Sheibanids

Sheibanids

 

(also Shaybanids), the descendants of Shiban, a son of Jochi and brother of Batu.

One of the most important of the Sheibanids was the founder of the Sheibanid dynasty of Uzbek khans, Muhammad Sheibani (1451–1510), a son of Shah-Budag-Sultan and grandson of Abulkhair (Abu al-Khayr). In 1499, Sheibani Khan embarked on the conquest of Mavera-un-Nahr; in 1500 he took the Timurid capital of Samarkand and founded the Sheibanid state. He established his rule over all Mavera-un-Nahr and Khorasan and in 1508 and 1509 plundered the Kazakhs. In 1510, Sheibani Khan was defeated and killed at Merv by the Iranian shah Ismail I.

After the death of Sheibani Khan’s uncle, Kochkunju Khan (ruled 1510–30), and the brief reign of his son Abu Said (ruled 1530–33), Sheibani Khan’s nephew Abu al-Ghazi (ruled 1533–39) became the head of the Sheibanid state. The Sheibanids, who considered themselves the rightful successors to the Timurids, warred continuously with the Safavids for Khorasan and the second Timurid capital, Herat.

Under Abdullah-Khan II ibn Iskander (ruled 1557–98), from 1583 khan of all the Uzbeks, the power of the khan was strengthened considerably. After the death of Iskander and the assassination of his son Abd al-Mumin, the Sheibanid dynasty came to an end. Pir Muhammad II, the last Sheibanid, controlled only a small part of the state; he was killed, in an internecine struggle, the same year he took power. The Ashtarkhanids, succeeded the Sheibanids in 1599.

REFERENCES

Istoriia Uzbekskoi SSSR, vol. 1. Tashkent, 1967.
Bartol’d, V. V. Soch., vol. 2, part 2. Moscow, 1964.
Bosworth, C. E. Musul’manskie dinastii: Spravochnik po khronologii genealogii, Moscow, 1971. Pages 207–08. (Translated from English.)