In the following year, A.H. 762 (1361), the Khān of Jatah again entered Transoxiana, and, after a successful campaign against various rebellious nobles, took possession of Samarkand. He intrusted the government of the conquered districts to his son Iliyās Khwāja Oghlān, while Tīmūr, whose sagacity had attracted the Khān’s attention, was appointed chief councillor to the young prince. Tīmūr, however, was disgusted with the conduct of certain of his colleagues, and fled the country in search of his brother-in-law Amīr Husayn, the grandson of Kazghan.[407] After a career of marvellous adventure in company with Amīr Husayn, he had by the year A.H. 765 (1363) collected sufficient troops round him to make a stand against Iliyās Khwāja, whom in an encounter near Kunduz he entirely routed, and compelled to withdraw across the Oxus.
At the close of A.H. 771 (1370) he had made himself absolute master of the dominions of the western Chaghatāys, and had restored order in the state. He did not, however, place himself on the throne of the Chaghatāys, but made another rightful descendant of that line nominal head of the empire.
This apparent self-abnegation was probably due to the universal respect enjoyed by the house of Chaghatāy as descendants of Chingiz, and to the associations which clustered round their name. Be this as it may, it is certain that Tīmūr was content with the absolute power won by his genius, and scorned the sounding style of emperor. That his rule made for the happiness of the peoples who owned his sway is evidenced by the hold which his personality had, and still retains, on the fickle population of Central Asia. “The love and attachment of the army to Tīmūr,” writes Wolff,[408] “was so great and so unlimited that they would forego plunder in time of need if ordered by him; and the subjection to him was so blind and unconditional that it would only have cost him an order to cause himself to be proclaimed not only as emperor, but even as Prophet of the Tartars. He endeavoured to soften the inclination to cruelty of his soldiers, composed of so many nations, by poets and learned men, by musicians and _sufis_, who came in swarms to the army and wandered with him through Asia.”[409] Under his enlightened rule Samarkand became the centre of a great and brilliant court, and was embellished with palaces, mosques, and colleges which extort the admiration of those who view them in their decay.