Here, in the district of the Sary su River (present-day Central Kazakhstan), was the conditional border of the The Golden Horde. The inscription, obviously, was to emphasize the scope and importance of Amir Timur’s campaign against this state.. Three lines in the Quranic formula (basmala) are written in Arabic.
“In the name of Allah, the merciful and gracious! The Eternal Lord, the Embodiment of Truth, the Guarding One, the Magnificent One, the Omnipotent One, the Maintainer of Life and the Inflictor of Death!”
The remaining eight lines are engraved in an Uighur alphabet in the Chagatai language:
“Summer seven hundred and ninety-three, in the middle spring month of the year of the sheep [April 6, 1391], Sultan of Turan Timur-Bey moved with three hundred thousand troops for Islam towards the Bulgarian Khan Tokhtamysh Khan. Reaching the area, he built this mound to be a memorial. God willing, the Lord would execute justice! The Lord will have mercy on the people of the country! Yes, they will remember us with prayer!”
The campaign of Amir Timur in 1391 ended with the Battle of the Kondurcha River (present-day Samara region of the Russian Federation), in which the troops of Tokhtamysh were completely defeated. However, he lost complete power over the The Golden Horde after a crushing defeat from Timur in 1395 in the Battle of the Terek River. As a result of the subsequent military campaign, the most important cities of the Jochi Ulus: Sarai Berke, Hajji Tarkhan and Tana were destroyed.
This led to the decline of trade along the northern branch of the Great Silk Road and its flourishing along the southern one, passing through the lands of Mavarannakhr. The defeat of the The Golden Horde also secured the northern border of the Timurid state for a long time.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collection of the State Hermitage Mavarannakhr Art 8th – 15th centuries" (XV volume) from the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
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