63The Gur-e Amir Mausoleum
in Samarkand, completed in
1404, houses the remains of
the conqueror TimurGETTY IMAGESPeter Furtado is a historian and author. His
new book is Great Cities Through Travellers’
Eyes (Thames & Hudson, 2019)Samarkand
Early 15th century
Conqueror’s cosmopolitan
capital of construction and tradeIn 1370, Timur (the Turko-Mongol
conqueror sometimes known as
Tamerlane) chose the ancient Silk Road
city of Samarkand as his capital, and
built it into one of the great cultural
and commercial centres of the world.
Shortly after 1400, the nobleman Ruy
González de Clavijo arrived to promote
an alliance between Timur and King
Henry III of Castile.Clavijo described a city “rather
larger” than Seville, surmounted
by Timur’s impregnable castle and
surrounded by orchards and vineyards,
palaces and pleasure grounds. The
surrounding land was fertile, with
abundant wheat fields and pastures.
The streets and busy markets, piled
high with melons, were watered by
canalised streams. The diverse popu-
lation, which he estimated at 150,000,
included many Turks, Arabs, Iranians,
Moors, Muscovites and Christians
from India and the Middle East. Timur
had exempted craftsmen from the mas-
sacres that accompanied his conquests,
and took them to work in his capital. As
well as fine goods – silk, weapons, glass,porcelain and much else – that these
artisans produced in the city, traders
from across Asia and India bought and
sold all manner of other goods, precious
stones and spices here, each in a market
dedicated to that product.
The Amir supervised relentless
building works. Clavijo describes great
avenues cut through the city and
rebuilt in a matter of weeks, a great
marketplace for long-distance traders,
and the vast Bibi-Khanym Mosque
redesigned and rebuilt, more splendid
than ever, as soon as it was finished.ИЗП
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