Timur's palace at Kesh: glazed tiles, and a doubt about who began it
Editorial contextAt Kesh (Shahrisabz), Timur's birthplace, the envoys toured palaces said to have been under construction for twenty years: brick arches covered in glazed tiles, a court paved with white stone around a great pool, and a gateway in gold and blue tiles. Clavijo noticed the lion-and-sun device over the door and argued that an earlier lord of Samarkand must have begun it, since Timur's own device was three circles. A rare case of a medieval visitor questioning a building's attribution.
On the top of this doorway there was the figure of a lion and a sun, which are the arms of the lord of Samarcand ; and, though they say that Timour Beg ordered these palaces to be built, I believe that the former lord of Samarcand gave the order
About Timur (Timour Beg) and an earlier lord of Samarkand
Keep in mind
Clavijo's reasoning about the arms is his own inference.
A tent palace on thirty-six poles and five hundred cords
Editorial contextOutside Samarkand Timur held his feasts in a vast camp. Clavijo measured the great pavilion by eye: square, three lances high, a hundred paces across, raised on twelve painted poles each as thick as a man's chest, with cart-wheel winches to lift them, porticoes on twenty-four more poles, and silk hangings inside. It shows that the tent tradition of the steppe survived as palace architecture beside Timur's brick buildings.
there was a great and lofty pavilion, which was like a tent, only square, and three lances high. It was a hundred paces broad, and had four corners, and the ceiling was round, like a vault. It was pitched against twelve poles, each as large round as a man, measured round the chest.
About Timur's court (Zagatays)
Tent people who sow melons by the rivers
Editorial contextAmong the Zagatay tents of Khorasan, Clavijo notes that these people have no other homes. In summer they camp by rivers and sow corn, cotton and melons, in winter they move to warm districts, and Timur and his army wander the same way. On the next page he describes their food of sour milk boiled with bits of dough, cooked over dung fires.
The people of these tents have no other dwelling place, and they wander over the plains, during both winter and summer. In summer they go to the banks of the rivers, and sow their corn, cotton, and melons … The lord, with all his host, wanders in the same way over the plains, winter and summer.
About Zagatay nomads of Timur's host
Women in helmets: how Timur beat the Emperor of Tartary
Editorial contextClavijo tells how Tokhtamysh, 'emperor of Tartary', raided Tabriz and was chased home by Timur. Finding the ford guarded, Timur marched upstream for three days, then had the camp women put on helmets to look like soldiers while the men doubled back, crossed at night and routed the Tartar camp. The next page tells how Tokhtamysh's servant Edigu then became the new lord of Tartary with a horde of 200,000 horsemen.
on the third night Timour Beg ordered the women to put helmets on their heads, that they might look like men ; and all the men rode on, with two horses a piece, leaving the royal encampment, the women who looked like men, the servants, and the prisoners.
About Tokhtamysh and the Tartars of the Golden Horde
Keep in mind
A campaign story told at Timur's court, not witnessed by Clavijo.
The best drinker is called Bahadur
Editorial contextAt Timur's feasts, cup-bearers made guests drain full cups in one pull, and refusing was an insult to the lord. The heaviest drinker earned the title bahadur, 'valiant'. Timur even sent the envoys a jug of wine beforehand so they would arrive in a jovial mood. The food was roast horse, sheep and rice.
They call the man who drinks the most wine Bahadur, which is as much as to say "a valorous man" ; and he who does not drink, is made to do so, although he does not wish it.
About Timur's court (Zagatays)
Keep in mind
Markham's footnote on the same page adds a Victorian moral comment of his own.
The Zagatays: Tartars who stayed and gave their name
Editorial contextClavijo explains Timur's people. An 'emperor of Tartary' divided his lands among four sons, and Zagatay (Chagatai) received Samarkand; when the locals killed him, his followers who stayed were called Zagatays. Timur descends from these 'Zagatay Tartars', and many Samarkand people now call themselves Zagatays to share in the famous name. Markham's note corrects the details of the story.
Timour Beg, and the other Zagatays who follow him, are descended from these Zagatay Tartars; and many people of the land of Samarcand have now taken this name of Zagatay, that they may share in the great name which the Zagatays have now attained.
About Zagatays (Chagatai Mongols and Turks of Timur's realm)
Keep in mind
Local tradition as told to the envoys; Markham notes that Chagatai was not killed by his subjects.
Towers built of the heads of 'white Tartars'
Editorial contextOutside Damghan the envoys saw towers of mud and human heads. They were told these were the heads of 'white Tartars', nomads from between Turkey and Syria whom Timur had deported to Damghan; when they tried to ride home, plundering as they went, his army killed them, and Timur ordered every white Tartar found to be put to death. Locals said lights burned on the towers at night.
These towers, which are made of heads, are built of the heads of a race of people called "white Tartars," natives of a country between Turkey and Syria. … The people of the city say, that they often see lights burning on the top of these towers in the night.
About 'White Tartars', nomads deported by Timur
Keep in mind
The towers were seen; the story, the figure of 60,000 dead and the lights at night were told to the envoys.
A golden tree with jewel fruit inside a tent
Editorial contextAt a feast given by Timur's chief wife, the envoys were shown a tent containing a golden oak as tall as a man, with a trunk as thick as a leg, fruit of rubies, emeralds, turquoises, sapphires and pearls, and enamelled golden birds pecking at it. It echoes the silver tree Rubruck saw at Karakorum (W043), and Rockhill's note to Rubruck mentions Clavijo's tree.
there was a golden tree, made to resemble an oak ; with the trunk as big as a man's leg, from which many branches spread out in all directions, with leaves like those of an oak ; and it was as high as a man … The fruit of this tree consisted of rubies, emeralds, turquoises, sapphires, and wonderfully large pearls
About Timur's chief wife Cano (Saray Mulk Khanum) and her court
Amazons beyond Samarkand, subject to Timur
Editorial contextClavijo repeats what he heard at Samarkand: fifteen days toward China lived a land of women who met men once a year, kept their daughters and sent their sons to the fathers. He adds that they were Greek Christians, once subjects of the emperor of Cathay, now of Timur, and descended from the Amazons of Troy. A classic legend attached to a real direction on the map.
These women are subject to Timour Beg ; they used to be under the emperor of Cathay, and they are Christians of the Greek Church. They are of the lineage of the Amazons who were at Troy, when it was destroyed by the Greeks.
About A women's nation said to live toward China
Keep in mind
Hearsay of a classical legend; no one in the party went there.