The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c12.s1.7

v4.c12.s1.7

The eldest son Ahmad had obtained Transoxiana with its capital Samarqand, and the second son Mahmūd became lord of Badakhshān and Hisār. The fourth son of Abū Sa‘īd Mīrzā, Ulugh Beg, became lord of Kābul and Ghaznī, and he had a son called ‘Abdur-Razzāq. The fifth son ‘Umar Shaikh, the father of Bābur, inherited the kingdom of Farghāna with its capital Andijān. The most powerful of the Timurids at this time was, however, Sultān Husain Baiqara, who belonged to the Mīrān-Shāh branch of Tamerlane's family, and was ruling Khurāsān from Herāt. His territories included in the east, Balkh; in the west, Bistām and Dāmaghān; in the north, Khwārazm (Khiva); and in the south, Qandahār. He had a son named Badī‘-uz-Zamān Mīrzā. Bābur had two brothers, Jahāngīr Mīrzā and Nāsir Mīrzā. Such were the chief Timurid princes or Mīrzās. The most prominent chiefs and nobles outside the family of Tamerlane were Khusrav Shāh, a Qipchaq Mongol, who was minister of Mahmūd Mīrzā and for a time governor of Qunduz; and Zū-’n-Nūn Arghūn, also a Mongol, who was governor of Qandahār on behalf of Sultān Husain Baiqara—he claimed descent from Arghūn Khān, son of Abāqa, son of Hulāgū, Īl-khānī rulers of Persia two centuries earlier. His two sons, Shāh Beg and Muhammad Muqīm Khān, both play a prominent part in this story. The great chiefs of the Uzbegs who ultimately usurped the eastern possessions of the Timurids, were Abu-’l-Khair Khān; his grandson Muhammad Shaibānī Khān (also known as Shāhībeg or Shaibak, a corruption of Shāhbakht); and ‘Ubaid-ullah Khān, the nephew of Shaibānī. Amongst the Chaghatāi Chingīz-Khānids were Sultān Ahmad Khān and Sultān Mahmūd Khān, the sons of Yūnus Khān, the father of Bābur's mother. Ahmad had several sons of whom we hear at this time, notably Mansūr Sultān, Sa‘īd Khān and Chīn-Tīmūr. Finally, mention may be made of Mīrzā Haidar Dughlāt, Bābur's cousin and friend, the author of the famous *Tārīkh-i-Rashīdī*.