Timur had helped Tokhtamysh to assume supreme power in the White Horde against Tokhtamysh's uncle Urus Khan in the late 1370s and early 1380s.

After this, Tokhtamysh had united the White and Blue Hordes, forming the Golden Horde, and launched a massive military punitive campaign against the Russian principalities between 1381 and 1382, restoring the Turko (tartar)-Mongol power in Russia after the defeat in the Battle of Kulikovo.

The Golden Horde, after a period of anarchy between the early 1360s and late 1370s, had thus been briefly reestablished as a dominant regional power, defeating Lithuania in Poltava around 1383.

But Tokhtamysh had territorial ambitions in Persia and Central Asia, and on account of this he turndagainst his old ally, Timur.

After the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335, the last ruler of the Ilkhanid Dynasty, a power vacuum had emerged in Persia, and Persia's vulnerability had led to military incursions from its neighbors.

In 1383 Timur started his military conquest of that country, capturing Herat, Khorasan and all of eastern Persia by 1385.

In the same year, Tokhtamysh raids Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.

The city of Tabriz is plundered and Tokhtamysh retires with a rich booty.