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Siege of Samarkand | |||||||
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Part of Timurid Civil Wars | |||||||
Ulug-Bek Madrasa in Samarkand | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Timurids of Ferghana Timurids of Bukhara Timurids of Hissar | Timurids of Samarkand | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur Sultan Ali Mirza Sultan Masud Mirza | Sultan Baysonqor Mirza |
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.
After the death of King Abu Sa'id Mirza in 1469, the great-grandson of Amir Timur Beg Gurkani (Taimur Lung), his much reduced Timurid Empire was divided among four of his sons namely;
A civil war between two brothers Umar Shaikh Mirza II (father of Babur), King of Ferghana and Sultan Ahmed Mirza, King of Samarkand and Bukhara was being fought in 1492 when Umar Shaikh died of natural causes leaving his son, the 12-year-old Babur in charge of his Kingdom. Ahmed Mirza, Babur's uncle wasted no time in attacking Babur's Kingdom but failed in his attempt. Ahmed Mirza later also died of natural causes without a son.
After Sultan Ahmed Mirza's death, his other Sultan Mahmud Mirza moved to Samarkand and reigned there for some five or six months, reportedly attempting to regulate the collection of taxes and strengthen his army, but also died. With the deaths of Sultan Ahmed Mirza, Sultan Mahmud Mirza and Umar Shaikh Mirza II, all occurring during the space of a year, civil strife between the next generation intensified.
The richest amirs tried to make use of the child Timurid princes, preferring to enthrone the weakest of them.
The deceased last Sultan of Samarkand, Sultan Mahmud Mirza, had 3 sons : Sultan Masud Mirza who became the ruler of Hissar, Sultan Ali Mirza (born 1479) who became the ruler of Bukhara, but the young Timurid Sultan Baysonqor Mirza (born 1477) came to power in Samarkand, which roused the governors of other provinces.
Sultan Ali Mirza left Bukhara on a campaign against his brother in Samarkand, but the inhabitants of the city put up a fierce resistance. These events and the confusion and anarchy with which they were attended in the kingdom of Samarkand did not escape the observation of their cousin Babur who resolved to try his fortune two years later.
In 1496, the 15-year-old Babur marched to attack Samarkand. At the same moment and induced by the same motives, Sultan Masud Mirza, the older brother of Sultan Ali Mirza and Baysonqor Mirza, was on his way to besiege the city. Thus that unfortunate city, unfortunate from its very wealth and former prosperity, saw itself beleaguered on three sides at the same time by the armies of three different potentates who acted without concert; Babur having advanced towards it from Andijan; Masud Mirza from Hissar and Sultan Ali from Bukhara.
Sultan Ali now proposed to Babur that they should enter into a treaty of alliance and mutual cooperation, to which Babur, accompanied by a limited number of followers,willingly agreed. But as the autumn was already drawing to a close and the winter was fast approaching, and as the country round Samarkand was exhausted by the presence of so many armies and altogether unable to furnish the requisite provisions for the troops all the invading princes, they were forced to withdraw to their own territories.
However, Babur and Sultan Ali decided that as soon as the winter season was over they would return and besiege the city again. [1]
Indeed, both princes returned to Samarkand in May 1497, and took the city after a siege of 7 months. The city remained in Timurid hands, but would be definitively lost to the invading Uzbeks under command of Muhammad Shaybani in 1501.
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.
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The siege of Samarkand (1497) was a successful siege by the two armies of Emir Babur of Fergana and Sultan Ali of Bukhara of the city of Samarkand. In May 1497, the city was captured after 7 months of siege.
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Abu Sa'id Mirza was the ruler of the Timurid Empire during the mid-fifteenth century.
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Battle of Ab Darrah Pass was the battle that took place in 1511 in the place called Ab Darrah between Uzbeks and Babur of Timurids. The battle ended with the decisive Timurid victory which enabled Babur to regain Transoxiana and briefly reunite the whole of the ancestral part of the Timurid Empire. Such a decisive and significant battle is not mentioned in Babur’s Memoirs (Baburnama), in which there is a break from the year 1508 to the beginning of 1519.
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.
The Battle of the Chirciq River was fought between Sultan Mahmud Khan of Moghulistan and Sultan Ahmed Mirza, the Timurid ruler of Samarkand & Bukhara in 1488 CE over the city of Tashkent. The Moghuls decisively defeated the Timurids as a result of the defection of 3,000 Uzbeks under the command of Muhammad Shaybani Khan.
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.
Masuma Sultan Begum was the Queen consort of Ferghana Valley and Samarkand as the fourth wife of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor.
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.
Mu'iz-ud-din Umar Shaikh Mirza was a member of the Timurid dynasty and a son of its founder, the Central Asian conqueror Timur. Known for being a skilled soldier, Umar Shaikh was one of Timur's military commanders and also served as a regional governor. He died in 1394, predeceasing his father by over a decade.
Baysonqor Mirza (1477–1499) was the ninth ruler of the Timurid dynasty in Transoxiana. He ruled in Samarkand between 1495 and 1497.
Sultan Masud Mirza was a Prince from the Timurid dynasty and a grandson of Abu Sa'id Mirza.
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.
The Principality of Fergana was a Timurid principality in Transoxiana based in the city of Fergana. The principality was ruled by Umar Shaikh Mirza II, and his sons, Babur and Jahangir Mirza II.