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The Battle of Kulikovo encouraged the Russian people in the fight against the Tatars, taught them how to defeat the formidable khans of the Golden Horde, but has not yet freed our land from Tatar rule. After Mamai, Khan Tokhtamysh began to rule the Horde, who wanted to take revenge on Dmitry Donskoy for his glorious victory and unexpectedly invaded the Russian land with strong Tatar hordes. Before Grand Duke managed to gather an army, Tokhtamysh had already appeared under the walls of Moscow, took Moscow by deceit and terribly devastated, robbed it and left with many prisoners. In order to save the Russian land from such devastation for the future, the Grand Duke again undertook to regularly pay tribute to Tokhtamysh. Thus he managed to settle his relations with Tokhtamysh. But soon after the death of Dmitry Donskoy, a new terrible thunderstorm began to approach the Russian land from the Asian steppes. There, at the end of the XIV century, another powerful conqueror, nicknamed Tamerlane, appeared. Having conquered many Asian kingdoms, Tamerlane then conquered Persia and led his huge hordes along the western shores of the Caspian Sea to the mouths of the Volga. From here, in 1395, he sent Tokhtamysh to the Khan of the Golden Horde to demand obedience and tribute. Tokhtamysh, instead of answering, opposed him with the entire Horde, but was defeated.
When they learned in Moscow that Tokhtamysh had been defeated by Tamerlane and his army scattered, everyone rejoiced, thinking that Tamerlane would again retire to the Asian steppes. But to the horror of all Russia, the formidable conqueror moved from the mouth of the Volga to the north, and his hordes soon appeared already on the Volga, in the Saratov steppes. Then Tamerlane approached Yelets, took it, ruined it, burned it out and camped around it, intending to move on.
Only then did everyone understand that the Russian land would have to endure new disasters. Everyone knew that about half a million nomads of different tribes were going to Russia with Tamerlane, and everyone was waiting for death. There was only hope for God's mercy, and everyone rushed to the temples to repent on the eve of inevitable death and pray to God for the salvation of the Russian land. The young Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich gathered an army, convened the governor, who fought under the banner of his father Dmitry Donskoy, on the Kulikovo field, and began to confer with them and with the boyars. At this council, it was decided that the Grand Duke's army should stand at the turn of the Moscow Principality, near Kolomna, and wait for the enemy here.
Having made such a decision and entrusted the protection of the capital to his uncle Vladimir the Brave, Grand Duke Vasily moved with his army to Kolomna and there he expected news of the approach of Tamerlane's hordes.
At this time, God inspired Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich with a good idea: to calm the anxious residents of Moscow by transferring to the capital the ancient miraculous icon of the Mother of God, once brought to Vladimir by the prince. The Grand Duke wrote to Metropolitan Cyprian in Moscow and asked him to send for the icon to Vladimir. The Metropolitan hastened to fulfill the wish of the Grand Duke, and an honorary embassy from the higher clergy and the Grand Duke's boyars set off for Vladimir. The miraculous icon was taken from the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir and solemnly carried to Moscow. This procession was a touching sight! Countless multitudes of people came out from everywhere onto the road, everyone fell on their knees in front of the icon, everyone cried out to her with tears: “Mother of God! Save the Russian land! All of Moscow came out to meet the icon many miles from the city. As soon as the icon marching towards Moscow appeared in the distance, everyone fell on their faces before it with tears of joy and quiet hope in its miraculous power.
Not even two weeks had passed from the day when the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God was solemnly brought to Moscow and placed in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, when the joyful news came from Kolomna to Moscow. Tamerlane turned his hordes south from Yelets and hastily retreated from the Russian borders!
The ancient chroniclers preserved a wondrous tradition. They say that on the same day and hour when Moscow residents met miraculous icon Vladimirskaya, Tamerlane was dozing in his tent near Yelets and had a terrible dream. He imagined a high mountain, whose top was hidden in the clouds. Saints in shining robes with golden rods in their hands descended from this mountain, and above them in a radiant radiance the Heavenly Lady walked, surrounded by a darkness of formidable warriors who all at once rushed to Tamerlane.
In awe, he woke up from a dream, gathered his nobles and began to ask to interpret the meaning of the dream. Some of the nobles explained to Tamerlane: "The Heavenly Lady, whom you saw in a dream, is none other than the Mother of God, the protector of Christians." “If so, then we won’t be able to defeat them!” - exclaimed Tamerlane and ordered his hordes to immediately withdraw from the borders of Russia.
When the joyful news of the removal of the hordes of Tamerlane reached Kolomna, the Grand Duke thanked God for the mercy shown to the Russian land, disbanded the army and hurried to Moscow with his squad. Upon returning to Moscow, Vasily Dmitrievich built a stone church of the Mother of God and a monastery on the very spot where the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was greeted by the metropolitan, clergy and citizens of Moscow. The Russian Church, from the same year 1395, decided for eternity to celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Mother of God on August 26 in memory of the fact that the Russian land was then indebted to the only grace of God for salvation from the terrible invasion of Tamerlane. The monastery, built at the meeting place of the icon, was named Sretensky.
If not for the struggle between the Russian principalities for hegemony, Moscow, perhaps, was able to free itself from the Mongol yoke a hundred years earlier
Power over the world
However, from the middle of the XIV century, the Mongols began to lose their dominance over the world, and the number of victims and the scale of the destruction that accompanied this process were about the same as a century earlier - during the conquests of Genghis Khan. First, the power of the Genghisids in Iran collapsed, then the expulsion of the Mongol Yuan dynasty from China began.
The Golden Horde also plunged into a deep crisis. Here the struggle for the Khan's throne intensified, the negative consequences of which were aggravated by the plague epidemic and natural disasters. Sometimes in the Horde there were two khans at once, each of which claimed supreme power, but actually controlled only part of the Jochi Ulus. In the 1370s, in the western part of the Golden Horde (west of the Volga), the temnik Mamai (1335-1380) seized power. He did not belong to the family of Genghis Khan and had no rights to the Khan's throne. Therefore, Mamai ruled on behalf of this or that Chingizid, whom he himself proclaimed khan, and after a while replaced by another. In such a situation, the Russian princes - vassals of the Horde - ceased to pay tribute regularly. And the Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy (1350-1389) even dared to have an armed conflict with the ruler of a good third of the Jochi Ulus. At the same time, the Western Russian lands fell under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then became part of it, finally getting out of the control of the khans.
The power of the Mongol rulers also weakened in Central Asia, thanks to which a ruler appeared in the region of Maverannahr (the interfluve of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya with the center in Samarkand), who, like Mamai, kept the local khan with him as a puppet and ruled autocratically on his behalf. He was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, but he was similar to him, for he had an iron will, a brilliant instinct for a commander and a heart ruthless towards enemies. That was Timur (1336-1405).
Sahibkiran
Timur came from a noble family of the Turkic-Mongolian tribe Barlas. Officially, he was content with the title of emir, but flatterers called him Sahibkiran, that is, "born under a lucky star." However, in reality, luck did not always smile on Timur. In his youth, the future conqueror had to go through difficult trials, and a wound in the leg left him forever lame. Hence the Persian nickname of the commander - Timur-i-Leng ("Iron Lame"), turned by Europeans into "Tamerlane".
However, in endless battles, Timur gained invaluable experience. In the 1370s, having established his power in Maverannahr, the emir no longer knew his equal in the art of winning. Sahibkiran formed a powerful and loyal army. Its core was the Mongols and Turks from Maverannahr, together with whom, by the mid-80s of the XIV century, Tamerlane captured the surrounding regions in Central Asia and conquered Iran. Now Timur's army was huge, the warriors were hardened in many battles and well-armed, and the discipline in their ranks was in no way inferior to the iron order in the troops of Genghis Khan. It was a terrible war machine. On the way to new conquests, she crushed the enemy troops and ruthlessly devastated recalcitrant countries. So, during the defeat of Isfahan - one of the largest cities in Iran - 28 towers were built from the heads of seventy thousand killed inhabitants.
In battle, Timur relied not only on horse archers and men at arms, but also on professional infantry units, who defended themselves on the battlefield with huge shields. If necessary, horse tumens (detachments of several thousand people) could also dismount. Timur's army combined a strong defense with unstoppable pressure. During the battle, the troops of Maverannahr could alternate attacks with retreat without losing formation and self-control, which was rare for the Middle Ages. Selected detachments of the most experienced bakhatur warriors, who owned all types of weapons, operated in the most dangerous sectors. The valor they displayed in battle set an example for the rest of the army and brought dismay to the most stubborn enemies.
But Sahibkiran was also a prudent politician. Using the turmoil in the Horde, with one hand he subjugated Khorezm (in the north of modern Uzbekistan), which belonged to her earlier, and with the other he helped one of the Horde princes Tokhtamysh (? -1406) fight for the Khan's throne. Iron Lame could not then even imagine how much trouble the guarded Chingizid would cause him in the future.
Deceit and ingratitude
At that turbulent time, Tokhtamysh had little chance of seizing the khan's throne in the Golden Horde, but for his patron, Timur, nothing was truly impossible. Tamerlane himself hoped with the help of Tokhtamysh to secure his northern borders and extend his influence deep into the Ulus of Jochi. Therefore, he supplied Tokhtamysh with enviable constancy with money and troops for the struggle for power. But each time the unlucky pretender to the throne was defeated by his rivals. Once, after another fiasco, Timur's people were barely able to find Tokhtamysh, who was pitifully hiding in the reeds.
But finally, luck smiled at Tokhtamysh. In 1380, with the help of Timur's people, he captured the capital of the Horde. True, Mamai ruled to the west of the Volga, but the luck of the newly-minted khan continued. At about the same time, on the Kulikovo field, the Moscow prince Dmitry with fifteen allied princes defeated Mamai. The Battle of Kulikovo was a major battle by the standards of the then Russia. The enemy armies could be 20-30 thousand people each. The resounding victory over the Tatar commander raised the authority of the Moscow prince. But this victory, as it soon became clear, unexpectedly turned against Dmitry Donskoy himself.
The Moscow prince had not paid tribute to the Horde for several years and, apparently, counted on the continuation of unrest in the Ulus of Jochi. But after the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh, wasting no time, attacked Mamai. The army of the latter went over to the side of a descendant of Genghis Khan. After that, the former ward of Timur turned out to be the sovereign owner of the entire Ulus of Jochi and immediately presented Moscow with a demand for tribute. In Moscow, apparently, they did not realize the seriousness of the changes that had taken place in the Horde and were in no hurry to show loyalty to the new khan. Then in 1382 Tokhtamysh moved to Moscow with a large army.
Dmitry did not even try to defend the capital of the principality. Together with his family and boyars, he left the city. The princes, who supported Dmitry in the fight against the temnik Mamai, did not dare to raise the sword against the legitimate ruler of the Horde. After the flight of the Moscow nobility, the defense of the city was headed by one of the Lithuanian princes who served Dmitry, Ostya. But Tokhtamysh went for a trick. Having started negotiations, the Tatars broke into the city, burned and devastated it ...
There was no trace left of the position of Moscow under Mamai. Russian princes, including the son of Dmitry Donskoy - Vasily (the future Vasily I, 1371-1425), went to bow to the khan, as happened before the turmoil in the Horde. Regular payment of tribute resumed. It seemed that Moscow's leadership among the Eastern Russian principalities had come to an end, especially since Prince Mikhail of Tver (1333-1399) laid claim to the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, which belonged to Dmitry Donskoy. However, Tokhtamysh's goal was to maintain a balance of power among the vassals, so he kept Vladimir in the hands of a weakened Moscow.
Tokhtamysh could enjoy the power that he got at the cost of humiliation and numerous requests to Timur for help. And then the Khan began to "dizzy from success." The rulers of the Horde traditionally claimed power in Khorezm, Azerbaijan and northern Iran. But in the early 1380s, these regions recognized the power of Tamerlane over themselves. Tokhtamysh and the Horde nobility did not want to put up with this. An open conflict between the two states was brewing.
In the winter of 1385-86, Tokhtamysh invaded Transcaucasia and besieged the city of Tabriz (in the north of modern Iran). It was one of the largest trading centers in the world and one of the former capitals of the Mongol Empire. With its wealth and the number of inhabitants, Tabriz then far surpassed the largest cities in Europe. The city was strongly fortified, but Tokhtamysh, as in the case of Moscow, again achieved victory with the help of deceit. With huge booty, the Tatars returned to the north. The victories obtained with someone else's help or by deceit literally turned the head of the Horde Khan, and he decided to move the army to Maverannahr - to the center of the possessions of his former patron. It was a fatal decision.
The death of an empire
In 1387 and 1388, Tokhtamysh twice invaded Central Asia with a huge army, but did not achieve anything. His troops also included Russians, including, probably, Moscow squads led by Prince Vasily Dmitrievich, who in 1389 would take the throne of Moscow as Vasily I.
At first, the experienced Timur limited himself to defense, patiently gathering strength for a retaliatory strike. Finally, in 1391, he moved his army deep into the Golden Horde. Its number reached, according to some sources, up to two hundred thousand people, and it was headed by temniks and thousanders who went through fire and water. Timur was aware of what a dangerous enemy his former ward had become, and moved north with caution, fearing ambushes. Tokhtamysh decided to wear out the invincible army of Maverannahr with endless marches across the steppes. This strategy helped the nomads many times to repel the attacks of powerful neighbors. But there were also many nomads in Timur's troops. They made up for the lack of food by hunting. After several months of searching, having crossed the Tobol and Yaik (Ural) rivers, Timur's exhausted troops reached the Kondurcha River (a tributary of the Volga) - where Tokhtamysh's army was concentrated. It turned out that Tokhtamysh managed to assemble an army comparable in number to Timur's army. In addition to Tatars, it included Circassians, Bulgars and Russians. Vasily of Moscow was also called to help Tokhtamysh, but it is not known whether he participated in the battle.
On June 18, 1391, the grand battle of Kondurcha took place. Both huge armies lined up against each other. It was probably the largest battle ever fought by Russian princes. Timur divided the troops into seven corps, three of which were in the center, creating a deep defense with the ability to maneuver reserves. He entrusted the command of the flanks to his sons - Miranshah and Umarsheikh. Timur himself led the reserve, which consisted of twenty bakhadur koshuns (detachments of selected warriors of several hundred people each). Unusual for the Tatars of Tokhtamysh was that detachments of infantry, protected by large stationary shields, took up positions on the flanks of Timur and prevented Khromts from entering the rear.
The Horde fiercely attacked one or the other of Timur's cavalry corps, but the cramped or surrounded soldiers of Maverannahr dismounted and took up a dead defense. Meanwhile, other cavalry units came to their aid. As a result of one of the attacks, Tokhtamysh still managed to break through to the rear of Timur's troops, but Sakhibkiran himself moved towards the khan with his reserve. At a critical moment, the main banner of Tokhtamysh fell: according to one version, Timur’s soldiers captured it, according to another, Tokhtamysh’s standard-bearer betrayed his khan. The Horde began to panic, turning into a disorderly flight. Tokhtamysh managed to escape, but his army was defeated. However, Timur's troops also suffered heavy losses. Therefore, having captured rich booty, he returned to Maverannahr.
Apparently, Timur was sure that he got rid of Tokhtamysh. But the latter had at his disposal the Volga region and the western part of the Golden Horde. Ulus Jochi was weakened, but continued to exist. To restore his shattered authority among the vassals, Tokhtamysh decided to reward some of them for their loyalty. The Moscow prince Vasily for service and generous gifts received the Nizhny Novgorod principality, taken from the local prince - (? -1393). In addition, the khan undertook to help Moscow rebuild after the blow inflicted on it earlier.
Who decided the fate of Moscow
Three years later, Tokhtamysh decided that he could challenge Timur again. In 1394 his army invaded Azerbaijan. A huge army of Tamerlane came out to meet them. On April 15, 1395, another great battle took place on the Terek River. This time, Timur had a tangible superiority in strength. In addition, before the battle, one of the Horde rulers with his people left the army of Tokhtamysh. But confidence in success almost destroyed the center of Tamerlane's army. Carried away by the pursuit of the Horde, the attackers were crushed by a desperate counterattack of the Tatars, and Tamerlane himself with his retinue was surrounded by enemies. His bakhaturs took up defense, hiding behind Tatar carts. But soon fresh forces began to come to the rescue. In the end, the Horde were completely defeated. Having missed the chance to destroy the Iron Lame, Tokhtamysh fled again. This time, Tamerlane decided to exclude the potential possibility of the revival of the Jochi Ulus. His armies moved in different directions, exterminating the Horde and burning the main cities, including Sarai Berke. It was a fatal blow for the Golden Horde, from which it was never able to recover. The last great ulus of the Mongol Empire was a thing of the past.
After the departure of Timur, two Horde princes-Chingizids spoke out against Tokhtamysh - Emir Edigey (1352-1419) and Timur Kutlug, who became the new khan in 1395 (ruled 1395-1399). Tokhtamysh, who fled to Lithuania, enlisted the support of Prince Vitovt (1352-1419), most of whose army consisted of Russian squads under the command of the princes of Western Russian lands. This army was larger than that of Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field, and Litvin hatched ambitious conquest plans. But the allies were defeated in 1399 by Edigey and Timur Kutlug at the Battle of the Worksla River. Lithuania was temporarily weakened, and meanwhile the struggle for power in the Horde continued.
In such circumstances, only Moscow remained the winner (as already mentioned, at the end of his reign, Tokhtamysh had a hand in its restoration). Meanwhile, the Golden Horde soon fell apart into separate khanates, which created the conditions for the liberation of the Moscow principality from years of Tatar yoke. True, due to internal strife, Moscow became free only under Ivan III (1440-1505), in 1480. But the conditions for this arose precisely after the pogrom perpetrated in the Ulus by Jochi Tamerlane. So we can say that on the banks of the Kondurcha and the Terek, the fate of not only the Golden Horde, but also the future capital of Russia was decided.
As for Timur, his armadas continued to shake the space from India to the Aegean Sea and Egypt with their invasions until the commander's death in 1405. Least of all Sahibkiran was interested in the fate of the distant northern principality, which he helped in the future to free itself from the Horde's power.
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The full name of the great conqueror of antiquity, which will be discussed in our article, is Timur ibn Taragay Barlas, but in literature he is often referred to as Tamerlane, or Iron Lame. It should be clarified that he was nicknamed Iron not only for his personal qualities, but also because this is how his name Timur is translated from the Turkic language. Lameness was the result of a wound received in one of the battles. There is reason to believe that this mysterious commander of the past was involved in the great blood shed in the 20th century.
Who is Tamerlane and where is he from?
First, a few words about the childhood of the future great khan. It is known that Timur-Tamerlane was born on April 9, 1336 on the territory of the present Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz, which at that time was a small village called Khoja-Ilgar. His father, a local landowner from the Barlas tribe, Muhammad Taragay, professed Islam, and raised his son in this faith.
Following the customs of those times, from early childhood he taught the boy the basics of military art - horseback riding, archery and javelin throwing. As a result, barely reaching maturity, he was already an experienced warrior. It was then that the future conqueror Tamerlane received invaluable knowledge.
The biography of this man, or rather, that part of it that became the property of history, begins with the fact that in his youth he won the favor of Khan Tuglik, the ruler of the Chagatai ulus, one of the Mongol states, on whose territory the future commander was born.
Appreciating the fighting qualities, as well as the outstanding mind of Timur, he brought him closer to the court, making him the tutor of his son. However, the entourage of the prince, fearing his rise, began to build intrigues against him, and as a result, fearing for his life, the newly-minted teacher was forced to flee.
At the head of a squad of mercenaries
The years of Tamerlane's life coincided with the historical period when it was a continuous theater of military operations. Fragmented into many states, it was constantly torn apart by civil strife of local khans, who were constantly trying to seize neighboring lands. The situation was aggravated by countless bands of robbers - jet, who did not recognize any power and lived exclusively by robberies.
In this situation, the failed teacher Timur-Tamerlane found his true calling. By uniting several dozens of ghulams - professional hired warriors - he created a detachment that surpassed all other surrounding gangs in its fighting qualities and cruelty.
First conquests
Together with his thugs, the newly-born commander made daring raids on cities and villages. It is known that in 1362 he stormed several fortresses belonging to the Sarbadars - participants in the popular movement against Mongol rule. Having captured them, he ordered the surviving defenders to be immured into the walls. This was an act of intimidation for all future opponents, and such cruelty became one of the main features of his character. Very soon, the whole East learned about who Tamerlane was.
It was then that in one of the fights he lost two fingers. right hand and was seriously injured in the leg. Its consequences were preserved until the end of his life and served as the basis for the nickname - Timur the Lame. However, it did not prevent him from becoming a figure who played a significant role in the history of not only Central, Western and South Asia, but also the Caucasus and Russia in the last quarter of the 14th century.
Military talent and extraordinary audacity helped Tamerlane to conquer the entire territory of Ferghana, subjugating Samarkand, and making the city of Ket the capital of the newly formed state. Further, his army rushed to the territory belonging to present-day Afghanistan, and, having ruined it, stormed the ancient capital of Balkh, the emir of which - Hussein - was immediately hanged. His fate was shared by most of the courtiers.
Cruelty as a weapon of intimidation
The next direction of his cavalry strike was the cities of Isfahan and Fars located south of Balkh, where the last representatives of the Persian Muzaffarid dynasty ruled. Isfahan was the first on his way. Having captured it and given it to his mercenaries for plunder, Timur the Lame ordered to lay the heads of the dead in a pyramid, the height of which exceeded the height of a man. This was a continuation of his constant tactics of intimidating opponents.
It is characteristic that the whole subsequent history of Tamerlane, the conqueror and commander, is marked by manifestations of extreme cruelty. In part, it can be explained by the fact that he himself became a hostage to his own politics. Leading a highly professional army, Lame had to regularly pay his mercenaries, otherwise their scimitars would turn against him. This forced them to seek new victories and conquests by any means available.
The beginning of the struggle with the Golden Horde
In the early 80s, the next stage in the ascent of Tamerlane was the conquest of the Golden Horde, or, in other words, the Dzhuchiev ulus. From time immemorial, it was dominated by the Euro-Asian steppe culture with its religion of polytheism, which had nothing to do with Islam, professed by the majority of its warriors. Therefore, the fighting that began in 1383 became a clash not only of opposing armies, but also of two different cultures.
Ordynsky, the one who in 1382 made a campaign against Moscow, wishing to get ahead of his opponent and strike first, undertook a campaign against Kharezm. Having achieved temporary success, he also captured a significant territory of present-day Azerbaijan, but soon his troops were forced to retreat, having suffered significant losses.
In 1385, taking advantage of the fact that Timur and his hordes were in Persia, he tried again, but this time failed. Having learned about the invasion of the Horde, the formidable commander urgently returned his troops to Central Asia and utterly defeated the enemy, forcing Tokhtamysh himself to flee to Western Siberia.
Continuation of the fight against the Tatars
However, the conquest of the Golden Horde has not yet ended. Its final defeat was preceded by five years filled with incessant military campaigns and bloodshed. It is known that in 1389 the Horde Khan even managed to insist that Russian squads support him in the war with the Muslims.
This was facilitated by the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy, after which his son and heir Vasily was obliged to go to the Horde for a label to reign. Tokhtamysh confirmed his rights, but subject to the participation of Russian troops in repelling the Muslim attack.
Defeat of the Golden Horde
Prince Vasily agreed, but it was only formal. After the defeat perpetrated by Tokhtamysh in Moscow, none of the Russians wanted to shed blood for him. As a result, in the very first battle on the Kondurcha River (a tributary of the Volga), they abandoned the Tatars and, having crossed to the opposite bank, left.
The completion of the conquest of the Golden Horde was the battle on the Terek River, in which the troops of Tokhtamysh and Timur met on April 15, 1395. Iron Lame managed to inflict a crushing defeat on his enemy and thereby put an end to the Tatar raids on the territories under his control.
The threat to Russian lands and the campaign against India
The next blow was prepared by him in the very heart of Russia. The purpose of the planned campaign was Moscow and Ryazan, who until that time did not know who Tamerlane was, and paid tribute to the Golden Horde. But, fortunately, these plans were not destined to come true. The uprising of the Circassians and Ossetians prevented, which broke out in the rear of Timur's troops and forced the conqueror to turn back. The only victim then was the city of Yelets, which appeared on its way.
Over the next two years, his army made a victorious campaign in India. Having captured Delhi, Timur's soldiers plundered and burned the city, and killed 100 thousand defenders who were captured, fearing a possible rebellion on their part. Having reached the banks of the Ganges and captured several fortified fortresses along the way, the army of many thousands returned to Samarkand with rich booty and a large number of slaves.
New conquests and new blood
Following India, it was the turn of the Ottoman Sultanate to submit to the sword of Tamerlane. In 1402, he defeated the Janissaries of Sultan Bayazid, who had been invincible until then, and captured him himself. As a result, the entire territory of Asia Minor was under his dominion.
The Ionite knights, who for many years held the fortress of the ancient city of Smyrna in their hands, could not resist the troops of Tamerlane. Having repeatedly repulsed the attacks of the Turks before, they surrendered to the mercy of the lame conqueror. When the Venetian and Genoese ships with reinforcements arrived to their aid, the victors threw them from the fortress catapults with the severed heads of the defenders.
The idea that Tamerlane could not implement
The biography of this outstanding commander and evil genius of his era ends with the last ambitious project, which was his campaign against China, which began in 1404. The goal was to capture the Great Silk Road, which made it possible to receive a tax from passing merchants and replenish their already overflowing treasury due to this. But the implementation of the plan prevented sudden death, which ended the life of the commander in February 1405.
The great emir of the Timurid Empire - under this title he entered the history of his people - was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A legend is connected with his burial, passed down from generation to generation. It says that in the event that the sarcophagus of Tamerlane is opened and his ashes are disturbed, then a terrible and bloody war will be the punishment for this.
In June 1941, an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences was sent to Samarkand to exhume the remains of the commander and study them. The grave was opened on the night of June 21, and the next day, as you know, the Great Patriotic War began.
Another fact is also interesting. In October 1942, a participant in those events, cameraman Malik Kayumov, meeting with Marshal Zhukov, told him about the fulfilled curse and offered to return the ashes of Tamerlane to their original place. This was done on November 20, 1942, and on the same day a radical change followed during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Skeptics tend to argue that in this case there were only a number of accidents, because the plan of attack on the USSR was developed long before the opening of the tomb by people who, although they knew who Tamerlane was, but, of course, did not take into account the spell that hung over his grave. Without entering into polemics, we will only say that everyone has the right to have their own point of view on this matter.
Conqueror Family
Timur's wives and children are of particular interest to researchers. Like all Eastern rulers, this great conqueror of the past had a huge family. He had 18 official wives alone (not counting concubines), the favorite of whom is considered to be Sarai-mulk xanim. Despite the fact that the lady with such a poetic name was barren, her master entrusted the upbringing of many of his sons and grandchildren. She also went down in history as the patroness of art and science.
It is quite clear that with such a number of wives and concubines, there was also no shortage of children. Nevertheless, only four of his sons took the places befitting such a high birth, and became rulers in the empire created by their father. In their face, the story of Tamerlane found its continuation.
Yuri Loshchits
Tamerlane's invasion of Russia at the end of the 14th century is one of the least studied events. national history. First of all, this concerns the historical science of our century. She managed to keep the plot of Tamerlane locked up without releasing it - even in a concise presentation - into any of the popular history textbooks. This total ignorance of one of the most terrible threats to the existence of the ancient Russian state is explained, however, surprisingly simply ...
Tamerlane (Timur)
Tamerlane did not fit into the atheistic concept of the historical process. If we remove from the plot of his invasion the miracle-working associated with the transfer of the most revered Mother of God icon in Russia from Vladimir to Moscow, then no Soviet historian could intelligibly explain what exactly prompted the Central Asian commander to refuse an almost free victory, suddenly and forever take away his darkness from the southern Russian lands.
After all, it is known that Moscow at that time was not at all ready for a worthy military rebuff. Strategically, it looked even more defenseless than during the attack of Khan Tokhtamysh thirteen years ago. Any purely materialistic explanation of the antics of Tamerlane, who suddenly deigned to spare the bloodless Russia, would look pathetic. The principle of mercy was unknown to the most cruel of generals known to the world.
It would be necessary to look for other, more miserable interpretations of his whim. Did he suffer from attacks of delirium tremens long before his death? Did he not receive a huge ransom from the Russians? Did he lack food and fodder? What other twist of being could determine the twist of his consciousness? Or was Tamerlane the first consistent absurdist in the history of wars? All fortune-telling and fantasies of this kind have no basis in historical sources associated with the suddenly interrupted invasion of Russia, interrupted at the behest of the initiator of the most terrible pogrom.
I will give just one example of the helplessness of the analysis shown in the interpretation of Tamerlane's act. This example is especially indicative, since it refers to the last decade of the existence of Soviet historical science. In the comments to "The Tale of Temir Aksak" ("Monuments of Literature Ancient Russia XIV - the middle of the XV century. "Moscow, 1981) we read:" In August 1395, Timur unexpectedly went to Yelets, plundered it and, having stood at the Don for about two weeks, for unclear reasons turned back, heading to the Crimea. Apparently, quite soberly assessing the situation, Timur did not want to get involved with the rebellious "uluses". He had just defeated his rival, Tokhtamysh, for the second time and already completely, and continued punitive expeditions through the Tatar lands, subordinating them to his power. The exit to Russia was a reconnaissance, similar to that carried out by the commander of Genghis Khan Sabudai in 1223, giving battle to the Russian and Polovtsian princes on the Kalka. Nevertheless, Timur's decision in Russia was perceived as God's intercession and as a miracle."
The commentator, obviously, does not bother with documentary evidence of what happened, hoping, it seems, that his interpretation of the event will be taken on faith. Meanwhile, in such an arbitrary and illogical construction, both sides look ridiculous - both Tamerlane, who, out of an unexpected whim, went out to Yelets and "for unclear reasons" turned back, and Russia, which hastened to comprehend this supposedly random, completely optional military demarche of Tamerlane "as God's intercession and miracle". If the reasons for the departure of the conqueror to the Crimea are unclear, then the argument about the allegedly sober assessment of the situation on the part of Timur and his fear of stirring up "rebellious" uluses "by which the commentator means the Russian principalities is completely unfounded.
But could the invincible Eastern Caesar, who had just been defeated by Tokhtamysh, who had just been completely defeated by the subordinate uluses, be afraid of these not to him, but to his just utterly defeated opponent? And could his access to Russia be only intelligence? After all, he had just defeated Tokhtamysh not at the head of a small reconnaissance detachment, otherwise he would not have rushed right there in small numbers to finish off the Golden Horde in the Crimea. No matter how clever the commentator is, he still fails to present Timur's arrival in Russia in the form of a kind of random, unexpected, easy and optional reconnaissance trip. And the Russian side - in the form of fanatical simpletons, who were inflated by the accidental appearance and inexplicable disappearance of curious Asians to the size of "God's intercession and miracle."
Those relatively few, but reliable historical facts of the Tamerlane invasion and the Russian rebuff to it, which are available to a conscientious researcher, confirm both the urgency of the threat and the reality of blessed miraculous help.
Medieval biographers and memoirists usually note that Timur, being illiterate, had a remarkably strong and tenacious memory, constantly kept personal readers with him, knew Turkish and Persian well (Zafar-Nameh. "Book of Victories"). Judging by the scale of his conquests, Eurasian geography was also part of the circle of well-learned disciplines. He knew no less about Russia than about the Caucasus and India, about China and the Middle East.
The Old Russian chronicler, telling about the invasion of Mamai in 1380, gives a curious detail: Mamai "began to test from old stories how Tsar Batu captured the Russian land and owned all the princes, as if he wanted to," for he, Mamai, "although your second king Batu was" . In accordance with this lust and study of "old stories", Mamai went to Russia precisely along the same corridor between the tributaries of the Volga and the Don, along which the grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu, once invaded the Ryazan principality.
But after all, in The Tale of Temir Aksak, this new conqueror is spoken of in almost the same terms as about Mamai in the stories of the Kulikovo cycle: who allowed sins to God, captivate Caesar Batu the Russian land, and the proud and ferocious Temir Aksak is thinking the same thing ... ".
The non-randomness of this comparison of Tamerlane with Batu is emphasized by the author of the story almost immediately, when describing his half-month stay at Yelets: "Temir Aksak has already been standing in one place for 15 days, thinking, accursed, want to go to the whole Russian Land, like the second Batu, ruin the peasantry" .
The historical analogy with the grandson of Genghis Khan is invariably preserved in many lists and longer editions of the story. "Like the second Batu" Timur is also certified in "The Tale of the Presentation of the miraculous image of our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary ..." (in the appendix to Volume II of the Nikon Chronicle).
Just like Mamai, Timur went to Russia not at all with a reconnaissance goal, but with the task of a new total conquest of the state, which was clearly getting out of control of the decrepit Golden Horde. The seriousness of his intentions is also evidenced by the nature of the military preparations undertaken by the Russian side. The son of the holy noble prince Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, the current autocrat of Russia Vasily Dmitrievich, gathers an army and militia in Moscow, descends with an army to Kolomna and builds defenses along the northern bank of the Oka.
Muscovite Russia, even in the time of Dmitry Donskoy, started a reliable steppe reconnaissance in the southern outskirts in case of unexpected raids. Vasily Dmitrievich, of course, would not have started these extraordinary and exhausting military movements for the treasury, in fact, a general mobilization, if he had received from his distant patrols the news of Tamerlane's small reconnaissance raid. In addition, Vasily Dmitrievich knew the intruder firsthand. At one time, he had to watch the monstrous growth of the phantasmagoric Tamerlane empire from close range.
In 1371, that is, in the year of Vasily's birth, Tamerlane already owned lands from Manchuria to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. During his three-year forced stay at the headquarters of Khan Tokhtamysh as a hostage, the eldest son of Dmitry Donskoy witnessed the maturation of discord between Timur and the master of the Golden Horde. In 1386, the year Vasily Dmitrievich fled from Tokhtamysh's headquarters, Timur penetrated the Caucasus and captured Tiflis. In 1389, when Dmitry Donskoy was dying in Moscow, Tamerlane undertook the first of three campaigns against the Golden Horde. On the eve of the invasion of Russian borders, in 1395, the third campaign took place: Timur defeated the army of Tokhtamysh on the Terek, subjected the Golden Horde capital Sarai-Berke to a terrible plunder, after which this city actually ceased to exist as an imperial metropolis.
No matter how strictly our ancient chroniclers treat Temir Aksak, calling him “proud”, “fierce”, “cursed”, we have no right to forget that many inveterate enemies of Ancient Russia awarded him with the same or even stronger epithets during his lifetime and after death. and all Slavs. In the case of this most cruel of tyrants, Divine Providence decreed that Timur became a real scourge, primarily for the states and peoples that oppressed Russia and, more broadly, the Orthodox Slavs. In the 11th volume of the Nikon Chronicle, immediately after the message about Timur's victory over Tokhtamysh, we read: "... and from there, the accursed rage ignited to go to Russia; and Tsar Baozit in an iron cage with him in an iron cage. And he came near the limit of the Ryazan land. ..".
In this message (it goes through many lists of "The Tale of Temir Aksak") we are dealing with a most interesting anachronism, with a gross chronological error, which, as it seems to us, was nevertheless made intentionally. The fact is that in 1395, Tamerlane could not come to Russia in any way, having a cage with the Turkish Sultan Bayazid in the convoy, since the battle of Ankara, as a result of which Bayazid the Lightning was captured by Timur, took place in 1402, that is, seven years later after Timur unexpectedly canceled his invasion of Russia.
It must be recalled here that the captive sultan is the same Bayazid, who got the laurels of the winner in the Kosovo field in 1389, when, as a result of a bloody battle, Sultan Murat, Bayezid's father, died from the Turkish side, and from the Serbian side, the great martyr Prince Lazar. Since that time, Bayezid has been very successful in the European theater of operations: in 1396 he won the famous battle of Nikopol, defeating the army of the crusaders. For many years, Bayazid prepared the capture of the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople. At the same time, Bulgarian lands were subjected to methodical blows. In 1393, the Turks took Tarnovo after a three-month siege, putting an end to the Tarnovo, and soon the Vidin Bulgarian kingdoms.
The appearance of Timur's hordes in Asia Minor, albeit not for a very long time, nevertheless stopped the invasion of the Turks into the Orthodox and Slavic Balkans. Significantly, in the Battle of Ankara on the side of Bayezid, the Serbian despot Stefan Lazarevich, the son of Prince Lazar, who was killed on the Kosovo field, was forced to participate. But shortly after the Ankara battle, Stefan - he managed to escape and save part of his army - on the same Kosovo field defeats the Turks, as if creating a historical retribution for the first Kosovo, for the death of a parent, for the humiliation of the Serbian land.
These events (first of all, the defeat of the Turks near Ankara) were also perceived by the Russian author of "The Tale of Temir Aksak" as retribution, God's punishment sent on the Ottoman conquerors. That is why the story, written after Timur's invasion of Asia Minor, testifies to the completely conscious "mistake" of the author, who put Bayezid in an iron cage as early as 1395, so that Tamerlane, as if at a glance, brought her to the Russian borders: look, they say , on the murderer of the Orthodox despot Lazarus.
March of that very year 1402 (when Timur fought Bayazid) marked a brief article by a Russian chronicler, which gives a remarkable generalization of a military and geopolitical nature in its scale: "... a sign appeared in the west, in the evening dawn, a star is great in a green spear way .. .behold, show a sign, because the tongues rise up to fight against each other: Turks, Poles, Ugrians, Germans, Lithuania, Czechs, Horde, Greeks, Russ, and many other lands and countries, turmoil and fighting against each other; appear." (PSRL, vol. 12, p. 187).
There is no exaggeration in this image of ubiquitous strife among peoples: it was an era of truly tectonic shifts on the ethnic map of the Eurasian continent. The era of great battles and invasions (Kulikovo, Kosovo field, the destruction of Moscow by Tokhtamysh, the battle of Nikopol, the battle of Vorskla, Ankara, Grunwald, the battle of Maritsa, the invasion of Edigey, the Hussite wars ...) covered the living space of most Slavic states and peoples. It deeply shook the Orthodox world. The result of this era was the collapse of Byzantium, the emergence of a new center of Orthodoxy in Muscovite Russia.
By the time the campaign against Russia began, Tamerlane was already a famous commander who had conquered many countries. He was deservedly called "invincible".
Even in those troubled times, he was distinguished by ruthlessness and cruelty. Russia was weakened first by the invasion of Mamai, then by the campaign of Tokhtamysh. The army of Tamerlane could almost effortlessly conquer the Russian state, but this did not happen.
Historians are unanimous in describing why Tamerlane went to Russia. The commander pursued his main opponent at that time, the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. The conflict between them flared up a few years before the campaign of Tamerlane. Initially, Tokhtamysh enjoyed the support of Tamerlane - he helped him in the fight against Mamai and intrigues within the Horde, but, having gained power, Tokhtamysh began to think about getting rid of his patron.
In 1391, he gathered the Horde army and attacked Tamerlane. He crushed the former henchman utterly - even ordinary soldiers of Tamerlane received rich booty. Three years later, Tokhtamysh tried to take revenge. And again unsuccessfully. Enraged, Tamerlane decided to destroy the Horde completely: he gathered an army and began to destroy the armies of the generals of Tokhtamysh. Having ruined the Horde, Tamerlane moved to Russia.
He reached Yelets and easily ruined a small town. Historian Sergei Solovyov wrote: “Tamerlane, having captured the ruler of Yelets with all his boyars, moved to the upper reaches of the Don and walked along the banks of this river, devastating the villages. The famous Persian historian of this time Sherefeddin, loving to praise the virtues of his hero, he admits that Tamerlane, like Batu, strewn the fields in Russia with corpses, killing not warriors, but only unarmed people. The commander was moving towards Moscow, but without even starting the assault, he deployed his army and left the borders of Russia. There are still versions as to why this happened.
Intercession of the Virgin
In Orthodoxy, the retreat of Tamerlane is attributed to one of the miracles revealed by the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God. Having learned about the approach of Tamerlane, Prince Vasily went out with an army near Kolomna. Metropolitan Cyprian blessed the young prince for battle and equipped an embassy in Vladimir. The icon was carried to Moscow in a procession. The chronicles say that on the day when the icon arrived in Moscow (August 26, 1395), Tamerlane had a dream: the Mother of God ordered him to leave the Russian borders. Later, Cyprian founded the Sretensky Monastery at the meeting place of the icon.
Lack of rich booty
Sergei Solovyov adhered to this version. He wrote that the booty from Yelets and several small towns of the Ryazan Principality could not satisfy the commanders of Tamerlane spoiled by rich trophies. Arab sources, on the contrary, indicated that during the journey to the upper reaches of the Don, Tamerlane received furs, fine linen, ingots of silver and gold. The "chronicler" of Tamerlane's victories, Sharafaddin Yazdi, also describes a large booty, but does not mention a single episode of the battle. Perhaps the princes brought gifts to the commander, who sought to protect their lands from raids.
Strategic interests
Autumn was approaching, and the weather conditions were not conducive to a long hike. Muscovites were also preparing for battle, an army was coming to their aid Lithuanian prince Vitovt.
The Russians, as tributaries of the Horde, had to take the side of Tokhtamysh and fight for him, but the invasion of the Khan and the defeat of Moscow in 1382 did not contribute to this. Prince Vasily was ready to give battle to Tamerlane, but was not ready to support his enemy. Only after recently becoming a prince in 1389, Vasily Tokhtamysh did not come to the rescue. Perhaps the commander was aware of this. After all his victorious campaigns, for example, against Persia and Iran, Tamerlane did not really need Russia.
Much more important to him was the final defeat of the Horde. The commander went to Yelets with one goal - to catch up with one of the Horde commanders, Bek-Yaryk-Oglan. He was able to get away from the army of Tamerlane at the Dnieper and fled to the east. In the west, there were Lithuanian possessions, where the Horde commander was also not favored. He hid in Yelets. After the fall of the city, he managed to escape further into the depths of Russia.
According to the chronicles, Tamerlane near Yelets spent two weeks thinking about his future plans. Some historians write that the army did not like such a delay, murmurings began in it. The commander went back through the Crimean peninsula and into Transcaucasia, defeating important Horde cities. In these territories, he was able to collect a good tribute in order to triumphantly return to Samarkand.
