Yunus Khan

Yunus Khan , also Junus Chan (* approx. 1415; † 1487 ), was a well-known Khan of the Chagatai Mongols in the 15th century .

Life

Origin and youth

Yunus was a son of the Chagatai Khan Vais (Uwais, r. 1418-28). After his father was killed in battle in 1428, Satuq Khan, a Timurid puppet, came to power and was able to hold out (at least) in Kashgar until 1434 , while the supporters of the legitimate heirs quarreled over the question of succession between Yunus and his younger brother Esen-bugha. When the emirs, under the leadership of the Dughlat family, decided in favor of the younger brother Esen-bugha, Yunus had to flee to the Timurids and was exiled to Iran. For many years he lived in Yazd and Shiraz and received an education from the historian Sharafuddin Ali Yazdi (the author of the Zafername).

Seizure of power

Finally, the Timurid ruler Abu Said (r. 1451 / 59-69) gave him an army in 1456 and sent him against Esen-bugha to punish him for his attacks on Tashkent and other cities of the Timurid Empire (1451 ff.). However, Yunus could not do anything against Esen-bugha and his most important supporter, the Dughlat-Emir Sayyid Ali of Kashgar (d. 1457/8) and settled on Issyk-kul .

It was not until Sayyid Ali's death, the subsequent rivalries within the Dughlat family and the death of his brother in 1462 that he had new options for action. He gradually gained control of Yarkant and Kashgar , while Esen-bugha's seventeen-year-old son Dost Muhammad (* approx. 1445, died 1468/9) angered the mullahs and fell out with the head of the Dughlat family in 1464 because of his sacking of Kashgar. After the sudden death of Dost Muhammad, Yunus Khan was able to occupy the western part of the country around Aksu and Turfan and thus became sole ruler. Dost Muhammad's underage son Kebek was first brought to safety in Turfan and murdered four years later by his own people, who were immediately executed by Yunus.

government

Yunus Khan was considered a polite and cultivated ruler (including amateur musician, painter, calligrapher), a good soldier and archer, a strict Muslim and the patron saint of dervishes . His government was peaceful by the standards of the steppe. As a typical nomad prince, he resided outside the cities. When he repeatedly showed inclinations towards urban life, his emirs imprisoned him for a year (1471/2) with the help of the Timurid governor of Tashkent, Sheikh Jamal, whereupon he gave up his ambitions for the time being. In his old age he finally settled in (the newly acquired) Tashkent, whereupon some of his supporters under his younger son Ahmad moved east towards the Ili .

Like his predecessors, Yunus Khan made no move to deprive the Dughlat family of their immense influence over the cities of the Tarim Basin . His relationship with the head of the Dughlat, Muhammad Haidar (r. 1564–80) was balanced and ensured internal order, at least until Muhammad Haidar's nephew Abu Bakr rebelled against his uncle. Abu Bakr was able to create an independent principality for himself by defeating Yunus and Muhammad Haidar in 1479/80 in Yarkant , Hotan and Kashgar .

Foreign policy

After his seizure of power in Aksu, Yunus Khan (probably 1470/1) suffered a defeat on the Ili against the Oirats under Amasandji or Ash Timur, which led him to withdraw to the Syr-darja (in the vicinity of the cities of Tashkent, Turkistan belonging to the Timurid Empire ) forced, but had no lasting political consequences. As early as 1473, he was able to occupy the Hami oasis , which then belonged to Ming China, and keep it for almost ten years. In 1476 he sent a ( tribute ) embassy to Beijing.

In the west he threw himself on as arbiter in a series of power struggles among the steppe princes and the Timurids. So he granted (as previously his brother Esen bugha) the Kasachenfürsten kerei and Jani Beg refuge and supported them against the Usbekenkhan Abu'l-Chair (r. 1428-68). After Abu'l-Chair Khan's defeat and death, Yunus Khan defeated his sons Budaq and Baruj in 1468–72, so that the Uzbek rule dissolved for the next few decades.

Furthermore, he undermined the rule of the Timurid prince Ahmad Mirza (r. 1469-1494 in Samarkand ) by marrying his daughter Kutluk Nigar with his brother and rival Omar Sheikh († 1494, ruled in the Ferghana Valley ) and this (as the weaker of the two rivals ) militarily supported. The later founder of the Indian Mughal Empire , Babur (d. 1530) was his grandson from this connection. As a result of his "mediation" between Ahmad Mirza and Omar Sheikh, Yunus Khan was awarded the cities of Sairam and Tashkent (occupied by him) in 1484 , where he spent the last years of his life. It is also mentioned that Omar Sheikh visited the Khan frequently, but also rebelled against him once and was briefly imprisoned.

Succession

The Khan died in 1487 after two years of illness ( paralysis ). After his death, his sons, the cultivated but incompetent Mahmud (in the west, executed 1508) and the warlike Ahmad (in the east) shared power. Ahmad defeated the Kazakhs three times and the Oirats twice, where he was nicknamed Alatschi, meaning "manslaughter". In 1503 both brothers were defeated by the Uzbek prince Muhammad Scheibani († 1510) in the battle of Akhsi near Kokand , captured and released again. Shortly afterwards, Ahmad died of paralysis in 1503/4 and the Chagatai rule continued to lose importance towards the Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.

literature

• Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat : A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia: The Tarikh-i-Rashidi , Cosimo, Inc., New York 2008.
• Rene Grousset: The steppe peoples. Magnus Verlag, Essen 1975.
• Fischer world history . Vol. 16: Central Asia.

Remarks

1. ↑ The Oirats had already defeated Vais Khan (r. 1418-28), the father of Yunus, three times and captured them twice. Even if the Oiratenverband showed signs of disintegration during Yunu's reign, the Khan remained unsuccessful.
2. ↑ The Tarikh-i-Rashidi mentions the well-known Hodscha Ubaidullah Ahrar (d. 1490) as the real peacemaker , whom the Khan also paid great respect to.