So picture this: it is June of 1941. A team of Soviet anthropologists descends into a dimly lit crypt in Samarkand, modern-day Uzbekistan, on a state-sanctioned mission to crack open the marble tomb of a 14th-century conqueror. Local folklore warns of a spine-chilling curse carved into the stone: "Whomsoever opens my tomb shall unleash an invader more terrible than I." Brushing off the warning, they pry the heavy lid open anyway. Meticulously examining the skeletal remains, they break the seal—and literally three days later, Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, pouring three million Axis troops across the Soviet border in one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The man lying inside that cursed tomb was Timur, frequently known in the West as Tamerlane, the last great nomadic conqueror of the Eurasian steppe. In this story-dri ...