Timur - Epic Music

Music and vocals by Farya Faraji. Timur, also known as Tamerlane or Timur the Lame, was a Turco-Mongol conqueror of the 14th century who built the Timurid Empire; a culturally Persianate Turco-Mongol state that ruled more or less over the region of Greater Iran. Timur saw himself as the heir to Genghis Khan, and sought to emulate him in that regard; in many ways reproducing his deeds as a great conqueror, as well as the brutality of his methods, killing millions in incredibly destructive conquests. Perhaps the most salient feature of his empire was its dual Turco-Mongol and Persian identity; like the Seljuks centuries before, they were a steppes people with Turkic roots who assimilated into the Persianate world of the area, using the Persian language as the official means of communication for their arts, literature and governance whilst retaining their Turkic (and in the case of the Timurids, also Mongolic) roots when it came to their dynastic identity. His rule saw the rise of the Timurid Renaissance, a revival of arts, literature and sciences in the Islamic world, and saw some great achievements in those fields, as well as in architecture, as evidenced by some of the mosques still seen today in Uzbekistan. Given the rich cultural background of the subject, I decided to create a synthesis of Iranian, Central Asian and Mongolian music. The instruments are the Central Asian dombra, the Mongolian morin khuur, the Iranian tanbour, the ney, santour, kemencheh and tombak drums. The melody uses the Iranian Shur mode, as well as the Kurdi maqam, called Phrygian in Western music theory, often heard in Central Asia. A major model for this music was that of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which show some of the highest degree of Turkic and Iranian musical synthesis. The sung languages are Chagatay and Persian; Chagatay being the Turkic language spoken in the area. The Chagatay lyrics are taken from the Karsakpay inscription, an inscription carved in stone on April 28, 1391 by Timur, and the Persian lyrics are from the Zafarnameh, a Persian epic written by Hatefi in the 15th century, which recounts the life and deeds of Timur in a style imitating the Shahnameh, the Iranian epic of kings written by Ferdowsi which would serve as a model of high literature and kingship for most Persianate states such as the Seljuks and the Timurids. Chagatay Turkic lyrics: Yettı yuz yıl toqsan üçintä qoy yaznıŋ ara ay Turannıŋ sultānı Timurbäg üç yuz miŋ çärig bilä Bu yergä yetip bälgü bolzun tep bu obanı qopardı Täŋri nısbat bergäy inşallah! Täŋri ul kişikä rahmat qılğay bizni duā bıla yād qılğay! Summer seven hundred and ninety-three, in the middle spring month of the year of the sheep, Sultan of Turan Timur-Bey went up with three hundred thousand troops, Reaching the area, he built this mound to have been a memorial. God willing, the Lord would execute justice! The Lord will have mercy to the people of the country! Yes, they will remember us with prayer! Persian lyrics: Vagar ātashe ghahr-ash afrookhti, Be yek shoğle zān keshfari sookhti, Be kooh ar (agar) ze kin sāye andākhti, Cho yakh pishe khorshid bog dākhti! Dam az kine oo, kas be ālam nazad, Vagar zad, de gar dar jahān dam nazad, If you did light the fire of his wrath, With that one ember, you burned an entire country, If you dared cast your shadow upon that high mountain, Like the sun, he would melt down your mountain of ice, If any dared tempt his anger by speaking ill of him, Then that one would cease to exist in this world.