Timurid Renaissance

From top to bottom and left to right: Portrait of Tamerlane, Great Mosque of Herat, Interior of Gur-e-Amir, Sculptures of Ulugh Begh, Al-Kashi, Ali Qushji and some other scientists, Tamerlane chess, Ulugh Beg Observatory, View of Registan and its three Islamic schools, Aerial view of the Gawhar Shad Mausoleum, Tomb of Queen Gawhar Shad's sister Gowhar-Taj from the Timurid Necropolis.

The Timurid Renaissance was a historical period in Asian and Islamic history spanning the late 14th, the 15th, and the early 16th centuries. Following the gradual downturn of the Islamic Golden Age, the Timurid Empire, based in Central Asia ruled by the Timurid dynasty, witnessed the revival of arts and sciences. Its movement spread across the Muslim world.^[3] The French word renaissance means "rebirth", and defines a period as one of cultural revival. The use of the term for the description of this period has raised reservations among scholars, some of whom see it as a swan song of Timurid culture.^[3][4]

The Timurid Renaissance was marked slightly earlier than the Renaissance movement in Europe.^[5][6] Some have described it as equal in glory to the Italian Quattrocento.^[4] The Timurid Renaissance reached its peak in the 15th century, after the end of the period of Mongol invasions and conquests.

Based on Islamic ideals,^[7] the foundations of the Timurid Renaissance include the rebuilding of Samarkand and the invention of Tamerlane Chess by Timur, the reign of Shah Rukh and his consort Gawhar Shad in Herat (a city which rivaled Florence of the Italian Renaissance as the center of a cultural rebirth),^[8][9] the period of the astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Begh (along with notable polymaths and Islamic scholars), and the construction of additional learning centers by the art patron Sultan Husayn Bayqara.^[10] The Timur reign experienced revived interest in classical Persian art. Large-scale building projects were undertaken, creating mausoleums, madrasas, and kitabhane - medieval Islamic book workshops. Mathematical and astronomical studies were reinvigorated, and at the beginning of the 16th century, mastering firearms was achieved.

Major commissions from the Timur's lifetime were the Summer Palace in Shahrisabz, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, and the construction of the Registan.^[11] The city of Herat became an important center of intellectual and artistic life in the Muslim world during this time.^[11] Samarkand, a center of scholarly study which was previously destroyed during the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia, became the center of the Renaissance and Islamic civilization in general due to the reconstruction during the period.^[12]

The Timurid Renaissance differed from previous Buyid dynasty cultural and artistic developments in that it was not a direct revival of classical models, but rather a broadening of their cultural appeal by including more colloquial styles in Persian language. The Timurid Renaissance was inherited by Mughal India^[13][14][15] and had significant influence on the other states of the Age of the Islamic Gunpowders (Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran).^[16]