Kazagan

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Kazagan († 1357 ) was an emir of the Qara'unas in southern Transoxania and the Hindu Kush . His coming to power marked an important turning point in the history of the Chagatai Khanate .

government

Kazagan's exact origins and manner in which the Qara'unas came to power are unknown. The previous Emir of the Qara'unas was Boroldai, who was in office during the time of Tarmashirin Khan († 1334).

In the winter of 1345 to 1346 Kazagan defeated and killed the Khan Kazan Timur (r. 1330er / 1343-1346). Kazan had tried to keep himself in power in the weakened Chagatai Khanate by means of violent measures, so that finally all princes and emirs made their wills and pleaded for the khan's downfall before consulting him.

The uprising of the Turkish nobility under Kazagan followed. According to Abulghazi, Kazan Timur Khan initially remained victorious on the Derehi Zungi plain; Kazagan is said to have lost an eye. After the victory, however, Kazan sacked some of his troops due to very bad weather conditions and the resulting lack of food. As a result, he was ambushed again and killed during the winter camp in Qarshi . Kazagan forbade looting and revenge and married Kazan's widow.

From then on he administered the western part of the khanate under the nominal rule of a khan appointed by him . Kazagan could not dare a sole government because he was not a Genghiside and thus theoretically had no right to rule. In 1347 he even had to have his nominal ruler Danishmand Khan murdered because his emirs were dissatisfied with his origin (according to Abulghazi, Danishmand came from the house of Ögedais and not Tschagatais) and he could not risk mutiny. The new nominal ruler of Kazagan was Bayan Kuli Khan. He had the right origin and renounced any ambition.

Kazagan's government maintained internal peace and was considered benevolent. However, it relied on the nomads and not on the settled people, and accordingly thought little of the institutionalization and bureaucratization of ruling power, but resembled a tribal confederation. Kazagan itself constantly moved between its summer and winter pastures (Munk east of Dushanbe and Sali Saray on the Amu Darya ) and scorned a permanent residence.

In terms of foreign policy, Kazagan was oriented towards the south. There the prince of the Kert of Herat took on the attributes of a sultan and thus put himself on a par with Bayan Kuli Khan, which served as an occasion for war. Kazagan remained victorious before Herat in 1351, forcing submission and tribute. Kazagan's further campaigns went as far as Sindh in India and (under his son Abdallah) against Khorezm .

In 1357 Kazagan was murdered by a relative while hunting in Sali Saray. He had denied his father-in- law to his brother-in-law Qutlug-Temur, the son of the previous Qara'unas emir Boroldai, who was now taking revenge with the murder. Qutlug-Temur was then murdered by Kazagan's supporters while on the run in Kunduz .

Kazagan's son Abdallah took over power in Transoxania, moved the residence to Samarkand and exerted a correspondingly greater pressure on the emirs in the area, but only held office for a short time. In 1358, Abdallah had Bayan Kuli Khan murdered because he wanted a wife of the Khan. This useless murder of a Khan brought several emirs (Hajji Barlas, Bayan Suldus, etc.) together against Abdallah, led to his defeat and death and successively to new power struggles, which Timur Lenk did not win until 1370 .

literature

  • Tilman Nagel : Timur the Conqueror and the Islamic World in the Late Middle Ages . Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37171-X .
  • The Shajrat ul Atrak, trans. by Col. Miles, WM. H. Allen & Co, London 1838.