This paper will examine the interplay between popular shrine-based piety and religious authority in Timurid Iran and Central Asia in the Later Middle Period. The veneration of saints and the visiting of shrines (ziy?rat al-qub?r) played a central role in religion in this time for all segments of society. The shrine (maz?r) can be seen as another arena of culture and religion, alongside other public places such as the mosque or the bazaar. Sultans and nobility showed their reverence to saints living and dead at shrines, Sufis gathered in these sacred spaces to learn from their masters and to undertake spiritual exercises, students gathered to listen to lectures, and common pilgrims came as well to listen to preachers and partake in the baraka of the shrine. The question of authority and who would wield it takes a central place in the discussion of shrine ritual. In the rule of the Timurids, we see that they found benefit to turn to a conservative Islamic idiom to present their rule. At the same time, they employed and fostered a class of ‘ulam?’ that could give intellectual voice to similar forms of religious orthodoxy. This period was also a time when institutionalized forms of Sufism were rapidly growing in power and importance alongside more problematic messianic and apocalyptic figures. Because almost all of these segments of society participated in this form of piety, there were inevitably attempts by the religious and political elites mentioned above, to take an authoritative stance with regard to the practice. This paper will look for these instances of cooption of authority to dictate proper ritual and behavior and how this authority was accepted and/or contested. My main sources will be grave visitation manuals (kit?b-i maz?r?t) of important Timurid cities such as Herat, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tabriz. These manuals provide different points of access: some are much more normative in their instruction, while others devote more space to recounting anecdotes that present a larger picture of behavior around a shrine; some have clear Sufi associations, while others were written under royal patronage. By reading these manuals alongside a variety of other sources, I will draw out the different forms of religious authority and their role in governing the life of the Timurid shrine.