Document Type : Scientific-Research
Author
Faculty member of Urmia University History Department
Abstract
Legitimacy, which means being accepted by all, is something that all governments try hard to achieve since it eliminates big financial and military expenses needed for supporting their power. Timur was not excluded from this fact and did his best to achieve this legitimacy. In the era of his government, the legitimacy crisis appeared in the Islamic society. The legitimacy of Abbasid Caliphate had become unstable due to its falling, and Mongolian legitimacy was unable to replace it thoroughly. This problem was more severe for Timur’s government whose power had been commenced in the East, i.e. in Mongolian’s neighborhood. In this way the article tends to answer this question “what were the strategies applied by Timur to face with this crisis?” It seems that considering sources of legitimacy in different regions, Timur worked hard to reach them all. Studies on Timurid dynasty’s seeking of legitimacy reveal that at first he applied Mongolian legitimacy sources and while extending his government to the West, Timur showed more inclination toward adopting Islamic legitimacy sources due to the lack of credibility of the former. Achieving this legitimacy was propagated in two classes of elites and common people. It seems Timur’s effort for achieving legitimacy has been more successful among elites. Overall consideration makes it clear that though Timur was busy with military acts, he attained some of the necessities of legitimacy in elites’ and common people’s view. This article is a historical research based on description and analysis of events related to questions and hypotheses in the paper.
Keywords
Main Subjects
)