Husayn Bayqarah
Encyclopedia
Husayn Bayqarah (Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 حسین بایقرا) was a Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...

 ruler of Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...

 from 1469 to 1506, with a brief interruption in 1470. His father was Mansur, a great-grandson of Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

. He is also referred to as Sultan-Husayn Mirza (Baburnama
Baburnama
Bāburnāma is the name given to the memoirs of Ẓahīr ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur , founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur...

).

Mansur died when Husayn Bayqarah was around seven or eight years of age; the latter ended up in the service of Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur , also known as Abu'l-Qasim Bābur, was a Timurid ruler in Khurasan . He was the son of Baysunqar, and thus the a grandson of Shāhrukh Mirzā....

, ruler of Herat, in 1452. Following Babur's death in 1457 and the subsequent invasion of Khurasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

 by the Timurid ruler of Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

, Abu Sa'id
Abu Sa'id (Timurid dynasty)
Abū Saʿīd b. Muḥammad b. Mīrānshāh b. Timūr , was a Timurid Empire ruler in what is today parts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan and member of the Timurid dynasty....

, Husayn adopted the life of a mercenary. After a while, he decided to fight for himself and wrested Gurgan
Gürgan
Gürgan is a village in Baku, Azerbaijan. It forms part of the municipality of Gürgən-Pirallahı....

 (or Gorgan) from the Black Sheep Turkmen. Later on he would conquer Mazandaran. At first submissive to Abu Sa'id, he took advantage of the Samarkand ruler's attempts to put down a revolt in Transoxiana
Transoxiana
Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgystan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...

 in 1460; by the following year he was laying siege to Herat, which had fallen into Abu Sa'id's hands in 1459. However, he was soon defeated and forced to take refuge in Khwarazm, from which he began making pillaging raids into Khurasan; these raids were conducted in earnest starting in 1464. Seeking to protect himself against Abu Sa'id, he received the help of the Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...

.

Upon Abu Sa'ids death at the hands of the White Sheep Turkmen in 1469, his empire collapsed. One of his sons, Sultan Mahmud, attempted to gain control of Herat by entering it on March 16 with an army, but he did not find it preferable to stay, and Husayn gained control of the city. Sultan Mahmud's brother, Sultan Ahmad
Sultan Ahmad
Sultan Ahmad ibn Abu Sa’id was the Timurid ruler of Samarkand from 1469 till 1494. During his rule he successfully repelled at least one invasion attempt by the Kara Koyunlu, and failed in an attempt to conquer Herat from the land of Khurasan from its ruler Husayn Bayqarah. He was succeeded by his...

, marched from Samarkand to try to take Herat but decided against it after meeting up with Mahmud. Meanwhile, Uzun Hasan of the White Sheep sent his lieutenant, Yadgar Muhammad, to conquer Khurasan. Husayn defeated Yadgar at the Battle of Chinaran (September 15, 1469), but the latter was sent reinforcements. Uzun Hasan demanded that Husayn hand over various Black Sheep officials who had fled to Herat, a demand which Husayn refused. Yadgar therefore continued into Khurasan, and Husayn was unable to match his forces due to mass desertions. He ended up fleeing Herat, which was occupied on July 7, 1470. Six weeks later, however, Husayn reoccupied the city, after raising a fresh force and defeating the sons of Abu Sa'id who were attempting to advance into Khurasan. He captured Yadgar and executed him.

Husayn's empire was now secure. The White Sheep made no further attempts against him, and the Timurid Empire in Samarkand was too weakened by internal conflicts to advance into his territory. His boundary with the White Sheep started on the southern edge of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

, running south, then east across the north of the Dasht-e Lut
Dasht-e Lut
Dasht-e Lut, also spelled Dasht-i-Lut, is a large salt desert in southeastern Iran and is the world's 25th largest desert.Iran is climatically part of the Afro-Asian belt of deserts that stretch from the Cape Verde islands off West Africa all the way to Mongolia near Beijing, China...

, ending at Lake Hamun
Lake Hamun
Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to wetlands in endorheic Sīstān Basin on the on the Irano-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to [[wetland]]s in [[Endorheic_basin|endorheic]] [[Sistan_Basin|Sīstān Basin]] on the on the [[Iran]]o-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term...

. His border with the Timurids was the Oxus River. He more or less respected both borders, refusing to cross north in an attempt to capture Transoxiana from the northern Timurids. He was probably aware of the Uzbek threat to the region, and was wise enough not to pursue a border with this dangerous tribal people.

Husayn was forced to deal with several revolts and incursions. In 1490 the brother of Husayn's son Ibrahim Husain's guardian, Darvish 'Ali, conspired with Sultan Mahmud, who by that time ruled in Hisar. Mahmud moved against Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...

, which Ibrahim resided in, forcing Husayn to mobilize against him. Some years later, Husayn transferred his eldest son, Badi' al-Zaman, from Astarabad to Balkh, but Badi' revolted when his son Muhammed Mu'min was denied rule in Astarabad. Husayn defeated both Muhammed, whom he executed, and Badi', whom he reconciled with. The truce fell apart afterwards, however, and in 1499 Badi' besieged Herat.

In 1501 the Uzbeks conquered Transoxiana for good from the Timurid Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...

. Under Muhammad Shaybani
Muhammad Shaybani
Abu 'I-Fath Muhammad , known in later centuries as Shaybani Khan , was a khan of the Uzbeks who continued consolidating various Uzbek tribes and laid foundations for their ascendance in Transoxiana. of Genghis Khan through his grandson Shayban and considered the Timurids as usurpers of the...

, the Uzbeks could now threaten Khurasan. Suffering from the effects of advanced age, Husayn made no move against them, even after Babur advised him to act. The Uzbeks began conducting raids into Khurasan. Finally changing his mind, he began to march against them but died in 1506 before making a move. The inheritance of his empire was disputed between his sons Badi' and Muzaffar Husain. Babur, who had begun an expedition in support of Husayn, noted the infighting between the brothers, decided the area was impossible to defend and retreated. The next year, Muhammad Shaybani conquered Herat and caused Husayn's successors to flee, putting an end to Timurid rule in Khurasan.
NB Astarabad or Esterabad was renamed "Gorgan" (Jorjan in Arabic) in 1937.
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