TAMERLAN TSARNAEV, THE #1 BOMBER

As I followed the epic events that enfolded last week, my curiosity was piqued regarding bomber #1’s first name. Why would any couple give their son that strange name (and what was the source of that name?) It suddenly dawned on me  that historical scholars talk often about the hideous exploits of that evil Muslim conqueror of the 14^th century, Tamerlane. If you read about Tamerlane in history books or the Koran it becomes immediately obvious that the bomber’s first name selection would be a perfectly logical result of a radical Muslim family’s reverence for the memory of Tamerlane. 

Who was Tamerlane?

Tamerlane (1336-1405) was a Muslim warlord who killed millions, conquering from the Black Sea to Moscow, India to Damascus, Persia to Turkey.  Historians point out that he was different from other conquerors in history, in that he took particular pleasure in the torture and massacre of extremely large numbers of civilian and military captives of Hindu, Christian and even Islamic faiths. A few of his significantly gruesome accomplishments were:

• In 1383 he built a tower with bricks and mortar in the captured Afghan city of Isfizar where he sealed 2000 prisoners alive.
• In 1387 he massacred 70,000 people in the Persian city of Ishfahan.
• In 1398, Tamerlane captured Delhi, India and slaughtered 100,000 people.
• Tamerlane’s oft repeated conquest commemoration was to behead large numbers of people and build pyramids out of their heads.  In Damascus he had 20 such towers built.
• After conquering the Christian city of Smyrna in Georgia, Tamerlane had 4000 Christian soldiers buried alive.
• In 1393 he massacred 20,000 Shi’a Muslims in Baghdad.
• In 1401, after re-capturing Baghdad, Tamerlane ordered each of his soldiers to bring back two decapitated heads. The resulting festive celebration included the building of 120 pyramids of severed heads.
• In 1403, Tamerlane slaughtered the inhabitants and destroyed all the Christian churches in Georgia’s capital of Tiflis.

Tamerlane's armies were feared throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, sizable parts of which were laid to ruin by his campaigns. Scholars estimate that his military campaigns caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population.

Baghdad, Damascus, Delhi and other Arab, Georgian, Persian and Indian cities were sacked and destroyed and their populations massacred. He was responsible for the effective destruction of the Christian Church in much of Asia.

Tamerlane's campaigns in India were marked by systematic slaughter and other atrocities on a truly massive scale inflicted mainly on the subcontinent's Hindu population.

He ruled over an empire that, in modern times, extends from southeastern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, through Central Asia encompassing part of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and even approaches Kashgar in China.

A 20^th Century French historian Rene’ Grousset epitomizes the nature of Tamerlane and 21^st Century Islamic radicals as follows:

“He represents a synthesis, probably unprecedented in history, of Mongol barbarity and Muslim fanaticism, and symbolizes that advanced form of primitive slaughter which is murder committed for the sake of an abstract ideology, as a duty and a sacred mission.”

Written by CB in the Northwoods

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