Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm to blame a chuk rewarding and I'm scared Dolly,
Speaker 1: and we've we've really enjoyed the topics that we've been
Speaker 1: covering lately, but there's one thing that's been missing, and
Speaker 1: we've really been missing it, and that is a proper exhamation.
Speaker 1: And that's why I really perked up when listener Will
Speaker 1: suggested a podcast on tamer Lane, which offers us not
Speaker 1: only an exhimation and a curse, but, as he describes it,
Speaker 1: a person who is a patron of the arts, a
Speaker 1: military genius, and a bloodthirsty conqueror all wrapped up in
Speaker 1: one sounds right up our alley. It does, and it
Speaker 1: was funny because when Will suggested this, he mentioned that
Speaker 1: he found it because he had just moved to a
Speaker 1: new city and he didn't know anybody, so he was
Speaker 1: researching bloody conquests. That's something a little ominous. Will it does.
Speaker 1: I can't say, well that that's going to make you
Speaker 1: a lot of friends, but it definitely gets us on
Speaker 1: your side. But back to tamer Lane. He's also known
Speaker 1: as Tiamore, and he wasn't your average ruthless warrior. He
Speaker 1: conquered an empire that stretched from the Aegean to the Ganges,
Speaker 1: and he's been called the last great nomad, predator, one
Speaker 1: of history's most notorious psychopaths, and the scourge of God.
Speaker 1: He's even claimed ascent from Genghis Khan, which is gonna
Speaker 1: make sense when we look at his life a little later.
Speaker 1: So with that kind of street cred, it's clear that
Speaker 1: there are a lot of stories that we could tell
Speaker 1: about this guy. But to keep things simple, we're going
Speaker 1: to focus on his last major battle, which was the
Speaker 1: Battle of Ankara, in which he went up against another
Speaker 1: great force, the Ottoman Empire, and you really get to
Speaker 1: see the tactics that made him who he was when
Speaker 1: when you look at this battle closely, and the battle
Speaker 1: itself is is pretty famous. It makes an appearance in
Speaker 1: our old friend Christopher Marlowe's play Timberland the Great, and
Speaker 1: even though in that case, you know it's been dramatized,
Speaker 1: the events surrounding our protagonist in this player fictionalized. So
Speaker 1: we're going to start with some something with some real
Speaker 1: historical truth to it. The early days of tumor's life. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was born with the name Timore, which means iron
Speaker 1: in Turkic, on April eight, thirteen thirty six in Kesh,
Speaker 1: which is south of Summer Kand and what is now Uzbekistan,
Speaker 1: and his father was a minor chief of the bar
Speaker 1: Lass tribe and settled in that area at the heart
Speaker 1: of the crumbling Mongol Empire, which was breaking apart into
Speaker 1: warring factions ruled by descendants of Genghis Khan. And these
Speaker 1: were the three factions, the Choga Tai Khanate, the ill
Speaker 1: Knnied Dynasty, and the so called Golden Horde. So the
Speaker 1: Barlass were part of the Chagatai Khanate, which had its
Speaker 1: own trouble with tensions between nomadic tribes and those who
Speaker 1: wanted to settle life. So there was a lot of
Speaker 1: tribal in fighting, yeah, as well as these grander model
Speaker 1: in fighting tensions. So a lot going on. But Timur
Speaker 1: came up in this environment and started out as kind
Speaker 1: of a bandit really, probably participating in these intertribal disputes,
Speaker 1: but also doing just some plain old criminal stuff. It
Speaker 1: was during a raid while he was still a young man.
Speaker 1: Some say he was stealing sheep. That he was injured
Speaker 1: in his right arm and leg, and his right arm
Speaker 1: was just left completely useless, and because of the injuries
Speaker 1: in his right leg, he walked with a limp. So
Speaker 1: this is what actually led to that western name. Tamberline
Speaker 1: was originally timor e length or two more the lame,
Speaker 1: which was obviously not a flattering title. It was something
Speaker 1: used by his enemies to to mock him. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: even after those injuries, it's interesting, he was still a
Speaker 1: force to be reckoned with. He was a big, strong
Speaker 1: guy with a large head and a long beard of
Speaker 1: a reddish hue, or that's what said of him anyway.
Speaker 1: And he became a skilled horseman and a superior soldier,
Speaker 1: and he quickly built up a following. And then in
Speaker 1: thirteen sixty one, Teamour took charge of the area around
Speaker 1: Summer kand when he swore allegiance to took look who
Speaker 1: had taken over the Chagatai Khanate. And when took Luk
Speaker 1: died not long after, Teamore actually formed an alliance with
Speaker 1: another tribal chief named Hussain, and they split up the
Speaker 1: areas and kind of put down the other warring tribes
Speaker 1: and took over ruling this area. Yeah, but eventually Timore
Speaker 1: even turned on Hussein and defeated him. So working his
Speaker 1: way up all the while, and by thirteen seventy he
Speaker 1: was just in his early thirties. He was at that
Speaker 1: point the ruler of the Chekatai Khanate, which had its
Speaker 1: capital at Summer Kan. So he had gone from just
Speaker 1: being the son of one of these local tribes to
Speaker 1: ruling the whole khan Yeah. And this is the point
Speaker 1: that also he starts claiming to be a descendant of
Speaker 1: Genghis Khan. The more most sources indicate that this is
Speaker 1: probably unlikely. And he's announcing his goal of re establishing
Speaker 1: the Mongol Empire. So he's establishing the strategy of war
Speaker 1: abroad and peace or a more subtled life at home,
Speaker 1: which satisfies kind of everyone. It satisfies those who want
Speaker 1: new conquests as well as those who wanted the more stable,
Speaker 1: settled life. He re establishes and monopolizes the Silk Road
Speaker 1: and spends the thirteen eighties and nineties invading and conquering
Speaker 1: many areas, including Persia, Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, Anatolia, Syria, all
Speaker 1: of Central Asia, Northern India, and the approaches to China
Speaker 1: and much of southern Russia too. Probably his longest struggle though,
Speaker 1: was that against the Golden Horde, one of those original
Speaker 1: warring factions that we talked about, and he finally defeated
Speaker 1: them in thirteen. So we've got to talk about how
Speaker 1: he did all of this. I mean, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: impressive list. You just strattled off there to Lena. First
Speaker 1: of all, he was really scary. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: his prime way of conquering all of these territories. He
Speaker 1: served up his invasions with a keeping helping of violence.
Speaker 1: You could say he would basically come in, destroy entire cities,
Speaker 1: massacre their entire populations, and then build towers or pyramids
Speaker 1: out of their severed heads. Seriously, Yeah, that was kind
Speaker 1: of his trademark. It was in Isfahan in Central Asia,
Speaker 1: for example, he demanded that each of his soldiers take
Speaker 1: a severed head, and it amounted to seventy thousand total
Speaker 1: that were built into towers, and another city, two thousand
Speaker 1: people were cemented together to make a living tower. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, you hear numbers like this all the time.
Speaker 1: Seventy thousand, ninety twenty thousand. These are the numbers that
Speaker 1: were involved in these massacres, and uh, it's sort of amazing, well,
Speaker 1: and it makes you reconsider what he was actually out
Speaker 1: there doing to Richard Cavendish in History Today called these
Speaker 1: quote more in the nature of large scale looting expeditions
Speaker 1: than empire building, and it it does seem that way.
Speaker 1: And it's really no wonder that people were so afraid
Speaker 1: of him, because he used fear as a compelling weapon
Speaker 1: and as much as any of his other tactics, which
Speaker 1: also included things like lightning advances and feigned retreats and ambushes.
Speaker 1: So he was smart in a military sense, but it
Speaker 1: was the spear tactic that really accomplished things in the end.
Speaker 1: He would even send secret agents ahead of troops to
Speaker 1: spread rumors about atrocity, so cities would get scared and
Speaker 1: sort of lay down their arms. Not that that would
Speaker 1: really help them very much in the end. No, it
Speaker 1: didn't done a lot of cases. But Teymour was also
Speaker 1: somewhat contradictory and that he wasn't just a killing machine.
Speaker 1: He was also a fine chess player. He actually created
Speaker 1: the game of tamer Lane chess, and he enjoyed a
Speaker 1: good theological discussion now and again he engaged scholars in debate.
Speaker 1: He also did a lot to beautify his capital summercand
Speaker 1: He encouraged art, their literature, science, and public works. And
Speaker 1: it seems like the one group of people that he
Speaker 1: consistently spared when he did loot these towns where the
Speaker 1: cities artisans, they're fine crafts, and he would bring them
Speaker 1: back to to his capital and have them beautify it
Speaker 1: and build new buildings and and just make it a
Speaker 1: better place. That's kind of ironic, though, when you consider
Speaker 1: that Timour himself spent very little time in his capital. No,
Speaker 1: he usually only stayed there for a few days at
Speaker 1: a time. He was truly a nomad. He personally led
Speaker 1: all of his campaigns and he was constantly campaigning. He
Speaker 1: was in Summer con for about two years at the
Speaker 1: end of the thirteen nineties, but then invaded India in
Speaker 1: thirt officially because the Sultan of Delhi wasn't persecuting the
Speaker 1: Hindus enough, but it kind of just seemed like an
Speaker 1: excuse of the house exactly, and he ended up destroying
Speaker 1: Deli and he killed a hundred thousand civilians and according
Speaker 1: to most sources, this took more than a century for
Speaker 1: the city to recover from. So even after that bloody
Speaker 1: Indian campaign, he still had a couple empires left to
Speaker 1: polish off. One was the mom Luke Empire in Syria
Speaker 1: in Egypt, and he sacked Damascus in fourteen oh one.
Speaker 1: Classic fear tactics kind of stuff went on there, and
Speaker 1: then the only place left standing was the Ottoman Empire
Speaker 1: in Turkey, which at the time was led by Sultan
Speaker 1: by a z the First and by a Ze who
Speaker 1: was also known as the Thunderbolt. Wasn't really a guy
Speaker 1: to be messed with. I mean, if anybody was going
Speaker 1: to go up against Tamerlane, it seems like the Sultan
Speaker 1: would be the guy to do it. Definitely. He was
Speaker 1: also a proven general. He had defeated the Serbs at
Speaker 1: Kosovo intight nine and then killed his own brother to
Speaker 1: solidify his position at the head of the empire, so
Speaker 1: absolutely seems like someone who could go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with Teamore. And that Kosovo victory had also launched a
Speaker 1: European crusade against him, which by a Ze'd also put down.
Speaker 1: So like Teamore, he had a very disciplined army though
Speaker 1: many of them were Christian drawn from conquered lands in Europe.
Speaker 1: The most famous part of this army of his, though,
Speaker 1: was probably his elite Janissary infantry. They were taken from
Speaker 1: their families at an early age and educated in war
Speaker 1: and in Islam, and their single mission in life would
Speaker 1: be to fight for their faith. They had a cavalry
Speaker 1: to and a more significant infantry even than Teamore had,
Speaker 1: so a lot to go up against, so it was
Speaker 1: clear that defeating by a Zeed wasn't going to be simple.
Speaker 1: But Teamwoar couldn't ignore him either. By a Zeed had
Speaker 1: antagonized him by giving refuge to Teamor's enemies and attacking
Speaker 1: areas that were under his control, he had to be
Speaker 1: put down, essentially, and negotiations had been going on between
Speaker 1: the two men for some time, but by this point
Speaker 1: the situation had devolved into essentially an exchange of insults.
Speaker 1: War had to had to finally follow that. So Teamor's
Speaker 1: forces invaded the Ottoman domain in the spring of fourteen
Speaker 1: o two, and they felt pretty ready because they had
Speaker 1: already laid waste to all of the regions surrounding the empire,
Speaker 1: so they didn't have to worry about anybody immediately rushing
Speaker 1: into the aid of by A Zeed. And to add
Speaker 1: to that, Teamor's army had also called up some fresh
Speaker 1: reserves from samarcand so they were really ready to go
Speaker 1: out and and fight the janissaries and and fight by
Speaker 1: Zed's army. Yeah, they started out by trying to use
Speaker 1: that fear thing with the last Ottoman delegation that had
Speaker 1: come to negotiate with them. They kind of showed off
Speaker 1: their reserves, you know, showed off their elephants and everything
Speaker 1: that they had with them, and and it kind of worked.
Speaker 1: By a Zeed's army, they were probably pretty impressed by this.
Speaker 1: But by A Zed at the time had his forces
Speaker 1: concentrated in a Kara, which was a city that commanded
Speaker 1: the approaches to Constantinople and the Ottoman capital of Brusa.
Speaker 1: So at this point he's really at a crossroads. He
Speaker 1: has a decision to make do I stay here or
Speaker 1: do I go out and meet Teamore's army head on,
Speaker 1: And he decides to march eastward toward Teamore, acting on
Speaker 1: the information that Teamurs forces are marching northwest took Cot
Speaker 1: so he thinks he knows where he's going and he
Speaker 1: thinks he has the advantage over Teamore at this point.
Speaker 1: But that's not Teamor's plan after all. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: because that proposed approach was too mountainous. Maybe because Teamore
Speaker 1: knew that by Zid expected him to go northwest. Teamore
Speaker 1: instead moved southwest and made this loop north and then
Speaker 1: further west again, all the way back around to Ankara,
Speaker 1: where he laid siege to the city and Teamore actually
Speaker 1: suits up for this. He's sixty six years old, but
Speaker 1: he's not about to miss any campaign after this long
Speaker 1: military career. Yeah, by a Zide had figured out the
Speaker 1: location of Teamours forces through a couple of skirmishes and
Speaker 1: rushes back to Ankara. And here's where by Zeine misses
Speaker 1: a really key opportunity. Instead of catching Team More off
Speaker 1: guard and attacking immediately, he chooses to give battle the
Speaker 1: following day to give his forces a chance to rest.
Speaker 1: Seems to make sense, right, but this takes away the
Speaker 1: surprise advantage and also gives them plenty of time to
Speaker 1: dehydrate in the heat of July because Teamore has actually
Speaker 1: diverted the only available water supply. He's been really busy.
Speaker 1: He has while waiting for Bayazeeds Army Team Wars forces
Speaker 1: had built a diversion dam upstreet on Kubook Creek with
Speaker 1: a breach in it that would let the creek continue
Speaker 1: flowing downstream until they decided to close it. So see
Speaker 1: it looked like yeah, exactly. Then they made a reservoir
Speaker 1: on a western tributary downstream and a canal was dug
Speaker 1: from the diversion dam to the reservoir to funnel off
Speaker 1: the streams remaining water when the dam was sealed off.
Speaker 1: And this was made possible. I mean, it may seem
Speaker 1: just completely unbelievable, but it was possible because of the
Speaker 1: thousands of men that were available and by Team Wars
Speaker 1: trained elephants, which were trophies of his victory in India
Speaker 1: that he'd brought along with him. So when by Zede arrived,
Speaker 1: he saw the Kobuk Creek flowing, but downstream it was
Speaker 1: actually dry and there was no other source of water
Speaker 1: available to the Ottoman Army. Thousands of soldiers and horses
Speaker 1: were involved here, so you definitely needed water to keep going. Exactly.
Speaker 1: So this day of resting up turns out to be
Speaker 1: a day of trying out in the July heat and
Speaker 1: giving teamore the advantage to knowing that you're there. The
Speaker 1: actual battle finally took place on July two, and according
Speaker 1: to an article by Simon Craig and Military History, one
Speaker 1: of our favorite sources for battle information, there were between
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand and four hundred thousand troops on the
Speaker 1: field altogether, and the numerical advantage probably was with Teamore.
Speaker 1: So Teamor organized his forces into eight different detachments, and
Speaker 1: he himself controlled the center detachment. One of his sons
Speaker 1: commanded the left wing, and another son commanded the right wing,
Speaker 1: and that really fresh reserve from back home was placed
Speaker 1: at the rear between the main body of the army
Speaker 1: and the still defiant city of Ankara. So try to
Speaker 1: imagine all of that set up, and then imagine those
Speaker 1: elephants fresh from all of these canal projects apparent really
Speaker 1: they are wearing armor of painted leather, and the men
Speaker 1: on top of the elephants who are who are all
Speaker 1: in front, by the way, had flame throwers, and the
Speaker 1: elephants themselves had these curved blades attached to their tusks.
Speaker 1: And we're trained actually advance with a plunging motion to
Speaker 1: just create as much havoc as possible, as if an
Speaker 1: elephant charging towards you wasn't scary enough. Yeah, exactly. I
Speaker 1: mean it's assumed that these were mostly there for intimidation
Speaker 1: or mostly there for show, but I mean a bladed elephants,
Speaker 1: it counds really scary. Yeah, they could really do some damage.
Speaker 1: So the Ottoman four set up across for them on
Speaker 1: some low hills near Mountain Era and by a Ze
Speaker 1: commanded the center, with the Army of Romelia supported by
Speaker 1: tatars to his left and that of Anatolia backed up
Speaker 1: by Serbs to his right, and the first clash was
Speaker 1: between the Ottoman left and Teamar's right. The Ottomans were
Speaker 1: repulsed at this point, um so teamore side was winning
Speaker 1: on that end. But then Teamore launched his left wing
Speaker 1: against the Serbs on the Ottoman right, and that didn't
Speaker 1: go so well for Team Or. His forces were driven
Speaker 1: back at first, and it really seemed like the Ottoman
Speaker 1: forces had the advantage at that point, But then there
Speaker 1: was a twist by ZEDs touch our forces on the
Speaker 1: left turn against him and joined up with Teamor. And
Speaker 1: most people think that Teamwors agents had been there for
Speaker 1: a little bit. Another another problem about waiting for a day,
Speaker 1: Teamors agents that had time to sneak in, start talking
Speaker 1: to people and and turn some turn some opinions. Regardless, though,
Speaker 1: this allowed Teamor to focus on buy zds center as
Speaker 1: by Zes left just completely crumbled, so some of the
Speaker 1: soldiers on buy Z's right ended up switching teams as well,
Speaker 1: and by that point it was pretty much decided. With
Speaker 1: so much betrayal on the Ottoman Forces side, um, it
Speaker 1: was clearly Teamor's battle. Yeah, and just a note about
Speaker 1: the role of betrayal here, because obviously played a really
Speaker 1: big role. In his article, Craig says that the root
Speaker 1: of this treachery was probably low morale among bias Eds
Speaker 1: troops as cold hearted as Teamore seemed. In fact, he
Speaker 1: placed a big importance on the morale of his troops,
Speaker 1: so for example, if they need a little boost in morale,
Speaker 1: he would bring in some astrologers who would predict a
Speaker 1: victorious outcome a lot of heads in their future. But yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: and I mean, come to think of it, that's what happened, right, So,
Speaker 1: I mean it seemed to work for them, but BIASEDS
Speaker 1: troops weren't so lucky. By Ze tried to hold his
Speaker 1: ground for a while, but he eventually tried to flee
Speaker 1: and was captured himself. He was transported to summercond after
Speaker 1: that and imprisoned, where he died a year later. Some
Speaker 1: say from despair, although I'm not sure how much I
Speaker 1: really buy into that being Team as prisoner. I mean,
Speaker 1: I imagine that would be difficult. It's kind of amazing
Speaker 1: that he was even kept as the prisoner in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, I don't know what the reasoning behind
Speaker 1: that was. He would think that someone is ruthless as
Speaker 1: Teamore would just sort of have him killed off right away,
Speaker 1: But not so and tamer Lane at this point, now
Speaker 1: approaching seventy, he's not taking a break, even though he's
Speaker 1: finally defeated his biggest foe at the time. He is,
Speaker 1: at that point seventy years old, planning his next campaign
Speaker 1: in China. But he died on route to China February
Speaker 1: oh five, luckily for people where he was headed. So
Speaker 1: after Teamoor's death, his empire pretty much became engulfed in
Speaker 1: civil war and disintegrated. Teamoor himself never really bothered with administration,
Speaker 1: so there was no social, economic, or political cohesion, just
Speaker 1: this fear of team Or. Apparently, and as Craig puts it,
Speaker 1: the battle with sort of the end in itself for Teamor,
Speaker 1: and He's quote perhaps best understood as a sort of
Speaker 1: career criminal, a gangster on the grand scale. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it makes sense that without that compelling figure behind it all,
Speaker 1: the empire is not gonna last. But even though his
Speaker 1: empire didn't last, Teamore himself is still revered and was
Speaker 1: after that. He was buried in a sarcophagus covered by
Speaker 1: a huge slab of jade and a mausoleum known as
Speaker 1: Guri Amir. I think that's the closest I can get
Speaker 1: to a good pronunciation of that. If anyone has any
Speaker 1: better corrections, please let me know, or if you visited,
Speaker 1: if you've visited, because apparently it's still called one of
Speaker 1: the greatest treasures of Islamic architecture, and that mausoleum is
Speaker 1: still shrouded in mystery. Legend has it that the disturber
Speaker 1: of his tomb would be cursed, and no one really
Speaker 1: tempted fate there, no one really tried to disturb his
Speaker 1: tomb for more than five hundred years until in June
Speaker 1: the Soviet Archaeological Commission opened the tomb and examined the
Speaker 1: skeleton within, and the remains included hairs, including a few
Speaker 1: bristles of chestnut mustache, and fragments of skin and muscle tissue,
Speaker 1: and the measurements of the skeleton revealed that at around
Speaker 1: a hundred seventy centimeters, Team War was actually tall for
Speaker 1: the time and very powerful, and the injuries on his
Speaker 1: right side were confirmed. Then he was in fact lame
Speaker 1: because his right leg was shorter than his left, and
Speaker 1: his whole frame was kind of twisted. And one scientist
Speaker 1: involved actually used the skull to make a facial reconstruction,
Speaker 1: so we can see what his features look like. What
Speaker 1: about the curse? What about the curse? That's a good question. Well,
Speaker 1: some say it came true. It was Soviet scientists involved,
Speaker 1: and days after the tomb was opened, Hitler attacked Soviet Russia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty serious curse. That is a pretty serious curse.
Speaker 1: But he was a pretty scary guy Team War was.
Speaker 1: So I think that it's only appropriate now that we
Speaker 1: move on to a little less serious of a listener mail.
Speaker 1: This letter comes to us from Ariel in Washington, d C.
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Speaker 1: your podcast on ned Kelly the other day and I
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Speaker 1: ordered the biggest bucket of French fries on the in
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Speaker 1: keep them coming so understanding obscure Australian units of measure
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Speaker 1: History clock. Yeah, so helping eavesdroppers everywhere. If we can
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Speaker 1: about Termerlaine supposed relative Genghiz Khan. We do have an
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