Timur (frequently known as "Timur the Lame" or "Tamerlane" in the West) was a Turkic Mongol warlord of the 12th Century, a redoubtable, ruthless ruler who rose from humble origins to establish a dynasty in Iran and Central Asia at the time of his death, leading to an era of flourishing culture afterwards.

He was born in 1336 near Samarkand. It was a fractious part of the world, in a fractious era. Less than a century previously, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire had swept Central Asia and subdivided the region into successor kingdoms. Timur was born into the Chagatai Khanate, descended from a Mongol group that had settled in the area that is Uzbekistan today. Timur started as a leader of a small nomadic group, and by employing the same mix of unconventional mounted warfare, political intrigue, diplomatic negotiation, and terrifying reputation as Genghis Khan, ascended to rule all of Transoxania before he was 40. He spent the rest of his life at war.

Timur claimed to be the restorer of the Mongol Empire, and his list of conquests and successful campaigns is impressive. He began against Persia, then went on to conquests in Northern India, Russia, Georgia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, before dying at the start of his campaign against China in 1405. But he was no magnanimous conqueror; Timur's campaigns are famous for brutality and bloodshed. He enslaved all the artisans of the city of Aleppo and hauled them in chains back to his capital of Samarkand. He left the cities of Delhi and Baghdad as ruins. Contemporaneous writers accuse him of creating towers and pyramids out of the skulls of his enemies, which seems not implausible.

He had lavished his capital of Samarkand during his lifetime, despite spending very little time there. After his death the city became a center of arts and culture, infused with contributions by the Seljuk Turks (such as architecture) and Persia (such as arts and letters) as well as its long tradition of trade and commerce. His descendants held the territory he conquered for most of a century, before the Timurid empire collapsed in fratricide and internal strife.

In the Nasreddin wisdom stories, Timur sometimes appears as the cruel, powerful foil to Nasreddin's simply, folksy wisdom. Interested persons are encouraged to read them.