Trade and Markets in the Timurid World

From 1370 to 1507, Timurid rulers governed territories centered on Transoxiana, the Central Asian lands around Samarkand beyond the Amu Darya, and Khorasan, the eastern Iranian region centered on Herat. Samarkand, in present-day Uzbekistan, and Herat, in present-day Afghanistan, linked their irrigated regions to caravan exchange. Markets depended on close ties between towns and nearby villages, but also on merchants who carried goods across political borders. A Spanish ambassador, Ruy González de Clavijo, described Samarkand in 1404; later Persian histories and modern studies document changes under Shah Rukh and his successors. These local cases show how food supply, urban markets, taxes and distant trade worked together within The Timurid Economy.

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Food and local supply

Clavijo saw Samarkand surrounded by watered gardens, cotton plots and melon grounds. Camels brought melons into the city from nearby settlements, while village households preserved some for later months: they peeled the fruit, cut it into slices and dried it in the sun. This process carried a seasonal harvest beyond its short growing period. Bread, rice, barley, meat and fruit were also abundant in his account, both in the city markets and among the sellers serving Timur’s large camp.

That military encampment created a temporary market of its own. Clavijo describes sellers setting out bread, cooked meat, fruit and barley among the tents. Barley provisioned animals as well as people, so a ruler’s movement with troops brought demand for both meals and transport. Such supply came from cultivated surroundings and villages through repeated short trips, not just from long-distance caravans.

Building and governing market space

Clavijo says Timur ordered a covered street through Samarkand because merchants arriving from China, India, the northern steppe and other regions lacked an orderly place to display goods. Two officials supervised the work. Builders demolished houses along the route, levelled the ground and raised a broad vaulted roof with windows for light. Teams worked in alternating day and night shifts; once the shops were ready, sellers were assigned places there, and fountains were set along the street. Clavijo says the project took twenty days.

The new street made a continuous commercial space, but it was built through occupied property. Displaced householders complained to courtiers who raised the matter with Timur. He asserted that the city was his property. When courtiers pressed him about the displaced owners, he said he would compensate them if the complaint was justified. The episode connects market planning to the ruler’s control of land and to the people who had to move for the construction.

Caravans, goods and political borders

Clavijo’s account names silk and fine textiles, musk and precious stones from China; spices from India; and skins and linen from northern regions. He also met merchants associated with a caravan from China. The list gives a sense of the range of goods offered in the city and the distant suppliers merchants described.

Caravan movement could also become part of diplomacy. Clavijo reports that Timur detained a Chinese caravan during a dispute with the Ming court. His account places merchants in a political confrontation, where goods and travelers could be delayed by a ruler’s decision. Timurid authorities could encourage exchange and build facilities for it, while rival courts and Turkmen powers still shaped which journeys were practical.

Herat, trade taxes and regional exchange

Under Shah Rukh, Herat’s main crossroads bazaar, called the Chaharsu, was reconstructed in 1410–1411, alongside other urban building. Herat was a major center in Khorasan, connected to surrounding agricultural districts and to caravan traffic toward Central Asia, India and China. A bazaar concentrated sellers and buyers in the city, while canals and roads linked it to the region that supplied food and other goods.

State taxes on trade and craft production, called tamgha, continued despite religious objections. Religious critics objected because these state duties fell outside the taxes prescribed by Islamic law. In Kerman, in southeastern Iran, a city-gate customs duty was collected during the Timurid period, but merchants carrying passes were exempt. After Timur had deported many skilled makers to Samarkand, Shah Rukh’s son Ulugh Beg allowed some to return to their home regions. Production resumed there, while towns remained important meeting places for settled farmers and mobile herding communities. Long-distance caravans carried luxury goods such as silk and porcelain between cities including Herat and Samarkand and markets in India and China. Yet the Timurids did not restore the older east-west trade system at the scale associated with earlier Mongol rule. A decentralized empire and pressure from western Turkmen dynasties limited their ability to secure that corridor.