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Killing from Qur'anic Piety: Tamerlane's Living Legacy

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  • Killing from Qur'anic Piety: Tamerlane's Living Legacy

    American Thinker, AZ
    Oct 2 2005

    Killing from Qur'anic Piety: Tamerlane's Living Legacy
    October 1st, 2005


    Osama bin Laden was far from the first jihadist to kill infidels as
    an expression of religious piety. This years marks the 600th
    anniversary of the death of Tamerlane (Timur Lang; `Timur the Lame',
    d. 1405), or Amir Timur (`Timur' signifies `Iron' in Turkish). Osama
    lacks both Tamerlane's sophisticated (for his time) military forces
    and his brilliance as a strategist. But both are or were pious
    Muslims who paid homage to religious leaders, and both had the goal
    of making jihad a global force. Santayana was correct when he told us
    that those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat
    it.

    Tamerlane was born at Kash (Shahr-i-Sebz, the `Green City') in
    Transoxiana (some 50 miles south of Samarkand, in modern Uzbekistan),
    on April 8 (or 11), 1336 C.E. Amir Turghay, his father, was chief of
    the Gurgan or Chagtai branch of the Barlas Turks. By age 34
    (1369/70), Timur had killed his major rival (Mir Husain), becoming
    the pre-eminent ruler of Transoxiana. He spent the next six to seven
    years consolidating his power in Transoxiana before launching the
    aggressive conquests of Persia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and then
    attacking Hindustan (India) under the tottering Delhi Sultanate. [1]

    Grousset [2] contrasts Jenghiz Khan's `straightforward planning' and
    `clean sweeps' with the `higgledy-piggledy' order of Timur's
    expeditions, and the often incomplete nature of the latter's
    conquests:

    Tamerlane's [Timur's] conquering activities were carried on from the
    Volga to Damascus, from Smyrna to the Ganges and the Yulduz, and his
    expeditions into these regions followed no geographical order. He
    sped from Tashkent to Shiraz, from Tabriz to Khodzhent, as enemy
    aggression dictated; a campaign in Russia occurred between two in
    Persia, an expedition into Central Asia between two raids into the
    Caucasus...[Timur] at the end of every successful campaign left the
    country without making any dispositions for its control except
    Khwarizm and Persia, and even there not until the very end. It is
    true that he slaughtered all his enemies as thoroughly and
    conscientiously as the great Mongol, and the pyramids of human heads
    left behind him as a warning example tell their own tale. Yet the
    survivors forgot the lesson given them and soon resumed secret or
    overt attempts at rebellion, so that it was all to do again. It
    appears too, that these blood soaked pyramids diverted [Timur] from
    the essential objective. Baghdad, Brussa (Bursa), Sarai, Kara Shahr,
    and Delhi were all sacked by him, but he did not overcome the Ottoman
    Empire, the Golden Horde, the khanate of Mogholistan, or the Indian
    Sultanate; and even the Jelairs of Iraq 'Arabi rose up again as soon
    as he had passed. Thus he had to conquer Khwarizm three times, the
    Ili six or seven times (without ever managing to hold it for longer
    than the duration of the campaign), eastern Persia twice, western
    Persia at least three times, in addition to waging two campaigns in
    Russia...[Timur's] campaigns `always had to be fought again', and fight
    them again he did.

    Timur's campaigns are infamous for their extensive massacres and
    emblematic `pyramids of heads'. Brown [3] cites `only a few'
    prominent examples:

    As specimens of those acts mention may be made of his massacre of the
    people of Sistan 1383-4, when he caused some two thousand prisoners
    to be built up into a wall; his cold- blooded slaughter of a hundred
    thousand captive Indians near Dihli [Delhi] (December, 1398); his
    burying alive of four thousand Armenians in 1400-1, and the twenty
    towers of skulls erected by him at Aleppo and Damascus in the same
    year; and his massacre of 70,000 of the inhabitants of Isfahan in
    (November, 1387)...

    Timur was a pious Muslim, who may well have belonged to the
    Naqshbandi Sufi order. [4; also see my earlier essay, `Sufi Jihad',
    for a discussion of Sufism and jihad.] Grousset [5] emphasizes the
    important Islamic motivation for Timur's jihad campaigns:

    It is the Qur'an to which he continually appeals, the imams and
    [Sufi] dervishes who prophesy his success. [emphasis added] His wars
    were to influence the character of the jihad, the Holy War, even
    when- as was almost always the case- he was fighting Muslims. He had
    only to accuse these Muslims of lukewarmness, whether the Jagataites
    of the Ili and Uiguria, whose conversion was so recent, or the
    Sultans of Delhi who...refrained from massacring their millions of
    Hindu subjects.

    The Turki chronicle Malfuzat-i-Timuri, a putative [6]
    autobiographical memoir of Timur, translated into Persian by Abu
    Talib Husaini, illustrates these driving sentiments, complete with a
    Qur'anic quotation : [7]

    About this time there arose in my heart the desire to lead an
    expedition against the infidels, and to become a ghazi; for it had
    reached my ears that the slayer of infidels is a ghazi, and if he is
    slain he becomes a martyr. It was on this account that I formed this
    resolution, but I was undetermined in my mind whether I should direct
    my expedition against the infidels of China or against the infidels
    and polytheists of India. In this matter I sought an omen from the
    Qur'an, and the verse I opened upon [Q66:9] was this, `O Prophet,
    make war upon infidels and unbelievers, and treat them with
    severity.' My great officers told me that the inhabitants of
    Hindustan were infidels and unbelievers. In obedience to the order of
    Almighty Allah I ordered an expedition against them.

    Timur's jihad campaigns against non-Muslims - whether Christians in
    Asia Minor and Georgia, or Hindus in India - seemed to intensify in
    brutality. Brown [8] highlights one particular episode which supports
    this contention, wherein Timur clearly distinguished between his
    vanquished Muslim and non-Muslim foes. After rampaging through
    (Christian) Georgia, where he `devastated the country, destroyed the
    churches, and slew great numbers of inhabitants', in the winter of
    1399-1400, Timur, in August 1400,

    ...began his march into Asia Minor by way of Avnik, Erzeroum, Erzinjan,
    and Sivas. The latter place offered a stubborn resistance, and when
    it finally capitulated Timur caused all the Armenian and Christian
    soldiers to be buried alive; but the Muhammadans he spared.

    The unparalleled devastation Timur wrought upon predominantly Hindu
    India further bolsters the notion that Timur viewed his non-Muslim
    prey with particular animosity. Moreover, there are specific examples
    of selective brutality directed against Hindus, cited in the
    Malfuzat-i-Timuri, from which Muslims are deliberately spared:

    My great object in invading Hindustan had been to wage a religious
    war against the infidel Hindus, and it now appeared to me that it was
    necessary for me to put down these Jats [Hindus]. On the 9th of the
    month I dispatched the baggage from Tohana, and on the same day I
    marched into the jungles and wilds, and slew 2,000 demon-like Jats.
    I made their wives and children captives, and plundered their cattle
    and property... On the same day a party of saiyids, who dwelt in the
    vicinity, came with courtesy and humility to wait upon me and were
    very graciously received. In my reverence for the race of the
    prophet, I treated their chiefs with great honour...On the 29th I again
    marched and reached the river Jumna. On the other side of the river I
    [viewed] a fort, and upon making inquiry about it, I was informed
    that it consisted of a town and fort, called Loni... I determined to
    take that fort at once... Many of the Rajputs placed their wives and
    children in their houses and burned them, then they rushed to the
    battle and were killed. Other men of the garrison fought and were
    slain, and a great many were taken prisoners. Next day I gave orders
    that the Musalman prisoners should be separated and saved, but that
    the infidels should all be despatched to hell with the proselyting
    sword. I also ordered that the houses of the saiyids, shaikhs and
    learned Musulmans should be preserved but that all the other houses
    should be plundered and the fort destroyed. It was done as I
    directed and a great booty was obtained...[9]

    On the 16th of the month some incidents occurred which led to the
    sack of the city of Delhi, and to the slaughter of many of the
    infidel inhabitants...On that day, Thursday, and all the night of
    Friday, nearly 15,000 Turks were engaged in slaying, plundering, and
    destroying... The following day, Saturday, the 17th, all passed in the
    same way, and the spoil was so great that each man secured from fifty
    to a hundred prisoners - men, women, and children. There was no man
    who took less than twenty. The other booty was immense in rubies,
    diamonds, pearls and other gems; jewels of gold and silver, ashrafis,
    tankas of gold and silver of the celebrated `Alai coinage; vessels of
    gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great value. Gold and
    silver ornaments of the Hindu women were obtained in such quantities
    as to exceed all account. Excepting the quarter of the saiyids, the
    `ulama and the other Musulmans, the whole city was sacked. [10]

    Timur left Samarkand with a large, powerful expeditionary force
    destined for India in April, 1398. By October he had besieged
    Talamba, 75 miles northeast of Multan, subsequently plundering the
    town and massacring its inhabitants. He reached the vicinity of Delhi
    during the first week of December having forged a path of
    destruction- pillaging, razing, and massacring- en route through Pak
    Patan, Dipalpur, Bhatnar, Sirsa, and Kaithal. Prior to fighting and
    defeating an army under Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud Tughluq on
    December 17, 1398, Timur had his forces butcher in cold blood 100,000
    Hindu prisoners accumulated while advancing toward Delhi. [11]
    Srivastava describes what transpired after Timur's forces occupied
    Delhi on December 18, 1398: [12]

    The citizens of the capital, headed by the ulema, waited on the
    conqueror and begged quarter. Timur agreed to spare the citizens;
    but, owing to the oppressive conduct of the soldiers of the invading
    force, the people of the city were obliged to offer resistance.
    Timur now ordered a general plunder and massacre which lasted for
    several days. Thousands of the citizens of Delhi were murdered and
    thousands were made prisoners. A historian writes: `High towers
    were built with the head of the Hindus, and their bodies became the
    food of ravenous beasts and birds.....such of the inhabitants who
    escaped alive were made prisoners.'

    Timur acquired immense booty, as well as Delhi's best (surviving)
    artisans, who were conscripted and sent to Samarkand to construct for
    him the famous Friday mosque. Leaving Delhi on January 1, 1399 for
    their return march to Samarkand, Timur's forces stormed Meerut on
    January 19th, before encountering and defeating two Hindu armies near
    Hardwar. [13] The Malfuza-i-Timuri [14] indicates that at Hardwar,
    Timur's army

    ...displayed great courage and daring; they made their swords their
    banners, and exerted themselves in slaying the foe (during a bathing
    festival on the bank of the Ganges). They slaughtered many of the
    infidels, and pursued those who fled to the mountains. So many of
    them were killed that their blood ran down the mountains and plain,
    and thus (nearly) all were sent to hell. The few who escaped,
    wounded, weary, and half dead, sought refuge in the defiles of the
    hills. Their property and goods, which exceeded all computation, and
    their countless cows and buffaloes, fell as spoil into the hands of
    my victorious soldiers.

    Timur then traversed the Sivalik Hills to Kanra, which was pillaged
    and sacked, along with Jammu "...everywhere the inhabitants being
    slaughtered like cattle." [15]

    Srivastava summarizes India's devastated condition following Timur's
    departure: [16]

    Timur left [India] prostrate and bleeding. There was utter confusion
    and misery throughout northern India. [India's] northwestern
    provinces, including northern tracts of Rajasthan and Delhi, were so
    thoroughly ravaged, plundered and even burnt that it took these parts
    many years, indeed, to recover their prosperity. Lakhs [hundreds of
    thousands] of men, and in some cases, many women and children, too,
    were butchered in cold blood. The rabi crops [grown in
    October-November, harvested around March, including barley, mustard,
    and wheat] standing in the field were completely destroyed for many
    miles on both sides of the invader's long and double route from the
    Indus to Delhi and back. Stores of grain were looted or destroyed.
    Trade, commerce and other signs of material prosperity disappeared.
    The city of Delhi was depopulated and ruined. It was without a master
    or a caretaker. There was scarcity and virulent famine in the capital
    and its suburbs. This was followed by a pestilence caused by the
    pollution of the air and water by thousands of uncared-for dead
    bodies. In the words of the historian Badaoni, `those of the
    inhabitants who were left died (of famines and pestilence), while for
    two months not a bird moved wing in Delhi.'

    The 13th century chronicler, Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), provided this
    contemporary assessment of how the adoption of Islam radically
    altered Mongol attitudes toward their Christian subjects:

    And having seen very much modesty and other habits of this kind among
    Christian people, certainly the Mongols loved them greatly at the
    beginning of their kingdom, a time ago somewhat short. But their love
    hath turned to such intense hatred that they cannot even see them
    with their eyes approvingly, because they have all alike become
    Muslims, myriads of people and peoples. [18]

    Bar Hebraeus' observations should be borne in mind when evaluating
    Grousset's uncompromising overall assessment of Timur's deeds and
    motivations. After recounting Timur's 1403 C.E. ravages in Georgia,
    slaughtering the inhabitants, and destroying all the Christian
    churches of Tiflis, Grousset states : [19]

    It has been noted that the Jenghiz-Khanite Mongol invasion of the
    thirteenth century was less cruel, for the Mongols were mere
    barbarians who killed simply because for centuries this had been the
    instinctive behavior of nomad herdsmen toward sedentary farmers. To
    this ferocity Tamerlane [Timur] added a taste for religious murder.
    He killed from Qur'anic piety. {Note: Curiously, the 1970 English
    translation omits the word `coranique' in translating `Il tuait par
    piete coranique' (p. 513 of the original L'Empire Des Steppes), so
    that the phrase becomes, `He killed from piety' as opposed to
    Grousset's original, `He killed from Qur'anic piety'}. He represents
    a synthesis, probably unprecedented in history, of Mongol barbarity
    and Muslim fanaticism, and symbolizes that advanced form of primitive
    slaughter which is murder committed for the sake of an abstract
    ideology, as a duty and a sacred mission.

    Tamerlane's barbarous legacy is still with us, 600-years later, in
    the heinous acts of jihad terrorism being committed by contemporary
    jihadists. Bin Laden, Zarqawi, the Sufi Basayev, and the Shi'ite
    Mugniyya - inspired by Islamic teachings conveyed through prominent
    contemporary Muslim religious leaders - have continued the practice of
    mass killing from `Qur'anic piety'.

    Dr. Bostom is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and the author of
    the forthcoming The Legacy of Jihad, on Prometheus Books (2005).

    Notes
    [1] E.G. Browne. A Literary History of Persia In Four Volumes, Vol.
    3. The Tartar Domain (1265-1502), Cambridge University Press, 1928,
    pp. 180-206; Rene Grousset. L'Empire Des Steppes. Attila,
    Gengis-Khan, Tamerlan. Paris: Payot, 1952. [Translated as The Empire
    of the Steppes, by Naomi Walford, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
    University Press, 1970, pp. 409-465.
    A.L. Srivastava. The Delhi Sultanate, p. 222.
    [2] Rene Grousset. The Empire of the Steppes, pp. 419-420.
    [3] E.G. Browne. A Literary History of Persia. p. 181.
    [4] Beatriz Forbes Manz. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane, Cambridge
    University Press, 1989, p. 17.
    [5] Rene Grousset. The Empire of the Steppes, pp. 416-417.
    [6] For conflicting views regarding the apocryphal nature of this
    work, see E.G. Browne. A Literary History of Persia. pp. 183-184, and
    Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, pp. 389-394.
    [7] Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, pp. 394-395.
    [8] E.G. Browne. A Literary History of Persia. p. 196.
    [9] Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, p. 429
    [10] Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, pp. 432-433.
    [11] Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, pp. 445-446.
    [12] Srivastava, The Delhi Sultanate, pp. 222-223.
    [13] Srivastava, The Delhi Sultanate, p. 223.
    [14] Srivastava, The Delhi Sultanate, p. 223.
    [15] Elliot and Dowson, A History of India, Vol. 3, p. 459.
    [16] Srivastava, The Delhi Sultanate, p. 223.
    [17] A.L. Srivastava. The Delhi Sultanate, p. 224
    [18] The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus. Translated from Syriac by
    Ernest A. Wallis Budge, Oxford University Press, Vol. 1, 1932, p.
    354.
    [19] Rene Grousset. The Empire of the Steppes, p. 434.; p. 513 of the
    original French, L'Empire Des Steppes. I want to thank Ibn Warraq for
    pointing out the omission of the word `coranique', i.e., Qur'anic in
    the French to English translation by Walford.



    Andrew G. Bostom
    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4868
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