pp. 454.

32 de Meneses, Lopez, “Los consuldados catalanes,” p. 114Google Scholar; Lluch, Antoni Rubiò i, ed., Diplomatari de l'Orient català (1301–1409); collecció de documents per a la histoóia de l'expedció català a Orient i dels ducats d'Atenes i Neopàtria (Barcelona, 1947)Google Scholar, no. 668.

33 Cf. de Ayala, Pedro Lopez, Coronica de Enrique III, eds. Wilkins, C. L. and Wilkins, H. M. (Madison, 1992), 3.24.Google Scholar

34 de Clavijo, Ruy Gonzàlez, Embajada a Tamorlàn, ed. López-Estrada, F. (Madrid, 1943), pp. xlix–lxiv.Google Scholar The bulk of López-Estrada's introduction concerning Gomez de Sotomayor and Sanchez de Palazuelos stems from the writings of Argote de Molina about the ambassadors rather than about the embassy itself. Cf. de Clavijo, Ruy Gonzalez, Historia del Gran Tamorlàn, ed. de Molina, G. Argote (Madrid, 1782), pp. 1–3ff.Google Scholar

35 de Clavijo, Gonzàlez, Embajada, pp. lii–liv.Google Scholar

36 Marinescu, C., “Du nouveau sur les relations de Manuel II Paléologue (1391–1425) avec l'Espagne”, in Atti dello VIII Congresso Intemazionale di Studi Bizantini, Palermo 3–10 Aprile 1951 (Rome, 1953), i, pp. 430–1.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., p. 431.

38 Lluch, Rubiò i, Diplomatari, nos. 672, 676–677Google Scholar; Barker, , Manuel II Palaeologos, pp. 255–256.Google Scholar It is unclear as to exactly how Martí came to obtain the news of Tīmŭr's victory at Ankara. John of Sulṭāniyya had not yet, by this point in time, come to Spain. It could be that he received news from the Castilian court, through the return of Enrique's two ambassadors from the battle, but there is no proof of this. The Byzantine emperor used two separate ambassadors in his missions to Spain: Constantine Rhallis Palaeologos and Alexios Vranas. It was Vranas who carried Martis letter of congratulations back to Manuel in June 1403. It is therefore possible that Vranas was the bearer of the good tidings.

39 Letters to Tīmūr (Valencia, 1 April 1404) and Mīrānshāh (Valencia, 1 April 1404) in Lluch, Rubiò i, Diplomatari, nos. 679–80.Google Scholar

40 On Tīmūr's correspondence with Enrique, cf. de Clavijo, Gonzàlez, Embajada, pp. lii–liv.Google Scholar

41 Cf. Yazdī, Sharaf al-Dīn 'Alī, Ẓafar-nāma, ed. Ilahdad, M. M. (Calcutta, 1885–1888), ii, pp. 598.Google Scholar

42 On these earlier alliances, cf. Knobler, A., “Missions, Mythologies and the Search for non-European Allies in anti-Islamic Holy War, 1291–c. 1540”, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1990, pp. 32–72Google Scholar; Boyle, J. A., “The II-Khans of Persia and the Princes of Europe”, Central Asiatic journal, XX (1976), pp. 25–40Google Scholar; Richard, J., “The Mongols and the Franks”,Journal of Asian History, III (1969), pp. 45–57Google Scholar; Sinor, D., “The Mongols and Western Europe”, in A History of the Crusades 3. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, ed. Setton, K. M. (Madison, 1975), 513–44.Google Scholar

43 Registres…du sénat, no. 1076; Délibérations des assemblées, no. 994.

44 Alexandrescu-Dersca, , La campagne de Timur, pp. 125–8.Google Scholar

45 le Roulx, Delaville, Le France en Orient, p. 390 n. 2Google Scholar; Barker, , Manuel II Palaeologos, p. 204, n. 5.Google Scholar

46 Luttrell, A., “The Hospitallers at Rhodes: 1306–1421”, in A History of the Crusades 3. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, ed. Setton, K. M. (Madison, 1975), p. 308.Google Scholar [Luttrell's source citation from N. Iorga's “Notes et extraits” appears to be incorrect and I have been unable to locate the correct reference.]

47 Yazdī, Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Alī [Ẓafar-nāma, ii, p. 482]Google Scholar gave the name “ Ṣoba” as one of the Frankish kings who had sovereignty over Chios and who approached Tīmūr. Whether this referred to a specific member of the Maona familiar to the author is unclear. [Perhaps Baldassare Cibo, cf. Rovere, A., “;Documenti della Maona di Chio (secc. XIV–XVI)”, Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, n.s. XlX/ii (1979)Google Scholar, docs. 55, 56, 68.] Niẓām al-Dīn Shāmī, [Histoire des conquētes de Tamerlan intitulée Zafar-nama, ed. Tauer, F. (Prague, 1937–1956), i, p. 269 and ii, p. 180]Google Scholar speaks of one “Ṣata” in the same context. [Perhaps a member of the Cattaneo family. Cf. Rovere, “Documenti”, docs. 58, 65.]

48 Iorga, “Notes et Extraits… I”, pp. 238–40.

49 Hookham, H., Tamburlaine the Conqueror, London (1962), p. 256.Google Scholar Miller, W. [“The Gattilusj of Lesbos (1335–1462)”, in Essays on the Latin Orient (Cambridge, 1925)]Google Scholar gives no corroboration of this.

50 Barker, , Manuel II Palaeologos, p. 218.Google Scholar

51 Dennis, G. T., “The Byzantine-Turkish Treaty of 1403”, Orientalia Christiana Periodka, XXXIII (1967), pp. 72–88.Google Scholar

52 Cf. Knobler, A., “Missions, Mythologies…”, pp. 32–154.Google Scholar

53 On Tīmūr's place in popular literature and historiography, see A. Knobler, ȁCreating an enemy: the refiguring of Timur in English historiography”, (forthcoming).

54 On Tīmɫr's heroic virtues, see, for example, the essay by SirTemple, William, “Of Heroic Virtue”, in Five Miscellaneous Essays by Sir William Temple, ed. Monk, S. H. (Ann Arbor, 1963), p. 136Google Scholar, where he is hailed as “a great and heroic genius”. For other examples, cf. Knobler, “Creating an enemy”, passim.