Tamerlane's Captive Miners and the Silver That Fueled an Empire

In this episode of Tamerlane: The Conqueror Who Tried to Rebuild the Mongol Legacy, Lucas and Luna explore a forgotten engine of Timur's conquests: the silver mines of Central Asia. After the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Tamerlane deported skilled miners from the Caucasus and Anatolia to the Pamir Mountains and the Zarafshan Valley, where they reopened ancient shafts and introduced new smelting techniques. The silver from these mines—minted into tankas and dirhams at mints in Samarkand, Bukhara, and Kesh—paid for the tumens that marched from Delhi to Damascus. Lucas explains how the Yassa regulated mining rights, how Chagatai ulus traditions collided with Persian administrative practices, and why Ibn Arabshah, in his hostile Aja'ib al-Maqdur, grudgingly praised Timur's ability to turn captured engineers into imperial wealth. The episode also touches on the environmental impact of deforestation for smelting and the strange story of a captive Venetian metallurgist who tried to introduce European blast furnaces. Finally, Lucas and Luna briefly discuss the ad-free mission of the show and ask listeners to support it at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. #Tamerlane #Timur #SilverMines #CentralAsia #Zarafshan #PamirMountains #Caucasus #Anatolia #MiningHistory #Numismatics #IbnArabshah #Yassa #Chagatai #Samarkand #Bukhara #Kesh #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo