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Article: SULTAN OF BLOOD; He beheaded and raped millions, and his calling card was a tower of skulls. Was Emperor Tamerlane the bloodiest tyrant in history?
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- February 3, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: ANDREW ROBERTS
ENEMIES were beheaded in their hundreds of thousands, whether they surrendered or not. In the killing fields, their heads were piled into grotesque knolls 15ft high and 30ft wide.
One historian recorded that 'vultures, scenting carrion, wheeled overhead, swooping down to pluck eyes out of sockets as 20,000 expressions of abject terror, horror, disgust and defiance stared out into a blank sky'.
This was the work of the Emperor Tamerlane, whose kingdom was founded on bloodlust and sadism, the like of which the world had never seen. The mere mention of his name - a derivation of Temur the Lame, after he was wounded in his ...