Davlat universiteti

Last campaigns and death
Painting by Stanisіaw Chlebowski, 
Sultan Bayezid prisoned by Timur, 1878, 
depicting the capture of Bayezid by Timur. 
Before the end of 1399, Timur started a war with Bayezid I, sultan of the Ottoman 
Empire, and the Mamluk sultan of Egypt. Bayezid began annexing the territory of 
Turkmen and Muslim rulers in Anatolia. As Timur claimed sovereignty over the 
Turkmen rulers, they took refuge behind him. Timur invaded Syria, sacked Aleppo 
and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The city's inhabitants were 
massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. This led to 
Timur's being publicly declared an enemy of Islam. 
In 1400 Timur invaded Armenia and Georgia. More than 60,000 people from the 
Caucasus were captured as slaves, and many districts of Armenia were depopulated. 
He invaded Baghdad in June 1401. After the capture of the city, 20,000 of its citizens 
were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two 
severed human heads to show him. After years of insulting letters passed between 
Timur and Bayezid, Timur invaded Anatolia and defeated Bayezid in the Battle of 
Ankara on July 20, 1402. Bayezid was captured in battle and subsequently died in 
captivity, initiating the 12-year Ottoman Interregnum period. Timur's stated 
motivation for attacking Bayezid and the Ottoman Empire was the restoration of 
Seljuq authority. Timur saw the Seljuks as the rightful rulers of Anatolia as they had 
been granted rule by Mongol conquerors, illustrating again Timur's interest with 
Genghizid legitimacy. 
By 1368, the Ming had driven the Mongols out of China. The first Ming Emperor 
Hongwu demanded, and received, homage from many Central Asian states paid to 
China as the political heirs to the former House of Kublai. Timur more than once sent 
to the Ming Government gifts that could have passed as tribute, at first not daring to 
defy the economic and military might of the Middle Kingdom. 

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Timur wished to restore the Mongol Empire, and eventually planned to conquer China. 
Mongol khan Enkh sent his grandson Ulzitumur, also known as «Buyanshir.» Timur 
made an alliance with the Mongols and prepared all the way to Bukhara. In December 
1404, Timur started military campaigns against the Ming Dynasty, but he was attacked 
by fever and plague when encamped on the farther side of the Sihon and died at Atrar 
in mid-February 1405. His scouts explored Mongolia before his death, and the writing 
they carved on trees in Mongolia's mountains could still be seen even in the 20th 
century. 
Of Timur's four sons, two predeceased him. His third son, Miran Shah, died soon after 
Timur, leaving the youngest son, Shah Rukh. Although his designated successor was 
his grandson Pir Muhammad b. Jahangir, Timur was ultimately succeeded in power 
by his son Shah Rukh. His most illustrious descendant Babur founded the Mughal 
Empire and ruled over most of North India. Babur's descendants, Akbar, Jahangir, 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, expanded the Mughal Empire to most of the Indian 
subcontinent along with parts of modern Afghanistan. 
Markham, in his introduction to the narrative of Clavijo's embassy, states that his body 
«was embalmed with musk and rose water, wrapped in linen, laid in an ebony coffin 
and sent to Samarkand, where it was buried.» His tomb, the Gur-e Amir, still stands 
in Samarkand. Timur had carried his victorious arms on one side from the Irtish and 
the Volga to the Persian Gulf, and on the other from the Hellespont to the Ganges 
River.