Originally published: London : HarperCollins, ©2004

Includes bibliographical references (pages 425-433) and index

Beginnings on the Steppe: 1336-1370 -- Marlowe's 'Scourge of God': 1370-1379 -- 'The greatest and mightiest of kings' -- Conquest in the West: 1379-1387 -- The Golden Horde and the prodigal son: 1387-1395 -- Samarkand, the 'Pearl of the East': 1396-1398 -- India: 1398-1399 -- 'This pilgrimage of destruction': 1399-1401 -- Bayazid the Thunderbolt: 1402 -- The Celestial Empire: 1403-1404 -- 'How that proud tyrant was broken&borne to the house of destruction, where he had his constant seat in the lowest pit of hell': 1404-1405 -- An empire dies, another is born

"Tamerlane (1336-1405) - the successor to Genghis Khan - ranks with Alexander the Great as one of the world's most celebrated conquerors. The details of his life are scarcely known in the West. The name "Tamerlane" is actually a corruption of "Temur the Lame," combining his Asian name with a reference to a crippling injury suffered in his youth. He was born in obscurity and poverty in Central Asia and spent his youth as a sheep stealer and petty thief. Yet by the time he was thirty, he had usurped control of his local tribe and soon transformed his fledgling army into a conquering horde." "Tamerland and his army blazed through Asia, razing cities, torturing captives, and massacring enemies. Many who dared defy him were decapitated, and towers of severed heads soon became chilling monuments to his power. Over the ruins of conquered Baghdad, Tamerlane had his soldiers erect a pyramid of 90,000 enemy heads. Sweeping through Central Asia, sacking, and then rebuilding cities, Tamerlane gradually imposed an iron rule and a refined culture over a vast territory - from Syria to India, from the Mediterranean to Siberia. Author Justin Marozzi traveled in the footsteps of this infamous and enigmatic conqueror, and he draws on his observations to reveal in detail the story of Tamerlane's vast empire."--Jacket

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