| Miran Shah میران شاہ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timurid Prince MiranShah | |||||
 Mughal illumination of Miran Shah, 18th century | |||||
| Born | 1366 | ||||
| Died | 20 April 1408(1408-04-20) (aged 41–42) Sardrud,Timurid Empire(present-dayIran) | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Wives | Daulatgaldi Agha Khanzada Urun Sultan Khanika | ||||
| Issue | Khalil Sultan Mirza Abu Bakr Mirza Sultan Muhammad Mirza Qutlugh Sultan Begum Several other children | ||||
| |||||
| House | Timurid dynasty | ||||
| Father | Timur | ||||
| Mother | Mengli Khatun | ||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||
Mirza Jalal-ud-din[1] Miran Shah Beg (1366 – 20 April 1408), commonly known asMiran Shah (Persian:میران شاہ), was a son of theCentral Asian conquerorTimur, founder of theTimurid Empire.
During his father's reign, Miran Shah was initially a powerful regional governor and prominent military commander, having aided Timur in his conquests as well as suppressing several revolts. However, after facing accusations of destructive and hedonistic behaviour, the prince was later deposed from these roles by the emperor. Following Timur's death in 1405, Miran Shah became embroiled in the ensuing war of succession, having thrown his support behind his sonKhalil Sultan. He was later killed whilst battling against the Timurid's traditional rivals, theQara Qoyunlu.
Though never ruling in his own right, the line of Miran Shah played a prominent role in the history of theTimurid Empire. His grandsonAbu Sa'id Mirza eventually came to rule the majority ofTransoxiana in the latter half of the 15th century. Abu Sa'id's own grandson wasBabur, the founder of theMughal Empire ofIndia.[2]
Miran Shah was born in 1366, the third ofTimur's four sons. His mother was aconcubine, Mengli Khatun, daughter of Hayut of the Jauni Qurban tribe.[3]
In 1380, prior to his conquest ofKhorasan, Timur pre-emptively named Miran Shah (at this point fourteen years old) governor of the region. The kingdom was then under the rule of theKartid dynasty, who quickly submitted to Timur's army. In 1383, the head of the former royal family, Ghiyas-uddin Pir 'Ali, became complicit in a plot against Timur. Miran Shah quickly crushed the rebellion and annexed the Kartid capital ofHerat, which he made his viceregal seat.[4][5] Several years later, the last of the Kartids, Ghiyas-uddin's son Pir Muhammad, was killed by Miran Shah in a banquet that the latter hosted. ChroniclersAbd al-Razzaq Samarqandi andSharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi (writing in theMatla al-sa'dayn andZafarnama respectively) record Miran Shah as having laughed whilst decapitating the prince; they note that he later explained his actions as being due to excessive drinking.[6]
In the winter of 1386, Timur launched an invasion ofAzerbaijan, an area that had by that point been sought after by theGolden Horde for over a century.Tokhtamysh, thekhan of the Golden Horde and Timur's erstwhile ally, sent his army against the invading force and defeated their advance-guard, resulting in the loss of forty of Timur's officers. Miran Shah was commanded to avenge this defeat and routed the enemy force, pursuing the fleeing soldiers as far asDerbent, the frontier of the Golden Horde. Some of Tokhtamysh's most distinguished followers were taken captive, who were then escorted by Miran Shah to his father's winter quarters inKarabakh, where they were presented to Timur in chains. Contrary to his usual practise however, Timur treated the prisoners leniently and returned them to Tokhtamysh. They were sent bearing only paternal reproaches towards the Khan, a final, ultimately unsuccessful attempt by Timur to discourage his former mentee from further hostilities.[7][8]
Several revolts were also put down by Miran Shah in subsequent years. In 1389 the governor ofTus, Amir Hajji Beg Jauni Qurbani, aided by aSarbadar ruler, sought to make himself independent.[9] Timur sent Miran Shah who, after a protracted siege of several months, had Tus sacked and razed, with the city suffering a heavy death toll.[10]
In 1394, Timur entered a conflict with members of aSufi sect known as theHurufis. This was likely a result of both heresy charges laid against the group by traditional religious scholars, as well as Timur's own attempts to remove potential threats to his rule from the area.[11] Miran Shah was instructed to arrest the founder of the movementFazlallah Astarabadi al-Hurufi who was, according to legend, executed by the prince himself.[12] The death of their leader led al-Hurufi's followers to have a specific hatred against theTimurids. Miran Shah in particular was considered to be theDajjal (Antichrist) and was further mocked asMaran Shah (King of Snakes).[13]
By 1393, Timur had conquered all the lands that had formerly been part of the MongolIlkhanate. This dominion, which Timur termed "the throne ofHulagu", was bestowed upon Miran Shah. The prince's fief was now the entirety of northernPersia andTranscaucasia, and included the cities ofBaghdad,Tabriz andSoltaniyeh.[6]
However Miran Shah, who had been suffering from mental issues following a fall from his horse several years earlier, began to show increasingly destructive tendencies during his rule.Ruy González de Clavijo, theCastilian ambassador to Timur's court, claimed that the prince had ancient buildings destroyed, supposedly so that it would be known that "Miran Shah did nothing himself, but he ordered the finest works in the world to be demolished". The biographerDawlatshah reported that Miran Shah also ordered the tomb of the historianRashid-al-Din Hamadani be dismantled and for his bones to be re-interred in a Jewish cemetery. This was said to be due to the latter'sSemitic descent. There are doubts however regarding this claim, since Miran Shah was purported to have had an interest in Muslim historic literature.[14]
Reports eventually started reaching Timur of his son's behaviour. Stories were heard in the imperial court of chaotic gambling, drinking bouts held within mosques and gold coins being scattered from palace windows to frenzied mobs. Miran Shah's excessive lifestyle evidently took its toll on his health, as he was described by Clavijo as "big and fat, and he suffers much from the gout."[15]
In addition to this, Timur had concerns regarding unrest and taxation problems in Miran Shah's domains, as well as the prince's military failures. Chief among these was his inability to capture the fortress ofAlinja from theJalairid Sultanate in 1395. Miran Shah placed Alinja under siege, catching Prince Tahir, son ofSultan Ahmad Jalayir inside. In 1388,George VII of Georgia broke through the siege, allowing Tahir to escape.
Worries had also been raised for the emperor regarding his son's loyalty. Miran Shah had alluded in letters about his father's increasing age and doubts about Timur's continued capabilities of ruling.[16] These suspicions were realised when Miran Shah's wife, theKhwarezmian princessKhanzada Begum, reached out to her father-in-law. Khanzada reported her husband's rebellious intentions as well as complaining about her mistreatment at his hands. Dawlatshah states that Timur was moved to tears when Khanzada presented to him her blood-stained chemise, though this episode was not confirmed in contemporary sources. Official histories only state that Miran Shah made crude accusations against her that were later disproved. Nevertheless, the angry Khanzada never returned to her husband and remained with Timur inSamarqand.[14][17]
In 1399, Timur sent a detachment of troops under his nephew Sulaiman Shah to investigate his concerns.[16] Miran Shah, without posing any difficulties, returned with them to face his father, who had by this point arrived in Soltaniyeh to confront him. Having tied a rope around his neck, Miran Shah appeared before the emperor and begged for his forgiveness. Timur was said to have been at the point of ordering his son's execution, only refraining due to the intercession of his relatives and nobles.[17] Instead, Miran Shah was deposed from his lands and assigned to Timur's own retinue, where he would remain for the next four years. His friends and advisers, among whom were well known figures, were severely punished, with some being executed for the alleged crime of corrupting the prince and leading him astray.[16]
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Timur had never unambiguously appointed an heir, so at the time of his death in February 1405, a succession dispute erupted among his surviving sons and grandsons. Miran Shah was Timur's eldest living son by this point, but was not considered an active contender to the throne and was passed over in favour of his own son,Khalil Sultan.[18][19]
The latter proclaimed himself emperor atTashkent soon after his grandfather's death and seized the royal treasury, as well as Timur's imperial capitalSamarqand.Sultan Husayn Tayichiud, a maternal grandson of Timur as well as Miran Shah's son-in-law,[20] also made a bid for the throne before aligning himself with Khalil Sultan.Shah Rukh, governor of Herat and Timur's other surviving son, made no offensive move against his nephews at this point. This was likely due to Miran Shah, who posed a serious threat as he, along with his other son Abu Bakr, had led an army out of Azerbaijan in support of Khalil Sultan.[21]
However, Miran Shah and Abu Bakr were forced to withdraw prior to being able to do this.Ahmad Jalayir, who had been expelled by Timur fifteen years previously, took advantage of the old emperor's death to recapture his former lands. The two princes drove out Jalayir atTabriz before being forced to contend with another former enemy:Qara Yusuf, ruler of theBlack Sheep Turkomans.[22]
In 1406, Qara Yusuf defeated the Timurids at theBattle of Nakhchivan and captured Tabriz. Miran Shah and Abu Bakr attempted to retake the city in the Battle ofSardrud on the 20 April 1408, but were decisively defeated by the joint efforts of the Turkomans and Jalayirids. As a result of this rout, all of Timur's western conquests were lost, with the Timurids being subsequently driven out of western Persia.[23]
Though Abu Bakr had managed to escape,[24] Miran Shah was struck down during the battle by a Turkoman chief who, having not recognised the prince, had stripped and looted his body. Qara Yusuf then had his head impaled before the walls of Tabriz to induce the city's inhabitants to surrender. Shortly thereafter, the Turkoman ruler sent Miran Shah's head and body, along with his own condolences, to Shah Rukh, who had emerged the victor in the war of succession. Miran Shah was buried alongside his father in theGur-e-Amir in Samarqand.[25]
Miran Shah married three times:
Concubines:[31]
Issues by unnamed mothers:[31]