Political event · 1370 · Transoxiana Theater

Timur's decisive break with his former ally and brother-in-law Amir Husayn culminated in the siege and capture of Balkh, the ancient city in northern Afghanistan. After Husayn was betrayed by his own men and killed, Timur was proclaimed sovereign at a kurultai in Balkh, establishing Samarkand as his capital and beginning three decades of relentless conquest.

Campaign · 1379 · Khwarezm (Central Asia) Theater

After several campaigns, Timur finally subjugated the wealthy oasis region of Khwarezm, including the great trading city of Urgench. The region had resisted Timurid control for nearly a decade, and its final conquest involved the systematic destruction of Urgench's irrigation infrastructure and the deportation of its artisans to Samarkand.

Siege · November 1387 · Persia Theater

Isfahan, one of the great cities of Persia, initially surrendered peacefully and paid a heavy ransom. But when Timurid tax collectors pushed the population beyond endurance, the citizens rose in revolt and killed several thousand of Timur's soldiers. Timur's response was merciless: he ordered each of his soldiers to bring back a severed head. Contemporary accounts record that at least 70,000 skulls were piled into towers outside the city walls.

Battle · June 18, 1391 · Volga Steppe (Golden Horde) Theater

Timur's former protege Tokhtamysh, whom he had helped place on the throne of the Golden Horde, turned against him and raided Timurid territory. Timur responded with a massive campaign deep into the steppe, tracking Tokhtamysh north to the Kondurcha River near the Volga. In a pitched battle involving perhaps 300,000 men on both sides, Timur's disciplined forces routed the Golden Horde army, though Tokhtamysh himself escaped.

Battle · April 15, 1395 · Caucasus (Golden Horde) Theater

After Tokhtamysh refused to submit following his defeat at Kondurcha, Timur launched a second, more devastating campaign against the Golden Horde. The armies met on the Terek River in the North Caucasus in a three-day battle. When Tokhtamysh's forces attempted a flanking maneuver, Timur sprang a carefully prepared ambush and routed them utterly. This time, Timur pursued relentlessly, sacking the Golden Horde capitals of Sarai and Astrakhan and devastating the trade routes that sustained the khanate's economy.

Campaign · December 17, 1398 · Northern India Theater

Timur invaded India ostensibly to punish the Muslim sultans of Delhi for tolerating Hindu idolatry. Before the battle, he ordered the execution of approximately 100,000 Hindu prisoners — captives taken during his march through northern India — to prevent them from rising against his rear. He then routed the Delhi Sultanate's army, whose war elephants panicked under a barrage of flaming camels and naphtha. The sack of Delhi lasted for days, leaving the city a smoking ruin that took over a century to recover.

Campaign · March 1401 · Syria (Mamluk Sultanate) Theater

Timur invaded Syria, defeating a Mamluk army outside Aleppo and storming the city. He then advanced on Damascus, where the young Mamluk sultan Faraj withdrew to Egypt, leaving the city to negotiate its own fate. The great historian Ibn Khaldun, trapped in the city, famously met Timur during the negotiations. Despite promises of safety, Timur's army sacked Damascus, and the great Umayyad Mosque was burned — possibly accidentally, possibly deliberately. The city's skilled artisans were deported to Samarkand.

Siege · July 1401 · Mesopotamia Theater

Baghdad, already a shadow of its former glory since the Mongol sack of 1258, suffered a second catastrophic destruction at Timur's hands. After the Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad fled, the city resisted Timur's forces. When it fell, Timur reportedly ordered each of his soldiers to bring back two severed heads. The resulting massacre produced towers of 90,000 skulls erected outside the city walls, and much of what the Mongols had not destroyed 143 years earlier was now annihilated.

Battle · July 20, 1402 · Anatolia (Ottoman Empire) Theater

The climactic battle of Timur's career pitted the two greatest military powers of the Islamic world against each other on the plains near Ankara. Bayezid I, the Ottoman 'Thunderbolt' who had crushed the Crusaders at Nicopolis in 1396, marched east to confront Timur with an army of perhaps 85,000. But Timur, with superior numbers and intelligence, had seized the water supply and positioned his army advantageously. During the battle, several Turkish and Tatar contingents in Bayezid's army — whose former lords Timur had restored — defected to the Timurid side. The Ottoman army collapsed, and Bayezid himself was captured, becoming the only Ottoman sultan ever taken prisoner in battle.

Political event · February 18, 1405 · Transoxiana Theater

In the winter of 1404-1405, the 68-year-old Timur assembled an enormous army — reportedly 200,000 strong — for his most ambitious campaign yet: the conquest of Ming China. The army set out in December 1404, crossing the frozen steppe in brutal winter conditions. But at Otrar, in modern Kazakhstan, Timur fell gravely ill. He died on February 18, 1405, and his planned invasion of China died with him. His body was embalmed and returned to Samarkand, where he was buried in the Gur-e Amir mausoleum.