This week: Timur's beginning.

Sultan e Timur, Amir of Samarkand, the divine leader who never dies, his horses still roam the steppes of Asia. His era saw an unprecedented rate of expansion, attacking Georgia, Volga, Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia and India.

The Chagatai Khanate that had ruled Samarkhand was weakening and Timur, after the death of the sultan, his brother in law, became the Amir. The first of his rivals was the Golden Horde, ruling the Kipchak Siberia. Tokhtamysh, the direct descendant of Genghis Khan was their leader. The titanic struggle between the two rulers continued until the Mongol was killed about a decade after the Terek River battle.

Timur during the course of his campaigns destroyed Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, and Astrakhan, subsequently wrecking the Golden Horde's economy based on Silk Road trade. The Golden Horde saw political disintegration after such losses, with Mongol unity in the region shattered permanently.

The then turned this attention to the south and ravaged parts of Persia and took Afghanistan.