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Important People
Important People
Timur - As the Il-Khan khanate was declining in the Middle East, new leadership rose in the Jagadai Khanate under Timur. (Also known as Tamerlane in the West, he ruled from 1370 to 1405.) Although he was an ambitious military leader, Timur could never be khan because he was not born a Mongol; he was a Turk who had married into the Mongol Dynasty. This did not stop him from having incredible success in attacking the Delhi Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire and bringing the Middle East under his control. He then set his sights on East Asia but died before he could attack China. Timur’s legacy lived on through his descendants, the Timurids, in the Mughal Empire of the sixteenth century. Placed strategically between Persia and China, the ends of the Silk Road, Timur’s capital at Samarkand became a key trading point on the Silk Road. Timur also patronized great scholars, painters, and historians, helping to preserve and build on the significant contributions of the Muslim world. Astronomy was another field that flourished during this time. Timur’s own grandson built an observatory in Samarkand and studied astronomy with great precision and dedication.
Alexander Nevskii - The Mongols ruled Russia from a distance; their capital was just north of the Caspian Sea. This allowed Russia to avoid direct subjugation and kept Russia’s principalities in place. Much of the credit for this was due to Prince Alexander Nevskii, who convinced his peers that their best strategy was to cooperate with the Mongols. In appreciation for his help, the Mongols favored Nevskii’s territory of Novgorod. Moscow, the town Nevskii’s son ruled, eventually became the most important political hub in Russia.
Chinggis Khan - In his youth, the murder of his father and his refuge with a warring confederation of Turkic speaking people taught Chinggis (or Chengis) Khan—who originally went by the name of Temüjin—three central lessons: the importance of religious tolerance, the need to deal harshly with one’s enemies, and the value of Inner Asia’s cultural and economic diversity. Named the “supreme leader”—or Chinggis Khan—by the Mongols and their allies in 1206, he became the most famous conqueror in history and the father of the Mongol dominion from Poland to northern China.
Ibn Battuta - Ibn Battuta sailed with merchants down the coast of East Africa and joined trading caravans across the Sahara from Morocco to West Africa. His path to India followed overland trade routes, and a merchant ship carried him on to China. Battuta was one of a handful of worldwide travelers documenting the rich cultural diversity and competing economic and political powers, often becoming part of the exchange they observed. The Venetian merchant and traveler Marco Polo (1254–1324) popularized stories about the riches, luxuries, and “exoticism” of distant Cathay (as Italians referred to China) under the rule of Khubilai Khan.
Zheng He - Admiral Zheng He (jung huh) (1371–1435) commanded seven key expeditions, but additional fleets were organized and dispatched as well. A Chinese Muslim with ancestral connections to the Persian Gulf, Zheng was a fitting emissary to the increasingly Muslim-dominated Indian Ocean Basin. The expeditions carried other Arabic-speaking Chinese as interpreters like Ma Huan. He recorded local customs and beliefs in a journal, observing new flora and fauna and noting exotic animals such as the black panther of Malaya and the tapir of Sumatra. The Chinese “treasure ships” carried rich silks and other valuable goods intended as gifts for distant rulers. In return some of those rulers returned with the fleet to visit the Chinese court while others sent gifts to the Ming emperor.
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