History vs. Tamerlane the Conqueror - Stephanie Honchell Smith

翻译人员: Yuwei Wu 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

He was born in the 1330s in the Chaghatayid Khanate

他出生于 1330 年代的 察合台汗国（Chaghatayid），

formerly the Mongol Empire in Central Asia.

前身是中亚的蒙古帝国。

On the unforgiving steppe, he rose from a lowly sheep thief

在这片无情的大草原上， 他从一个卑微的偷羊贼

to become one of history’s greatest conquerors,

成长为历史上最伟大的征服者之一，

uniting nearly all of Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran under his rule.

将几乎整个中亚、阿富汗 和伊朗统一在他的统治之下。

But was he a great state builder or a bloodthirsty tyrant?

但他是一个伟大的国家缔造者， 还是一个嗜血的暴君？

Order! Order! Who do we have on the stand today?

肃静！肃静！ 今天有谁出庭作证？

Tamer...lane?

Tamer...lane?

That wasn’t his name, your Honor.

那不是他的名字，法官阁下

The great Timur— meaning iron— was nicknamed “Timur the lame”

伟大的帖木儿（意思是铁） 被敌人戏称为“跛足帖木儿”，

by enemies who mocked permanent injuries to his leg and arm.

他们嘲笑帖木儿的 腿和胳膊有永久性损伤。

Injuries he sustained raiding a rival tribe’s sheep herd—

他是在袭击敌对部落的 羊群时受的伤，

he was a thief and a scoundrel from the start!

他从一开始就是个小偷和恶棍！

Maybe— we actually don’t know for sure— but even if that’s true,

也许，实际上我们并不确定， 但即使这是真的，

raiding rivals was just part of nomadic life at the time.

袭击对手只是当时 游牧生活的一部分。

Timur was not born into a ruling family,

帖木儿不是出生在统治家族，

so he had to prove his worth through daring and horsemanship.

所以他必须通过勇气与骑术 来证明自己的价值。

He was hardly a commoner.

他几乎不是一个平民。

Timur’s family was minor nobility.

帖木儿的家族是小贵族。

His uncle and brother-in-law were high-ranking officials.

他的叔叔和姻亲兄弟都是高级官员。

And when they trusted Timur on a diplomatic mission,

当他们信任帖木儿执行外交任务时，

he defected to a rival khan!

他叛变了一个敌对的可汗！

Strategic maneuvering!

战略操纵！

He reconciled with his uncle and brother-in-law soon after.

不久之后，他与叔叔和姻亲兄弟和解了。

Only for long enough to consolidate his own power.

只维持了那么一段时间， 让他有时间能巩固自己的权力。

Then he went to battle against his brother-in-law—

然后，他与他的姻亲兄弟，

supposedly his closest ally.

据说是他最亲密的盟友，开战了。

He was assassinated, and Timur seized power!

姻亲兄弟被暗杀了， 帖木儿夺取了政权！

They may have been friends,

也许他们曾经是朋友，

but he was a corrupt man who alienated a lot of people.

但兄弟是个腐败的人， 疏远了很多人。

Timur was right to oust him.

帖木儿把他赶下台是对的。

Afterward, he managed to reunite most of the khanate’s territories

之后，他设法重新统一了 汗国的大部分领土，

and put an end to decades of bloody infighting.

并结束了数十年的血腥内斗。

Okay, so where are we? I can hardly keep up.

好了，我们讲到哪里了? 我几乎跟不上了。

1370, your honor.

1370 年，法官大人。

And he’s khan now?

他现在是可汗了？

Well, not quite.

也不完全是。

Timur was not a direct descendant of Genghis Khan,

帖木儿不是成吉思汗的直系后代，

so he couldn’t claim the title.

所以他不能获得这个头衔。

Instead, he appointed figurehead khans and referred to himself as amir,

相反，他任命了一个傀儡可汗， 称自己为阿米尔，

or commander, and later as güregen, or son-in-law,

或指挥官，后来为“古烈干” （güregen），意为女婿，

after he married a woman who was descended from Genghis Khan.

因为他娶了一个 成吉思汗后代的女人。

He claimed to be a divinely ordained protector of the Mongol and Muslim worlds,

他声称自己是神圣的 蒙古和穆斯林世界的保护者，

yet he undermined both Mongol and Muslim power

然而他无情地向邻国发动战争，

by relentlessly waging war against his neighbors,

削弱了蒙古和穆斯林的力量，

weakening them so much that Christian Europe romanticized him as an ally.

以至于信奉基督教的欧洲 将他传奇化为盟友。

His campaigns killed as many as 17 million people!

他的军事行动夺去了 1700 万人的生命！

Propaganda.

宣传。

Timur’s official biographies deliberately exaggerated the number of deaths

帖木儿的官方传记 故意夸大了死亡人数

to deter rebellions.

以遏制叛乱。

Like the Mongols, Timur offered cities the chance to surrender

和蒙古人一样，帖木儿 给这些城市提供了投降的机会，

and only ordered massacres if they revolted.

只有当他们造反时才会下令屠杀。

He rebuilt irrigation canals to support agriculture,

他重建了灌溉渠以支持农业，

and regularly distributed food to the poor.

并定期向穷人分发食物。

Just in his hometown of Kesh,

在他的家乡渴石城（Kesh），

he paid for the meat of 20 sheep to be given to the poor every day.

他每天买 20 只羊的肉分给穷人。

His campaigns were brutal,

他的战役是残酷的，

but by unifying Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran,

但通过统一中亚、阿富汗和伊朗，

he was also able to reinvigorate the Silk Road.

他也重振了丝绸之路。

Much of Eurasia benefited from the revival of long-distance trade,

欧亚大陆的大部分地区 受益于长途贸易的复兴，

and Central Asian cities, such as Samarkand and Herat,

中亚城市，如撒马尔罕和赫拉特，

became thriving commercial hubs under his rule.

在他的统治下成为繁荣的商业中心。

And meanwhile, other cities like Baghdad, Aleppo, and Delhi

与此同时，巴格达、 阿勒颇和德里等其他城市

were plundered and burned and took decades to recover.

被洗劫和烧毁，花了几十年才恢复。

This illiterate warlord destroyed centuries’ worth of cultural heritage,

这个目不识丁的军阀 摧毁了几个世纪以来的文化遗产，

leaving nothing but pyramids of skulls in his wake.

留下的只有堆成金字塔的头骨。

Timur may have been illiterate,

帖木儿可能是文盲，

but he was also an active patron of culture and the arts.

但他也是文化和艺术的积极赞助人。

During his conquests, he spared artisans and scholars,

在他的征服过程中， 他放过了工匠和学者，

sending them to work on public projects like schools and mosques.

把他们送到学校和清真寺等 公共项目中去工作。

Unlike many women in the world at the time,

与当时世界上的许多女性不同，

his wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law

他的妻子、女儿和儿媳

were highly educated and politically active.

都受过高等教育， 在政治上很活跃。

Timur also personally met with— and impressed—

帖木尔还在大马士革 亲自会见了著名的

the famed Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in Damascus,

阿拉伯历史学家伊本·赫勒敦 （Ibn Khaldun），并给他留下了深刻印象。

and he so thoroughly mastered chess that he is said to have enjoyed

他精通国际象棋，据说还喜欢一种

a more complex variant that was named for him.

以他的名字命名的 更复杂的象棋变体。

So what happened after that?

那之后发生了什么?

Timur died from an illness in 1405, when he was likely in his early 70s.

帖木儿在 1405 年死于一场疾病， 当时他可能 70 多岁。

The empire he founded lasted another hundred years,

他建立的帝国又持续了 100 年，

ushering in an architectural, artistic, literary and scientific renaissance

在整个中亚地区迎来了建筑、艺术、

across Central Asia.

文学和科学的复兴。

In Samarkand, Timur’s grandson, Ulugh Beg,

在撒马尔罕，帖木儿的孙子， 兀鲁伯（Ulugh Beg），

built the largest astronomical observatory in the world at the time.

建造了当时世界上最大的天文台。

Even after the fall of Timur's empire,

甚至在帖木儿的帝国灭亡之后，

his descendant Babur re-established himself in India,

他的后代巴布尔（Babur） 在印度重现了帖木儿的壮举，

founding the Mughal Empire,

建立了莫卧儿帝国，

which would become home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population

这个帝国后来成为了世界上 近四分之一人口的家园，

and which built such splendors as the Red Fort and Taj Mahal.

并建造了德里红堡和泰姬陵等 辉煌的建筑。

Timur's legacy is still celebrated in monuments across Central Asia,

帖木儿的遗产仍然在中亚各地的 纪念碑上被纪念，在那里他被称为

where he is remembered as “Buyuk Babamiz” or “our great forefather.”

“Buyuk Babamiz” 或 “我们伟大的祖先”。

And yet today in Europe, India, and much of the Middle East,

然而今天，在欧洲、 印度和中东的大部分地区，

he's remembered as a butcher.

他被认为是一个屠夫。

That’s more reflection of the success of his own propaganda

这更多地反映了他自己宣传的成功，

than of the man himself.

而不是他本人的成功。

Hold on now, I think I’ve almost got the king cornered!

坚持住，我想我快把国王 逼到墙角了！

Emerging from relative obscurity, Timur’s conquests formed a legacy

帖木儿从一个无名之辈开始， 他的征服形成了一项

lasting nearly 500 years that remains on trial even today.

持续了近 500 年的遗产， 直到今天仍饱受争议。