page_title: History of Islam
section_title: Timurid Renaissance
hierarchical_section_title: History of Islam / Mongol period / Timurid Renaissance
caption_attribution_description: English: A Tamerlane Chess Set. The pieces approximate the appearance of Tamerlane chess pieces in 14th Century Persia.
context_page_description: The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic and cultural developments of Islamic civilization. Most historians accept that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims regard Islam as a return to the original faith of the prophets, such as Jesus, Solomon, David, Moses, Abraham, Noah and Adam, with the submission to the will of God.
  According to tradition, in 610 CE, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations, calling for submission to the one God, the expectation of the imminent Last Judgement, and caring for the poor and needy. Muhammad's message won over a handful of followers and was met with increasing opposition from Meccan notables. In 622, a few years after losing protection with the death of his influential uncle Abu Talib, Muhammad migrated to the city of Yathrib. With Muhammad's death in 632, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community during the Rashidun Caliphate.
  By the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus River in the east.
context_section_description: The Timurid Empire based in Central Asia ruled by the Timurid dynasty saw a tremendous increase in the fields of arts and sciences, spreading across both eastern and western world.
  Remarkable was the invention of Tamerlane Chess, reconstruction of the city of Samarkand, and substantial contributions made by the family of Sultan Shah Rukh, which include Gawhar Shad, polymath Ulugh Begh, and Sultan Husayn Bayqara in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, and architecture. The empire receive widespread support from multiple Islamic scholars and scientists. A number of Islamic learning centres and mosques were built, most notably the Ulugh Beg Observatory.
  The prosperity of the city of Herat is said to have competed with those of Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance as the center of a cultural rebirth.
  The aspects of the Timurid Renaissance were later brought in Mughal India by the Mughal Emperors and served as a heritage of states of the other remaining Islamic Gunpowder empires: the Ottoman Turkey and the Safavid Iran.
caption: Tamerlane chess, invented by Amir Timur. The pieces approximate the appearance of the chess pieces in 14th century Persia.
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