Shah Rukh Inherits the Timurid Throne

1405

Timur's youngest son, a poet and bibliophile who preferred Herat's gardens to the saddle, took what remained of his father's empire and turned it inward. Under him the Timurid Renaissance bloomed: manuscripts illuminated in lapis, mosques sheathed in turquoise, a court where calligraphy mattered more than conquest. His wife Goharshad commissioned the magnificent mosque complex at Herat that still bears her name today.