Timur the Lame Quotes

Died Marching Toward China

In the winter of 1404, at age sixty-eight, Timur assembled 200,000 troops and marched east to conquer Ming China. He crossed the Syr Darya river in freezing temperatures. On February 18, 1405, at the city of Otrar in modern-day Kazakhstan, he fell ill and died. He never reached China. His body was brought back to Samarkand and buried in the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum under a slab of dark jade. The empire fragmented within a generation. But his grandson Ulugh Beg became a renowned astronomer, and his great-great-great-grandson Babur founded the Mughal Empire. The lame man from Kesh reshaped the world.