Abu Sa'id Mirza

Mirza Abū Saʿīd Baig Muhammed Khan
Mirza (royal title) Sultan
Sultan Abu Said Mirza
Reign	Samarkand: 1451–1469 Herat: 1459–1469
Born	1424 Herat
Died	1469
Spouse	Khanzade Begum Rabia Sultan Begum Shah Sultan Begum Sultanum Begum Aka Begum Ruqaiya Sultan Begum Tarkhan Begum Afaq Aghacha Khadija Sultan Aghacha
Issue	Sultan Ahmed Mirza Sultan Muhammad Mirza Sultan Mahmud Mirza Umar Shaikh Mirza II Sultan Murad Miza Sultan Walad Mirza Ulugh Beg Mirza Aba Bakr Mirza Sultan Khalil Mirza Shahrukh Mirza Fakhr Jahan Begum Badi ul-Jamal Begum Sultan Bakht Begum Gowhar Shad Begum Khadija Sultan Begum Shahar Banu Begum Payanda Sultan Begum Zainab Sultan Begum Aq Sultan Begum Khvand Sultan Begum Khanum Sultan Begum
Dynasty	Timurid dynasty
Father	Muhammad Mirza

Mirza Abū Saʿīd Baig Mohammed Khan or Abū Saʿīd Mirza (Chagatay/Persian: ابو سعید میرزا‎‎) was the son of Muḥammad son of Miran Shah son of Amir Timur (Herat, 1424–1469), and was a Timurid Empire ruler in Transoxiana, Khurasan and the southern Caspian region, what is today parts of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan and member of the Timurid dynasty.

Background

Abū Saʿīd was the great-grandson of Timur, the grandson of Miran Shah, and the nephew of Ulugh Beg. He was the grandfather of Babur, by his son Umar Sheikh Mirza, the founder of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. As a young man his ancestry made him a principal in the century-long struggle for the remnants of Timur's empire waged between Timur's descendants, the Black Sheep Turkomans, and the White Sheep Turkomans (1405–1510).^[1]

Reign

Conquests

He raised an army but failed to gain a foothold in Samarkand or Bukhara (1448–1449); established his base at Yasi and conquered much of Turkestan in 1450. In June 1451, he captured Samarkand with the aid of the Uzbek Turks under Abūl-Khayr Khān, thus securing rulership of the eastern part of Timur's Empire, Transoxiana.^[2] He fought an inconclusive war with Mirza Abul-Qasim Babur bin Baysonqor of Khorasan in 1454; and took advantage of his cousin Jahan Shah's capture of Herat late in 1457 to capture it for himself in 1458, thus acquiring the rest of Timur's heartland and becoming the most powerful of the Timurid princes in central Asia. He defeated an alliance of three other Timurid princes at the Battle of Sarakhs in March 1459, and conquered eastern Iran and most of Afghanistan by 1461, agreeing with Jahan Shah to divide Iran between them; when the White Sheep Turkoman chieftain Uzun Hasan attacked and killed Jahan Shah, Abu Sa'id spurned Uzun Hasan's peace offer and answered Jahan Shah's son's request for aid.

Capture

Captured (on 11 February 1469 [NS]) by Uzun Hasan with a small force at the calamitous Battle of Qarabagh (in modern Republic of Azerbaijan) during a campaign against the Ak Koyunlu (White Sheep) Turkomans,^[3] he was handed over to Yadgar Muhammad Mirza on 17 February 1469, who executed him, ostensibly in retribution for Abū Sa'id's execution of Yadgar Muhammad Mirza's grandmother Queen Gawhar Shad,^[4] who had been intriguing against him.

Political Connections

Abu Sa'id formed many political connections during his rule, including to the Uzbeks, the Qara Qoyunlu Turkmen, and a variety of Sufi figures. He has been linked to Khwāja ʿUbaydullah Aḥrār (d. 895 AH/1490 CE) at the time of his accession (1451 CE) in Samarqand.^[5] He also sought support at the shrine of Ahmad Yasavi in Yasi.^[6]

Marriages

Abu Sa'id Mirza married nine times:

• Khanzada Begum, daughter of Abu-al-Khayr Khan Jochi;
• Rabia Sultan Begum, daughter of Muhammad Timur Mirza by his wife Khand Sultan Biki;
• Tarkhan Begum, daughter of Orda Bugha Tarkhan Arghun;
• Sultanum Begum, daughter of Shah Sultan Muhammad of Badakshan;
• Aka Begum, Taghay Shah, daughter of Ulugh Beg bin Shahrukh Mirza;
• Rukaiya Sultan Begum, daughter of Ala-ud-dawla Mirza bin Baysunghur bin Shahrukh Mirza;
• Shah Sultan Begum, a noble Turkish lady;
• Afaq Aghacha Kukaktash, daughter of Ibrahim Mirza bin Ala-ud-Daulah bin Baysunghur Mirza bin Shahrukh Mirza by his wife Qutlugh Biki Agha;
• Khadija Begi Aghacha, daughter of Amir Muhammad Sarik bin Amir Muhammad Khawaja;

Legacy

Much has been made of Abū Saʿīd’s removal of tamgha taxes at the request of Khwāja Aḥrār,^[7] but these taxes were removed by earlier Timurids as well,^[8] and the action may have been as much a reversal of an earlier, little-liked ruler as a shift in policy toward Islamic taxation systems.^[9] Khwandamir reports that court officials were deposed and sometimes killed for misappropriating funds, including the same Quṭb al-Dīn Ṭaʾūs Simnanī who later is responsible for the construction of the Juy-i Sulṭānī.^[10] Women could also be caught up in the court intrigues. As mentioned in Aubin and discussed more fully by Manz,^[11] Abū Saʿīd’s execution of Gawhar Shād, the wife of Shāh Rukh b. Timur (779-850/1377-1447) was viewed negatively by the contemporary chroniclers.

Abū Saʿīd does not seem to have personally engaged in large-scale building projects, perhaps because of the time he spent on campaigns.^[12] Quṭb al-Dīn Ṭāʾūs, a vizier under Abū Saʿīd, built the Jūy-i Sulṭāni canal in Herat,^[13] which created the possibility for future building under Sulṭān Ḥusayn Bayqārā as it was completed while Abū Saʿīd was on his final campaign to Azerbaijan.^[14] This and the Aq Sarāy (white palace) shifted the elite living space while the ruler was in Herat to outside the city walls, “marking a conscious break with the past.” ^[15] Other public works credited to Abū Saʿīd include repairs to the Gulistān dam “while at the same time appropriating the lands it watered”.^[16] Buildings include an aiwan at the musalla in Herat,^[17] repairs to Ghār-i Karukh which includes an inscription,^[18] and construction of a spa and bath at Ūba (Obeh), a “resort for the Timurids” in their summer quarters.^[19]

References

1. Jean Aubin, "Abū Saʿīd", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. I (1960), pp. 147–148.
2. Soucek, Svat, A History of Inner Asia (2000), page 136.
3. Jean Aubin, "Abū Saʿīd", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. I (1960), page 148.
4. Aubin, "Encyclopaedia of Islam", 2nd ed., 1:148
5. Jo-Ann Gross, Khoja Aḥrār. A Study of the Perceptions of Religious Power and Prestige in the Late Timurid Period. New York University Ph.D dissertation 1982, p. 102; Khwāndamīr, "Habibu’s-siyar. Tome Three. The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk." Trans. W. M. Thackston. Edited by Şinasi Tekin and Gönül Alpay Tekin. 2 vols. Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures. Cambridge, MA, 1994, p. 208
6. Gross p. 99-102, Beatrice Forbes Manz. "Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran." Edited by David Morgan, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge / New York 2007, p. 215 n.33
7. V. V. Bartold. "Four Studies on the History of Central Asia." 3 vols. Leiden 1956-1963; Aubin 1:148; H. R Roemer, "The Successors of Tīmūr", In "The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 6. The Timurid and Safavid Periods", edited by Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart. (Cambridge 1986) 117
8. Manz "Power" 81-2
9. Manz "Power" 267
10. Khwandamir/Thackston, 203, 204
11. Beatrice Forbes Manz, "Women in Timurid Dynastic Politics", in "Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800", edited by G. Nashat and L. Beck (Urbana / Chicago 2003), 134-5
12. Terry Allen, "Timurid Herat", Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients. Reihe B, Geistwiss. Weisbaden 1983, p. 24
13. Allen "Timurid Herat" 49, 53; Terry Allen, "A Catalogue of the Toponyms and Monuments of Timurid Herat", Studies in Islamic Architecture. Cambridge 1981, p. 20-21
14. Allen "Timurid Herat" 23-4
15. Allen "Timurid Herat" 49, 52-3
16. Bernard O'Kane, "Timurid Architecture in Khurasan", Islamic Art and Architecture. Costa Mesa, CA 1987 15
17. O’Kane 20
18. O’Kane 251-2; Lisa Golombek and Donald Wilber, "The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan". 2 vols, Princeton Monographs in Art and Archeology. Princeton, NJ 1988 1:327
19. Allen "Timurid Herat" p. 24