The Casualties of Timur (aka Tamerlane)

This is as close an approximation to a long-dead historical figure as we are likely to get: this is “Amir Timur” aka Tamerlane, one of history’s most brutal killers, who conquered much of Central Asia, modern Iran and Afghanistan during his lifetime of 68 years (d 1405). The reconstruction was done by a well-known Soviet anthropologist named Mikhail Gerasimov, who developed a special technique in forensic sculpture.

Read about Timur and, always, his prowess as a military commander and his intelligence are used to describe him. In Uzbekistan, where he was from, some still consider Timur a national hero. But these memories should not be prioritized. What we should foremost think about with Timur is his cruelty, his barbarism, and the approximately 17 million people he killed. It was about five percent of the world’s population.

Timur, longing to emulate his ancestor Genghis/Chinggis Khan, deliberately employed widescale and horrifying murder of civilians as a fear tactic. At Isfizar in 1385, Timur ordered prisoners cemented into the city walls alive. After his armies would take over cities, he had them pile the skulls of the dead into pyramids. Scholars estimate that between 100,000 and 200,000 people died in Isfahan in 1387 after the city rebelled. One account says that there were 28 towers made up of 1,500 decapitated heads. In Delhi in 1398, the destruction was so awful that the city stank of decomposing bodies and, once again, witnessed piles of skulls. In Baghdad in 1401, the number was 90,000. There, Timur demanded that every soldier return with two heads apiece, and one account claimed that his armies ran out of people to kill and actually beheaded their own wives in order to fulfill the command.