| Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur | |
|---|---|
| Khan of Khiva | |
| Reign | 1643–1663 |
| Predecessor | Isfandiyar Khan |
| Successor | Anusha Khan |
| Born | (1603-08-24)August 24, 1603 Old Urgench,Khanate of Khiva |
| Died | 1663(1663-00-00) (aged 59–60) Khiva |
| Issue | Anusha Khan |
| House | Shaybanid-Arabshahid |
| Father | 'Arab Muhammad Khan |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur (Chagatai andPersian:ابوالغازی بهادرخان,Abulgazi,Ebulgazi,Abu-l-Ghazi, August 24, 1603 – 1663) was theKhan of Khiva from 1643 to 1663. He was a member of theUzbek Shaybanid dynasty. He spent ten years inPersia before becoming khan, and was very well educated, writing two historical works in the Khiva dialect of theChagatai language.[1] He was a descendant ofGenghis Khan throughArab Shah.[2]
Abulghazi was born inUrgench,Khanate of Khiva, the second son of the ruler,'Arab Muhammad Khan. Since he was born 40 days after his father defeated a raid byUral Cossacks, he was named "Abul-Ghazi" (father of Warrior). He lived in Urgench for 16 years until he was appointed as governor ofKat by his father. Towards the end of his father's reign, a civil war broke out against him led by his brothers, Habash-sultan and Ilbars-sultan.[3] Abulghazi had to flee toSamarqand and take refuge at the court ofImam Quli Khan of Bukhara where he lived for two years. His younger brotherAfghan Muhammad fled to Russia where he lived in theQasim Khanate. His other brotherIsfandiyar Khan finally prevailed and became khan in 1623. He offered Abulghazi the governorship of Urgench, his birthplace.
After ruling as the governor of Urgench for three years, Abulghazi rebelled when his brother was visitingHazorasp, but was defeated and fled toEsim Khan, ruler of theQazaq Khanate, in 1626. After staying with him for three months, Abulghazi defected to Tursun Muhammad Khan, a rival of Esim Khan inTashkent. After living in Tashkent for two years, Abulghazi went to Imam Quli from where he tried to capture Khiva in 1629.[4] However, Isfandiyar captured him and Abulghazi was expelled toAbiward, whoseSafavid governor sent him toSafi I's court inIsfahan. Abulghazi lived there as an exile from 1629 until 1639 studying Persian and Arabic history. He eventually escaped from the Safavid court toBalkan and lived among theTeke tribe for a while.[5] In 1641 Abulghazi went to theKalmyk Khanate where he tried to enlistKho Orluk's help.
Abulghazi finally acceded to the Khivan throne in 1643 after his brother's death. But his position was only secure around Urgench as most of Khiva was conquered by theBukhara Khanate. Abulghazi only managed to secure his position in 1645 whenNadir Muhammad Khan of Bukhara died.
Abulghazi's early years on the Khivan throne were spent fighting rebelliousTurkmen tribes after his summary execution of 2000 Turkmen elders in Hazorasp in 1646. He managed to subdue most of theKarakum andMangyshlak tribes by 1653.[5] He also repelled raids by Kalmyks in 1649, 1653 and 1656. Towards the end of his reign he started a major campaign againstBukhara which lasted well into his successor's reign. He left the throne to his sonAnusha Khan and died inKhiva in 1663.
Abu al-Ghazi is known as the author of two historical works: "Genealogy of the Turkmen"Shajara-i Tarākima finished in 1661 and "Genealogy of the Turks"Shajara-i Turk finished in 1665. These are important sources for modern knowledge of Central Asian history.[6]
TheShajara-i Turk was Abu al-Ghazi's opus magnum. Its title has been variously translated as the "Genealogy of the Turks" and the "Genealogy of the Tatars", "shajara" being Arabic for "genealogy". Because using the word "Tatar" for "Turks" was a widely used misnomer, it is now obsolete to call the work "Shajara-i Turk" as "Genealogy of the Tatars" instead of "Genealogy of the Turks" since it is a work on theTurks. According to Abu al-Ghazi, inShajara-i Turk he used the work ofRashid-al-Din Hamadani,Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, and other writers, totalling 18 historical sources, and corrected them in accordance with Turkic oral traditions which he was taught in his youth.[7]
A manuscript of theShajara-i Turk was purchased in Tobolsk from a Bukhara merchant by Swedish officers detained in Russian captivity in Siberia. Using the local literate Tatars, the Swedish officers first translated the book into Russian, and then they re-translated it into various other languages. The French translation of theShajara-i Turk was first published in Leiden in 1726. The French translation served as an original for a Russian translation published in 1768-1774. In 1780 it was published separately in German and English, and during the 18th century was widely read in Europe.
Numerous critical translations of theShajara-i Turk were published in the 19th and 20th centuries, which serve as historical sources for modern scholars. The first critical translation, undertaken by professional scholars, was published inKazan in 1825. The Turkish translation of the text published in Kazan was undertaken by philologistAhmed Vefik Pasha and was initially published in 1864. The most influential Western publication wasHistoire des Mogols et des Tatares par Aboul-Ghazi Behadour Khan, publiée, traduite et annotée par le baron Desmaisons, St.-Pétersbourg, 1871-1874.[8]
Nikita Bichurin was the first to notice that the biography of the epic ancestor of the Turkic people Oguz-Kagan by Abu al-Ghazi and the Turco-Persian manuscripts (Rashid al-Din,Hondemir, Abulgazi) has a striking similarity with theMaodun biography in the Chinese sources (feud between father and son and murder of the former, the direction and sequence of conquests, and so on). That observation, confirmed by other scholars, associated the name of Maodun with the epic personality of the Oguz-Kagan.[9] The similarity is even more remarkable because at the time of the writing, no Chinese annals were translated into either oriental or western languages, and Abu al-Ghazi could not have known about the Eastern Huns or Maodun.
The literary significance ofShajara-i Turk is that Abu al-Ghazi was openly against the use of the Chaghatay literary language because it carried a strong Persian influence. Abu al-Ghazi's language is an easy, simple folk language of the Khiva Uzbeks and is quite different from the Chaghatay literary language. The style of Abu al-Ghazi, despite the scientific nature of his compositions, is distinguished by clarity and richness of vocabulary, and is interspersed with Uzbek folk expressions and proverbs.[10]
Abu al-Ghazi's son,Abu al-Muzaffar Anusha Muhammad Bahadur, reassigned the task to complete the work of his fatherShajara-i Turk to a certain Mahmud bin Mulla Muhammad Zaman Urgench. It was finalised in 1665. The work lists a Turkic genealogy starting from the biblicalAdam and the primogenitor of the Turks, Oguz-Khan, and provides legendary details on their descendants includingChengiz Khan and theShaybanid dynasty, providing a good picture of Mongol and Turkic views of history at that time.
16413 Abulghazi, an asteroid which was discovered on 28 January 1987 byEric Walter Elst atLa Silla Observatory,Chile, was named after him.
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