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Shaibanid Empire
AD 1500 - 1598
The Shaibanids were Özbegs (Uzbeks), a Turkic tribal people who were
descended from Shiban, son of Juchi Khan of the
Golden Horde. By
the fifteenth century, they lived in the region of Turkestan, which covered
eastern Scythia, Transoxiana, and Greater Khorasan. Today the heartland of
this region is formed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.
In 1450, the Shaibanid Uzbegs came to prominence when their leader, Mohammed Shaibani,
aided the
Timurid prince, Abu Sa'id, to capture
Samarkand and
the Timurid crown. Following the further fracturing of Timurid territories
in 1469, the Shaibanids became more and more of a threat. Just half a
century after aiding the Timurids, Mohammed Shaibani overthrew the last of
them, taking Samarkand in 1501 and Farghana in 1505. The latter region included a small Timurid
principality, and its heir, Babur, was forced to move to
Kabul and
then India, where he founded the
Moghul empire. |
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1450 - 1451 |
Abu Sa'id is one of the claimants for the
Timurid crown. After failures in Samarkand and Bukhara, he conquers much
of Shaibanid Turkestan in 1450, and in June 1451 takes
Samarkand
with the aid of the Shaibanid Uzbeks under Mohammed Shaibani, who remains
allied to him for his lifetime. |
1501 - 1507 |
Following the
Shaibanid conquest of
Transoxiana,
Khorasan
is now threatened. Its ruler does nothing initially, although one of his
princes, Babur of Farghana, attempts to fight back. Finally deciding to
mobilise in 1506, Husayn dies before he can achieve anything, and the crown
is disputed between his sons. Babur withdraws to
Kabul to continue the fight
but without success until his supporter, the
Safavid shah of Persia, takes Samarkand and adjoins it to his own
Persian kingdom.
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