Abu Sa'id (Timuride)

Image of Abu Sa'id, from the 18th century.

Abu Sa'id (also Abu Sa'id ibn Muhammad ibn Miran Shah, * around 1424; † February 8, 1469 ) was a Timurid ruler who ruled from 1451 to 1469.

After the murder of the Timurid ruler Abd al-Latifs in May 1450, several aspirants to the throne fought against each other. In Bukhara , Abu Sa'id was proclaimed ruler and, with the help of the Uzbek ruler Abu'l-Chair, was able to prevail against his Timurid rival Abdallah in Transoxania . Abu al-Qasim Babur ibn Baisonqur ibn Shah Ruch (ruled 1447 to 1457) established himself in Herat after he had defeated his brother Muhammad. Both had to reckon with other rivals, so that after an advance on Balkh and a counterattack on Samarqand in 1454 they agreed on a common border on the Amu Darya. The regular attacks by the Uzbek Khan Abu'l-Chair were also unpleasant, especially when he supported a rebellious prince named Uwais in 1454/55.

After the death of Abu l-Qasim Babur in 1457, turmoil broke out, which Jahan Shah , prince of the Turkmen Qara Qoyunlu , used to occupy Herat in June 1458 until a revolt forced him to turn back. Abu Said was able to conquer this city in the following year and moved his seat of government there. He immediately received embassies from the Turkmens . The settlement with Jahan Shah allowed him to take action against other Timurid princes, some of whom he was able to eliminate. Husain ibn Mansur ibn Baiqara , one in Khorezm living grandson Umar shaykhs, however, opposed and besieged Herat in 1461, when Abu Sa'id was visiting in Transoxiana.

The rule of Abu Sa'id is valued favorably because he was able to assert himself for a relatively long time. He was close to the dervishes , especially Ubaidullah Ahrar (d. 1490), who became his most important adviser and, among other things, induced him to abolish trade and business tax. His vizier Qutb ad-Din Simnani took care of agriculture, but this interest was probably only sparked by peasant rebellions. Abu Sa'id's mainstay was a Turkmen tribe, but he tied people of different origins to himself by giving fiefs (not hereditary) in large numbers.

In the spring of 1468 he moved to Azerbaijan after Jahan Shah was killed in a dispute with the Turkmen Aq Qoyunlu under Uzun Hasan . Abu Sa'id found allies among the Turkmen rulers, but the campaign was too impetuous: his army was cut off from the supply lines in a harsh winter and defeated by the Turkmen in the Mugan Steppes . Abu Sa'id was taken prisoner, extradited to an opposing Timurid prince (Yadgär Muhammad, a great-grandson of Shah Ruch) and executed in February 1469.

literature

• Hans Robert Roemer: The successors of Timur Outline of the history of Central and Middle East in the 15th century. Original article published in: Islamic Studies: Fritz Meier on his sixtieth birthday . Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1974, pp. [226] -262, accessed on October 10, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Robert Roemer: The successors of Timur, p. 242
2. ↑ Hans Robert Roemer: The successors of Timur, p. 241