Principality of Fergana | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1469–1503 | |||||||||
Capital | Fergana | ||||||||
Official languages | Chagatai Turkic | ||||||||
Religion | Islam | ||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
Emir | |||||||||
• 1469–1494 | Umar Shaikh Mirza II | ||||||||
• 1494–1497 | Babur | ||||||||
• 1497–1504 | Jahangir Mirza II | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 8 February 1469 | ||||||||
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The Principality of Fergana was a Timurid principality in Transoxiana (now Uzbekistan) based in the city of Fergana. The principality was ruled by Umar Shaikh Mirza II, and his sons, Babur and Jahangir Mirza II.
The principality was established following the death of Abu Sa'id Mirza and the division of his empire among his sons. Umar Shaikh's line ruled the principality for more than three decades from 1469 to 1504.
Abu Sa'id Mirza had re-united the Timurid Empire with the help of the Uzbek chief Abu'l-Khayr Khan, following its first division in 1449. However, he was killed by the White Sheep Turkomen and the Timurid Empire was divided once again in 1469. Umar Shaikh received Fergana upon the division of the Timurid Empire in 1469. Umar Shaikh died in a freak accident in Aksi fort, North Fergana, on 10 June 1494. It occurred when he was in his dovecote, which was built at the edge of the building, collapsed, thus making eleven-year-old Babur the ruler of Fergana. [1]
In 1494, eleven-year-old Babur became the ruler of Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan, after Umar Sheikh Mirza died "while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled into the ravine below the palace". [2] During this time, two of his uncles from the neighbouring kingdoms, who were hostile to his father, and a group of nobles who wanted his younger brother Jahangir to be the ruler, threatened his succession to the throne. [3] His uncles were relentless in their attempts to dislodge him from this position as well as from many of his other territorial possessions to come. [4] Babur was able to secure his throne mainly because of help from his maternal grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begum, although there was also some luck involved. [3]
Most territories around his kingdom were ruled by his relatives, who were descendants of either Timur or Genghis Khan, and were constantly in conflict. [3] At that time, rival princes were fighting over the city of Samarkand to the west. In 1497, he besieged Samarkand for seven months before eventually gaining control over it. [5] He was fifteen years old and for him the campaign was a huge achievement. [3] Babur was able to hold the city despite desertions in his army, but he later fell seriously ill.
Meanwhile, a rebellion back home, approximately 350 kilometres (220 mi) away, amongst nobles who favoured his brother, made Jahangir Mirza II the ruler of Fergana. [5] As Babur was marching to recover it, he lost Samarkand to a rival prince, leaving him with neither. [3] He tried to reclaim Fergana, but lost the battle there and, escaping with a small band of followers, he wandered the mountains of central Asia and took refuge with hill tribes. By 1502, he had resigned all hopes of recovering Fergana; he was left with nothing and was forced to try his luck elsewhere. [6] [7] The principality was lost to the Uzbeks in 1504.
Portrait | Name | Reign |
---|---|---|
Umar Shaikh Mirza II | 1469–1494 | |
Babur | 1494–1497 | |
Jahangir Mirza II | 1497–1503 |
Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani.
Muhammad Shaybani Khan was an Uzbek leader who consolidated various Uzbek tribes and laid the foundations for their ascendance in Transoxiana and the establishment of the Khanate of Bukhara. He was a Shaybanid or descendant of Shiban, the fifth son of Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son. He was the son of Shah-Budag, thus a grandson of the Uzbek conqueror Abu'l-Khayr Khan.
Sultan Husayn Bayqara Mirza was the Timurid ruler of Herat from 1469 until May 4, 1506, with a brief interruption in 1470.
Qutlugh Nigar Khanum was the first wife and chief consort of Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the ruler of Ferghana Valley. She was a princess of Moghulistan by birth and was a daughter of Yunus Khan, the Great Khan of Moghulistan.
Yunus Khan, was Khan of Moghulistan from 1462 until his death in 1487. He is identified by many historians with Ḥājjī `Ali, of the contemporary Chinese records. He was the maternal grandfather of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire.
Sultan Mahmud Khan, was Khan of Tashkent and of the Moghuls of western Moghulistan (1487–1508). He was the eldest son of Yunus Khan. He was born in 1464, his mother was Shah Begum, daughter of Badakhshan prince Lali, who claimed his descent from Alexander the Great and gave one of his six daughters to Yunus Khan in marriage, pleasing his request.
Akhsikath is an archeological site located in the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan. A fortified city along the Syr Darya, it lies 22km to the southwest of Namangan and covers an area of 30 hectares. The oldest parts of Akhsikath date from the 3rd century BC, but it peaked in size and importance during the 9th-12th centuries AD. Later, the city played a key role in the life of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, whose father ruled Fergana from Akhsikath. The city is described in the Baburnama.
In 1504, Babur besieged Kabul and took the city from the Arghuns under Mukim Beg Arghun, to become the new king of Kabul and Ghazni regions. The territory gave him respite from his Uzbek troubles in Central Asia. It allowed him to build his nascent kingdom into a strong and formidable power in later years, enough to conquer northern India.
The sieges of Samarkand (1494-1496) were two failed sieges of Samarkand during the chaotic years of civil war that preceded the fall of the Timurid Empire in 1501.
Abu Sa'id Mirza was the ruler of the Timurid Empire during the mid-fifteenth century.
In the early 16th century, Sultan Mahmud Khan, the Chagatai Khan of Western Moghulistan, and Sultan Ahmad Alaq Khan, the Chagatai Khan of Eastern Moghulistan, decided to counter the growing power of the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani. Sultan Ahmed Tambol had rebelled against his Timurid master Babur and declared his independence. But when Babur tried to reconquer his territory with the help of his uncles, Ahmed Tambol sought the assistance of the Uzbeks. The two Moghul brothers united their forces and launched a campaign against Tambol, but Muhammad Shaybani surprised the Khans and proved victorious in battle of Akhsi and took them both prisoner.
Umar Shaikh Mirza II was the ruler of the Fergana Valley. He was the fourth son of Abu Sa'id Mirza, the emperor of the Timurid Empire in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and eastern Iran.
Sultan Ahmed Mirza was the eldest son of Abu Sa'id Mirza on whose death he became the Timurid ruler of Samarkand and Bukhara from 1469 until 1494. During his rule, he successfully repelled at least one invasion attempt by the Kara Koyunlu, and failed in an attempt to conquer Khurasan from its ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara. He was embroiled in the Timurid Civil Wars with his brothers Umar Shaikh Mirza II and Sultan Mahmud Mirza. He died while returning from his Ferghana expedition against Babur, the twelve-year-old son and successor of Umar Shaikh Mirza II. As he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his brother, Sultan Mahmud Mirza.
Aisha Sultan Begum was Queen consort of Ferghana Valley and Samarkand as the first wife of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor.
The Battle of Qarabagh was fought on February 4, 1469, between Aq Qoyunlu under Uzun Hasan, and the Timurids of Samarkand under Abu Sa'id Mirza, resulting in the latter's defeat, imprisonment and execution. After the battle, the Timurids forever lost any hopes of gaining Iraq or Iran back into their kingdom.
Khanzada Begum was a Timurid princess and the eldest daughter of Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the amir of Ferghana. She was also the elder sister of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She and her brother remained deeply attached to each other all their lives, a period during which the family progressed from ruling a tiny and obscure principality in Central Asia to ruling a large portion of the Indian subcontinent.
Aisan Daulat Begum was the first wife and chief consort of Yunus Khan of Moghulistan. She was the mother of Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, and hence the grandmother of the first Mughal emperor, Babur. During the reign of her grandson, she functioned as his de facto regent and advisor, from 1494 to 1505.
Sultan Mahmud Mirza was a Timurid prince from the branch of Transoxiana. He was the son of Abu Sa'id Mirza, the ruler of the Timurid Empire.
Baysonqor Mirza (1477–1499) was the ninth ruler of the Timurid dynasty in Transoxiana. He ruled in Samarkand between 1495 and 1497.
Sultan Ali Mirza (1479–1500) was the last ruler of the Timurid dynasty in Samarkand. He reigned between 1498 and 1500, when he was deposed and killed by Muhammad Shaybani, Khan of the Uzbeks.
It was over these possessions, provinces controlled by uncles, or cousins of varying degrees, that Babur fought with close and distant relatives for much of his life.
Babur, while still in his teens, conceived the ambition of conquering Samarkand. In 1497, after a seven months' siege, he took the city, but his supporters gradually deserted him and Ferghana was taken from him in his absence. Within a few months he was compelled to retire from Samarkand ... Eventually he retook Samarkand, but was again forced out, this time by an Usbek leader, Shaibani Khan ... Babur decided in 1504 to trek over the Hindu Kush to Kabul, where the current ruler promptly retreated to Kandahar and left him in undisputed control of the city.