TIMUR

born 1336, Kesh, near Samarkand, Transoxania [now in Uzbekistan] died Feb. 19, 1405, Otrar, near Chimkent [now Shymkent, Kazakstan] also spelled Timour, byname Timur Lenk, or Timurlenk (Turkish: Timur the Lame), English Tamerlane, or Tamburlaine Turkic conqueror of Islamic faith, chiefly remembered for the barbarity of his conquests from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea and for the cultural achievements of his dynasty. Additional reading A scholarly study of the evidence relating to Timur's life is in V.V. Bartold, Four Studies on the History of Central Asia, 2 vol. (195658). Based substantially on this work is the account of his life given in Hilda Hookham, Tamburlaine, the Conqueror (1962), which also contains the fullest available bibliography of works in English.