Amir Timur, the strategist who forged an empire stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the borders of China, began his rise in the mid-14th century within the fractured remnants of the Chagatay Khanate. Born in 1336 near Kesh in Transoxiana, he navigated the shifting tribal alliances of the Barlas confederation. By 1370, after a series of localized conflicts, he established Samarkand as his imperial capital. He assumed the title of Amir (Commander), ruling through a puppet descendant of Genghi