SYMHC Classics: Tamerlane and the Battle of Ankara

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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Coming up soon on the show, we have an episode on someone who had an encounter with two Moore, founder of the Tumoraid Empire in the fourteenth century, and his assessment of tour is very different from today's classic episode called tamer Lane and the Battle of men Carra. Yeah, in terms of the people who's more conquered did not generally have a favorable opinion of him. This episode originally came out on August eleven from past host Sarah and Dablina. We are putting it in the feed today for our extra a little bit of context for that forthcoming episode, So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Deblina Chuck reboarding, and I'm stared out and we've we've really enjoyed the topics that we've been covering lately. But there's one thing that's been missing, and we've really been missing it, and that is a proper exhimation. And that's why I really perked up when listener Will suggested a podcast on tamer Lane, which offers us not only an exhamation and a curse but as he describes it, a person who is a patron of the arts, a military genius, and a bloodthirsty conqueror all wrapped up in one sounds right up our alley. It does. And it was funny because when Will suggested this, he mentioned that he found it because he had just moved to a new city and he didn't know anybody, so he was researching bloody conquests. That's some a little ominous Will. It does. I can't say well that that's going to make you a lot of friends, but it definitely gets us on your side. But back to tamer Lane. He's also known as Teamre and he wasn't your average ruthless warrior. He conquered an empire that stretched from the Aegean to the Ganges, and he's been called the last great nomad predator, one of history's most notorious psychopaths, and the score of God. He's even claimed ascent from Genghis Khan, which is going to make sense when we look at his life a little later. So with that kind of street cred, it's clear that there are a lot of stories that we could tell about this guy. But to keep things simple, we're going to focus on his last major battle, which was the Battle of Ankara, in which he went up against another great force, the Ottoman Empire, and you really get to see the tactics that made him who he was when when you look at this battle closely, and the battle itself is pretty famous. It makes an appearance in our old friend Christopher Marlowe's play Timberland the Great, and even though in that case, you know it's been dramatized, the events surrounding our protagonist in this player fictionalize. So we're going to start with some something with some real historical truth to it. The early days of Timor's life. Yes, he was born with the name Tiamore, which means iron in Turkic, on April thirteen thirty six and Kesh, which is south of Summer Kand in what is now Uzbekistan. And his father was a minor chief of the Barlass tribe and settled in that area at the heart of the crumbling Mongol Empire, which was breaking apart into warring factions ruled by descendants of Genghis Khan. And these were the three factions, the Chogatai Khanate, the ill Knni dynasty and the so called Golden Horde. So the Barlass were part of the Chagatai Khanate, which had its own trouble with tensions between nomadic tribes and those who wanted to settle life. So there was a lot of tribal in fighting, yeah, as well as these grander model in fighting tensions. So a lot going on. But Teamur came up in this environment and started out as kind of a bandit really, probably participating in these intertribal disputes, but also doing just some plain old criminal stuff. It was during a raid while he was still a young man. Some say he was stealing sheep, that he was injured in his right arm and leg, and his right arm was just left completely useless, and because of the injuries in his right leg, he walked with a limp. So this is what actually led to that western name. Tamberlaine was originally timor e Lenk or two more the lame, which was obviously not a flattering title. It was something used by his enemies to to mock him. Yeah, But even after those injuries, it's interesting he was still a force to be reckoned with. He was a big, strong guy with a large head and a long beard. Of a reddish hue, or that's what said of him anyway, And he became a skilled horseman and a superior soldier, and he quickly built up a following. And then in thirteen sixty one, Teamore took charge of the area around Summer cond when he swore allegiance to took Look, who had taken over the Chogata Khanate. And when took Look died not long after, Teamore actually formed an alliance with another tribal chief named Hussain, and they split up the areas and kind of put down the other war tribes and took over ruling this area. Yeah, but eventually Timour even turned on Who's saying and defeated him. So working his way up all the while, and by thirteen seventy he was just in his early thirties. He was at that point the ruler of the Chugatai Khanate, which had its capital at Summer Kan. So he had gone from just being the son of one of these local tribes to ruling the whole khan Yeah, and this is the point that also he starts claiming to be a descendant of Genghis Khan. The more most sources indicate that this is probably unlikely, and he's announcing his goal of re establishing the Mongol Empire. So he's establishing the strategy of war abroad and peace or a more subtle life at home, which satisfies kind of everyone. It satisfies those who want new conquests as well as those who wanted the more stable, settled life. He re establishes and monopolizes the Silk Road and spends the thirteen eighties and nineties and evading and conquering many areas, including Persia, Iraq, Armenia, Georgia and Anatolia, Syria, all of Central Asia, Northern India and the approaches to China, and much of southern Russia too. Probably his longest struggle, though, was that against the Golden Horde, one of those original warring factions that we talked about, and he finally defeated them in thirt So we've got to talk about how he did all of this. I mean, that's a pretty impressive list you just rattled off there. Toblina. First of all, he was really scary. I mean, that was his prime way of conquering all of these territories. He served up his invasions with a keeping helping of violence. You could say he would basically come in destroy entire cities, massacre their entire populations, and then build towers or pyramids out of their severed heads. Seriously, Yeah, that was kind of his trademark. It was in Isfahan and Central Asia, for example, he demanded that each of his soul just take a severed head and it amounted to seventy thousand total that were built into towers, and in another city, two thousand people were cemented together to make a living tower. So, I mean, you hear numbers like this all the time. Seventy thousand, nine twenty thousand. These are the numbers that were involved in these massacres, and it's sort of amazing, well, and it makes you reconsider what he was actually out there doing to Richard Cavendish in History Today called these quote more in the nature of large scale looting expeditions than empire building, and it it does seem that way. And it's really no wonder that people were so afraid of him because he used fear as a compelling weapon as much as any of his other tactics, which also included things like lightning advances and feigned retreats and ambushes. So he was smart in a military sense, but it was this spear tactic that really accomplished things in the end. He would even send secret agents ahead of troops to spread rumors about atro city so cities would get scared and sort of lay down their arms. Not that that would really help them very much in the end. No, it didn't done a lot of cases. But Teamore was also somewhat contradictory and that he wasn't just a killing machine. He was also a fine chess player. He actually created the game of Tamerlane chess, and he enjoyed a good theological discussion now and again. He engaged scholars in debate. He also did a lot to beautify his capital summercand he encouraged art, their literature, science, and public works. And it seems like the one group of people that he consistently spared when he did loot these towns where the cities artisans, they're fine craftsmen. He would bring them back to to his capital and have them beautify it and build new buildings and and just make it a better place. That's kind of ironic, though, when you consider that Timore himself spent very little time in his capital. No, he usually only stayed there for a few days at a time. He was truly a nomad. He personally led all of his campaigns and he was constantly campaigning. He was in summer con for about two years at the end of the thirteen nineties, but then invaded India in officially because the Sultan of Delhi wasn't persecuting the Hindus enough, but it kind of just seemed like an excuse to get out of the house exactly, and he ended up destroying Delhi and he killed a hundred thousand civilians and according to most sources, this took more than a century for the city to recover from. So even after that bloody Indian campaign, he still had a couple empires left Polish off. One was the mom Luke Empire in Syria in Egypt, and he sacked Damascus in fourteen o one. Classic fear tactics kind of stuff went on there. And then the only place left standing was the Ottoman Empire in Herkey, which at the time was led by Sultan by a z the First and by a Ze who was also known as the Thunderbolt. Wasn't really a guy to be messed with. I mean, if anybody was going to go up against Tamerlane, it seemed like the sultan would be the guy to do it. Definitely. He was also a proven general. He had defeated the Serbs at Kosovo in nine and then killed his own brother to solidify his position at the head of the empire, so absolutely seems like someone who could go toe to toe with Teamore, and that Kosovo victory had also launched a European crusade against him, which by a Ze'd also put down. So like Tiamore, he had a very disciplined army, though many of them were Christian drawn from conquered lands in Europe. The most famous part of this army of his, though, is probably his elite Janissary infantry. They were taken from their families at an early age and educated in war and in Islam, and their single mission in life would be to fight for their faith. They had a cavalry to and a more significant infant tree. Even then, Teamore had so a lot to go up against, so it was clear that defeating by a Zeed wasn't going to be simple. But Teamwore couldn't ignore him either. By a Zeed had antagonized him by giving refuge to Teamor's enemies and attacking areas that were under his control. He had to be put down, essentially, and negotiations had been going on between the two men for some time, but by this point the situation had devolved into essentially an exchange of insults. War had to had to finally follow that. So Teamor's forces invaded the Ottoman domain in the spring of fourteen o two, and they felt pretty ready because they had already laid waste to all of the regions surrounding the empire, so they didn't have to worry about anybody immediately rushing into the aid of by A Zeed. And to add to that, Teamur's army had also called up some fresh reserves from samarcand so they were really ready to go out and and fight the janissaries and and fight by A Z's army. Yeah, they started up by trying to use that fear thing with the last Ottoman delegation that had come to negotiate with them. They kind of showed off their reserves, you know, showed off their elephants and everything that they had with them, and and it kind of worked by a Zeed's army. They were probably pretty impressed by this, But by A Zied at the time had his forces concentrated in a Cura, which was a city that commanded the approaches to Constantinople and the Ottoman capital of Brusa. So at this point he's really at a crossroads. He has a decision to make do I stay here or do I go out and meet Teamore's army head on, and he decides to march eastward toward Teamore, acting on the information that Teamour's forces are marching northwest. Took cot so he thinks he knows where he's going, and he thinks he has the advantage over Teamore at this point. But that's not Teamor's plan after all. Maybe it was because that proposed approach was too mountainous. Maybe because Teamore knew that by Ze expected him to go northwest. Teamoor instead moved southwest and made this loop north and then further west again, all the way back around to Ankara, where he laid siege to the city, and Team Or actually suits up for this. He's sixty six years old, but he's not about to miss any campaign after this long military career. Yeah, by A Zede had figured out the location of teamors Forces through a couple of skirmishes and rushes back to Ankara. And here's where by a Zeede misses a really key opportunity. Instead of catching Team More off guard and attacking immediately, he chooses to give battle the following day to give his forces a chance to rest. Seems to make sense, right, but this takes away the surprise advantage and also gives them plenty of time to dehydrate in the heat of July because Teamore has actually diverted the only available water supply. He's been really busy he has while waiting for Bayazed's army. Teamors Forces had built a diversion dam up street on Kubuk Creek with a breach in it that would let the creek and you flowing downstream until they decided to close it. So see if you look like it was flowing, Yeah, exactly. Then they made a reservoir on a western tributary downstream and a canal was dug from the diversion dam to the reservoir to funnel off the streams remaining water when the dam was sealed off. And this was made possible, I mean it may seem just completely unbelievable, but it was possible because of the thousands of men that were available and by Team Wars trained elephants, which were trophies of his victory in India that he'd brought along with him. So when Bayazet arrived, he saw the Kobook Creep flowing, but downstream it was actually dry and there was no other source of water available to the Ottoman army. Thousands of soldiers and horses were involved here, so you definitely needed water to keep going. Exactly so this day of resting up turns out to be a day of trying out in the July heat and giving team more the advantage to knowing that you're there. The actual battle finally took place on July twenty fourteen o two, and according to an article by Simon Craig in Military History, one of our favorite sources for battle information, there were between two hundred thousand and four hundred thousand troops on the field altogether, and the numerical advantage probably was with team or so Team were organized his forces into eight different detachments, and he himself controlled the center detachment. One of his sons commanded the left wing and another son commanded the right wing, and that really fresh reserve from back home was placed at the rear between the main body of the army and the still defiant city of Ankara. So try to imagine all of that set up, and then imagine those elephants fresh from all of these canal projects. Apparently, um they are wearing armor of painted leather, and the men on top of the elephants who are who are all in front, by the way, had flame throwers, and the elephants, them elves, had these curved blades attached to their tusks. And we're trained actually advance with a plunging motion to just create as much havoc as possible as if an elephant charging towards you wasn't scary enough. Yeah, exactly. I mean it's assumed that these were mostly there for intimidation or mostly their first show, but I mean, a bladed elephant, it sounds really scary. Yeah, they could really do some damage. So the Ottoman four set up across for them on some low hills near Mountain Era and Bayazid commanded the center, with the Army of Ramelia supported by tatars to his left, and that of Anatolia backed up by Serbs to his right, and the first clash was between the Ottoman left and Teamar's right. The Ottomans were repulsed at this point um, so Teamore side was winning on that end. But then Teamore launched his left wing against the Serbs on the Ottoman right and that didn't go so well for Team Or. His forces were driven back at first, and it really seemed like the Ottoman forces had the advantage at that point, But then there was a twist by ZEDs touch our forces on the left turn against him and joined up with Teamor, and most people think that Teamor's agents had been there for a little bit. Another another problem about waiting for a day Teamor's agents that had time to sneak in, start talking to people and and turn some turn some opinions regardless, though, this allowed Teamor to focus on by A Zeed's center as by Zis left just completely crumbled, so some of the soldiers on buy Z's right ended up switching teams as well, and by that point it was pretty much decided. With so much betrayal on the Ottoman forces side, um it was clearly Teamor's battle. Yeah, and just a note about the role of betrayal here, because obviously played a really big role. In his article, Craig says that the root of this treachery probably low morale among bias EDS troops as cold hearted as Team wore seemed. In fact, he placed a big importance on the morale of his troops. So for example, if they need a little boost in morale, he would bring in some astrologers who would predict a victorious outcome a lot of heads in their future. But yeah, exactly, and I mean, come to think of it, that's what happened, right, So, I mean it seemed to work for them, but BIASEDS troops weren't so lucky by as he tried to hold his ground for a while, but he eventually tried to flee and was captured himself. He was transported to summercond after that and imprisoned, where he died a year later. Some say from despair. Although I'm not sure how much I really buy into being team or as prisoner. I mean, I imagine that would be difficult. It's kind of amazing that he was even kept as a prisoner in the first place. Yeah, I don't know what the reasoning behind that was he would think that someone is ruthless as Teamore would just sort of have him killed off right away. But not so. And tamer Lane at this point, now approaching seventy, he's not taking a break, even though he's finally defeated his biggest foe at the time. He is, at that point seventy years old, planning his next campaign in China. But he died on route to China February oh five, luckily for the people where he was headed. So after Teamor's death, his empire pretty much became engulfed in civil war and disintegrated. Teamoor himself never really bothered with administration, so there was no social, economic, or political cohesion, just this fear of Team More apparently, and as Craig puts it, the battle was sort of the end in itself for teamer and he's quote perhaps best understood as a sort of career criminal, a gangster on the grand scale. And yeah, it makes sense that without that compelling figure behind it all, the empire is not going to last. But even though his empire didn't last, Team Wore himself is still revered and was after that he was buried and sarcophagus covered by a huge slab of jade and a mausoleum known as Guri Amir. I think that's the closest I can get to a good pronunciation of that. If anyone has any better corrections, please let me know, or if you've visited. If you've visited, because apparently it's still called one of the greatest treasures of Islamic architecture, and that mausoleum is still shrouded in mystery. Legend has it that the disturber of his tomb would be cursed, and no one really tempted fate there. No one really tried to disturb his tomb for more than five hundred years until in June one, the Soviet Archaeological Commission opened the tomb and examined the skeleton within, and the remains included hairs, including a few bristles of chestnut mustache, and fragments of skin and muscle tissue, and the measurements of the skeleton revealed that at around a hundred seventy centimeters, team War was actually tall for the time and very powerful, and the injuries on his right side were confirmed. Then he was in fact lame because right leg was shorter than his left and his whole frame was kind of twisted, and one scientist involved actually used the skull to make a facial reconstruction so we can see what his features look like. What about the curse? What about the curse? It's a good question. Well, some say it came true. It was Soviet scientists involved, and days after the tomb was opened, Hitler attacked Soviet Russia. Yeah, that's a pretty serious curse. That is a pretty serious curse. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, if you heard an email address or a Facebook U r L or something similar over the course of the show, that could be obsolete. Now. Our current email address is History Podcast at i heart radio dot com. Our old health stuff works email address no longer works, and you can find us all over social media at missed in History and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast, the I heart Radio app, and wherever else he was in the podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H