The Timurids and the Mongol Empire

This chapter on the legacy of the Mongol Empire in the Timurid period in Iran and Central Asia assumes that the Timurid Empire was not part of the Mongol Empire but was merely influenced by it, absorbing various elements of Mongol imperialism. While the Great Mongol Empire as imagined by Chinggis Khan ended when Qubilai Qa’an, the last universally recognized great khan, died in 1294, the idea of the Mongol Empire lasted for centuries. According to Hodgson, the Age of Mongol Prestige was a period when new standards of politics, law, and art emerged under the influence of the Mongols. The Timurids imagined themselves as firmly rooted in the Mongol imperial system founded by Chinggis Khan. The Mongols shaped the history of Eurasia in general, and Iran and Central Asia in particular, after the 13th century.