China and the West

Marlowe, Christopher. Tamburlaine the Great [ID D30840].
Sekundärliteratur
Phelps, William Lyon. Christopher Marlowe. (New York, N.Y. : American Book Company, 1912).
http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/marlowe004.html.
Tamburlaine was a real character in history, whose actual achievements sound like a wild romance. Timur, called Timur Lenk (that is, Timur the Lame), Tamerlane, or Tamburlaine, was an Asiatic Napoleon of the fourteenth century. He was born in 1333 in Central Asia, and for some time was merely the chief of a petty tribe. But he finally overran and subdued an enormous stretch of territory, extending from the Chinese Wall to the Mediterranean Sea, and from Siberia to the Ganges. His cruelty was as notable as his genius, though not so uncommon. He is said to have build a pyramid constructed entirely of the heads of his foes. He died in 1405, and his empire went to pieces. In 1543 a Spanish biography of him appeared at Seville, composed by Pedro Mexia. This book had great vogue, and was translated into various European languages. The English version was printed in 1571, and it is extremely probable that it is the chief source of the drama Tamburlaine. The details are largely the same; the cage, the crumbs of bread, the scraps of meat, and the title, Scourge of God are all in the original.
"Tamburlaine the Great" by Christopher Marlowe. (2004).
http://h2g2.com/entry/A694758.
The play that made Marlowe's name as a playwright, and established him at the very top of the profession, Tamburlaine is a dramatisation of the life and career of Timur-i-Leng (or "Timur the Lame"), the fourteenth century ruler of Samarkand 2. History records that Timur conquered Persians, Turks, Syrians and Tartars, and died (from natural causes) on the eve of launching a campaign to conquer the Chinese too. Marlowe's Tamburlaine is no less ambitious, and the first part sees him rise from lowly shepherd to becoming the Emperor of Asia, crushing all opposition with ruthless and unstoppable determination.