Late Middle Ages · Central Asia · Exploration
1404
Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo Rides to Samarkand
1404
The Castilian ambassador set out across Persia and the Oxus to deliver Henry III's letters to Timur. He found a city of blue-tiled domes, Chinese giraffes in the zoo, and a court where captured artisans from Delhi, Damascus, and Bursa labored under the same Turkic whip. His journal survives. His detailed account remains one of the most important European eyewitness records of the Timurid Empire at its zenith.
In context
Also in 1404 (3 other events on record)
- Yongle Emperor Orders Forbidden City Construction · East Asia · Technology
- Kilwa Sultanate at Commercial Peak · Africa · Politics
- Konrad Kyeser Writes Bellifortis · Europe · Technology
Before and after in Central Asia
Before and after in Exploration
Era
Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.