Abu Sa'id (Timurid dynasty)
Encyclopedia
Abū Saʿīd b. Muḥammad b. Mīrānshāh b. Timūr (Herat
, 1424–1469), was a Timurid Empire ruler in what is today parts of Kazakhstan
, Uzbekistan
, Iran
and Afghanistan
and member of the Timurid dynasty
.
Abū Saʿīd was the great-grandson of Timur
, the grandson of Miran Shah
, and the nephew of Ulugh Beg
. He was the grandfather of Babur
, the founder of the Mughal Empire
in India. As a young man his ancestry made him a principal in the century long struggle for the remnants of Timur's empire waged between Timur's descendants, the Black Sheep Turkomans, and the White Sheep Turkomans (1405–1510).
He raised an army but failed to gain a foothold in Samarkand
or Bukhara
(1448–1449); established his base at Yasi
and conquered much of Turkestan
in 1450. In June of 1451, he captured Samarkand with the aid of the Uzbek Turks
under Abūʾl-Khayr Khān
, thus securing rulership of the eastern part of Timur's Empire, Transoxiana
. He fought an inconclusive war with Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
of Khorasan
in 1454; and took advantage of his cousin Jahan Shah
's capture of Herat late in 1457 to capture it for himself in 1458, thus acquiring the rest of Timur's heartland and becoming the most powerful of the Timurid princes in central Asia
. He defeated an alliance of three other Timurid princes at the Battle of Sarakhs in March 1459, and conquered eastern Iran
and most of Afghanistan
by 1461, agreeing with Jahan Shah to divide Iran between them; when the White Sheep Turkoman chieftain Uzun Hasan attacked and killed Jahan Shah, Abu Sa'id spurned Uzun Hasan's peace offer and answered Jahan Shah's son's request for aid.
Captured (on 11 February 1469 [NS]) by Uzun Hasan with a small force at the calamitous battle of Qarabagh
(in modern Republic of Azerbaijan) during a campaign against the Ak Koyunlu
(White Sheep) Turkomans, he was handed over to Yadigar Muhammad
on 17 February 1469 [NS] who executed him immediately.
A capable and conscientious ruler, he tried to recapture the glory and prosperity of Miran Shah. He did much to restore economic prosperity in his kingdom, by promoting well-planned irrigation, and a reasonable tax system for peasants. He was also a Sufi disciple, and worked closely with the Naqshbandi
order, under shaykh
Khwaja Ubaydallah Ahrar. He was also linked to Mawlānā Muḥammad Qāḍī, a shaykh in the Khwājagān
, linked to the Naqshbandiyya.
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, 1424–1469), was a Timurid Empire ruler in what is today parts of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and member of the Timurid dynasty
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
.
Abū Saʿīd was the great-grandson of Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
, the grandson of Miran Shah
Miran Shah
Miran Shah was a son of Timur, and a Timurid governor during his father's lifetime.Miran Shah's first charge was a vast region centered around Qandahar, which he was granted in 1383. That same year, he destroyed a rebellion against Timurid authority by the Kartids, then vassals of Timur in...
, and the nephew of Ulugh Beg
Ulugh Beg
Ulugh Bek was a Timurid ruler as well as an astronomer, mathematician and sultan. His commonly-known name is not truly a personal name, but rather a moniker, which can be loosely translated as "Great Ruler" or "Patriarch Ruler" and was the Turkic equivalent of Timur's Perso-Arabic title Amīr-e...
. He was the grandfather of Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
, the founder of the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
in India. As a young man his ancestry made him a principal in the century long struggle for the remnants of Timur's empire waged between Timur's descendants, the Black Sheep Turkomans, and the White Sheep Turkomans (1405–1510).
He raised an army but failed to gain a foothold in Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
or Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
(1448–1449); established his base at Yasi
Yasi
Yasi is a video game which was developed in 2003 for the Vectrex video game console. It has been developed by independent enthusiasts.YASI means Yet Another Space Invader....
and conquered much of Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
in 1450. In June of 1451, he captured Samarkand with the aid of the Uzbek Turks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
under Abūʾl-Khayr Khān
Abu'l-Khayr Khan
Abu'l-Khayr Khan was the leader who united the nomadic Uzbek tribes from which the Kazakh khanate later separated in rebellion under Janybek Khan and Kerei Khan beginning in 1466....
, thus securing rulership of the eastern part of Timur's Empire, Transoxiana
Transoxiana
Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgystan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
. He fought an inconclusive war with Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur , also known as Abu'l-Qasim Bābur, was a Timurid ruler in Khurasan . He was the son of Baysunqar, and thus the a grandson of Shāhrukh Mirzā....
of Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
in 1454; and took advantage of his cousin Jahan Shah
Jahan Shah
Muzaffar al-Din Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf was the leader of the Kara Koyunlu Turkmen tribal federation in Azerbaijan and Arran who reigned c.1438-1467. During his reign he managed to expand the Kara Koyunlu’s territory to its largest extent, including Western Anatolia, most of present day Iraq,...
's capture of Herat late in 1457 to capture it for himself in 1458, thus acquiring the rest of Timur's heartland and becoming the most powerful of the Timurid princes in central Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. He defeated an alliance of three other Timurid princes at the Battle of Sarakhs in March 1459, and conquered eastern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and most of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
by 1461, agreeing with Jahan Shah to divide Iran between them; when the White Sheep Turkoman chieftain Uzun Hasan attacked and killed Jahan Shah, Abu Sa'id spurned Uzun Hasan's peace offer and answered Jahan Shah's son's request for aid.
Captured (on 11 February 1469 [NS]) by Uzun Hasan with a small force at the calamitous battle of Qarabagh
Qarabagh
Qarabagh may refer to:*Qarabagh District, Ghazni, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan*Qarabagh District, Kabul, in Kabul Province, AfghanistanSee also:*Karabakh, region in Azerbaijan...
(in modern Republic of Azerbaijan) during a campaign against the Ak Koyunlu
Ak Koyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans , was an Sunni Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and Iran from 1378 to 1508.-History:According to chronicles from the Byzantine Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu...
(White Sheep) Turkomans, he was handed over to Yadigar Muhammad
Yadigar Muhammad
Yadigar Muhammad was the Timurid ruler of Herat in opposition to Husayn Bayqarah for a portion of 1470.Yadigar Muhammad was born to Sultan Muhammad, who was a grandson of Shah Rukh. It was his family ties that caused Uzun Hasan, sultan of the Ak Koyunlu confederation, to hand over to him Abu...
on 17 February 1469 [NS] who executed him immediately.
A capable and conscientious ruler, he tried to recapture the glory and prosperity of Miran Shah. He did much to restore economic prosperity in his kingdom, by promoting well-planned irrigation, and a reasonable tax system for peasants. He was also a Sufi disciple, and worked closely with the Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
order, under shaykh
Shaykh of Sufism
A Shaykh , , of Sufism is a Sufi who is authorized to teach, initiate and guide aspiring dervishes. The shaykh is vital to the path of the novice sufi, for the shaykh has himself travelled the path of mysticism...
Khwaja Ubaydallah Ahrar. He was also linked to Mawlānā Muḥammad Qāḍī, a shaykh in the Khwājagān
Khwajagan
Khwājagān is a Persian title for "the Master". Khwajagan is a word often used to refer to a chain of Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi Masters from the 10th to the 16th century...
, linked to the Naqshbandiyya.