Latest / Tamerlane: The Conqueror Who Tried to Rebuild the Mongol Legacy — Fexingo History / Tamerlane's Captive Engineers: The Siege of Isfahan and the Towers of Skulls
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Tamerlane's campaigns, about his sieges and his engineers. But I want to zoom in on one siege that really shows the brutality and the method behind it all: the siege of Isfahan in 1387. Luna: Isfahan — that's the one with the skull towers, right? Lucas: Exactly. The towers of skulls. It's become almost legendary, but it actually happened. Isfahan was a major city in Persia, and it had submitted to Tamerlane earlier. But while he was off campaigning elsewhere, the city rebelled, killed his tax collectors and his garrison. So Tamerlane marched back with his army. Lucas: Now, Tamerlane was not just a brute — he calculated everything. He knew that if he let Isfahan rebel and get away with it, every other city in Persia would think they could do the same. So he needed a response that would be remembered for generations. And he got one. Luna: What did he actually do at the siege? Lucas: He brought up his siege engines — massive mangonels and trebuchets. Many of the engineers operating them were captives from his earlier campaigns, especially from Khwarezm. They'd been conscripted, forced to build and operate these machines. And Tamerlane had them bombard the walls day and night. But the real horror came after the city fell. Lucas: According to the Zafarnama, the official Timurid chronicle, his troops were ordered to bring him the heads of the rebels. They collected them — thousands upon thousands — and built towers with them. Ibn Arabshah, a hostile Syrian chronicler, says the number was seventy thousand skulls arranged in layers. Luna: That is both terrifying and... logistically mind-boggling. How do you even build a tower out of skulls? Lucas: Exactly. It's a question of engineering as much as terror. The heads were presumably placed in a framework of wood and mud, like a macabre brickwork. The towers were placed at key roads leading into the city, so they'd be the first thing any traveler saw. It was meant to be a permanent message. Luna: And did it work? Did other cities stop rebelling? Lucas: For a time, yes. The fear spread faster than any army could. But there's also debate among historians about whether the towers were actually real or just propaganda. The Zafarnama, being pro-Timurid, might have exaggerated to make him seem more fearsome. But Ibn Arabshah, who hated Tamerlane, also mentions them — so there's corroboration from a hostile source. Lucas: And we have eyewitness accounts from Spanish envoy Ruy González de Clavijo, who visited the region a few years later and recorded that he saw skulls still piled up. So it's likely at least some structures were built. Luna: What about the engineers? The ones forced to build the siege engines — did they survive the campaign? Lucas: That's the brutal irony. Many of them were probably among the captives who were later used to build Tamerlane's great projects in Samarkand. They were skilled, so they were valuable alive. But they never got to go home. Their knowledge — of Persian siegecraft, of Khwarezmian masonry — became part of the Timurid war machine. Lucas: And that's something we've touched on in earlier episodes: Tamerlane's systematic deportation of artisans and engineers. The siege of Isfahan is a perfect example. He used engineers from Khwarezm, who themselves had been captured years earlier, to crush a Persian rebellion. It's like a chain of captivity. Luna: Do we know the names of any of those engineers? Lucas: Unfortunately, no. The chronicles don't record the names of the common engineers. They were anonymous. But we know that Tamerlane's sieges were often led by specialists who had proven themselves in earlier campaigns. Some might have even been Persian themselves, forced to turn their skills against their own people. Luna: That makes it even darker. They'd be building machines that would kill their fellow Persians, all under threat of death. Lucas: Right. And the siege of Isfahan was not unique. Tamerlane used similar tactics in other cities. But Isfahan stands out because of the sheer scale of the atrocity — and because the city itself was so important. It was a cultural and economic hub. By making an example of it, Tamerlane was sending a message to all of Persia. Lucas: And it's worth noting that Tamerlane considered himself a Muslim ruler. But the brutality against fellow Muslims — Isfahan was a Muslim city — was something his chroniclers had to justify. They often portrayed the rebels as oath-breakers, thus deserving of punishment. Luna: So it was a legalistic justification too, not just raw terror. Lucas: Exactly. Tamerlane was very careful about legitimacy. He always had a reason, even if it was flimsy. And in this case, the rebellion violated the terms of surrender, which under the Yassa — the Mongol legal code — could be punished by death. So he was, in his mind, acting within his rights. Luna: I wonder how the skull towers were finally removed. Did they just decay over time? Lucas: Probably a mix. Weather, scavengers, and eventually the elements would have broken them down. But some reports suggest they remained for years, maybe decades. Clavijo saw them in 1404, almost twenty years later. So they were built to last. Lucas: And I think that's key to understanding Tamerlane's strategy. It wasn't just about winning battles; it was about controlling the narrative of memory. The skull towers were a monument to his power, as much as any mosque or palace he built. Luna: But they're a monument to something very different from the Samarkand observatory or the Bibi-Khanym mosque. Lucas: Exactly. Tamerlane had two sides: the builder and the destroyer. And Isfahan shows the destroyer in full force. But it also shows his pragmatism. He used the engineers he captured, he used the fear he generated, and he moved on. The city itself was repopulated and rebuilt — but the memory of those towers lingered. Lucas: You know, speaking of memory and how we choose to support these stories, it's a good moment to mention something about this show. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. We want this to be a space where we can explore history without commercial breaks. If you value that kind of listening, and you'd like to support the work, there's a simple way. Luna: Yeah, it's something we're both committed to. And the support from listeners is what makes it possible to keep going. Lucas: Exactly. So if you feel inclined, you can go to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. And that genuinely helps us keep the show ad-free. Luna: Now, back to the skulls. I'm still trying to picture how seventy thousand heads were collected and stacked. That's an enormous number. Lucas: It is. And some historians question the number. Ibn Arabshah might have exaggerated, or the Zafarnama might have inflated the figure to enhance Tamerlane's reputation. But even if it was half that number, it's still staggering. And the logistics of it — you'd need hundreds of men just to gather the heads, let alone build the towers. Lucas: And there's also the question of hygiene. Piles of rotting heads would have attracted disease and animals. So the fact that they built towers suggests they were preserved in some way — maybe by lime or by quick burial and later exhumation. But we don't have clear records. Luna: This is one of those cases where the historical record is both specific and frustratingly vague. Lucas: Absolutely. But that's what makes it interesting. We have multiple sources — the pro-Timurid Zafarnama, the hostile Ibn Arabshah, the eyewitness Clavijo — and they all mention something similar. So the core event is solid. The details are where historians argue. Lucas: And that's part of the challenge of studying Tamerlane. He's a figure who inspired both extreme loyalty and extreme hatred, and the sources reflect that. The skull towers of Isfahan are a perfect example: they're mentioned by both sides, but the interpretation differs. For his supporters, it was a just punishment; for his enemies, proof of his savagery. Luna: So what do you think? Were they real? Lucas: I think they were real. The convergence of sources, including the independent account from Clavijo, makes it hard to dismiss. But the exact number and the exact structure may have been embellished. Still, the fact that Tamerlane used terror as a tool is undeniable. And Isfahan was his masterpiece of terror. Luna: It's chilling to think that those towers stood for years, a silent monument to one man's ambition and ruthlessness. Lucas: Yes. And they also stand as a reminder of the anonymous thousands who died — and the anonymous engineers who were forced to build the weapons that killed them. So when we talk about Tamerlane's legacy, we have to include both the magnificent architecture of Samarkand and the skull towers of Isfahan. They're two sides of the same coin.