"Tamerlan"? Seriously?

[Recursion]

Named after the Scourge of God and Sword of Allah? Sometimes knowing history is a curse.

[JohnnyBoots]

1. Can you elaborate? nt

[Fumesucker]

3. We all watch the same programs so we all understand exactly what the reference is..

[StrayKat]

5. Timur (Tamerlane)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur

Scourge of Turkey. Tried to restore Genghis Kahn's empire.

[Tanuki]

6. Google is your friend

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=tamerlane&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSNF_enUS461

[Recursion]

7. Imagine if his name were Napoleon

It's something like that.

[RZM]

8. You know how ballers stack $100 bills to the ceiling?

Well Tamerlane did it with human heads.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. The Mongolians didn't do anything different than other conquering nations did.

We were just horrified because they were doing it to us rather than us doing it to them.

[RZM]

16. I'm not so sure about that

And who is 'us?' China? Central Asia? Russia? The Middle East? Those were the places where steppe peoples did most of their conquering.

I think you could make the case that Tamerlane and his forbears were particularly adept at using terror and psychological warfare. Not that plenty of others haven't employed them. But it's a stretch to say that they were exactly the same as everybody else. Part of the reason we are still talking about them is that they were exceptional in quite a few ways.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. For example, the Roman empire when it was conquering Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

[RZM]

21. I'm sure there is plenty that is similar in that comparison and plenty that is different.

After all, we are comparing very different times, different places, different contexts, and different people.

I'm not saying that any particular type of warfare is all that better or worse than another. I'm saying that there are and have been different ways of war in human history.

[Warren Stupidity]

27. Actually nothing much had changed w.r.t. warfare from the roman empire to the late middle ages.

Until gunpowder came into play that is. Stirrups were the biggest innovation.

Come to think of it, slaughtering whole populations, which is what the Mongols were vilified for, is still going on, e.g. the Holocaust, Rwanda, Cambodia etc.

[Blue_Tires]

22. So did Vlad the Impaler

[RZM]

26. Well you don't get the name 'impaler' because of your love of puppies n/t

[AsahinaKimi]

29. LOL!

[Brickbat]

2. It's not a hugely popular name, but it's not unusual in some parts.

I knew a guy named Timur, which is the original form, when I was in Russia. A couple, actually.

[Berlum]

4. Tamerlane

"I am not a man of blood; and God is my witness that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always been the authors of their own calamity." —Timur, after the conquest of Aleppo

Timur, Tarmashirin Khan, Emir Timur (Persian: تیمور? Timūr, Chagatai: Temür "iron"; 9 April 1336 – 18 February 1405), historically known as Tamerlane (from Persian: تيمور لنگ?, Timūr-e Lang, Aksak Timur "Timur the Lame" in Turkish), was a Turkic ruler.

He conquered West, South and Central Asia and founded the Timurid dynasty. He was the grandfather of Ulugh Beg, who ruled Central Asia from 1411 to 1449, and the great-great-great-grandfather of Babur Beg, founder of the Mughal Empire, which ruled South Asia for centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur

[DetlefK]

9. Are people with biblical names automatically christian fanatics?

Dschingis Khan was also called the Scourge of God by his enemies, who viewed him as some sort of divine punishment. And Dschingis Khan adhered to shamanism.
And I dare to claim that in the middle-ages Sword of Allah was a common by-name for islamic rulers.

[Recursion]

10. If a guy named Methuselah lived a long time

I would probably make an OP about it.

[DetlefK]

11. And what about all the Methuselahs that die early? ;-)

That's called "survivor-bias".

[geek tragedy]

13. Genghis Khan is a figure of national pride in Mongolia nt

[Recursion]

15. He invented free trade, religious toleration, and public mail

He is rightly honored.

Tamerlane was a bad ass. I'm merely struck by the name.

[WinkyDink]

14. I don't get your point. I read the drama in college.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamburlaine_(play)

[slackmaster]

17. I just got out of bed and have no idea what's happened in the last 12 hours

But it looks like some interesting events have transpired.

[Recursion]

19. For those of you just joining us... fuck it

You won't catch up any time soon.

[slackmaster]

20. That's what I figured. It's frightening how fast the news moves. I feel like I'm days behind.

Here's what I have figured out so far:

1. The two suspects are brothers, both from Russia, apparently Checens.

2. One of them was killed in a shootout with police last night.

3. The other is a fugitive. He's a medical student. Everyone thought he was a really nice guy.

4. One more person who was injured in Monday's bombing has died.

And that's really all I know.

[Recursion]

23. Well, when you leave out the real time CNN f uck ups, it's not that confusing

Though I would add one MIT police officer and one Cambridge police officer died.

[onenote]

24. Haven't seen any reports about another bombing victim dying

Also, the brother that died in the confrontation with law enforcement was the medical student. The younger brother is the one that is a fugitive.

[slackmaster]

25. Maybe it was a police officer. I haven't seen a comprehensive write-up anywhere yet.

Thanks.

[eissa]

28. Exactly my reaction

But I'm an Assyrian and my family is originally from Iraq, so we know very well who Tamerlan is, and the destruction he brought upon the region. A poster above likened him to Napoleon; I'd say it'd be more like naming your son "Adolph" -- that is exactly how sadistic Tamerlan was. Anyone giving their child such a despicable name shouldn't be surprised when they turn out as monstrous as his namesake. Good riddance.

[FarCenter]

31. Annals of History: Invaders

Tamerlane’s thing was building pyramids out of heads. When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his ninety thousand soldiers bring him a head (some sources say two) or lose his own life. The thousands of heads were piled into towers. Tamerlane also said not to destroy hospitals and mosques, a small concession by a Muslim to the former capital of his faith. Nonetheless, thanks to him and to Hulagu, almost no architecture from the golden days of Harun al-Rashid has survived. Baghdad would not be a city of any consequence for another five hundred years, until its strategic location and Iraq’s oil attracted the attention of world powers.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/25/050425fa_fact4?currentPage=5

[eissa]

35. The first places they destroyed

during their rampages across the ME were libraries and schools. It was said that the Tigris river ran black from all the ink in the books that were dumped into it. Not only would Iraq never fully recover from the sacking, but the minority Assyrians were almost slaughtered to the brink of extinction. They would not face a similar fate until the 1915 genocide by the Turks of the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks.

I do feel bad for the uncle. There's always "those people" in every family that you wish you didn't share a gene pool with.

[entanglement]

30. And there was something about a guy named Adolphus III on another thread

[Recursion]

33. That was my thread too!

Classics majors. We screw stuff up...

[Tom Ripley]

32. it's a fine name, you pampered jade of Asia!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. Not to mention all the dangerous Alexanders roaming around.

Or, Caesers (Cesare in Italian) in Italy.

[Warren Stupidity]

36. anyone named Julius should be jailed at birth.

[Ikonoklast]

37. Along with anyone named Orange.

[byeya]

39. Ouch! My grandfather's name was Julius. That comment hurt!

[Paul E Ester]

38. Love learning these things. Thanks.

Reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur

thanks.,