Tamerlan was probably named after perhaps the most brutal man in history

[AngryAmish]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/19/is-tamerlan-tsarnaev-named-after-a-brutal-warlord.html

I have been fascinated by Tamerlane for decades now. It is as if his legacy has been ignored for some reason. He ruled from Egypt to China and he won it all by the sword. His descendants ruled Persia and parts of central asia for centuries - Timurid dynasty. One of his grandsons, Babur, founded the Moghul Empire which ruled much of India until taken apart by the British in the wake of the Mutiny in 1857. Moghul=mongol.

Tamerlane, or Timur, was unbelievably brutal. Yet he is still a favorite in Uzbekistan. He is buried in his capital, Samarkarand. Uzbekistan was absorbed into the Soviet Union. Some Soviet scientists thought it would be a good idea to open up his sarcophagus and take a look around. They ignored the curse that was to befall anyone and any nation who disturbed Timur's grave. They poked around, took some pictures and figured out that this indeed was probably Tamerlane because his leg was injured. They opened the tomb on June 22, 1941 - the same day Operation Barbarossa started.

[Myrina]

1. OMG that explains it all!

:rolleyes:

[johnfunk]

2. The very same thing struck me; and his bro Dzhokhar is named after the greatest Batman villain ever.

... sorry, I had to say it.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. .

You bastard!!!!

[RZM]

11. Actually he may be named after this guy

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

Chechen leader (and former Soviet Air Force officer) who was assassinated during the war in a Russian missile strike.

[arcane1]

14. LMAO! You owe me a new monitor

[dipsydoodle]

3. Thought you were going to say

Fred Coincidence

[Shankapotomus]

4. June 33???

What?

[msongs]

8. well, it was a curse and curses have their own ways lol nt

[AngryAmish]

9. in soviet russia, each month had up to 72 days

[cali]

6. what a bullshit article. how does she know he wasn't named after a relative?

[Fumesucker]

10. The title does say "probably" which most people take to mean "I'm not certain" n/t

[Enrique]

15. I agree

I wonder if this author knows what her own name means, or if her parents knew when they named her.

[Demoiselle]

23. If he was named after a relative, then the relative was named after Tamerlane.

The original Tamerlane was a very famous and brutal dude in that part of the world. Long ago.

[TrogL]

7. That explains the concert band piece

I used to teach band and at festivals sometimes one of the required pieces was some horrible dreary thing called Tamerlane full of parallel fifths and sour discords. Everybody hated it

[Mike Nelson]

12. So...

you're... or, this? is saying his parents named him for this reason, knowing this would happen?
And was the tomb opened on the 33rd?
huh?

[Mike Nelson]

13. ok... I see the 22nd - nt

[AngryAmish]

17. His parents did not name him for a reason

It is just a weird quirk of history. And for all I know he had a grandfather named Tamurlan.

But Tamerlane is one of the most interesting figures in history. More damned than Ghengis Khan - supposedly because he was educated.

[HiPointDem]

18. big deal. it's also a common name.

[Retrograde]

19. And Attila is a common name in Hungary

And people are still named Joseph and Alexander and William even though they had namesakes who weren't the nicest of people. Most people get stuck with the names their parents give them.

[gaspee]

20. Eh, but how many

Adolphs are walking around these days, LOL!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. Which also explains why Ronald Reagan was such a dumbass president.

[Melinda]

22. My son's name is "Matthew" which means "Gift of the Lord"...

He's an atheist.

[opiate69]

24. Shapiro seems to be profoundly ignorant of history.

And possibly Islamaphobic to boot. To try to name any one person as "the most brutal in history" is absurd when there have been so many possible candidates for that title.
Pol Pot, Hitler/Mengele et al, Idi Amin, Atilla the Hun, Genghis Khan, Vlad Tsepesch, Ivan the Terrible, Elizabet Bathory, Sultan Mehmed II, etc, etc...