Timur

emir and conqueror

1336 – 1405 · 69 years · Samarkand · Asia

Conqueror who built an empire from Anatolia to India centred on Samarkand, crushing the Golden Horde and the Ottomans.

Portrait: 1405-1409 artist · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 20 years older
Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 24 years older
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 32 years younger
Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 31 years younger
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 50 years younger
Geoffrey Chaucer — poet, author of The Canterbury Tales, 7 years younger

Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 22 years older
Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 24 years younger
Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 14 years younger
Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 35 years younger
Ivan II the Fair — grand prince of Moscow, father of Dmitry Donskoy, 10 years older
Simeon the Proud — grand prince "of all Rus" who died of the plague, 20 years older

Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 10 years older
Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 24 years younger
Orhan — bey who took Bursa and led the Ottomans into Europe, 55 years older
Hafez — Persian poet, 11 years older
Mehmed I Çelebi — sultan who reunited the realm after Timur, 53 years younger

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 22 years younger
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 35 years younger
Ashikaga Takauji — founder of the Muromachi shogunate who turned on Go-Daigo, 31 years older
Ashikaga Yoshiakira — second Ashikaga shogun, who held Kyoto against the Southern Court, 6 years older
Gajah Mada — prime minister of Majapahit, 46 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimochi — shogun who broke off tributary trade with Ming China, 50 years younger

1337–1453 Hundred Years' War — aged 1, Europe
c. 1337 Sergius of Radonezh founds his monastery — aged 1, Eastern Europe & Russia
1347–1351 Black Death — aged 11, Europe
1368 Founding of the Ming dynasty — aged 32, Asia
1370 Timur makes Samarkand his capital — aged 34, Asia
1377 Jikji, printed with movable metal type — aged 41, Asia
1380 Battle of Kulikovo — aged 44, Eastern Europe & Russia
1385 Union of Krewo — aged 49, Europe
1392 Founding of Joseon — aged 56, Asia
c. 1400 Founding of Malacca — aged 64, Asia
1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He — aged 69, Asia