Timurid historiography from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries offered almost no details regarding many aspects of Tīmūr's private life. We seem to have no official stories about the ruler's birth and youth or about his parents. The earliest developed account concerns Tīmūr's struggle for power in Mawarannahr when he was already in his twenties and possibly in his thirties. Stories in outside sources, either contemporaries such as Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo (ambassador to Tīmūr's court of Henri III, king of Castile and León) or the historian Ibn ‘Arabshāh (d. 1450), provided a few more details, albeit briefly, concerning Tīmūr's humble economic origins – even if his father did serve in some function at the court of a local amir – and his early career in sheep stealing and brigandage.

The story that begins the biographical cycle details the circumstances surrounding Tīmūr's birth and his early childhood. The city of Bukhara emerges as the seat of power of the Chaghatayid realm. Parts of the Chaghatayid lineage, as perceived by the storytellers of the eighteenth century, are introduced, as well as the connection to Chinggis Khan. They explain the claim to the kingship of Central Asia not only of the Chaghatay khans but also of the Barlas tribe. As they treasure Bukhara's prominence, readers and listeners become acquainted with one of the pivotal figures in the city's history and in Tīmūr's early life, Sayf al-Din Bākharzī, who performs a commanding role as the formidable Central Asian Sufi shaykh.