Primary Text: Who was Timur?

Timur, a popular Asian name meaning "Iron," or Timur-i-Lenk, which translates to "Timur the Lame," is the historical figure upon which Marlowe based his construction of Tamburlaine. Below are illustrations from Hilda Hookham's Tamburlaine the Conqueror. These maps are not primary texts from the Early Modern period, but rather one author's research on the empire of Timur. They are included here to illustrate whom Marlowe portrays in his play. They are important in that they give a accurate historical view of Timur and the scale of his conquests, and as such serve too as illustrations of the character Tamburlaine. Hookham has undertaken the difficult and tedious task of sorting through the multitude of primary documents concerning the history of Timur, publishing Tamburlaine the Conqueror as a concise summation of his history. Thus, while not a primary document perse, I've used her text heavily in my understanding of who Timur was. Additionally, Hookham includes many primary documents in her book, and I have reproduced some of the more helpful and illustrative.Timur's reign was clearly immense, occupying much of today's Middle East as well as significant parts of modern Asia, Europe, Russia, and even Africa. Even more impressive is the relational location of his rule: Timur controlled the middle of the EurAsian continent. All trade between East and West must have gone through Timur controlled territory at some point. And anyone who has ever played the board game Risk can tell you that this region is vital to the health and mobility of a large and powerful army. Even today, this is a controversial region where struggles for power and control are fierce.
A more detailed map of Timur's specific campaigns only further emphasizes his strength and military activity. As power-hungry as Tamburlaine is, Timur was more so. While the literary figure is certainly insatiable for control and expands his grip throughout the play, this is still a fictional, abstract world, and so the real context of Timur's conquest is even more impressive: while we marvel over the idealized Tamburlaine's expansionism, the truth is that he is at best merely equal to Timur, but most certainly a watered-down version. Yet this is not because Marlowe wanted to dumb down Tamburlaine's character - in fact, Marlowe probably thought he was exaggerating his portrayal of Timur - but likely an underestimation of just how influential and imperialisically-affluent Timur really was. As this detailed map shows, most of Timur's campaigns stayed within the boundaries of today's Middle East. England wouldn't have had much direct contact with Timur's army, and any stories they would have heard would have been exaggerated in one direction or another, as stories are want to do. How, though, does one exaggerate a story that in reality appears to be a gross exaggeration already? Perhaps it was for the best that England didn't realize just how immense the Ottoman Empire as a whole was, as this might have trigged panic at either the lowest or highest societal levels.

Bibliography (in order of appearance)

Hookham, Hilda. "Regions subjugated by Timur." Map. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. xiv.

Hookham, Hilda. "Timur's main campaigns." Map. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. viii-ix.