| Muhammad Shaybani محمد شیبانی | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Portrait byKamāl ud-Dīn Behzād (c. 1507) | |||||
| Khan of the Bukhara Khanate | |||||
| Reign | 1500 – 2 December 1510 | ||||
| Predecessor | Sheikh Haidar (asUzbek Khan) | ||||
| Successor | Jan Wafa Mirza | ||||
| Born | 1451 Central Asia | ||||
| Died | 2 December 1510 (aged 58–59) Merv, present-dayTurkmenistan | ||||
| Spouse | Mihr Nigar Khanum Khanzada Begum Aisha Sultan Khanum Khanzada Khanum a daughter Muhammad Mazidbeg Sevinch Kutlug Aga a mother Muhammad Timur sultan | ||||
| Issue | Muhammad Temur Sultan Khurram Shah Sultan Sevinch Muhammad sultan | ||||
| |||||
| House | Borjigin | ||||
| Dynasty | Shaybanids | ||||
| Father | Shah Budag Sultan | ||||
| Mother | Aq Quzi Begum | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
| Military career | |||||
| Conflicts |
| ||||
Muhammad Shaybani Khan (Chagatai andPersian:محمد شیبانی;c. 1451 – 2 December 1510)[a] was anUzbek leader who consolidated various Uzbek tribes and laid the foundations for their ascendance inTransoxiana and the establishment of theKhanate of Bukhara. He was aShaybanid or descendant ofShiban (or Shayban). He was the son of Shah-Budag, thus a grandson of the Uzbek conquerorAbu'l-Khayr Khan.[1]
The ruler of the Uzbek ulus Abu'l-Khayr Khan (1428–1468) had eleven sons, one of whom was Budaq Sultan, the father of Shaybani Khan. Shaybani Khan's mother's name was Aq Quzi Begum. Through his mother, Muhammad Shaybani was therefore the cousin of Janibek's sonKasym Khan, the latter of whom ultimately conquered most of Shaybani's territory to expand theKazakh Khanate.[2]
According to the historian Kamal ad-Din Binai, Budaq Sultan named his eldest son as Sultan Muhammad Shaybani, and gave him the nicknameShibägh "Wormwood".[3]
According to sources, the genealogy of Shaybani Khan is as follows: Abu'l-Fath Muhammad Khan Shaybani, known under the name of Shakhibek Khan, son of Sultan Budaq, son of Abu'l-Khayr Khan, son of Daulat Shaikh-oglan, son of Ibrahim-oglan, son of Fulad-oglan, son of Munk Timur Khan, son of Abdal-oglan, son of Jochi-Buk Khan, son of Yis-Buk, son of Baniyal-Bahadur, son ofShiban, son ofJochi Khan, son ofGenghis Khan.[4]
In theSelected Chronicles from the "Book of Victories" (Chagatay:تواریخ گزیده نصرتنامه,romanized: Tavārīkh-i Guzīda-yi Nuṣratnāma[5]), it is noted that the wife of the ancestor of Shaybani Khan, Munk Timur, was the daughter of Jandibek, who was a descendant ofIsmail Samani.[6]
Shaybani's father Budaq Sultan was an educated person on whose order extensive translations ofPersian works into theTurkic languages were accomplished.[7] Shaybani himself was fluent in both Persian andTurkic.[8]
Shaybani was initially anUzbek warrior leading a contingent of 3,000 men in the army of theTimurid ruler ofSamarkand,Sultan Ahmed Mirza under theAmir, Abdul Ali Tarkhan. However, when Ahmed Mirza went to war againstSultan Mahmud Khan, the Khan ofMoghulistan, to reclaimTashkent from him, Shaybani secretly met the Moghul Khan and agreed to betray and plunder Ahmed's army. This happened in theBattle of the Chirciq River in 1488 CE, resulting in a decisive victory for Moghulistan. Sultan Mahmud Khan gave Turkistan[9] to Shaybani as a reward. Here, however, Shaybani oppressed the localKazakhs, resulting in a war between Moghulistan and theKazakh Khanate. Moghulistan was defeated in this war, but Shaybani gained power among the Uzbeks. He decided to conquer Samarkand and Bukhara from Ahmed Mirza. Sultan Mahmud's subordinate emirs convinced him to aid Shaybani in doing so, and together they marched on Samarkand.[10]

Continuing the policies of his grandfather,Abu'l-Khayr Khan, Shaybani ousted the Timurids from their capital Samarkand in 1500. He fought successful campaigns against the Timurid leaderBabur, founder of theMogul Empire.[11] In 1501 he recaptured Samarkand and in 1507 also tookHerat, the southern capital of the Timurids. Shaybani conqueredBukhara in 1501 and established theShaybanid Dynasty of theKhanate of Bukhara. In 1508–09, he carried out many raids northward, pillaging the land of theKazakh Khanate. However, his armies suffered a major defeat fromKazakhs underKasym Khan in 1510.
One day Shaybani visited Sheikh Mansour and he (Mansour) said to him: "I look at you, Uzbek, and I see that you desire to become a sovereign!". And then he ordered food to be served. When everything was eaten and the tablecloth was removed, Sheikh Mansour said: "As a tablecloth is collected from the edges, so you should start from the periphery of the state (kingdom)." Shaybani took this very unambiguous advice from his new mentor into account and eventually conquered the Timurid state.
— Sultanov T. I.,Genghis Khan and Genghisids. - Moscow, 2006. p.139
Shaybani Khan maintained ties withOttoman Empire andMing China. In 1503, his ambassadors arrived at the court of the Ming emperor.[12] Aligning with the Ottoman sultanBayezid II (1481–1512), Shaybani Khan opposed theShia Safavid ShahIsmail I.[13]

Shaybani Khan did not make any distinction betweenIranians andTurks based on ethnicity, but followed the hadith ofMuhammad: "AllMuslims are brothers".[14]
One of the authoritative religious figures, a native ofYemen, Emir Sayyid Shams ad-Din Abdallah al-Arabi al-Yamani al Khadramauti (known as Mir-i Arab), enjoyed the patronage of Shaybani Khan, and constantly took part in the meetings of thedivan (court) and accompanied the Khan in his campaigns.[15]
Shayibani Khan wrote a prose essay called theRisale-yi maarif-i Shayibani in the Chagatai language in 1507 shortly after his capture of Khorasan and is dedicated to his son, Muhammad Timur (the manuscript is kept in Istanbul).[16]
The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work: "Bahr ul-Khudo", written in the Central Asian Turkic literary language in 1508 is located in London.[17]
The last years of Shaybani Khan were not easy. In the spring of 1509, his mother died. After her funeral in Samarkand, he went toQarshi, where he held a meeting with relatives and allowed them to disperse to their uluses (small countries). Ubaydullah's nephew went toBukhara, Muhammad Temur to Samarkand, and Hamza Sultan toGissar. Shaybani Khan went toMerv (nowMary, Turkmenistan) with a small detachment.[18]

In 1510, Shaybani Khan was inHerat. At this time,Ismail I, theSafavid emperor, having learned about the failures of Shaybani Khan and angered by his staunch support ofSunni Islam,moved against the Uzbeks and invadedwestern Khorasan, rapidly advancing towards Herat.
Shaybani Khan did not have a strong army at his disposal. During the military campaign against the Hazaras, he lost most of his cavalry.[19] The main army was stationed inTransoxiana, so he, having consulted with his emirs, hastened to hide behind the walls ofMerv. Safavid troops capturedAstrabad,Mashhad, andSarakhs. All Shaybani's emirs who were in Khorasan, including Jan Wafa, fled from theQizilbash soldiers of Safavid Iran and arrived to Merv. Shaybani Khan sent a messenger toUbaydullah Khan of theKhanate of Bukhara and theTimurids for help. Meanwhile, Ismail surrounded Merv and besieged the city for a whole month, but to no avail. Therefore, to lure the khan out of the city, he resorted to a feigned retreat.
According to some sources, one of the wives of Muhammad Shaybani Khan, Aisha Sultan Khanum, better known as Moghul Khanum, enjoyed great influence on her husband and his court. The sources say that at theKengesh (council of the Khan), the question arose whether or not to come out of Merv and fight the retreating troops of Shah Ismail. The emirs of Shaybani Khan suggested waiting two or three days until the auxiliary forces arrived from Transoxiana. Mogul Khanum, who took part in the military council, said to the Khan: “And you are afraid of theQizilbash! If you are afraid, I will take the troops myself and lead them. Now is the right moment, there will be no such moment again." After these words of Mogul Khanum, everyone seemed to be ashamed, and the Khan's troops went into battle, which resulted in their complete defeat and the death of Shaybani Khan.[20]
In theBattle of Marv (1510), Muhammad Shaybani was defeated and killed when trying to escape. Shaybani Khan's army was surrounded by Ismail's 17,000-strong army and was defeated after fierce resistance. The remnants of the army ended up dying under enemy arrows.[21][22][23]
At the time of Shaybani's death, the Uzbeks controlled all of Transoxiana, the area between theSyr Darya andAmu Darya. After capturingSamarkand from Babur, Shaybani had married Babur's sister,Khanzada Begum. Babur's liberty to leave Samarkand was made contingent upon his assent to this alliance. After Shaybani's death, Ismail I gave liberty to Khanzada Begum with her son and, at Babur's request, sent them to his court. For this reason, Shaybani was succeeded not by a son but by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother whose descendants would rule Bukhara until 1598 andKhwarezm (later namedKhiva) until 1687.
The accounts of Babur, i.e. theBaburnama, state that Emperor Ismail beheaded Shaybani and had his skull turned into a bejewelledskull cup[24] which was drunk from when entertaining;[11] he later sent the cup to Babur as a goodwill gesture. The rest of Shaybani's body parts were either sent to various areas of the empire for display[11] or put on a spike at the main gate ofSamarkand.[25]
Shaybani Khan was fond of history in his youth. In 1475, he was specially presented with a book about the life ofAlexander the Great imported from theOttoman Empire: the 1194Alexander Romance ofNizami Ganjavi.[26] The medieval author Nisari recognized Shaybani Khan as a scholar of theQuran.[27]
The manuscript of his philosophical and religious workBahru’l-Huda, written in the Central Asian literary languageChaghatai in 1508, is in London.[28] Shaybani Khan used various works ontheology when writing his essay. It contains his views on religious issues. The author presents his idea of the basics ofIslam: repentance for sins, showing mercy, and others. Shaybani Khan shows excellent knowledge of the rituals and daily duties of devoutMuslims.[29]
Shaybani had several consorts:
He had three sons:
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Khan of the Uzbeks Khanate of Bukhara 1500–1510 | Succeeded by |