By the time of Timur's death, the Timurid Empire encompasses much of Persia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. His legacy is a bloody one. As he expanded territory and took over cities, it was not uncommon for his soldiers to kill tens if not hundreds of thousands of civilians who revolted against Timur's rule. His forces famously attacked the Dali Sultanate, not hoping to conquer India, but to take its spoils. In 1398, he was able to successfully defeat the sultan who had battle elephants, and he was able to defeat them by sending camels that had flames on their backs to scare the elephants. And famously, when his forces took Dali, they killed 100,000 to 200,000 people and took the spoils of the city. There are some estimates that Timur's forces killed as many as 17 million people as the empire expanded.