Tamerlane the Terrible

The 14th century Tartar warlord Tamerlane (1336 - 1405), who built an empire stretching from China to Turkey, had an insatiable appetite for death. In 1387, after a rebellious mob in Isfahan (in present day Iran) had massacred 3000 of his occupying troops, Tamerlane ordered his commanders to collect a sickening ransom in human heads. By the time the army moved on, 70,000 heads were heaped in grisly pyramids outside the city walls. The city of Sivas in Turkey fell victim to a lethal trick. Tamerlane is said to have promised the city elders that not a drop of the defenders’ would be shed if the city surrendered. He kept his promise to the letter: 4000 Armenian soldiers who had led the city’s resistance were buried alive; Christians were strangled or tied up and tossed in a moat to drown and children were herded into a field to be trampled to death Tamerlane’s Mongol cavalry. Despite his love for war, Tamerlane did not die on the battlefield. He died in bed, possibly from the effects of a wild drinking party.