6 – He Crushed the Christians
The Knights Hospitaller had succeeded in holding off the Ottomans for over a century because they created an impressive stronghold in the 14th century. It was located close to Rhodes on the Asia Minor coast. The town, Bodrum, was once called Halikarnassos and was the birthplace of Herodotus. Although they were able to fend off the Turks, they underestimated the strength of Timur and his army.
When he arrived at a Hospitaller castle in Smyrna in December 1402, the defenders were confident that he would be unable to break through. After all, there was a deep ditch that separated their castle from the mainland. Extra men and supplies were sent to them via the sea, so there was no chance of being starved out. However, Timur ordered his engineers to build a giant platform to block the port and started bombarding the castle. Then, his men dug beneath the castle and collapsed the tunnels. Timur was able to storm the city and butchered the inhabitants; their heads were displayed on spikes. The surviving knights fled to Bodrum.
Two years previously, Timur attacked Sivas in Turkey which was defended primarily by Christian Armenian soldiers. He told the inhabitants that no blood would be shed if they surrendered. They believed him and, technically, he kept his word. Instead of slaying them by the sword, he ordered the 4,000 soldiers to be buried alive. While he murdered the Christian soldiers, he spared the Muslims.
Timur found Georgia to be a more difficult conquest and invaded it seven times. Eventually, King Bagrat V of Georgia, after briefly losing his crown, agreed to Timur’s request to convert to Islam. However, the king secretly remained a Christian. Timur sent 12,000 men to help with the conversion, but they were slaughtered by the Georgians. The irate warlord wreaked terrible revenge by ravaging the Georgian countryside, killing the elderly and capturing everyone who did not resist as a slave. In Kvabtakhevi, Timur told the villagers to convert or die. They chose death and were burnt alive. Legend has it that they sang psalms to God as the flames consumed them.