Davlat universiteti

part of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, 
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, North-Western India, and even approaching Kashgar in China. 
Northern Iraq remained predominantly Assyrian Christian until the destructions of 
Timur. When Timur conquered Persia, Iraq and Syria, the civilian population was 
decimated. In the city of Isfahan, he ordered the building of a pyramid of 70,000 
human skulls, from those that his army had beheaded, and a pyramid of some 20,000 

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skulls was erected outside of Aleppo. Timur herded thousands of citizens of Damascus 
into the Cathedral Mosque before setting it aflame, and had 70,000 people beheaded 
in Tikrit, and 90,000 more in Baghdad. As many as 17 million people may have died 
from his conquests. 
Timur's legacy is a mixed one. While Central Asia blossomed under his reign, other 
places such as Baghdad, Damascus, Delhi and other Arab, Persian, Indian and Turkic 
cities were sacked and destroyed, and millions of people were slaughtered. Thus, while 
Timur still retains a positive image in Central Asia, he is vilified by many in Arab, 
Persian and Indian societies. At the same time, many Western Asians still name their 
children after him, while Persian literature calls him «Teymour, Conqueror of the 
World». 
 
 

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Early life
Timur was born in Transoxiana, near Kesh
, situated some 50 miles south of 
Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan. His father Taraghay was the head of the Barlas, a 
nomadic tribe in the steppes of Central Asia. They were remnants of the original 
Mongol invaders of Genghis Khan of whom many had embraced Turkic or Iranian 
languages and customs. 
The spurious genealogy on his tombstone taking his descent back to Ali, as well as the 
presence of Shiites in his army, led some observers and scholars to call him a Shiite. 
However, his official religious counselor was the Hanafite scholar Abd al Jabbar 
Khwarazmi. There is evidence that he had converted to extremist Shia Nusayri sect 
under the influence of Sayyed Barakah, a Nusayri leader from his mentor, Balkh. He 
also constructed one of his finest buildings at the tomb of Ahmed Yesevi, an influential 
Turkic Sufi saint who was doing most to spread Sunni Islam among the nomads. 
In his memoirs Timur gave the following information about his ancestry: 
My father told me that we were descendants from Abu-al-Atrak the son of Japhet. His 
fifth son, Aljeh Khan, had twin sons, Tatar and Mogul, who placed their feet on the 
paths of infidelity. Tumene Khan had a son Kabul, whose son, Munga Bahadur, was 
the father of Temugin, called Zengis Khan. Zengis Khan abandoned the duty of a 
conqueror by slaughtering the people, and plundering the dominions of God, and he 
put many thousands of Moslems to death. He bestowed Mawur-ulnaher on his son 
Zagatai, and appointed my ancestor, Karachar Nevian, to be his minister. «Karacher 
appointed the plain of Kesh for the residence of the tribe of Berlas, and he subdued the 
countries of Kashgar, Badakshan, and Andecan. He was succeeded by his son 
Ayettekuz as Sepah Salar. Then followed my grandfather, the Ameer Burkul, who 
retired from office, and contented himself with the government of his own tribe of 
Berlas. He possessed an incalculable number of sheep and goats, cattle and servants. 
On his death my father succeeded, but he also preferred seclusion, and the society of 
learned men.» 

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