TIMURID DYNASTY

(fl. 15th16th century AD), Turkic dynasty descended from the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), renowned for its brilliant revival of artistic and intellectual life in Iran and Central Asia. After Timur's death (1405), his conquests were divided between two of his sons: Miranshah (d. 1407) received Iraq, Azerbaijan, Moghan, Shirvan, and Georgia, while Shah Rokh was left with Khorasan. Between 1406 and 1417 Shah Rokh extended his holdings to include those of Miranshah as well as Mazanderan, Seistan, Transoxania, Fars, and Kerman, thus reuniting Timur's empire, except for Syria and Khuzistan. Shah Rokh also retained a nominal suzerainty over China and India. During Shah Rokh's reign (140547), 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 centre of a renewed and artistically brilliant Persian culture. In the realm of architecture, the Timurids drew on and developed many Seljuq traditions. Turquoise and blue tiles forming intricate linear and geometric patterns decorated the facades of buildings. Sometimes the interior was decorated similarly, with painting and stucco relief further enriching the effect. The Gur-e Amir, Timur's mausoleum in Samarkand, is the most notable example. The tiled dome, rising above a polygonal chamber, is fluted and slightly bulbous. Of the Ak-Saray, Timur's palace built between 1390 and 1405 at Kesh, only the monumental gates remain, again with coloured-tile decoration. The schools of miniature painting at Shiraz, Tabriz, and Herat flourished under the Timurids. Among the artists gathered at Herat was Behzad (d. c. 1525), whose dramatic, intense style was unequaled in Persian manuscript illustration. The Baysunqur workshops practiced leatherwork, bookbinding, calligraphy, and wood and jade carving. In metalwork, however, Timurid artistry never equaled that of earlier Iraqi schools. Internal rivalry eroded Timurid solidarity soon after Shah Rokh's death. The years 144969 were marked by a constant struggle between the Timurid Abu Sa'id and the Uzbek confederations of the Kara Koyunlu (Black Sheep) and Ak Koyunlu (White Sheep). When Abu Sa'id was killed in 1469, the Ak Koyunlu ruled unopposed in the west, while the Timurids receded to Khorasan. Nevertheless the arts, particularly literature, historiography, and miniature painting, continued to flourish; the court of the last great Timurid, Husayn Bayqarah (14781506) supported such luminaries as the poet Jami, the painters Behzad and Shah Muzaffar, and the historians Mirkhwand and Khwandamir. The vizier himself, Mir 'Ali Shir, established Chagatai Turkish literature and fostered a revival in Persian. Although the last Timurid of Herat, Badi' az-Zaman, finally fell to the armies of the Uzbek Muhammad Shaybani in 1506, the Timurid ruler of Fergana, Zahir-ud-Din Babur, survived the collapse of the dynasty and established the line of Mughal emperors in India in 1526.