[May 4] Husayn Bayqarah, sultan of Khurasan

True Name: حسین بایقرا
Parents: Mansur

Date of Birth: 1438

House: Timurid

Predecessor: Yadigar Muhammad

Reign: 1469 – 1506

Summary: A descendant of Timur the Great, Husayn Bayqarah possessed the same potential as most of the Timurids. His father was a relatively unsuccessful member of the family, but Husayn would prove differently. When his father died, Husayn entered the service of Babur, the ruler of Khurasan. Babur died in 1457 and Khurasan was invaded by the ruler of Samarkand, Abu Sa'id, a Timurid cousin. Husayn decided to go out on the lamb, becoming a mercenary for hire. He made a place for himself in the Gurgan, a former territory of the Black Sheep Turks. From there he began expanding his power base. He conquered Mazandaran and submitted to the overlordship of Abu Sa'id. But Abu Sa'id was distracted and Husayn acted, sieging Herat in 1460. He was defeated and fled, taking into his band of warriors Uzbeks seeking glory and plunder. Abu Sa'id died in 1469 and his small empire collapsed. Abu's son attempted to maintain control of Herat but could not against the separate attacks of relatives and the White Sheep Turks. In 1469, Husayn marched into Herat and took the city by force. This time, he was able to keep it and proclaimed himself sultan of Khurasan.

A brief invasion by the Black Sheep Turks in 1470 forced Husayn to flee but he returned after defeating Abu Sa'id's sons in open battle. The White Sheep Turks ceased harassing his borders and Samarkand was undergoing political strife and unable to mount a proper attack on Khurasan. He left his borders alone once secured, preferring his neighbors to attack each other then Khurasan. Husayn became a good ruler, building the region up with schools and administering sound judicial decisions. It is thought that throughout most of his reign, he was also sickly and remained at his capital. Internal conflicts were expected among the Timurids and that was the case with Husayn as well. His nephew's guardian, Darvis 'Ali, joined forces with another Timurid, Mahmud, in attacking Herat. His eldest son, Badi', also joined in this revolt. Both were defeated with his grandson, Muhammed, executed. Badi' was not punished but went on to attack Herat again in 1499. When the Uzbeks defeated Babur in 1501, Husayn's realm became the next target. At first he did not resist against the Uzbeks but by 1506, he had no choice. He died while marching to the battlefield. The sultanate was already at risk of collapse as his two sons, Badi' and Muzaffar Husain, fought over their inheritance, and it fell completely when the Uzbek's captured Herat the next year. The Timurids never regained control of Herat or surrounding Khurasan.

Date of Death: 4 May 1506

Successor: Badi' al-Zaman

Other Monarch Deaths:

Lorenzo II, duke of Urbino (1519)

Anthony Ulrich II, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1774)

[February 18] Timur, emperor of Samarkand

Timur at the Siege of Balkh

True Name: Timür-e Lang

Surname: "The Lame"

Parents: Muhammad Taraqai and Tekina Mohbegim

Date of Birth: 8 April 1336

Royal House: Timurid

Spouse: Saray Milk-khanum, among others

Reign: 1370 – 1405

Summary: Many people know of the name Tamerlane, or in actuality Timür-e Lang, or Timur the Lame. Yet few know why he is famous or what he did. In actuality, he did little that had not already been accomplished. During his early years, he was known to claim the legacy of Genghis Khan, though he himself was of Turkish origin. He was Muslim, but it is unclear if he practiced the Sunni or the Shi'a form and both he held in high regard. He joined the army of the Chagatai Khanate, which ruled most of Central Asia, in 1360. He was a successful soldier but the Chagatai Khanate fell into civil war upon the death of Kurgan, its khan. Timur took the lead and turned the once-powerful Chagatai khanate into a figurehead organization under his indirect leadership. Timur began feuding for power with his brother, Husayn, and the brother was finally killed in 1370 and Timur took the throne of the Chagatai Khanate at Samarkand. Timur never took the title of khan, preferring the lesser title of amir and throughout his reign he continued to rule in the name of the Chagatai ruler of Transoxania, but the ruler at that point held no power.


In 1370, Timur began his regional conquest. For 35 years, he would become the dominant power in Central Asian politics creating an empire that would span across Persia to the Kurdish Steppe, encompass all of the Turkic people of Afghanistan, and stretch to the Indus River in Pakistan. He maintained conflicted alliances with many of his neighbors. Tokhtamysh, the khan of the Golden Horde north of Kazakhstan, was a refugee in his court before becoming khan. Timur and Tokhtamysh feuded frequently but Timur still supported him in his campaigns against Muscovy (Russia). When Abu Sa'id died, the Ilkhanate lost its leadership and Timur came to claim the title of "King of Kings". Timur was brutal in his conquest of Persia, killing tens of thousands and burning cities to the ground. War with Tokhtamysh was renewed when Timur was marching on Moscow and it consumed much of the 1380s and 1390s. In 1395, Timur finally defeated Tokhtamysh and destabilized the Golden Horde economy, sinking the region into poverty for the next two hundred years. With Central Asia under his control, Timur in 1398 invaded India, attacking Delhi. He continued his slaughter through Pakistan as he made his way to the Indian capital, finally sacking it in early 1399. That same year, Timur turned on the burgeoning Ottoman Empire in Turkey as well as the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt. Both were pushing into his Arabian territories and Tamerlane would not have it. He invaded Armenia and Georgia, enslaving the population and dispersing much of the citizenry. He sacked Baghdad in 1401 after a massacre of thousands. He then invaded Ankara and killed Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. This prompted a decade-long interregnum in the Ottoman Empire. In 1404, Timur set up plans to invade China with the help of the recently-deposed Northern Yuan dynasty. Unfortunately for Timur, he died of fever or plague before reaching the Chinese border. While history has branded him as one of the only people capable of ruling out of Afghanistan, Timur was in fact a despotic and cruel tyrant whose memory in the region is not forgotten by those whose ancestors were suppressed and killed by him.

Date of Death: 18 February 1405

Successor: Khalil Sultan

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople (806)
• Gregory V, pope of Rome (999)
• Yaropolk II, prince of Kiev (1139)
• Kublai Khan, khagan of the Mongol Empire and emperor of China (1294)
• Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg (1379)