The next stage of formation of the Uzbek state under Sheibanid rule after the death of Muhammad Sheibani (and his companions Mahmud and Suyunchkhodzhy) is associated with the personalities of the unsurpassed diplomat Kuchkunji Khan and the powerful Bukhara ruler Ubaidullah Khan.
In spite of the fact that he was a great khan, Kuchkonji-khan had real power only in his domain — Turkestan Vilayat.
Turkestan is a city in southern Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya River. Since June 19, 2018, it has been the administrative center of Turkestan Oblast (formerly South Kazakhstan Oblast)
This domain belonged to his mother Rabiye Sultan Begim , the wife of Abulkhair Khan, who gave it to her and her sons as a hereditary inheritance. His younger brother Suyunchkhoja-khan ruled in Tashkent, also a former part of the inheritance.
After Suyunchkhoja-khan defeated Babur’s troops and divided all lands among Sheibanids he transferred the supreme power to Kuchkunji-khan. Kuchkunji-khan (or Kuchum as he was usually called) was raised in December 1512 on a white khan’s koshma in Samarkand as the supreme Sheibanid khan.
He ruled the state both from Samarkand and Turkestan (then called Yassy), where he felt safe behind the back of his younger brother Suyunchkhodzha-khan. Suyunchkhoja-khan enjoyed great authority both among ordinary nomadic Uzbeks and the clan aristocracy. And most importantly, he had a permanent army of 10 thousand Uzbek warriors, fully devoted only to him.
Portrait of an Uzbek warrior in the middle of the 16th century
Kuchkonji-khan directed his main efforts to fight against the Kazakh khans, against whom he organized large campaigns in 1516-1517.
At the same time, the main battles of the Sheibanids at that time were for Khorasan, which they sought to wrest from the Kyzylbash. This struggle was led by the Bukhara khan Ubaidulla and Suyunchhodja Khan (he was the initiator of all campaigns to Khorasan).
As long as the wise Suyunchhodzha-khan, who had a gift for military leadership, was alive, the Uzbeks were doing well. But in 1525 , he died and the Uzbeks began a black streak.
Kyzylbashi, Kizilbashi — originally an association of Turkoman nomadic tribes of Ustajli, Shamlu, Rumlu, Afshar, Zulkadar, Tekeli, Kajar and others, who spoke the Azerbaijani language.
In September 1528, Safavid ruler of Qizilbash Tahmasp I decided to finally resolve the Khorasan issue. He gathered an army of 24 to 40 thousand soldiers and started an attack on the lands of Eastern Iran (Khorasan) captured by Uzbeks.
The Bukhara Khan Ubaidullah called all Uzbeks under his banner. He was able to gather a huge army of 80 to 120 thousand warriors, which also included Moguls, Kazakhs and Kirghiz.
The Safavid commanders (Shah Tahmasp I was only 14 years old) correctly calculated the military potential of the Uzbeks and decided to use military cunning.
On September 24, 1528 , the two armies met near the Iranian town of Sabzavar (Jam vilayat) . The Safavid commanders placed their most capable units — the guard corps of Kurchi (from the Mongolian word Khorchi — archer) mounted archers and 6000 thousand fusiliers in the center. They were covered by arbs with light guns on them (on the model of Russian Gulyai-gorod). On the flanks were placed mounted militias from Kurds and Kyzylbash tribes.
Much more numerous Uzbeks easily overturned the Kizilbash from the flanks and deciding not to attack the well-fortified center rushed to plunder the unprotected camp.
The Safavids, having waited until the largest number of Uzbeks would be carried away by looting, attacked the detachments of the Shaybanid khans with the help of Kurchi. Those did not expect it and confused, were the first to rush away, which saved themselves, but left the troops without command.
Kyzylbashy did not pursue them and began to destroy the main army. Most of the Uzbeks were either slaughtered or captured (and then sold into slavery). The Battle of Jam was a disaster for the Sheibanids and threatened them with total annihilation.
They were saved only by the fact that the Kizilbashs were too few to conquer Maverannkhar and they did not dare to capture it.
But Maverannkhar could be captured by the worst enemy of Sheibanids — Timurid ruler of Kabul emirate Babur.
Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur («Babur» means «lion, commander, leopard» and comes from the Persian word ْبَبْر (babr) — «tiger», February 14, 1483 — December 26, 1530) was a Central Asian commander, poet and statesman. Padishah of India and Afghanistan. Founder of the Baburid dynasty and Empire.
At this time Babur finally captured Northwest India and fought with the remnants of the Delhi Sultanate forces and the Rajputs. Considering this Kuchkunji-khan decided to be the first to send an ambassador with an offer of peace and friendship to Babur.
- Kuchkunji-khan took the first diplomatic step to establish peaceful, good-neighborly relations between the Sheibanids and the Mughal Empire. He sent an embassy, headed by Amin-mirza, to the court of Babur in Agra, which was very warmly received by the padishah. It is known from historical data that Babur, being in the village of Alwar (suba Bihar) on February 29, 1529, gave a reception to all the ambassadors who were with him, but released only one Amin-mirza, the ambassador of Kuchkunji Khan, granting him «a dagger on his belt, a hat woven with gold and seventy thousand tenegas» — Wikipedia
Kuchkunji-khan offered Babur his warriors (apparently he did not send all of them to Ubaidullah Khan), which was a valuable aid to Babur’s thinning army. Thus, among Babur’s warriors appeared Uzbeks, who helped him to finally suppress the resistance of local rulers and create the Great Mogul Empire.
Also, through Kuchkunji Khan, Babur established military relations with the Ottoman sultans, who began to send him cannons and artillerymen.
In return, the Uzbeks were able to get a part of the military booty. Thus, Kuchkunji Khan had Indian captives who built an irrigation system for the Uzbeks in Turkestan and Tashkent. Trade and diplomatic ties between these cities and India would later continue. In Tashkent, a whole colony of Indian craftsmen and traders would exist until the beginning of the 20th century.
But that was not the main thing. Kuchkonji Khan’s diplomacy was able to save the Sheibanids from destruction, as Babur would in any case have conquered India and then could direct his increased forces to the conquest of Maverannahr. Only the political foresight of Kuchkunji-khan helped the Uzbeks to avoid this.
- Kuchkunji Khan died in Samarkand in 1531 and was buried in a dynastic tomb (dakhma) near Registan Square, in the madrasa of Abu Said Khan, which was popularly known as «Chil Dukhtaron» or «Kirk Kyz» («Forty Maidens»). It was destroyed by the authorities in the 1870s — Wikipedia