Three years later, with Pūlād and Edigu smarting after a failure to take Moscow and the brief usurpation of a rival, Tokhtamysh's son Karīm Berdi at Sarai, the bypassed Tīmūr became khan in disputed circumstances.

According to one account, he staged a coup, dethroning Pūlād, and causing the now unpopular Edigu to flee.

[2] According to another account, Pūlād was killed in battle by another son of Tokhtamysh's, Jalāl ad-Dīn, but the latter failed to seize power and Edigu placed Tīmūr on the throne, before quarreling with him and being forced to flee.

The new khan, Tīmūr immediately sent an army to pursue the fugitives, under the command of a new beglerbeg, Tekne, and emir the Ghāzān.

Getting the beglerbeg Tekne drunk, Ghāzān sent his retainer Jān Khwāja to murder Tīmūr Khan, sometime in late 1411 or early 1412.