Temür, or Tamerlane, rose to power in Transoxania, on the border between the sedentary and nomadic worlds. He was at once Muslim, Turk and Mongol and his grandiose career of conquest covered all the central Islamic lands along with much of the Western Mongol Empire. At his time the descendants of Chinggis Khan had lost effective power over Iran, China and the western part of the Chaghadayid Khanate. Nonetheless, the idea of the Mongol Empire remained important and Chinggisid descent was a requirement for legitimate sovereign power in most regions of the former empire. Of the Turko-Mongolian tribal leaders who had taken control in Iran, Transoxania and Western Mongolia, almost all bolstered their position through formal ties with the Chinggisid house.

Transoxania lay within the western section of the Chaghadayid Khanate, which also contained the region stretching from Balkh to Ghazna and Qandahar – the territory of the Qara'unas, a group that developed from the Mongol garrison (tamma) troops centred in Qunduz and Baghlan. After the rule of Tarmashirin Khan (1331–4) the khanate had fallen into confusion and had begun to separate into eastern and western sections. In 1347 the Qara'unas chief Qazghan killed the Chaghadayid Qazan Khan and took power over the western regions, legitimating his rule through a Chinggisid puppet khan. In the same year, Tughluq Temür Khan gained power over the eastern khanate with the help of the powerful Dughlat tribe.