Samarkand

Timeline

1. 1300–1350Samarkand · Samarkand ProvinceAfter the fall of the Ilkhanate, Transoxiana was contested among the Chagatai-line khans; Samarkand remained a hub of the northern Silk Road caravan routes, with markets, postal relay stations, and mosques abounding, attracting Persianized Mongol nobles and Muslim merchants.
2. 1351–1360Samarkand · Samarkand ProvinceIn the 1350s Chagatai khans and local warlords repeatedly contested Samarkand; the city suffered repeated devastation yet quickly recovered its trade. Barlas noble power expanded here, and Timur (born 1336) was drawn into local power struggles in his youth.
3. c. 1370–1400Samarkand · Samarkand ProvinceAfter unifying Transoxiana, Timur made Samarkand his capital and undertook large-scale construction of building complexes around the Registan Square, making the city the political, religious, and scholarly center of the Timurid Empire; its blue-tiled mosques became famous across Central Asia.