Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo
Ruy González de Clavijo († April 2, 1412 in Madrid) was a Spanish diplomat and author. On behalf of Henry III. , King of Castile and Leon, 1403-1406 Clavijo traveled to Central Asia (then Transoxiana, today's Uzbekistan ) and spent three months at the court of Timur in Samarkand. The goal of his trip was the establishment of an alliance between the European powers and the Timuridenreich against the Ottomans. While the Europeans had suffered several defeats in the wars against the Turks, the armies of Timur were at the battle of Angora (now Ankara) to enforce against the Ottomans, so it seemed to the king of Castile convenient to obtain Timur as an alliance partner.
Clavijos journey began on May 21, 1403 near Cadiz. By sea he first went to Constantinople Opel and from there across the Bosporus through the Black Sea to Trebizond. From there we went overland through Armenia, past the Mount Ararat, through Azerbaijan continues to Tabriz and south of the Caspian Sea through Persia (now Iran) to Tehran. The way led him through Khorasan up to the Oxus ( Amu Darya today ) and finally Shahr -i Sabs to Samarkand. There, the Spanish group to Clavijo arrived on 31 August 1404 but had to wait a week until she was admitted on September 8 to Timur. At his court Clavijo spent about three months, on 22 November 1404 took the return journey. Timur himself had arrived by this time at the end of his reign, he died about two months later.
After his return to Castile on March 24, 1406 Clavijo served as chamberlain at the court of King Henry III. He should also have been a witness of the will of the king. After the death of Henry himself Clavijo moved back to his hometown of Madrid. The diary of his trip to Asia for the first time in 1582 under the title Embajada a Tamor Lán: published ( German " ambassador to Tamerlane " ) by Gonzalo Argote de Molina and is an important source for the history of Central Asia during the Timurids. The second edition was made in 1782 by Antonio de Sancha. Clements Markham translated this edition and thus released the Clavijo reports in 1859 for the first time in English.