Amir Temur’s foreign policy and place in history

Temur’s state had contacts with Byzantium, the Ottomans, Egypt, India, China, the Golden Horde, Moghulistan and Western European countries. The aims of foreign policy were security, strengthening influence among neighbours and trade and diplomatic ties. Seven campaigns against Moghulistan in 1371–1390 calmed the border. Envoys were exchanged with the Egyptian sultan Barquq from 1385, but Barquq had Temur’s envoys executed. Toqtamish had reached the Golden Horde throne with Temur’s help but later turned against him; Temur defeated him in 1395. After the battle of Ankara in 1402 Temur wrote to the French king Charles VI and the English king Henry IV offering free trade; the French king answered in 1403. Among the envoys of Henry III of Castile was Ruy González de Clavijo: he was in Samarkand in September–November 1404, wrote down what he saw and returned to Spain in March 1406. Relations with China were cool. Temur paid attention to the safety of trade routes. Clavijo’s diary is a valuable source on Samarkand in Temur’s time.