Editing Tamerlane (section)

==Villainy==
But for all his accomplishments, he was also responsible for many atrocities. It is estimated that his armies killed 17 million people, which was about 5% of the global population at the time.

Tamerlane also slaughtered the Pakistani and Indian people, justifying the brutality as a holy war against the Hindu religion. It is said Timur's cruelty increased with age as legend states that his invasion of Baghdad (Iraq) in 1399 required each of his soldiers to show him two severed heads from the largely Christian population. Tamerlane had a proclivity for arranging small pyramids made of human skulls of those he had decapitated for defying his rule including soldiers who didn't produce their quota of severed heads during his takeover of the Persian City of Isfahan. As revenge for attacking his troops, Tamerlane had the women and children to be taken to a plain outside the city and slaughtered, with children under seven years of age to being placed apart and trampled by horses ridden by his soldiers.

His cruelty also extended to animals in times of war as Tamerlane once had hay placed on the backs of camels, set the hay on fire, and prodded them until they painfully charged at the war elephants sent against by the Sultan of Delhi . The elephants turned and stampeded their own troops, granting Timur an easy victory. After which, Tamerlane had the population of Delhi massacred.

Despite being a self-proclaimed Muslim, some of his worst atrocities were carried out against his fellow Muslims, particularly during his campaign in Syria. After taking over Damascus, Tamerlane let his troops loose on its people, leaving many children to starve when their mothers were carried off into slavery after being raped. Tamerlane marched the best of the city’s artisans, craftsmen, and skilled workers away to build up his weaponry.