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The Empire of Tamerlane as an Adaptation of the Mongol Empire: An answer to David Morgan, “The Empire of Tamerlane: An Unsuccessful Re-Run of the Mongol State?”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

BEATRICE F. MANZ
BEATRICE F. MANZ*
Affiliation:
Tufts UniversityBeatrice.Manz@tufts.edu
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Abstract

I write this article in the spirit of the Persian poetic tradition, in which an answer to an earlier work takes off from the original and charts its own course. I will suggest that Tamerlane's recreation of the Mongol Empire was symbolic, and was part of his successful creation of a regional state which was at once Turco-Mongolian and Perso-Islamic. His experiment was continued and elaborated by his successors, and the resulting state provided a highly useful model for later dynasties in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Through my long engagement with Mongols and Turks, David Morgan's influence and aid have been a constant advantage and his friendship a recurring pleasure. Our acquaintance began in 1987 with a kind letter he sent me after reading the manuscript for The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane for the Cambridge University Press. Since then I have profited from his scholarship, have used his two books to teach generations of students, and have called on him for uncountable letters of recommendation, always generously given. I also want to thank David for asking me to write the Mongol chapter for the New Cambridge History of Islam, and thus attracting me into the Mongol period. It may seem odd to express my gratitude by writing an answer to David's article which is not entirely in agreement with his conclusions. I trust in the well-known openness of his mind and assume that he will take this in the spirit in which it is offered, as the continuation of many years of discussion.

Type
Part IV: Beyond the Empire
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1-2 , January 2016 , pp. 281 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2016 

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References

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22 Manz, “Mongol History rewritten and relived”, p. 139.

23 The one region Temür did not succeed in holding was Azerbaijan, ruled by tribal powers.

24 Woods, John E., “Timur's genealogy”, in Mazzaoui, Michael and Moreen, Vera B. (eds), Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson (Salt Lake City, 1990), p. 116 Google Scholar and n. 129 at p. 124-125. Khalīl Sulṭān attempted to justify his usurpation of power by appointing as khan a son of Temür's first choice as successor, the deceased Muḥammad Sulṭān b. Jahāngīr, by a Chinggisid princess: Beatrice F. Manz, Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran (Cambridge, 2007), p. 20.

25 Manz, “Tamerlane and the symbolism of sovereignty”, pp. 110-111.

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