Primary Text: Tamburlaine as Turkish leader

For centuries, we've marveled at the manpower needed for the old world's wonders of construction. The pyramids of Egypt and Middle/South American Native cultures are the most immediate examples. But even more amazing than the physical engineering behind these superstructures is the social engineering. Tens of thousands of workers - slaves, volunteers, prisoners - labored to construct the ultimate display of a dissemblance of power: a tomb for an individual. Some of the largest man made structures even today serve a function for one dead person.

The first illustration depicts the intricacies hand formed in Tamburlaine's own mausoleum. Such labor intensive design could only have come about either as a result of a massive compulsory working force, in a fashion similar to the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, or else by the motivation that saw the construction of Native American pyramids: the workers viewed their leader (in this case Tamburlaine) as a deity. Ironic, then, that Early Modern England would view the same man as an anti deity.
Workers exhibit such compulsory labor as described above in the depictions of the construction of the mosque in Samarqand, the same location as Tamburlaine's mausoleum. The scene immediately above here depicts what Tamburlaine's work for must have looked like. The laborers all have different color faces, and many are white and are wearing beards, resembling the Anglicized Tamburlaine renderings. These were quite possibly English Christian slaves, perhaps those Tamburlaine inherited during his conquest of Bajazeth. Notice the two men in the middle, second row from the top. They are looking back over at the slave master, who is raising a spear, with looks of worry. This is not a friendly, or even voluntary, environment; indeed, Tamburlaine and the Ottomans conscripted slaves for their workforce.

Perhaps most interesting and painful is the method by which those in this painting are working. There is no evidence of elaborate scaffolding. There are no rollers by which large blocks are moved. Yes, there are beasts of burden working as well, but the two men at the bottom pass along blocks with buckled backs, obviously bearing the stress of this job. And, given the intricacies and detail highlighted in the upper-most photograph of the cupola, this wasn't a quick and easy job. Each of those tiles was hand laid, but the attention to detail is uncanny as every tile is aligned and symmetrical. Yet these tiles were also cut by hand, and while they likely employed highly advanced methods of masonry, the entire project would have still been exponentially more difficult then than it would have been with modern technology; nevertheless the mausoleum was built sparing no excessive frivolity at the hands of Tamburlaine's slaves. Such qualifies both the ego and the influence of the man.
There was also a mosque constructed alongside the mausoleum. Christian slaves being forced to build a cathedral to the Islamic God would have been adding insult in injury (and perhaps the greatest insult lies in their construction of a cathedral to the Islamic Antichrist: Tamburlaine's burial grounds). This photograph is included to give a sense of scale; the buildings in the distance dwarf the man sitting in the foreground. These aren't small temples as they might appear unquantified, but massive buildings rivaling the greatest castles and churches of England - literally and figuratively.

But further, this mosque is an undeniable link between Tamburlaine and Islam. Theories of Tamburlaine as a Christian (based on his out of place compassion fo Bajazeth's Christian slaves) must be rejected, and likewise Tamburlaine can't be viewed as the savior of England from Turkish aggression, as one might conclude from Tamburlaine's conquest of Bajazeth. This is just another illustration of the inversion of power, of Tamburlaine's tipping point, of his revelation of deception. The Antichrist came as a false Christ, posing as the savior of England, but as soon as he finds himself powerful enough to shed this false identity, he does.
Tamburlaine as the fully realized Islamic leader is portrayed in this final painting. Everything about it embodies the idea of Eastern "other," of the exotic Turk. The most accessible feature of this are the colors, rich but earthy, combinations unlike any in England. Tamburlaine's burnt organe jumper is adorned with golden designs, set against a dark blue shaw dressed similarly, but with a brass crown and celeste shoes. While we might find these combinations odd, clashing, everyone in the scence is dressed in similar fashion. This is not the style of Early Modern England, but a full depiction of other. Tamburlaine is in no way linked to England here in this depiction of his dealing with Bayazid, the historical figure opon whom Bajazeth is based. Subtle details like the cherry blossom trees in the background, a distinctive Chinese detail, the ornate designs on the carpet underfoot, and the Arabic script along the top and bottom solidify this picture as a cumulative representation of the amalgamation the term Turk endears to Early Modern England.

Indeed, the characters in this scene are of all variety of skin tones and possessing of different facial features. But pay careful attention to Bajazeth, wearing yellow, in the middle-bottom. Like the slaves in the upper paintings, he has highly Anglicized features, starkly constrasted against everyone else who is most definitely Eastern. As I highlighted in my paper, Tamburlaine's conquering of Bajazeth is an essential action in his establishment as Antichrist. It is the rubicon he passes over as roles are inverted and false identities are shed for true. Prior to this point, Bajazeth is constructed as the Islamic Antichrist and Tamburlaine as the savior to Christian England, and his capture of Bajazeth is a victory. But as power changes hands, so do their roles. Tamburlaine is now revealed as the true Antichrist, and the broken Bajazeth is now representative of England.

In this lies the duality of the nature of English-Turkish relationships. The two empires must remain civil in order that they might trade and grow economically. This is the respect England has for Islam. Yet there is always the fear of militaristic threat Islamic poses and the ever-present danger of an end to the civil relationship in exhange for that of war. Fitting then that this is a mentality that we have yet to change, as even today the Western world has the same double-sided dealings with the empire of Islam.

Bibliography (in order of appearance)

Society for Cultural Relations. Gur-Emir Mausoleum, Samarqand. U.S.S.R. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. By Hilda Hookham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. 225.

Bihzad. Construction of the Cathedral Mosque in Samarqand. 1467. From a manuscript of the Zafar-nama of Sharaf al-din Yazdi, B. Quaritch. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. By Hilda Hookham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. 192.

Society for Cultural Relations. Ruins of Timur's great Cathedral Mosque in Samarqand built after the Indian campaign (Bibi-khanum Mosque). U.S.S.R. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. By Hilda Hookham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. 193.

Ottoman Sultan Bayazid brought captive before Timur after the Battled of Angora. 1552. From a manuscript of the Zafar-nama of Sharaf al-din Yazdi, British Museum, London. Tamburlaine The Conqueror. By Hilda Hookham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962. Frontispiece.