Timur's Plague Towers: The Siege of Damascus

Tamerlane: The Conqueror Who Tried to Rebuild the Mongol Legacy — Fexingo History · Oct 3, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In this episode, we revisit the year 1400 and the brutal siege of Damascus, a pivotal moment where Timur’s military genius collided with the realities of war. We explore how Timur used biological warfare, specifically plague-infested corpses launched by trebuchets, to break the Mamluk defenses. Lucas and Luna discuss the eyewitness accounts of Ruy González de Clavijo and the historical debate over whether these towers actually spread disease or served as psychological terror. We also examine Ibn Khaldun’s tense meeting with Timur, highlighting the intellectual clash between a scholar and a…