WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Reconstructon of the possible appearance of the conqueror Timur.

Back in 2013 mom and I were watching CNN's coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombing. And watching the talking heads basically keep repeating themselves even after the bombers were identified. I recognized the name of the older brother, Tamarlan, as a version of the name Tamarlane. Tamaralane, the Europeanized version of the name Timur. One of the last of the nomad conquerors and of Turko Mongol blood. Timur who welded an empire out of what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia.

Sidenote. In an era when generals were expected to lead from the front and were usually expected to outfight as well as outsmart their subordinates there is strong evidence that Timur was disabled. His skeleton has been discovered and examined. There was damage to his right leg that would have left him with a severe limp and an injury to his right shoulder. Mongols had a rep for spending most of their lives on horseback so perhaps the limp didn't matter too much as long as he could wield a sword and out general the enemy. 

Regarded as one of the greateset commanders in history. Also one with the perhaps the highest body coumts. Some historians put the death toll at around seventeen million. An impressive figuare at the time. 

The brothers were  described as being of Chechen descent although they were born in Khirgizstan. Even more curious I did a little digging into recent Chechen history and came up with Dzhokar Dudayev. The first preident of the breakaway republic of Chechnia. President from 1991 to 1996 when he was assissinated by the Russians. 

To be honest I have no idea why their parents named their sons for two men who could be considered heroes to many Muslims. Or that the younger brother was a naturalized citizen of this country. And we were watching CNN so this information may have been presented on another station. Some Americans might have found this background information interesting. Taking some time to present a history lesson or two would have at least broken up the hypnotic repetition of the same material over and over and over. 

The research took me, a retired history nut, less than an hour to dig up the basic facts. No telling what an ambitious, highly motivated intern could have come up with in the same amount of time. I can't imagine anyone from the Ed Murrow school of journalism letting the information just laying there without doing something with it. Heaven knows most Americans including me know damn little about that part of the world and what makes those folks tick.