Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) sacked Delhi in December 1398, massacring inhabitants and carrying off enormous wealth and artisans to Samarkand. This invasion severely weakened the Delhi Sultanate and contributed to political fragmentation in northern India. Timur's campaigns across Central Asia, Persia, and India caused widespread destruction while also transferring skilled workers and cultural treasures to his capital.

Timur's destruction disrupted Persianate literary culture in India while his court in Samarkand became a center for Persian poetry and miniature painting. The trauma of invasion influenced Indo-Persian poetry, with poets reflecting on impermanence and suffering. Yet Timur's patronage also preserved and transmitted Persian literary traditions, and the movement of artists and scholars between regions facilitated cross-pollination of poetic styles that would later flourish in Mughal courts.