House of Tancred
substituted the rule of the Turks for that of the Mongols.
He was supported by local Muslim elites and Sufis and
employed religious leaders of the Naqshbandi Tariqah, a
Sufi order from BUKHARA, in his administration.
CONQUEST AND PLUNDERFrom 1370 he began the first of many expeditions, often
ill coordinated and aborted but backed by a strong
military force in a purposefully intimidating climate of
terror. He captured Khwarizm and pushed farther east. In
India he destroyed Delhi in 1398. He invaded and con-
quered AFGHANISTANand IRANwith frightful massacres in
- He entered conflict with the khan of the Golden
Horde and ravaged southern RUSSIA. He then entered
IRAQ, pillaged BAGHDAD, and marched on to ravage
ALEPPOand DAMASCUS. He forced the MAMLUKSto recog-
nize his hegemony. In 1400 the princes of eastern ANATO-
LIA, worried about the progress of the OTTOMANS, called
Timerlane to help them. He defeated the forces of Sultan
BAYAZIDin a decisive battle at Ankara on July 28, 1402.
The sultan was taken prisoner and died the following
year, murdered in a cage in prison. In 1403 he left Anato-
lia and was preparing to undertake a great expedition
against China when he divided his empire among his
sons. He died at Otrar in 1405. His empire soon fell apart;
the Timurid dynasty survived only as the Moghuls of Delhi
in India and local rulers in Khurasan and Transoxania.
LEGACYTamerlane failed to establish a lasting state. His expedi-
tions were only massively devastating raids rather than
anything leading to lasting conquests. He was considered
by CHRISTENDOMas an ally against the Ottoman Turks.
He reduced Ottoman power and prolonged the survival
of the BYZANTINEEMPIREfor another 50 years. His capi-
tal, Samarkand, was a great commercial center which he
embellished with numerous MOSQUESand MADRASAS.His
RELICSin Samarkand are still visited by pilgrims.
Further reading:Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Arab-
shah, Tamerlane: or Timur, the Great Amir,trans. J. H.
Sanders (Lahore: Progressive Books, 1976); Ruy González
de Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403–1406,trans. Guy
Le Strange (New York: Harper & Row, 1928); Beatice
Forbes Manz, The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989); Thomas W. Lentz
and Glen D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian
Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century (Washington,
D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler, Gallery, 1989).
Tancred of Hauteville(1075/76–1112) Norman cru-
sader, prince of Antioch
Tancred was the cousin or nephew of BOHEMOND of
Taranto. His mother was Emma, the wife of Odo of Mont-
ferrat and the sister of ROBERTGuiscard. He was born in
1075/76, a younger son in the Hauteville family. He was
ambitious, violent, unscrupulous, landless, and poor. In
the fall of 1096 he set out with Bohemond on the First
CRUSADE. He fought well against mercenaries sent to the
Balkan Peninsula by the Byzantine emperor ALEXIOSI to
block the Norman advance. After crossing into ANATOLIA,
Tancred was present at the conquest of the town of
Nicaea in 1097. Along with Baldwin of Boulogne, he sep-
arated from the rest of the army and with the assistance
of some Armenian Christians took possession of several
cities in Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia. Unable to get
along with Baldwin, Tancred rejoined the crusading army
besieging ANTIOCH. After that city’s fall in June 1098,
Tancred joined the Crusading armies in the capture of
JERUSALEMin 1099.
With GODFREYde Bouillon, Tancred took part in the
founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, becoming the vas-
sal prince of Galilee. After Bohemond had been captured
by Muslims in 1100, Tancred gave the principality of
Galilee to Baldwin of Boulogne, now King BALDWINI of
Jerusalem, who had recently been his rival for the Crown,
and moved north to act as regent for the captive Bohe-
mond for the rich principalities of Antioch and EDESSA.
This arrangement became permanent when Bohemond
had to return to Europe in 1111 for money and armed
aid. Arriving in his new principality, Tancred embarked
on a policy of expansion against the Muslims and Byzan-
tines, as he tried to establish a defensible state in SYRIA
and Cilicia and along the upper Euphrates River. In 1112
as he was about to attack Armenians in Cilicia, he died,
perhaps of typhus, on December 12, 1112. He left his
principalities to his nephew, Roger of Salerno (r.
1112–19).
See alsoLATINSTATES INGREECE; NORMANS INITALY.The siege and surrender of Tarsus to Tancred of Hauteville,
from the Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon,Ms. fr. 22495, fol.
32v (1337), Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Giraudon / Art
Resource)