Asia

Timur was far more than the stereotypical image of a nomadic conqueror. Although he may not have been fully literate, he valued scholars, architects, artisans, and engineers and actively patronized learning and monumental construction projects to create an earthly paradise in his beloved Samarkand. That didn’t mean he couldn’t show absolute ruthlessness, such as his Chinggisid predecessor. Timur often used terror as a weapon of war, sometimes ordering the construction of towers made from the skulls of defeated enemies. The Conqueror Beneath the Gur-e-Amir An individual who carved out a bloody swath of conquest using intelligence, diplomacy, and brutal tactics to create a vast empire stretching from Syria and eastern Anatolia through Persia and Central Asia to Afghanistan and the