The Period of Tamerlane (Timur lenk)

Following the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, his empire was divided among his three sons. Despite the potential for serious fragmentation, Mongol law maintained orderly succession for several more generations, and control of most of Maveranahr stayed in the hands of direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Orderly succession, prosperity, and internal peace prevailed in the Chaghatai lands, and the Mongol Empire as a whole remained strong and united.

In the early fourteenth century, however, as the empire began to break up into its constituent parts, the Chaghatai territory also was disrupted as the princes of various tribal groups competed for influence. One tribal chieftain, Tamerlane, emerged from these struggles in the 1380s as the dominant force in Maveranahr. Although he was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, Tamerlane became the de facto ruler of Maveranahr and proceeded to conquer all of western Central Asia, Iran, Asia Minor, and the southern steppe region north of the Aral Sea. He also invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of China in 1405.

Tamerlane initiated the last flowering of Maveranahr by gathering in his capital, Samarkand, numerous artisans and scholars from the lands he had conquered. By supporting such people, Tamerlane imbued his empire with a very rich culture. During Tamerlane's reign and the reigns of his immediate descendants, a wide range of religious and palatial construction projects were undertaken in Samarkand and other population centers. Tamerlane also patronized scientists and artists; his grandson Ulughbek was one of the world's first great astronomers. It was during the Timurid dynasty that Turkish, in the form of the Chaghatai dialect, became a literary language in its own right in Maveranahr--although the Timurids also patronized writing in Persian. Until then only Persian had been used in the region. The greatest Chaghataid writer, Alisher Navoi, was active in the city of Herat, now in northwestern Afghanistan, in the second half of the fifteenth century.

The Timurid state quickly broke into two halves after the death of Tamerlane. The chronic internal fighting of the Timurids attracted the attention of the Uzbek nomadic tribes living to the north of the Aral Sea. In 1501 the Uzbeks began a wholesale invasion of Maveranahr.