Timurids

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The Timurid dynasty is a Muslim ruling house founded by Timur ( Tamerlane ) in Central and Southwest Asia , which ruled the Timurid Empire from 1370 to 1507 , including in what is now Afghanistan , Iran and Uzbekistan . The capital of the Timurids was initially Samarkand , later also Herat . One line conquered the Sultanate of Delhi in 1526 , transformed it into the Empire of the Mughals until it was overthrown by the British in 1857. In what is now Iran, the Timurids were replaced by the Safavids .

Timur

The founder and namesake of the dynasty was Timur (actually Temür, called "Timur-i Lang", Timur; 1336-1405), who, in alliance with various rulers, began with the subjugation of Transoxania . Generally recognized as ruler in Transoxania in 1370, he ruled in the name of two Chagatai khans , who were completely disempowered (until 1402/03).

After Timur subjugated the Chagatai Khanate and Khorezmia , the conquest of the south of Khorasan , central and western Persia and Iraq began in 1380 , eliminating local dynasties such as the Kartids , Sarbadars , Muzaffarids and Jalairids . He defeated the Golden Horde in 1394–1395 , the Egyptian Mamluks in 1400 and the Ottomans in 1402 ( Battle of Ankara ) and thereby secured the empire against powerful opponents for some time. The Sultanate of Delhi was also considerably weakened by the conquest of Delhi in 1398.

While Timur's campaigns led to considerable destruction, Samarkand was magnificently expanded as the capital and, through the promotion of art and culture, became an important cultural center in Central Asia. Timur's administrative activities did not correspond to the extent of his conquests and destruction in the neighboring countries. In several states and areas he contented himself with the appointment of a ruler he liked or with the recognition of his supremacy.

Economic considerations and planning cannot be discerned, apart from the care for some Transoxan cities or the occasional restoration of destroyed irrigation systems. Even the feeling for the necessity of a long-term oriented administration does not seem to have been particularly pronounced with him. As a substitute for such measures, he used the fear of terror that the subjects had to reckon with in the event of a rebellion. Nevertheless, one records an administration in Iran and Transoxania, occupied by Timur's sons and grandchildren or also deserving military leaders. It was unevenly measured and organized. So there were large and small governorships, hereditary or only temporary, tax-exempt or not. The organization also left wide-ranging possibilities for intervention open to the ruler, e.g. B. by subordinate to the governors only small contingents of the troops raised.

With Timur's demise, the weakness of his system of rule became immediately apparent: although he had appointed a successor, several princes could lay claim to the throne simply because the rule was private and not subject to any political organization supported by the population. The Timurids were never able to eliminate this shortcoming of ruthless family quarrels.

Shah Ruch and Ulugh Beg

Of the sons of Timur Lenk, Dschahangir died in 1375 and Umar Sheikh in 1394, while Miran Shah suffered a mental defect as a result of an accident and had to be placed under guardianship. So Shah Ruch remained , but he was too peaceful, pious and humble for the conqueror, so that he initially did not appear qualified as ruler.

That is why Pir Muhammad ibn Dschahangir was appointed his successor and at the same time challenged by another grandson of Timur: Chalil Sultan ibn Miran Shah (* 1384) occupied Samarkand and made himself ruler. Another grandson gave up his claim to the throne, so that ultimately only Shah Ruch remained, who had ruled Khorasan since 1405. There were several disputes and negotiations and in May 1409 Shah Ruch finally prevailed: Chalil Sultan had been too lavish, in love and careless - he had gambled away power.

Shah Ruch faced a new situation: his empire had to be organized to prevent it from falling apart. He settled in Herat and mainly took care of Persia. There he had to deal with his own relatives and with Timur's old opponents, the Qara Qoyunlu . Shah Ruch took action against the unreliable Timurid princes by repeatedly transferring them from one governor post to another. Nevertheless, there were rebellions, for example in Fars and Kirman , against which his troops then had to intervene - Shah Ruch even died in 1447 on a campaign against one of his insubordinate grandchildren. The Qara Qoyunlu, who defeated Miran Shah near Tabriz in 1408 and conquered Baghdad from the Jalairids two years later , remained an unsolved problem of his government despite all their successes (and the recognition of his supremacy).

Shah Ruch's reign is nevertheless considered to be a successful and predominantly peaceful time, in which art and culture in many areas (architecture, painting and calligraphy, poetry, mathematics and astronomy, law and theology) flourished again and extensive diplomatic and economic contacts to Egypt and India , Ming China and the Golden Horde. The “Timurid Renaissance” is not only due to the ruler, but also to his first wife Gauhar-Schad , her sons and a number of capable officials, some of whom remained in office for a very long time. Worth mentioning here are the finance minister Amir Alika Konältas, the military leader Jalal ad-Din Firuzschah and the supreme secretary Pir Ali Hofi. In contrast to his father and son Ulugh Beg, Shah Ruch showed no inclination towards Mongolian tradition and preferred Islamic jurisprudence .

The old capital Samarkand was left by Shah Ruch to his son Muhammad Taragai alias Ulugh Beg , the " Prince of Astronomers" (ruled 1447–1449), who ruled there as a more or less independent sovereign. Ulugh Beg gave his father contingents, but made no personal military service; Although he had coins struck in his father's name, he put the name of a Genghisid at the beginning of his edicts. Nor does he seem to have paid his father any taxes. As the most powerful sovereign by far, he would have been the natural successor of Shah Ruch, but could not convincingly prevail against several relatives. He also fell out with his son Abd al-Latif, which initiated his overthrow and murder in the autumn of 1449.

Abu l-Qasim Babur and Abu Sa'id

With the fall of Ulugh Beg in the autumn of 1449 and the assassination of Abd al-Latif in May 1450, the problematic internal situation of the Timurid Empire became apparent again: within a few years several aspirants to the throne faced each other. In Bukhara, Abu Sa'id b. Muhammad b. Miran Shah (r. 1451–1469) was proclaimed ruler and was able to prevail against his rival Abdallah in Transoxania with the help of the Uzbek ruler Abu'l-Chair . Abu l-Qasim Babur ibn Baisonqur ibn Shah Ruch (ruled 1447-1457) 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 Samarkand in 1454 they agreed on a common border on the Amu Darya.

Already in autumn 1452 Abu l-Qasim Babur had lost the west and the south of Persia to the Qara Qoyunlu . After his death in 1457, turmoil broke out, which Abu Sa'id tried to exploit. But first the prince of Qara Qoyunlu was successful: Dschahan Shah (ruled 1435-67) defeated the Timurid prince Ibrahim, who ruled in Khorasan, and occupied Herat in June 1458. But he had exceeded his power and was forced to repent by a revolt. Abu Sa'id conquered Herat the following year, relocated his seat of government there and also received several embassies from the Turkmen. 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 but living grandson Umar shaykhs remained a problem: he besieged Herat in 1461, when Abu Sa'id was visiting in Transoxiana. The regular attacks by the Uzbek chan Abu'l-Chair were also unpleasant, especially when he supported a rebel prince named Uwais in 1454/55.

The rule of Abu Sai'd is valued relatively favorably, since the ruler managed to assert himself for some 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 seems to have been sparked only by peasant rebellions. Abu Said's mainstay was a Turkmen tribe, but he also tied people of different origins to himself by giving away (non-hereditary) fiefs in large numbers.

Ultimately, Abu Sa'id took a great risk: in the spring of 1468 he moved to Azerbaijan after the Jahan Shah was killed in a dispute with other Turkmen, the Aq Qoyunlu Uzun Hasans . Abu Sa'id found allies among the Turkmen princes, but the campaign was so violent that it was cut off and his army perished in a harsh winter. He was captured, handed over to an opposing Timurid prince and executed (February 1469).

Husain ibn Mansur ibn Baiqara and Sultan Ahmad ibn Abi Said

The Timurid prince Husain ibn Mansur ibn Baiqara (d. 1506)

In Herat (ie in Khorasan) after Abu Sa'id's death Husain ibn Mansur ibn Baiqara (short: Husain Baiqara, ruled 1470–1506) came to power. He occupied Herat in March 1469 and, after an initial failure, rejected the interference of the Aq Qoyunlu prince Uzun Hasan (r. 1453-1478), who had put the Timurid Yadgar Muhammad on the Herater throne in 1470. After that, both sides were keen on good neighborly relations. Once in power, the once so enterprising prince made no move to eliminate his cousins ​​in Transoxania. Apparently he knew exactly about the danger posed by the troubled princes of the steppe, and therefore tried to avoid further internal disputes. Towards the end of his life he had problems with his sons; they rose and in 1499 the oldest even besieged Herat. The simultaneous rise of the Uzbeks and Safavids around 1500 worried Husain and he tried to postpone the confrontation as long as possible.

Husain was considered an amateur poet and patron of the arts and did not care too much for religion. His rule is considered to be peaceful and is considered to be the culmination of the artistic and cultural development of the Timurid period, for which the name Mir Ali Scher Nava'i (d. 1501) stands - a civil servant and poet, whose relationship with the ruler was, however, not unclouded. Other well-known names are the poet Jami and the miniature painter Behzad . The court of Husain was described by Babur in his autobiography and was considered to be pleasure-seeking and dissolute. Babur enthused, “This was a wonderful age; in him Khorasan and especially Herat were full of learned and incomparable men. Whatever work a man undertook, he endeavored and endeavored to bring it to completion. "

Samarkand (ie Transoxania) fell to Abu Said's son Sultan Ahmad (ruled 1469–1494) and then to his brother Mahmud (ruled 1494/95). Sultan Ahmad was unable to evade the interference of the Chagatai chan Yunus (r. 1462–1487). Yunus supported Sultan Ahmad's brother Umar Shaykh (the father of Babur ), who had settled in the Fergana Valley and married one of his daughters. The chan swung himself up to arbitrate over the incessant family disputes of the Timurids. When the Uzbek prince Muhammad Shaibani left Sultan Ahmad's service in 1488 and switched to the side of Yunu's sons, the Timurid was once again deprived of success.

The end of the dynasty

After Sultan Ahmad's death in 1494 there were disputes over the throne, which led to several changes of power in Samarkand and were exploited by Muhammad Shaibani: in 1500 he conquered the city. The Timurid prince Babur managed to retake Samarkand in one stroke in 1500/01, but that was only an episode. Only Husain remained as a real power factor in Herat, but he died in May 1506 - before the confrontation with Muhammad Shaibani. Neither Husain's disunited and unmilitary sons nor Babur were up to the new conqueror, so that the Timurid rule came to an end in Herat the following year.

The Timurid dynasty, however, was to a certain extent continued by Babur: in 1526 he conquered the Sultanate of Delhi in India and founded the empire of the Mughals . His descendants ruled there until the fall by the British in 1858.

Ruler list

The main line (ruler of Transoxania or the entire empire)

  • Temür ("Timur-i Lang") , reg. 1370-1405
  • Chalil Sultan ibn Miran Shah ibn Temur, r. 1405–1409 (afterwards in Rey )
  • Shah Ruch ibn Temür , r. 1409–1447 (previously only in Khorasan, from 1414 also in western Persia)
  • Ulugh Beg ibn Shah Ruch , r. 1447-1449
  • Abd al-Latif ibn Ulugh Beg, r. 1449-1450
  • Abdallah ibn Ibrahim ibn Shah Ruch, r. 1450-1451
  • Abu Said ibn Muhammad ibn Miran Shah ibn Temür , r. 1451–1469 (in Khorasan from 1459)
  • Sultan Ahmad ibn Abi Said, r. 1469-1494
  • Mahmud ibn Abi Said, reg. 1494-1495
  • Baisonqur ibn Mahmud, reg. 1495-1500
  • Masud ibn Mahmud, r. 1495-1500
  • Ali ibn Mahmud, reg. 1495-1500

The rulers in Khorasan

  • Shah Ruch ibn Temür , r. 1405–1409 (afterwards also in all other parts of the empire)
  • Pir Muhammad ibn Dschahangir ibn Temur, r. 1405–1407 (in Kandahar )
  • Abu l-Qasim Babur ibn Baisonqur, r. 1447-1457
  • Shah Mahmud ibn Babur, r. 1457
  • Ibrahim ibn Ala ad-Daula ibn Baisonqur, r. 1457-1459
  • Abu Said ibn Muhammad ibn Miran Shah ibn Temür, r. 1459–1469 (in all other parts of the empire since 1451)
  • Husain ibn Mansur ibn Baiqara ibn Umar Sheikh ibn Temur, r. 1469-1470 and again 1470-1506
  • Yadgar Muhammad ibn Sultan Muhammad ibn Baisonqur, r. 1470
  • Badi az-Zaman ibn Husain, reg. 1506-1507
  • Muzaffar Husain ibn Husain, reg. 1506-1507

The rulers of western Persia

  • Jalal ad-Din Miran Shah ibn Temur , r. 1393–1408 (also in Arabic Iraq and Azerbaijan)
  • Pir Muhammad ibn Umar Sheikh, reg. 1404–1409 (in Fars)
  • Rustam ibn Umar Sheikh, reg. 1404–1409 (in the south of Persian Iraq )
  • Chalil Sultan ibn Miran Shah, r. 1409–1411 (in Rey, previously in Samarkand)
  • Baiqara ibn Umar Sheikh, r. 1409-1412 (in Fars)
  • Iskandar ibn Umar Sheikh, r. 1412-1414 (first in Fars, then until the unification of all areas under Shah Ruch in Persian Iraq)

literature

  • Ralph Kauz: Politics and trade between Ming and Timurids. China, Iran and Central Asia in the late Middle Ages . Reichert, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-388-3 ( Iran - Turan 7), (also: Munich, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2002), ( review by N. Purnaqcheband ).
  • Tilman Nagel : Timur the Conqueror and the Islamic World in the Late Middle Ages . Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37171-X .
  • Hans Robert Roemer: Persia on the way into modern times, Iranian history from 1350-1750 . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989.
  • Jean Aubin: Deux sayyids de Bam au XV e siècle. Contribution à l'histoire de l'Iran timouride (= treatises of the humanities and social science class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born in 1956, No. 7).

Web links

  • 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 (PDF file; 4.03 MB), accessed on October 10, 2019.
  • The Timurid Dynasty ( Memento of October 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )