Islam • 101clining Chaghaytay Empire, claimed Mongol descent, and
began to reconquer the old Mongol territory with the sav-
agery that had characterized the original invasions. Timur
combined his thirst for achievement and love of destruction
with a passion for Islam, and because he so perfectly en-
shrined the enthusiasms of his day, he became a folk hero. He
erected magnificent buildings in Samarkand, where he
presided over a splendid court. His version of Islam-big-
oted, cruel and violent-bore little relation to the conserva-
tive piety of the ulama or the Sufi doctrine of love. He saw
himself as the scourge of Allah, sent to punish the Muslim
amirs for their unjust practices. His chief concern was to es-
tablish order and punish corruption, and even though his sub-
jects feared Timur's brutality, they appreciated his strong
government after the disintegration of recent years. Like the
Mongols before him, Timur seemed unstoppable, and for a
time it looked as though he would achieve world conquest. By
1387 he had subjugated all the Iranian highlands and the
plains of Mesopotamia. In 1395 he conquered the old Golden
Horde in Russia, and in 1398 he descended upon India, where
he massacred thousands of Hindu prisoners and devastated
Delhi. Two years later he had conquered Anatolia, sacked
Damascus and perpetrated a massacre in Baghdad. Finally, in
1404, he set off for China, where he was killed the following
year.
No one was able to keep Timur's empire intact. World
conquest was clearly still an impossible dream, but the dis-
covery of gunpowder weapons during the fifteenth century
would enable new Muslim rulers to establish substantial but
more manageable empires in the late fifteenth and early six-
teenth centuries, which also attempted to wed the Mongol
idea with Islam. These new empires would take root in India,
Azerbaijan and Anatolia.
The Sultanate of Delhi had been established during the