THE SUCCESSORS OF TĪMŪR
The method taken by Chingiz Khān of assuring the continuance of
sovereignty in his house was inspired by statesmanlike prescience. It
is well-nigh impossible for a single individual to maintain intact an
empire inherited from a father who has won it by the sword. Its founder
may, indeed, say with far greater truth than the scion of a long line
of kings, “the State is Myself”; but his hour of triumph is embittered
by the reflection that possessions amassed by ruthless greed are apt
to melt away when the strong arm that secured them has mouldered into
dust. Chingiz, by dividing his unwieldy dominions among his four sons,
removed all cause of jealousy, such as would inevitably have arisen had
one child been exalted above the rest, and established a community of
interest among his descendants which for several generations sufficed
to keep the greater portion of the known world in his family.
Tīmūr’s disregard of the sound principles of statecraft in the disposal
of his conquests brought upon his dynasty the curse of perennial
rivalries, of mutual hatreds which led to the disruption of his empire
and paved the way for the advent of alien rulers.
When the news of Tīmūr’s death reached Samarkand, his grandson, Pīr
Mohammad, to whom he had bequeathed his crown, was absent in Kandahār.
Khalīl Sultan, another grandson, assured of the support of the
army and the more powerful nobles, took possession of Samarkand and
proclaimed himself king, A.H. 807 (1405).
Meanwhile the dead conqueror’s son, Shāh Rukh,[411] who ruled Herāt,
with the concurrence of the feudal chiefs of his province, laid claim
to the succession, and was acknowledged as the rightful heir throughout
Khorāsān, Sīstān, and Māzanderān. Leaving followers devoted to his
interests in charge of these three important districts, he set out
for Transoxiana, and on his way thither learnt that Khalīl had been
proclaimed king of Samarkand. On hearing this news he sent back one of
his generals with orders to place Herāt in a state of defence, while he
himself continued his march towards the Oxus.
In the meantime his rivals came to terms; Sultan Khalīl being left in
possession of Transoxiana, while Pīr Mohammad was acknowledged as his
heir.[412] Shāh Rukh was conscious of his inability to contend against
these combined forces, and he wisely resolved to secure a realm which
they were not likely to dispute with him.
He hastened back to Herāt and seized Khorāsān, Māzanderān, and Sīstān.
In A.H. 817 (1414) he added Isfahān and Shīrāz to these acquisitions,
and ruled over the fairest province of Irān until his death, in A.H.
850 (1447).
Sultan Khalīl possessed many admirable qualities, with no small share
of the vices which are associated with every virtue. He was too lavish
in gifts and in affection. Had it not been for the slavery in which he
was held by his beloved mistress, _Shād Mulk_, the “Joy of the State,”
he might have revived the lustre of his grandsire’s rule. But his
submission to every whim of an extravagant woman soon depleted Tīmūr’s
brimming treasury, and estranged from his person even those who had
been his most ardent supporters.
The general discontent came to a head in A.H. 809 (1406), when two
nobles, named Khodāydād and Shaykh Nūr-ed-Dīn, suddenly took up arms
against their master, and advanced to attack Samarkand. They were
repulsed by Khalīl, and in the following year Shaykh Nūr-ed-Dīn made
peace with the Sultan. Meanwhile Khodāydād, allying himself with
other malcontent nobles, returned to the attack. On arriving before
Samarkand, the rebels decoyed Sultan Khalīl from his defences under a
pretence of parleying, seized his person and obtained possession of the
city,[413] A.H. 812 (1409).
On learning this piece of treachery, Shāh Rukh at once despatched an
army under his general, Shāh Mulk, to punish Khodāydād. The latter
abandoned Samarkand, which remained without a ruler until the arrival
of Shād Mulk, to whom the gates were opened. Shāh Rukh himself arrived
shortly afterwards, and, after establishing order in the town, heaped
the most galling indignities on Shād Mulk, who had been the cause of
Khalīl’s misfortunes.[414] He then made his young son, Ulugh Beg,
governor of Transoxiana, and returned to Herāt.
The thirty-eight years during which the cultured prince ruled as his
father’s lieutenant in Samarkand were the golden age of Central Asia.
Himself an astronomer and mathematician of no mean renown,[415] he
gathered round him a galaxy of stars of science, which made Tīmūr’s
capital a beacon-light for the Eastern world. His liberality and deep
artistic sense were not less conspicuous. They stood revealed in
palaces, mosques, and colleges, which during their brief existence
made Samarkand the most beautiful of Asiatic cities. The long peace
that had brooded over Transoxiana under the reign of this enlightened
prince was rudely dispelled by the death of his father, Shāh Rukh,
which took place in A.H. 850 (1448).[416] Ulugh Beg, as heir-apparent,
was proclaimed emperor, and set out for Herāt to take possession of
his father’s treasure. But his nephew, `Alā ud-Dawlé, had seized the
citadel and the person of Ulugh Beg’s son, `Abd ul-Latīf. Paternal love
induced the emperor to come to terms with the pretender on certain
conditions, first and foremost amongst these being his son’s release.
This was achieved, but the other stipulations were not carried out
by `Alā ud-Dawlé. The war was therefore renewed, and it ended in his
discomfiture and flight towards Meshed. While pursuing his enemy
through Khorāsān, Ulugh Beg received disquieting news from home. Herāt
had been plundered by a Turkoman chief, and Samarkand by the uncouth
Uzbegs, who destroyed in a few hours the marvels of art with which
he had decorated it. But worse was still in store for the unhappy
monarch. His darling, `Abd ul-Latīf, for whom he had sacrificed so
much, set up the standard of revolt at Balkh and invaded Transoxiana.
Ulugh Beg was forced to oppose his claims, but was defeated and taken
prisoner. To `Abd ul-Latīf’s eternal disgrace, he caused his father to
be put to death in prison by a Persian slave.[417]
The parricide did not prosper long. Abū Sa`īd, a descendant of Tīmūr’s
third son, Mīrān Shāh, seized the throne of Samarkand; and, though `Abd
ul-Latīf proved himself the stronger in the field, his triumph was cut
short by his assassination by one of Ulugh Beg’s trusted servants, A.H.
854 (1450). Abū Sa`īd claimed the succession, but was repulsed by one
of Shāh Rukh’s grandsons named `Abdullah Mīrzā, who took possession
of the oft-contested throne of Samarkand. Gathering a strong force
of Uzbegs, he returned to the charge and deprived `Abdullah, his
cousin, of his crown and life, A.H. 856 (1452).[418] The history of
the following thirty years is a dreary record of struggles for supreme
authority between Tīmūr’s descendants. At length, in A.H. 870 (1465),
Abū Sa`īd had defeated every rival and found himself unquestioned
master of Transoxiana, Northern Persia, and Afghanistān. Central Asia
enjoyed, too, a brief respite from the stress of civil war under a
prince of real military and administrative genius. Two years later,
A.H. 872 (1467), his evil star tempted him to intervene in the affairs
of Āzerbāyjān. He marched against a pretender named Hasan Beg with a
powerful army, but was utterly defeated and handed over by his captor
to the tender mercies of Prince Yādgār Mirza, son of Shāh Rukh’s
consort, Gawhar Shād, whom Abū Sa`īd had put to death. The Mohammedan
law is based on the Mosaic code, which prescribes blood for blood: and
the once-powerful emperor was beheaded by the inexorable Yādgār.
His son, Sultan Ahmed, was permitted to mount the throne of Samarkand.
He was known to be of moderate abilities and a yielding nature; and
revolts against his authority were frequent. The southern provinces
threw off their allegiance, and were never reconquered during Sultan
Ahmed’s lifetime. His brother `Omar Shaykh successfully withstood him
on the extreme east, and he had the greatest difficulty in bringing
back Turkestān to obedience. His reign was, however, more peaceful
than might have been anticipated in times so stormy. If Sultan Ahmed
was given to alternate fits of drunkenness and devotion, he was at
least devoid of the lust of conquest which proved so fatal to his
predecessors. Transoxiana enjoyed comparative repose during his
twenty-seven years’ reign, and its capital was adorned with public
edifices which rivalled those of Ulugh Beg in beauty and grandeur.
He slept with his fathers in A.H. 899 (1493); whereon his brother,
Sultan Mohammad, seized the throne, and basely slaughtered his five
youthful nephews. This infamous cruelty and his own debauched life
roused the ire of his nobles, whom good Sultan Ahmed had raised to a
comparatively high standard of civilisation. He died after a reign of
six months (1494), probably by violent means. The succession was, as
usual, disputed by his children, Mas`ūd, Sultan `Ali, and Baysunkur,
the latter of whom, a youth of eighteen, was elevated to supreme
authority by a powerful faction; for by this time a new factor had
been introduced into Central Asian politics. The Uzbeg chieftains and
the ecclesiastics, who had been restrained by the strong arm of Tīmūr
and his descendants, gained the mastery under the feeble Sultan Ahmed.
Baysunkur’s youth and inexperience rendered him unable to hold the
balance true between the contending parties. His lukewarmness made
him disliked by all; and his brother, Sultan `Ali, was invited from
Karshī to supplant him. Baysunkur sought refuge in flight, but was
soon afterwards restored, while his rival, Sultan `Ali, escaped to
Bokhārā. Here he organised resistance so effectually that Baysunkur
was foiled in an attempt to capture Bokhārā, and driven back to his
capital. Sultan `Ali now turned the tables effectually on his brother.
He advanced on Samarkand at the head of overwhelming forces, while
Mas`ūd pressed forward from the south to assist him; and the famous
Bāber Mīrzā, grandson of Abū Sa`īd, raised the standard of revolt in
Kokand.[419]
Baysunkur felt resistance to this powerful combination hopeless, and he
fled[420] to his brother Mas`ūd for protection, dying in obscurity in
A.H. 905 (1499). His dominions were, in name, divided between Sultan
`Ali and Bāber Mīrzā, but their extreme youth forbade them to assert
authority over the powerful nobles who had usurped every species of
power. They abandoned the contest; and a chieftain named Mohammad Khān
Shaybāni, a descendant of Jūjī, the son of Chingiz Khān, seized the
throne of Samarkand. Thus fell the dynasty of Tīmūr, after a duration
of 140 years.[421] Their age has cast undying lustre on the Turkish
name, for their own culture attracted an array of scholars and men of
science whose works recall the brightest days of Moorish dominion in
Spain. Shāh Rukh was a song-writer of no mean order; while Ulugh Beg
won fame in the severer studies of the mathematician and astronomer.
Bāber Mīrzā, who afterwards sat on the throne of Delhi, was famous
alike as statesman, philosopher, and writer; and, indeed, there was
hardly one of Tīmūr’s descendants but manifested a taste for letters.
The annals of this house are rendered illustrious by the names of
poets, philosophers, and theologians which are still household words
throughout the East. During this period of Central Asian history,
Bokhārā, Samarkand, and Merv all gave birth to distinguished Mohammedan
writers, as did many other less important towns of Transoxiana and
Turkestān; but rarely did these authors employ in their compositions
the principal vernacular of these countries, namely, Eastern Turkish.
All theological and didactic works were written--as they still are--in
Arabic: and thus it is that many of the masterpieces of Arabic
literature owe their origin to Mohammedans of Central Asia. The
alternative literary language was Persian, which probably came in vogue
for poetical compositions about the time of the Tāhirides.
In the days of the Tīmūrides, however, the dialect of Turkish, known
as Chaghatāy, became honoured by a definite position in literature,
chiefly in the department of poetry. The Chaghatāy dialect is the
oldest form of Turkish which has come down to us in the Arabic
character, and it is still spoken throughout Transoxiana, Turkestān,
and Kāshghar. As with the Aryan family of languages so with the
Turkish, the farther east we go the nearer we approach its source. In
Yarkand and Kāshghar this language is called Turkī, while in Samarkand
and Bokhārā it is known by the name of Uzbegī. Although Uzbegī is the
language most commonly heard in the bazaars of Samarkand and Bokhārā,
it does not hold the field alone, its rival being a corrupt form of
Persian spoken by the Tājiks, and hence known as Tājikī. This dialect,
while on the one hand preserving many old Persian words which in Persia
itself have dropped out of the spoken tongue, has, on the other hand,
with regard to its grammatical forms and its syntax, been greatly
influenced by its Turkish neighbour.[422] Under the Tīmūides there
flourished a poet named Mīr `Alī Shīr, or Navāy, who certainly did more
than any other to enrich the Chaghatāy literature, and who may justly
be regarded the national poet _par excellence_ of the Eastern Turks.