| Siege of Balkh | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Timurid conquests and invasions | |||||||
 Timur commanding the siege | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Timur of Timurid Empire |  Amir Husayn of Chagatai Khanate | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The siege of Balkh was a key success in Timur's rise to power and established him as the ruler of the western Chagatai Khanate in Transoxiana.
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, extending northward into parts of the Arctic; eastward and southward into parts of the Indian subcontinent, mounted invasions of Southeast Asia, and conquered the Iranian Plateau; and reached westward as far as the Levant and the Carpathian Mountains.
The Chagatai Khanate, also known as the Chagatai Ulus, was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan, second son of Genghis Khan, and his descendants and successors. At its height in the late 13th century the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the area once ruled by the Qara Khitai.
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Tughlugh Timur Khan (1312/13–1363) was the Khan of Moghulistan from c. 1347 and Khan of the whole Chagatai Khanate from c. 1360 until his death. Esen Buqa is believed to be his father. His reign is known for his conversion to Islam and his invasions of Transoxiana.
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The division of the Mongol Empire began after Möngke Khan died in 1259 in the siege of Diaoyu Castle with no declared successor, precipitating infighting between members of the Tolui family line for the title of khagan that escalated into the Toluid Civil War. This civil war, along with the Berke–Hulagu war and the subsequent Kaidu–Kublai war, greatly weakened the authority of the great khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire, and the empire fractured into four khanates: the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in Iran, and the Yuan dynasty in China based in modern-day Beijing – although the Yuan emperors held the nominal title of khagan of the empire.
The siege of Tbilisi was the successful siege of the city of Tbilisi, capital of the Kingdom of Georgia, by the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur, which ended on 22 November 1386. The official history of his reign, Zafarnama, represents this invasion in Georgia as a jihad.
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Haqnazar Haider Sultan bin Qasim Khan, commonly known as Haqnazar Khan, was the khan of the Kazakh khanate from 1538-1580. He was the second-oldest son of Qasim Khan and the younger brother of Muhammed Khan.