The Malfuzat Timury or / The autobiography of Timur /MEMOIRS OF TIMUR

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The Malfuzat-i Timuri, or Tuzak-i Timuri is an autobiographical memoir of the Emperor Timur (1336-1405), composed in the Chaghatai Mongol language, and translated into Persian by Abu Talib Husaini. It is dedicated to the Emperor Shah Jahan, whose reign commensed in 1628 CE.

Amir Tîmûr-i-lang, also known as Tamerlane, was a Barlâs Turk of a noble family. By the time he was born, however, his family had fallen on hard times and lived by banditry. His father converted to Islam and retired to a Muslim monastery at a young age.

came to power as the head of a branch of Chaghatai Mongols based in Samarkhand in Central Asia. Having tremendous military and political acumen and ambition, he rapidly rose to power, playing the Turks of western Central Asia off the Mongols of Eastern Central Asia. Eventually he served under Chagatid Mongols, and once he gained the upper hand over them he claimed for himself Chagatid Mongol descent. From his power base in Central Asia he began a massive series of conquests which rivaled that of the early Mongol emperors from whom he claimed descent. He turned north against the Golden Horde in Mongol Russia, reaching almost to Moscow. Then he turned south and conquered Afghanistan, where he crowned himself Khan. Later he turned West and conquered Persia, the Middle East and defeated the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia. Returning again to Central Asia, he decided to invade India. As the excerpts below indicate he needed no great justification to do so; the lure of conquest and pillage, and the opportunity to kill infidels, were evidently sufficient. The last justification is rather ironic, given the fact the regions he conquered in Northern India were largely Muslim governed at the time.

Planning for the expedition began in 1397, an commenced when his grandson, Pîr Muhammad, led an expedition into Sindh, capturing Uch and Multan, which fell in May 1398. Later that year Timur himself crossed the Indus with a calvary numbering 90,000. He was opposed at Loni by the Sultan of Delhi, Mahmûd Tughlûq, whom he defeated. After massacring 100,000 Indian prisoners he captured Delhi, which was sacked, and its inhabitants massacred. Timur, however, saved a number of artisans to bring back to Samarkhand as slaves. He then veered north toward the Himalayas and returned to Central Asia via the Punjab. He died in 1405 CE, just as he was gathering a massive army for an invasion of China.

The extracts translated here narrates his invasion of India, which began in 1398 CE, and resulted in the outright slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Indians, and the death of many more in the anarchy, famine and pestilence that followed in his wake. He justifies the atrocities committed by himself and his troops in the name of holy war conducted for the glory of Islam.

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