29. The Badass Ottoman Sultan Who Trash Talked a Bigger Badass
Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (1360 – 1403), nicknamed Yildirim (“Lightning”) for the speed and ferocity of his attacks, was a badass. Unfortunately for him, he got into a medieval flame war with an even bigger badass, Tamerlane, and it backfired big time.
His nemesis was Steppe warlord Tamerlane (1336 – 1405), a Muslim Turko-Mongol, who claimed descent from Genghis Khan. The claim was dubious, but Tamerlane justified his conquests as a restoration of the Mongol Empire and re-imposition of legitimate Mongol rule over lands seized by usurpers. He then spent 35 years earning a reputation for savagery while bringing fire and sword to the lands between the Indus and the Volga, the Himalayas and the Mediterranean.