The Legendary Biographies of Tamerlane: Islam and Heroic Apocrypha in Central Asia [Paperback]

This rigorous scholarly appraisal of the legendary biographies of Tamerlane is the first of its kind in any language.Timur (or Tamerlane) is famous as the fourteenth-century conqueror of much of Central Eurasia and the founder of the Timurid dynasty. His reputation lived on in his native lands and reappeared centuries after his death in the form of fictional biographies. Despite a direct continuity in their production from the eighteenth century to the present, they remain virtually unknown to people outside the region. This rigorous scholarly appraisal of the legendary biographies of Tamerlane is the first of its kind in any language. The book sheds light not only on the character of Tamerlane and how he was remembered by many generations after his demise, but also on the era in which the biographies were written, and how they were received by the local populace during an age of crisis.Timur (or Tamerlane) is famous as the fourteenth-century conqueror of much of Central Eurasia and the founder of the Timurid dynasty. His reputation lived on in his native lands and reappeared centuries after his death in the form of fictional biographies. Despite a direct continuity in their production from the eighteenth century to the present, they remain virtually unknown to people outside the region. This rigorous scholarly appraisal of the legendary biographies of Tamerlane is the first of its kind in any language. The book sheds light not only on the character of Tamerlane and how he was remembered by many generations after his demise, but also on the era in which the biographies were written, and how they were received by the local populace during an age of crisis.Timur (or Tamerlane) is famous as the fourteenth-century conqueror of much of Central Eurasia and the founder of the Timurid dynasty. His reputation lived on in his native lands and reappeared some three centuries after his death in the form of fictional biographies, authored anonymously in Persian and Turkic. Thesel3.