What did Timur mean by this? “I am only reflecting on how little this world is worth in the sight of Allah.” Coming from almost anyone else, it sounds like a meditation on the dunyā, the temporary earthly world. Wealth disappears and empires fall, but eventually everyone returns to God. But coming from Timur the Great, it sounds WAY darker. I mean come on this guy built skull pyramids. And when Bayezid and Timur finally met in 1402, Timur had already spent decades laying waste to enormous portions of Asia. Delhi had been devastated. Baghdad and Damascus had fallen. Entire populations had been massacred or enslaved. Cities that resisted could end up decorated with towers of human skulls. And now Timur was marching toward one of the few men powerful enough to challenge him: Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. Bayezid wasn’t exactly known for humility either. Nicknamed “the Thunderbolt,” he had crushed the crusaders at Nicopolis, swallowed much of Anatolia and was threatening Constantinople. The two rulers exchanged increasingly hostile letters until there was really only one way this was going to end. In the summer of 1402, Bayezid marched east. Timur completely outmaneuvered him. The Ottoman army arrived near Ankara exhausted and desperately short of water. Then the battle began. Timur’s horse archers hammered the Ottoman lines while Anatolian troops and Tatars serving Bayezid began abandoning him for Timur. (Wikipedia) Still, parts of Bayezid’s army fought like hell. His Serbian allies under Stefan Lazarević repeatedly smashed through Timurid forces and urged Bayezid to escape with them. He refused. Eventually the Serbian contingent withdrew, leaving Bayezid and his remaining Janissaries surrounded. The Thunderbolt was captured. And almost overnight, the Ottoman Empire came apart. Timur restored Anatolian rulers Bayezid had conquered, while Bayezid’s sons began fighting each other for what remained. The resulting Ottoman Interregnum would last eleven years. Then came the stories. Bayezid supposedly spent his captivity locked inside an iron cage. Later European accounts even claimed Timur used the defeated Sultan as a footstool. Those humiliations became legendary. Despite claims of Bayezid being treated well, his daughters were forcefully married into Timur‘s household including bis Grandson and top General. Watching that happen had to be gut wrenching. Bayezid never regained his throne. He died in Timur’s captivity in 1403. And that’s what makes Timur’s words so chilling. Maybe he was simply reflecting on how meaningless his own victories and possessions were before Allah. But this was also a man who had destroyed cities, kingdoms and countless human lives while viewing his victories through the lens of divine providence. Perhaps the world really did seem small to him. After all, he had spent his entire life destroying it. #timur #historytok #bayezid - @historywithcarter