1370 – 1405
From a minor chieftain's son in war-torn Transoxiana, Timur — 'Tamerlane,' the Sword of Islam — built the last great nomadic empire, conquering from Delhi to Damascus to Ankara, erecting towers of skulls to terrorize his enemies, and leaving an estimated 17 million dead across three decades of relentless campaigning. His defeat of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402 delayed the fall of Constantinople by half a century, while his descendants fostered the Timurid Renaissance that gave the world Ulugh Beg's observatory and the artistic traditions that would flower into the Mughal Empire.
Chapter-by-chapter narrative with maps, primary sources, and key events.
Explore battles on a live map with a timeline slider and territory overlays.
Deep-dive into every major engagement — commanders, casualties, significance.
Biographical flip cards with real portraits, facts, and full biography pages.
Trace each figure's full life journey — birth, education, battles, and death — on a live map.
Scroll-driven visualization of casualties — each dot a thousand lives.
Weapons, war machines, and the military innovations that defined how this conflict was fought.
Cause-and-effect chains tracing the war's long shadow on history.
War crimes, massacres, and the darkest chapters of this conflict — documented for history.
From a minor chieftain's son in war-torn Transoxiana, Timur — 'Tamerlane,' the Sword of Islam — built the last great nomadic empire, conquering from Delhi to Damascus to Ankara, erecting towers of skulls to terrorize his enemies, and leaving an estimated 17 million dead across three decades of relentless campaigning. His defeat of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402 delayed the fall of Constantinople by half a century, while his descendants fostered the Timurid Renaissance that gave the world Ulugh Beg's observatory and the artistic traditions that would flower into the Mughal Empire.
Timur's Conquests was fought from 1370 to 1405.
Timur's Conquests was fought between Timurid Empire and Various Opponents.
An estimated 17,000,000 people died in Timur's Conquests, including roughly 3,000,000 military and 14,000,000 civilian deaths. Figures are scholarly estimates and vary by source.
Major engagements included The Sack of Delhi, Battle of Ankara, Battle of the Kondurcha River, and Battle of the Terek River.