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"وقد اقتحم عساكر تيمور مدينة حلب في الحال"
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وقصد نواب المماليك الشامية قلعة حلب وطلعوا إليها فدخلها معهم خلائق من الحلبيين وكانوا قبل ذلك قد نقلوا إليها سائر أموال الناس بحلب. هذا وقد اقتحم عساكر تيمور مدينة حلب في الحال وأشعلوا فيها النيران وأخذوا في الأسر والنهب والقتل فهرب سائر نساء البلد والأطفال إلى جامع حلب وبقية المساجد فمال أصحاب تيمور عليهن وربطوهن بالحبال أسرى ثم وضعوا السيف في الأطفال فقتلوهم بأسرهم وشرعوا في تلك الأفعال القبيحة على عادتهم وصارت الأبكار تفتض من غير تستر والمخدرات يفسق فيهن من غير احتشام بل يأخذ التتري الواحدة ويعلوها في المسجد والجامع بحضرة الجم الغفير من أصحابه ومن أهل حلب فيراها أبوها وأخوها وزوجها وولدها ولا يقدر أن يدفع عنها لقلة مقدرته ولشغله بنفسه بما هو فيه من العقوبة والعذاب ثم ينزل عنها الواحد فيقوم لها آخر وهي مكشوفة العورة.
ثم بذلوا السيف في عامة حلب وأجنادها حتى امتلأت الجوامع والطرقات بالقتلى وجافت حلب واستمر هذا من ضحوة نهار السبت إلى أثناء يوم الثلاثاء رابع عشر ربيع الأول.
هذا والقلعة في أشد ما يكون من الحصار والقتال وقد نقبها عسكر تيمور من عدة أماكن وردم خندقها ولم يبق إلا أن تؤخذ.فتشاور النواب والأعيان الذين بالقلعة فأجمعوا على طلب الأمان فأرسلوا لتيمور بذلك فطلب تيمور نزول بعض النواب إليه فنزل إليه دمرداش نائب حلب فخلع عليه ودفع إليه أمانًا وخلعًا إلى النواب وأرسل معه عدة وافرة من أصحابه إلى قلعة حلب فطلعوا إليها وأخرجوا النواب منها بمن معهم من الأمراء والأ
ثم أخذ يقرعهم ويوبخهم ويلوم سودون نائب الشام في قتله لرسوله ويكثر له من الوعيد. ثم دفع كل واحد منهم إلى من يحتفظ به.
ثم سيقت إليه نساء حلب سبايا وأحضرت إليه الأموال والجواهر والآلات الفاخرة ففرقها على أمرائه وأخصائه. واستمر النهب والسبي والقتل بحلب في كل يوم مع قطع الأشجار وهدم البيوت وإحراق المساجد وجافت حلب وظواهرها من القتلى بحيث صارت الأرض منهم فراشًا لا يجد الشخص مكانًا يمشي عليه إلا وتحت رجليه رمة قتيل.
وعمل تيمور من رؤوس المسلمين منابر عدة مرتفعة من الأرض نحو عشرة أذرع في دور عشرين ذراعًا حسب ما فيها من رؤوس بني آدم فكان زيادة على عشرين ألف رأس ولما بنيت جعلت الوجوه بارزة يراها من يمر بها.
ثم رحل تيمور من حلب بعد أن أقام بها شهرًا وتركها خاوية على عروشها خالية من سكانها وأنيسها قد خربت وتعطلت من الأذان والصلوات وأصبحت خرابًا يبابًا مظلمة بالحريق موحشة قفرًا لا يأويها إلا البوم والرخم. وسار تيمور قاصدًا جهة دمشق فمر بمدينة حماة وكان أخذها ابنه ميران شاه. وكان من خبرها أن ميران شاه بن تيمور نزل عليها بكرة يوم الثلاثاء رابع عشر شهر ربيع الأول المذكور وأحاط بها بعساكره بعد أن نهب خارج مدينة حماة وسبى النساء والأطفال وأسر الرجال واستمرت أيدي أصحابه يفعلون في النساء والأبكار تلك الأفعال القبيحة وخربوا جميع ما هو خارج عن سور المدينة.
هذا وقد استعد أهل حماة للقتال وركب الناس سور المدينة وامتنعوا من تسليم المدينة وباتوا على ذلك فلما أصبحوا خادعهم ابن تيمور ففتحوا له بابًا من أبواب المدينة ودخل ابن تيمور المذكور مدينة حماة ونادى بالأمان فقدم الناس عليه وقدموا له أنواع المطاعم فقبلها منهم وعزم أن يقيم رجلًا من أصحابه عليها فقيل له: إن الأعيان قد خرجوا منها فخرج إلى مخيمه وبات به. ثم رحل يوم الخميس عنها ووعد الناس بخير ومع ذلك فإن قلعة حماة لم يتسلمها بل كانت امتنعت عليه.
فلما كان ليلة الجمعة نزل أهل القلعة وقتلوا من أصحاب ابن تيمور رجلين كان أقرهما بالمدينة فلما بلغ ذلك ابن تيمور رجع إليها وآقتحم البلد وأشعل النار بها وأخذ أصحابه يقتلون ويأسرون وينهبون حتى صارت كمدينة حلب غير أنه كان رفق بأهل حلب فإنه كان سأل قضاة حلب لما صاروا في أسره عن قتاله ومن الشهيد.
فأجاب محب الدين محمد بن محمد بن الشحنة الحنفي بأن قال: سئل رسول الله - صلى الله عليه وسلم - عن هذا فقال: من قاتل لتكون كلمة الله هي العليا فهو الشهيد فأعجبه ذلك وحادثهم فطلبوا منه أن يعفو عن أهل حلب ولا يقتل أحدًا فأمنهم جميعًا وحلف لهم فحصل بذلك بعض رفق بالنسبة إلى غيرهم.
وأما أهل دمشق فإنه لما قدم عليهم الخبر بأخذ حلب نودي في الناس بالرحيل من ظاهرها إلى داخل المدينة والاستعداد لقتال العدو المخذول فأخذوا في ذلك فقدم عليهم المنهزمون من حماة فعظم خوف أهلها وهموا بالجلاء فمنعوا من ذلك ونودي: من سافر نهب فعاد إليها من كان خرج منها وحصنت دمشق ونصبت المجانيق على قلعة دمشق ونصبت المكاحل على أسوار المدينة واستعدوا للقتال استعدادًا جيدًا إلى الغاية.
ثم وصلت رسل تيمور إلى نائب الغيبة بدمشق ليتسلموا منه دمشق فهم نائب الغيبة بالفرار فرده العامة ردًا قبيحا وصاح الناس وأجمعوا على الرحيل عنها واستغاث النساء والصبيان وخرجت النساء حاسرات لا يعرفن أين يذهبن حتى نادى نائب الغيبة بالاستعداد.
وقدم الخبر في أثناء ذلك بمجيء السلطان إلى البلاد الشامية ففتر عزم الناس عن الخروج من دمشق ما لم يحضر السلطان.
أمراء الديار المصرية
فإنه لما كان ثامن عشر ضهر ربيع الأول وهو بعد أخذ تيمور لمدينة حلب بسبعة أيام فرقت الجماكي على المماليك السلطانية بسبب السفر. ثم في عشرينه نودي على أجناد الحلقة بالقاهرة أن يكونوا في يوم الأربعاء ثاني عشرينه في بيت الأمير يشبك الشعباني الدوادار للعرض عليه.
ثم في خامس عشرينه ورد عليهم الخبر بأخذ تيمور مدينة حلب وأنه يحاصر قلعتها فكذبوا ذلك وأمسك المخبر وحبس حتى يعاقب بعد ذلك على افترائه ووقع الشروع في النفقة فأخذ كل مملوك ثلاثة آلاف وأربعمائة درهم. ثم خرج الأمير سودون من زادة والأمير إينال حطب على الهجن في ليلة الأربعاء تاسع عشرينه لكشف هذا الخبر.
ثم ركب الشيخ سراج الدين عمر البلقيني وقضاة القضاة والأمير آقباي الحاجب ونودي بين أيديهم: الجهاد في سبيل الله تعالى لعدوكم الأكبر تيمورلنك فإنه أخذ البلاد ووصل إلى حلب وقتل الأطفال على صدور الأمهات وأخرب الدور والجوامع والمساجد وجعلها إسطبلات للمواشي وإنه قاصدكم يخرب بلادكم ويقتل رجالكم فاضطربت القاهرة لذلك واشتد جزع الناس وكثر بكاؤهم وصراخهم وانطلقت الألسنة بالوقيعة في أعيان الدولة.
وأهل شهر ربيع الآخر فلما كان ثالثه قدم الأمير أسنبغا الدوادار وأخبر بأخذ تيمور مدينة حلب وقلعتها بآتفاق دمرداش وحكى ما نزل بأهل حلب من البلاء وأنه قال لنائب الغيبة بدمشق يخفي بين الناس وبين الخروج من دمشق فإن الأمر صعب أو أن النائب لم يمكن أحدًا من السير.
فخرج السلطان الملك الناصر من يومه من القاهرة ونزل بالريدانية بأمرائه وعساكره أو الخليفة والقضاة وتعين الأمير تمراز الناصري أمير مجلس في نيابة الغيبة بالديار المصرية وأقام بمصر من الأمراء الأمير جكم من عوض في عدة أخر وأقام الأمير تمراز يعرض أجناد الحلقة وفي تحصيل ألف فرس وألف جمل وإرسال ذلك مع من يقع عليه الاختيار من أجناد الحلقة للسفر. ثم رسم باستقرار الأمير أرسطاي من خجا على رأس نوبة النوب كان في نيابة الإسكندرية بعد موت نائبها فرج الحلبي.
وكان أرسطاي منذ أفرج عنه بطالًا بالإسكندرية فوردت عليه الولاية وهو بها. وأخذ الأمير تمراز في عرض أجناد الحلقة وتحصيل الخيول والجمال وطلب العربان من الوجه القبلي والبحري لقتال تيمور كل ذلك والسلطان بالريدانية.
ثم خرج الجاليش في بكرة يوم الجمعة ثامن شهر ربيع الآخر وفيه من أكابر الأمراء مقدمي الألوف: الأتابك بيبرس والأمير نوروز الحافظي رأس نوبة الأمراء والأمير بكتمر الركني أمير سلاح وآقباي حاجب الحجاب ويلبغا الناصري وإينال باي بن قجماس وعدة أخر من أمراء الطبلخانات والعشرات.
Then Timur turned his attention to Syria, sacking Aleppo,[77] and Damascus.[78] The city's inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. Timur cited the killing of Hasan ibn Ali by the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I and the killing of Husayn ibn Ali by Yazid I as the reason for his massacre of the inhabitants of Damascus.
During Timur's invasion of Syria in the Sack of Aleppo , Ibn Taghribirdi wrote that Timur's Tatar soldiers committed mass rape on the native women of Aleppo, massacring their children and forcing the brothers and fathers of the women to watch the gang rapes which took place in the mosques.[79] Ibn Taghribirdi said the Tatars killed all children while tying the women with ropes in Aleppo's Great mosque after the children and women tried to take refuge in the mosque. Tatar soldiers openly raped gentlewomen and virgins in public in both the small mosques and the Great Mosque. The brothers and fathers of the women were being tortured while forced to watch their female relatives get raped. The corpses in the streets and mosques resulted in stink permeating Aleppo. The women were kept naked while being gang raped repeatedly by different men.[80][81][82][83] Ibn Arabshah witnessed the slaughters and rapes Timur's Tatar soldiers carried out.[84] Timur's soldiers also committed mass rape against the women of Damascus during the Siege of Damascus and tortured the people of the city by burning them, using bastinados and crushing them in wine presses. Children died of starvation. Timur carried out these rapes and atrocities in Syria against his own Muslim co-religionists. Muslim leaders viewed him as an enemy of Islam for his rape of Damascus. 600 years after these sacks and rapes, some of the descendants of rape from Timur's Turco-Mongol soldiers still live in these cities and show Mongol facial features and it is regarded as extremely insulting and humiliating to call another child Timur in the cities he sacked and conjure up feelings of anger and tears. The term "Tamerlane's bastards" is used as an insult against Damascenes today.[85] One Syrian orthodox Christian from Aleppo, John Yoseph insulted Damascenes by saying the "bastards of Timur the Lame" lived in Damascus in an interview with August Thiry.[86] The term "Arab and Turkish blood is one blood across history” which was used to promote Turkey Syria relations unintentionally conjures up memories of the Turkic Timur's sexual violence in Syria with the name "Tamerlane's bastards" being used as an insult against Syrians.[87] Timur also committed massacres in Baghdad with pyramids made out of skulls of 90-,000 victims in Baghdad.[88][89] Damascus had capitulated without a battle to Timur in December 1400 since the Mamluk Sultan who led his army form Egypt only fought minor skirmishes before fleeing back to Cairo with the Sultan claiming he needed to stop a rival from taking power. The people of Damascus sent Ibn Khaldun and other notables and scholars to plead with Timur as he demanded tribute from them and the names of all streets, squares and quarters of the city. After this, Timur's soldiers burned Damascus and engaged in an orgy of rape and plunder for 3 days in the city in March 1401 after he already sacked Hama and Aleppo. Timur's soldiers mass rapes against the women of Damascus are recalled today by the fact that Damascene Syrians are called "Timur" as an insult. Damascus was humiliation not just by the rapes and slaughter but also by the fact that Damascus surrendered to Timur without a fight unlike Aleppo which resisted futilely before being sacked by Timur's army. After 600 years Syrian rebels compared Assad to Timur during the Syrian Civil War and Syrian historians also compared Israel and the United States to Timur as foreign invaders and recall the their ancestors sufferings under Timur.[90][91]
Timur 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. When they ran out of men to kill, many warriors killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign, and when they ran out of prisoners to kill, many resorted to beheading their own wives.[92]
- Masters, Bruce (1999). "Aleppo:the Ottoman Empire's caravan city". In Eldem, Edhem; Goffman, Daniel; Master, Bruce (eds.). The Ottoman City Between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul. Cambridge University Press. p. 20.
- ^ Margaret Meserve, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought, (Harvard University Press, 2008), 207.
- ^ Yosef, Koby (2019). "Cross-Boundary Hatred: (Changing) Attitudes towards Mongol and "Christian" mamlūks in the Mamluk Sultanate". In Amitai, Reuven; Conermann, Stephan (eds.). The Mamluk Sultanate from the Perspective of Regional and World History: Economic, Social and Cultural Development in an Era of Increasing International Interaction and Competition. Volume 17 of Mamluk Studies. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 173. ISBN 3847004115.
- ^ Burns, Ross (2016). Aleppo: A History. Cities of the Ancient World. Taylor & Francis. p. 189. ISBN 1134844018.
- ^ Frey, Rebecca Joyce (2009). Genocide and International Justice. Global Issues - Facts On File. Infobase Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 0816073104. Archived from the original on 2009.
- ^ "The Invasion of Syria by Tamerlane (1400-1) and Ibn Taghri Birdi's description of the life of Tamerlane". De Re Militari » The Society for Medieval Military History.
- ^ Al-Abboud, D. "The Question of Islamophobia and Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great". American University of Cairo.
- ^ Marozzi, Justin (2014). Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood--A History in Thirteen Centuries (illustrated ed.). Hachette Books. p. 156. ISBN 0306823993.
- ^ BOIVIN, BEAU (15 January 2018). "10 Terrors Of The Tyrant Tamerlane". Listverse: Top 10 Lists.
- ^ Thiry, August. "Aleppo - BELIEVING IN ALEPPO". Shlama Mechelen.
- ^ Smith, Lee (28 June 2010). "The Return of the Ottomans". The Weekly Standard. Beirut.
- ^ Associated Press (5 January 1998). "Uzbekistan turns conqueror into hero". Deseret News.
- ^ Swan, Thomas (26 October 2020). "40 Facts About Tamerlane: Timur the Lame". Owlcation - Education.
- ^ Antrim, Zayde (7 January 2013). "Tamerlane in Damascus". Jadaliyya.
- ^ البوليني, يحيي (17 February 2012). "تيمور لنك..بشار الأسد..لافرق!". Syria Noor.
- ^ Ibn Arabshah, Timur the Great Amir, p. 168
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Yusuf ibn Taghri Birdi, Tamerlane’s Invasion of Syria (1400–1401) (excerpts) Yusuf ibn Taghri Birdi (1409–70) was the son of an important official of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt who became a historian and composed a history of Egypt from the time of the Muslim conquest in 641 until 1469, the year before his death. Taghri Birdi’s father had been involved in government affairs at the time of Tamerlane’s invasion of Syria; thus Taghri Birdi had access to eyewitness reports of the invasion and the massacres that took place at Aleppo and Damascus. Although Tamerlane (1336–1405) was not a direct descendant of Genghis Khan but married into the khan’s family, he was a Mongol by birth and wanted to restore the Mongol Empire to its former size. Tamerlane was a Muslim and considered himself a warrior for the faith; however, most of his wars were conducted against other Muslims. He is estimated to have killed as many as 17 million people in the course of his conquests. Although Taghri Birdi’s description of the piles of human heads left by Tamerlane’s soldiers was thought at one time to be an exaggeration, later archaeologists have corroborated his report. [Capture of Aleppo, October 28–November 2, 1400] Only a short time passed before the Syrian forces turned in flight toward the city of Aleppo, with Tamerlane’s men in hot pursuit; and a countless number of the inhabitants of Aleppo and others who were on foot perished under the horses’ hoofs, for the citizens of Aleppo had gone out from the city to fight Tamerlane, even the women and boys; moreover, as they tried to enter through the city gates people crowded so closely together that they trampled upon one another; and corpses lay there man-high while crowds walked over them. The Syrian viceroys made for the Aleppo citadel and ascended to it, hordes of the inhabitants entering with them; they had previously transported to the Citadel all the property of the men of Aleppo. Tamerlane’s army had in the meanwhile immediately assaulted the city, lighted fires in it, and began to take prisoners, to plunder, and to kill. The women and children fled to the great mosque of Aleppo and to the smaller mosques, but Tamerlane’s men turned to follow them, bound the women with ropes as prisoners, and put the children to the sword, killing every one of them. They committed the shameful deeds to which they were accustomed; virgins were violated without concealment; gentlewomen were outraged without any restraints of modesty; a Tatar would seize a woman and ravage her in the great mosque or one of the smaller mosques in sight of the vast multitude of his companions and the people of the city; her father and brother and husband would see her plight and be unable to defend her because of their lack of means to do so and because they were distracted by the torture and torments
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International Documents which they themselves were suffering; the Tatar would then leave the women and another go to her, her body still uncovered. They then put the populace of Aleppo and its troops to the sword, until the mosques and streets were filled with dead, and Aleppo stank with corpses. This continued from the early forenoon of Saturday until the middle of Tuesday, I Rabi’ 14 [November 2]. In the meantime the citadel was being subjected to the closest siege and attack, for Tamerlane’s armies had mined its walls in a number of places and filled up its moat, so that it was all but captured. . . . The robbery, enslavement, and murder continued in Aleppo daily; trees were cut down, houses were ruined, and mosques were burned. The stench of corpses filled Aleppo and the environs; bodies lay on the ground, overspreading it like a carpet—one could step nowhere without finding dead bodies under his feet. Tamerlane constructed out of the heads of Muslims a number of pulpits about ten cubits in height and twenty in circumference; the human heads which they contained were counted and found to be more than 20,000; the structures were built with the heads protruding and seen by every passer-by. Tamerlane remained in Aleppo for a month, then departed; he left the city “fallen on its roofs,” empty of its inhabitants and every human being, reduced to ruins; the muezzin’s call and the prayer services were no longer heard; there was nought there but a desert waste darkened by fire, a lonely solitude where only the owl and the vulture took refuge. . . . The report of the capture of Aleppo by Tamerlane and his siege of the citadel arrived at Cairo, but it was not believed, and the bearer of the news was arrested and imprisoned awaiting future punishment on the charge of falsification. . . . [After the surrender of Damascus in March 1401, Tamerlane] seized Ibn Muflih and his companions and forced them to write down the names of all the quarters, squares, and streets of Damascus; when they had done so and given the lists to him, he distributed them among his emirs, dividing the city among them. The emirs entered the city with their mamluks and attendants, and each emir settled in his alloted section and then summoned its inhabitants and demanded money of them. At that time there came upon the people of Damascus afflictions beyond description: they were subjected to all sorts of tortures; they were bastinadoed, crushed in presses, scorched in flames, and suspended head down; their nostrils were stopped with rags full of fine dust which they inhaled each time they took a breath so that they almost died. When near to death, a man would be given a respite to recover, then the tortures of all kinds would be repeated, so that the sufferer would envy a companion who had perished under his tortures and would say: “Would that I might die and be at rest from my pain.” And in the meanwhile all his women and daughters and sons were divided among the companions of that emir, and while under torture he
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genocide and international justice would see his wife and daughter ravished and his son defiled; as he cried out in the pain of his torture the boy and girl would cry out in the suffering of their violation. All this took place without any concealment, in broad daylight and in the presence of crowds of people. Indeed, the people of Damascus witnessed tortures of kinds that had never been heard of before. For example, they would take a man and tie a rope around his head, and twist it until it would sink into his flesh; they would put a rope around a man’s shoulders, and twist it with a stick until they were torn from their sockets; they would bind another victim’s thumbs behind him, then throw him on his back, pour powdered ashes in his nostrils to make him little by little confess what he possessed; when he had given up all, he would still not be believed, but the torture would be repeated until he died; and then his body would be further mutilated in the thought that he might be only feigning death, And some would tie their victim by his thumbs to the roof of the house, kindle a fire under him and keep him thus a long time; if by chance he fell in the flames, he would be dragged out and thrown on the ground till he revived, then he would be thus suspended a second time. These trials and tortures of the people of Damascus continued for nineteen days, the last being Tuesday, Rajab 28, 803 [March 14, 1401] There perished, during this period of torture and hunger, human beings whose number God (Who is exalted) alone knows. When Tamerlane’s emirs knew that nothing was left in the city they went to him, and he asked them: “Have you any more concern with Damascus?” And when they said “No,” he granted the city to the followers of the emirs, who entered it on foot on Monday, Rajab 30, with swords drawn from their sheaths. They stole whatever they could lay their hands on, household furniture, etc., took captive all the women of the city, and drove before them, bound with ropes, the men and boys, leaving only the children less than five years old. They then set fire to the dwellings, palaces, and mosques, and as it was a day of high winds the fire spread throughout the city, and the flames almost mounted to the clouds. The fire continued burning for three days and three nights, the last of which was Friday. Tamerlane (may God curse him) departed from Damascus on Saturday Sha’ban 3 [March 19, 1401], having been there 80 days. The whole city had burned, the roofs of the Umayyad Mosque had fallen in because of the fire, its gates were gone, and the marble cracked—nothing was left standing but the walls. Of the other mosques of the city, its palaces, caravanseries, and baths, nothing remained but wasted ruins and empty traces; only a vast number of young children were left there, who died, or were destined to die, of hunger. Source: Ibn Taghri Birdi. The Invasion of Syria by Tamerlane. Available online. URL: http://www.deremilitari. org/resources/sources/taghri1.htm. Accessed April 12, 2007.
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https://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/SOURCES/taghri1.htm
Only a short time passed before the Syrian forces turned in flight toward the city of Aleppo, with Tamerlane's men in hot pursuit; and a countless number of the inhabitants of Aleppo and others who were on foot perished under the horses' hoofs, for the citizens of Aleppo had gone out from the city to fight Tamerlane, even the women and boys; moreover, as they tried to enter through the city gates people crowded so closely together that they trampled upon one another; and corpses lay there man-high while crowds walked over them. The Syrian viceroys made for the Aleppo citadel and ascended to it, hordes of the inhabitants entering with them; they had previously transported to the Citadel all the property of the men of Aleppo.
Tamerlane's army had in the meanwhile immediately assaulted the city, lighted fires in it, and began to take prisoners, to plunder, and to kill. The women and children fled to the great mosque of Aleppo and to the smaller mosques, but Tamerlane's men turned to follow them, bound the women with ropes as prisoners, and put the children to the sword, killing every one of them. They committed the shameful deeds to which they were accustomed; virgins were violated without concealment; gentlewomen were outraged without any restraints of modesty; a Tatar would seize a woman and ravage her in the great mosque or one of the smaller mosques in sight of the vast multitude of his companions and the people of the city; her father and brother and husband would see her plight and be unable to defend her because of their lack of means to do so and because they were distracted by the torture and torments which they themselves were suffering; the Tatar would then leave the women and another go to her, her body still uncovered.
They then put the populace of Aleppo and its troops to the sword, until the mosques and streets were filled with dead, and Aleppo stank with corpses. This continued from the early forenoon of Saturday until the middle of Tuesday, I Rabi' 14 [November 2]. In the meantime the citadel was being subjected to the closest siege and attack, for Tamerlane's armies had mined its walls in a number of places and filled up its moat, so that it was all but captured.
http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/4782/2.docx?sequence=1
He is similar to his forefather, Chingiz-khan, who founded the Mongol Empire in the lands of Mawaranahar, "What is beyond the River," i.e. Transoxiana, the heart of central Asia. Timur began his career as the leader of a robber band. Although not much is known about Timur's life before his rise to power in the 1360s, it must be pointed out that contrary to European beliefs, Timur's conquests were not a barbaric force that Marlowe portrayed with ''the scourge and wrath of God'' (Pt I, III.iii.44). On the contrary Timur's empire was a ''unique combination of Turco-Mongol political and military forces that united the various Mongol tribes as one under Timur's command'' (Barthold 1).
The envoy of Henry III's court, Ruy de Gonzales Clavijo, further reported on Tamerlane in this way:
Tamerlane, Lord of Samarkand, having conquered all the land of the Mongols, and India; also having conquered the Land of the Sun, which is a great lord-ship; also having conquered and reduced to obedience the land of Kharesm; also having reduced all Persia and Media, with the empire of Tabriz and the city of the Sultan; and also having conquered the Land of Silk, with the land of the Gates; and also having conquered Armenia the Less, and Erzerum, and the land of the Kurds− having conquered in battle the lord of India and taken a great part of his territory: also having destroyed the city of Damascus, and reduced the cities of Aleppo, of Babylon and Bagdad; and having overrun many other lands and lordships and won many battles, and achieved many conquests, he came against the Turk Bayazid (who is one of the greatest lords of the world) and gave him battle, conquering him and taking him prisoner. (23-24)
- Marlowe and Historical References:
I will now move on from the shaping of Marlowe's Tamburlaine to the manner of mentioning historical events in Tamburlaine the Great. Apart from Marlowe's sentimentalism, which overflows the play, and some geographical inaccuracies (like situating the city of Damascus near the Nile in part 2) Marlowe's events do reflect some of the historical events associated with the rise of Timur, the conqueror, and the establishment of his empire in the East. For instance, in part one, Tamburlaine, after gaining the crown of Persia, similar to the historical Timur, begins to eye the neighboring forces of his enemies, the powerful Ottoman Sultan Bayazid in Turkey. Whereas in reality, Timur the conqueror attacked the Ottoman Sultan after he had already attacked the Mumluk Egyptian empire, which stretched from the Nile through Syria to Asia Minor. Timur destroyed and ravaged the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus then moved towards Baghdad and Babylon, inflicting the worst imaginable violations upon these cities before confronting the Ottoman Sultan in the historical battle of Ankara and consequently emerging victorious over Bayazid in 1401: ''The piles of dead bodies reached the heights of walls, minarets of skulls were built, and the cities stank with carnage and were reduced to ruins'' (Honan 227). Marlowe has it in his play that Bajazeth is conquered, and then Tamburlaine begins the ransacking of Damascus and Baghdad, with Tamburlaine's marriage to Zenocrate after the fall of Damascus. Marlowe deliberately plays with the timeline of some historical events to point out Tamburlaine's cruelty (represented in the killing of the Damascene virgins, and his ill-treatment of Bayazid after defeating him) despite his non-ceasing love for princess Zenocrate. (He offers her father, the Sultan of Syria and Egypt, more territory to rule over). Tamburlaine had the extremes of love and hatred co-existing within him. He has many contradictory characteristics which make him a complex character.
In Marlowe's plays, the characters of Usumcasane, Techelles and Theridamas are Tamburlaine’s companions and helping hands throughout the events. Tamburlaine gives them lordship over different areas they help him to conquer. The historical Timur also counted on his companions (mostly kin) and divided different regions among them. They are bully warriors and accomplices, committing barbaric acts of terrorism against anyone who opposes them. Tamburlaine with the help of his men has killed "millions of Turks" in Syria and in Babylon (Part II, V.iii.24): "Men, women and children had been thrown" in Asphaltis Lake (Part II, V.i.202). The loyalty of these 'sidekicks' closely resembles the loyalty of Timur's men who defended him till the very last. Even in the final scene when Tamburlaine is on his deathbed, ''he is surrounded by his faithful followers'' (Hookham 302). This closely resembles the actual death of the historical Timur who was surrounded by family and friends when he was dying.
Marlowe also draws on the atrocities committed by Tamburlaine in his plays from the actual Tartar armies and their unprecedented acts of horrors in the countless cities they plundered. For instance, this is found in the Syrian account of Ibn Taghri Birdi who recalls some of the horrors committed by the Tatars when they entered Damascus in the year 1400, pillaging the city for three days:
they committed the shameful deeds to which they were accustomed: virgins were violated without concealment; gentlemen were outraged without any restraint or modesty; a Tatar would seize a woman and ravage her in the great mosque or one of the smaller mosques in sight of the vast multitude of his companions and the people of the city; her father and brother and husband would see her plight and be unable to defend her because of their lack of means to do so and because they were distracted by tortures and torments which they themselves were suffering. (147)
Another important account of the savage plundering committed by the Tatars came from Ibn Khaldun who managed to escape death from Timur's grip during the ravaging of the ancient city of Damascus by Timur's armies: ''Timur had conquered Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Baalbek and ruined them all, and his soldiers had committed more shameful atrocities than had ever been heard of before" (382).
Similarly, Marlowe presents us with the plundering of Damascus after it falls into the hands of Tamburlaine. Tamburlaine declares: "Now hang our bloody colours by Damascus, / Reflexing hues of blood upon their head/ While they walk quivering on their city walls, / Half dead for fear before they feel my wrath" (I. Iv.iv, 1-4).
https://listverse.com/2018/01/15/10-terrors-of-the-tyrant-tamerlane/
http://www.shlama.be/shlama/content/view/3/4/
https://www.weeklystandard.com/lee-smith/the-return-of-the-ottomans
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/605591/Uzbekistan-turns-conqueror-into-hero.html
https://owlcation.com/humanities/40-Facts-about-Tamerlane-Timur-the-Lame
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/27775
http://web.archive.org/web/20120307020856/https://syrianoor.net/article/1724/