This study radically re-evaluates the scholarly and intellectual isolation with which the Mughals have been traditionally treated, and argues that the Mughals must be recognized as the primary inheritors of the Central Asian Turco- Persian legacy of their ancestor Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane). Driven from their homeland in Central Asia, the Timurid refugee community of South Asia meticulously maintained and asserted the universally admired charisma of their imperial lineage and inherited cultural personality.