Unfortunately for the Russians, another great man was looming up in Asia in the person of Tamerlane, or more properly, Timur-Beg. This great commander, who claimed to be a distant relative of Genghis-Khan, was born at a village some forty miles to the south of Samarcand in the year 1336. Almost from childhood he was a soldier, and, beginning in youth a course of conquest, he established his capital at Samarcand, and gradually spread his power until he had carried it by force of arms to Delhi in Indian, beyond the Ganges, had taken Bagdad, Smyrna and Asia Minor, and, finally, when over seventy years old, died from exposure in a winter campaign against China. He was a despot, who ruled without councilors or law-makers, and yet seems to have been a man of letters, as well as a warrior.
It was one of Tamerlane's generals, who, after a victory which humbled the Ottoman power in Asia Minor, was sent into Southern Russia, and, conquering the Golden Horde, announced to Dimitri that, having struck a fatal blow at their common enemy, they had better be friends.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
