By Afghanland.com:  Timur Was born In 1336, in Chagatai Khanate, a village thirty-six miles south of Samarkand, He was the son of a pious Muslim who headed the Barlas. When Timur was ten-years-old the Mongols lost power in Ariana. Timur developed into an aggressive young man, skilled at riding and fighting. His intelligence and skill put him at the head of a small army.

When Timur was twenty-two the Mongols re-conquered Ariana. With the coming of the Mongol armies in 1360 and 1361, Timur  became a minister to the new Mongol governor of Ariana, Ilyas Khodja.

1370 at the age of 34 was the dominant power in Ariana. His army was modeled after the armies of Genghis Khan, but with more foot soldiers and drawn with more settled people than with nomadic horsemen

1370-71, in Samarkand, Timur had new walls built on the foundation of those destroyed by the. He had the market place improved, and it is said that he had great gardens made and palaces built. Samarkand's magnificence and prosperity are said to have caused envy in Cairo and Baghdad.

1371 he was moving again, he went east and ravaged the countryside around Issyk-kul, and he made the people there his subjects.

1377 he fought one of his major battles near Sauran.

1380 he occupied Shufu in eastern-most China.

Then, Timur campaigned to the west of Samarkand. He overran Heart, went south to Sistan and raged against its capital, Zarendj.

1386 he moved north into Georgia and, posing as a warrior for Islam, he waged war against local Christians.

1387 he sought control over Armenia and dared to attack caravans on their way to Mecca. He turned south and conquered Isfahan in central Persia, a rich and cultured city of Muslims and one of the great cities of West Asia. The city rebelled, and in retribution, according to reports, Timur's troops looted, massacred from 70,000 or 100,000 people and destroyed crops.

While Timur was busy in Persia, a Mongol force came south to Georgia, from the forest region around Moscow.

1391 Timur pushed them back toward Moscow, and in late

1391 Timur and his army returned to Samarkand.

1395 a Mongol army again drove south to Georgia and again Timur drove them back.

Enriched, Timur began more building, ordering work on a great mosque. 200 masons worked on the building. 500 hundred others cut the stones that were transported to Samarkand by elephant trains. It was the largest mosque yet in Central Asia and one of the largest in the Muslim world.

Timur was deterred from marching further south, to Jerusalem, because of what has been described as a plague of locusts that was ruining crops in Palestine

1401 he went to Baghdad,  reconquered that city and massacred 20,000.

1402, a great battle was fought at Ankara. With superior strategy, Timur defeated Bayezid's army.  Bayezid was captured and soon died.

Timur returned to Samarkand in 1404 and in 1405, at the age of sixty-nine, he and his army departed for China. En Route to China he died. The expedition turned around. Timur's body was returned to Samarkand, and it was embalmed and buried in an ebony casket in a tomb.

His positive achievements were the encouragement of art, literature, and science and the construction of vast public works. It was said that he had little hope that his vast conquests would remain intact, and before his death he arranged for them to be divided among his sons.

Timur, as was custom, had divided his empire among his sons -- between two sons and a grandson. But his sons quarreled, and for ten years they warred against each other. The younger son, Shah Rukh, emerged supreme.