Muhammad Shaybani

Muhammad Shaybani

Muhammad Shaybani Khan, Shaybak Khan, or Shibani Khan (b. 1451 – d. 1 December 1510, near Merv), was the Uzbek khan of the Shaybanid Khanate.

Life

He was born in 1451. He was educated in the madrasas of Bukhara. He learned Arabic and Persian. Turkestan was given to him as a fief by the Chagatai Khan. He increased his power in this region. In 1500 he took Bukhara and Samarkand. Thus the Shaybanid dynasty was founded. Babur retook Samarkand after a fourteen-day siege. But some time later Shaybani Khan routed Babur. When no one came to Babur's aid, after a four-month siege Shaybani Khan seized Samarkand once again. In the years 1505–1506 he expanded his territory by taking Fergana, Kunduz, and Balkh. In 1507 he took Herat, the second capital of the Timurids, and captured Mashhad.

The Amu Darya (Ceyhun) became the border between the Safavids and the Shaybanids. Shaybani Khan's expansion of his territory brought him face to face with Shah Ismail. He wrote a letter to Shah Ismail asking him to abandon his shahdom and become a dervish like his ancestors and to convert to Sunnism. Shah Ismail retook Mashhad. He besieged the fortress of Merv but could not take it. Thereupon he sent letters inviting Shaybani Khan to the battlefield. At the Battle of Merv fought on 1 December 1510, Shaybani Khan suffered a severe defeat and, while wounded the same day, was killed at the farm where he had taken refuge. His head was cut off, its skin stuffed with straw, and sent to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, while his skull was sent to the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri.

Sources

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