'Babur Ibn-Baysunkur' (also known as 'Abu'l-Qasim Babur'), (
1422–
1457) was a
Timurid ruler in
Khurasan (
1449–1457). He was the son of Baisunqur, and thus the a grandson of
Shāhrukh Mirzā.
Babur was one of the many people involved in the succession struggle that took place during Shah Rukh's last years. Together with Khalil Sultan (a great-great-grandson of
Timur), he plundered the baggage-train of the army and then made his way to Khurasan. Meanwhile,
Ulugh Beg also invaded Khurasan in
1448 in an attempt to defeat 'Ala' al-Daula, who held
Herat. Ulugh Beg defeated 'Ala' al-Daula at
Tarnab and took
Mashhad, while his son
'Abd al-Latif conquered Herat. 'Ala' al-Daula fled to south-western
Afghanistan. However, Ulugh Beg felt
Transoxiana, where he had already ruled for decades, to be more important, and soon left the area. On the way back, Babur sent a force that inflicted heavy losses on his army.
With a power vacuum now in Khurasan, Babur quickly seized control. Mashad and Herat fell to him in 1449. 'Ala' al-Daula occasionally raided the area but was not a significant factor. Together with Ulugh Beg and
Sultan Muhammad (who gained control of central
Persia), Babur became one of the three important Timurid rulers. This balance of power was soon upset by Sultan Muhammad, who invaded Khurasan. The campaign started out badly for Babur, with a defeat at Mashad in March
1450 convinced him to cede parts of his territory. However, Babur soon recovered and took Sultan Muhammad prisoner, and then executed him. He then marched to
Shiraz to take control of Sultan Muhammad's lands.
At this point
Jahan Shah of the
Black Sheep Turkmen ended his loyalty to the Timurids. He quickly put
Qum and
Sava to siege. Babur began to march against him but was forced to return to Herat, due to the overwhelming superiority of the Black Sheep's armies and a plot hatched against him by 'Ala' al-Daula. Most of Persia was taken from the Timurids by
1452, with the exception of
Abarquh, which was conquered by the Black Sheep in
1453. While
Kirman was temporarily conquered some time later and a few attempts were made to seize
Ray, Persia as a whole was never retaken by the Timurids.
In
1454 Babur invaded Transoxiana, then under the control of
Abu Sa'id in retaliation for the latter's seizure of
Balkh. He quickly laid siege to
Samarkand. The conflict between the two soon ended, however, with the
Oxus River agreed to as a border. This remained in effect until Babur's death in 1457. He was succeeded by his son Mahmud.
References
★ Peter Jackson (1986). ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume Six: The Timurid and Safavid Periods''. ISBN 0-521-20094-6