Muhammad Shaybani Khan (Chagatai and Persian: محمد شیبانی; c. 1451 – 2 December 1510) was an Uzbek leader who consolidated various Uzbek tribes and laid the foundations for their ascendance in Transoxiana and the establishment of the Khanate of Bukhara. He was a Shaybanid or descendant of Shiban (or Shayban). He was the son of Shah-Budag, thus a grandson of the Uzbek conqueror Abu'l-Khayr Khan.
The ruler of the Uzbek ulus Abu'l-Khayr Khan (1428–1468) had eleven sons, one of whom was Budaq Sultan, the father of Shaybani Khan. Shaybani Khan's mother's name was Aq Quzi Begum. Through his mother, Muhammad Shaybani was therefore the cousin of Janibek's son Kasym Khan, the latter of whom ultimately conquered most of Shaybani's territory to expand the Kazakh Khanate.
According to the historian Kamal ad-Din Binai, Budaq Sultan named his eldest son as Sultan Muhammad Shaybani, and gave him the nickname Shibägh "Wormwood".
According to sources, the genealogy of Shaybani Khan is as follows: Abu'l-Fath Muhammad Khan Shaybani, known under the name of Shakhibek Khan, son of Sultan Budaq, son of Abu'l-Khayr Khan, son of Daulat Shaikh-oglan, son of Ibrahim-oglan, son of Fulad-oglan, son of Munk Timur Khan, son of Abdal-oglan, son of Jochi-Buk Khan, son of Yis-Buk, son of Baniyal-Bahadur, son of Shiban, son of Jochi Khan, son of Genghis Khan.
In the Selected Chronicles from the "Book of Victories" (Chagatay: تواریخ گزیده نصرتنامه, romanized: Tavārīkh-i Guzīda-yi Nuṣratnāma), it is noted that the wife of the ancestor of Shaybani Khan, Munk Timur, was the daughter of Jandibek, who was a descendant of Ismail Samani.
Shaybani's father Budaq Sultan was an educated person on whose order extensive translations of Persian works into the Turkic languages were accomplished. Shaybani himself was fluent in both Persian and Turkic.
Shaybani was initially an Uzbek warrior leading a contingent of 3,000 men in the army of the Timurid ruler of Samarkand, Sultan Ahmed Mirza under the Amir, Abdul Ali Tarkhan. However, when Ahmed Mirza went to war against Sultan Mahmud Khan, the Khan of Moghulistan, to reclaim Tashkent from him, Shaybani secretly met the Moghul Khan and agreed to betray and plunder Ahmed's army. This happened in the Battle of the Chirciq River in 1488 CE, resulting in a decisive victory for Moghulistan. Sultan Mahmud Khan gave Turkistan to Shaybani as a reward. Here, however, Shaybani oppressed the local Kazakhs, resulting in a war between Moghulistan and the Kazakh Khanate. Moghulistan was defeated in this war, but Shaybani gained power among the Uzbeks. He decided to conquer Samarkand and Bukhara from Ahmed Mirza. Sultan Mahmud's subordinate emirs convinced him to aid Shaybani in doing so, and together they marched on Samarkand.
Foundation of Shaybanid Dynasty
Continuing the policies of his grandfather, Abu'l-Khayr Khan, Shaybani ousted the Timurids from their capital Samarkand in 1500. He fought successful campaigns against the Timurid leader Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire. In 1501 he recaptured Samarkand and in 1507 also took Herat, the southern capital of the Timurids. Shaybani conquered Bukhara in 1501 and established the Shaybanid Dynasty of the Khanate of Bukhara. In 1508–09, he carried out many raids northward, pillaging the land of the Kazakh Khanate. However, his armies suffered a major defeat from Kazakhs under Kasym Khan in 1510.
One day Shaybani visited Sheikh Mansour and he (Mansour) said to him: "I look at you, Uzbek, and I see that you desire to become a sovereign!". And then he ordered food to be served. When everything was eaten and the tablecloth was removed, Sheikh Mansour said: "As a tablecloth is collected from the edges, so you should start from the periphery of the state (kingdom)." Shaybani took this very unambiguous advice from his new mentor into account and eventually conquered the Timurid state.
Shaybani Khan maintained ties with Ottoman Empire and Ming China. In 1503, his ambassadors arrived at the court of the Ming emperor. Aligning with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481–1512), Shaybani Khan opposed the Shia Safavid Shah Ismail I.
Shaybani Khan did not make any distinction between Iranians and Turks based on ethnicity, but followed the hadith of Muhammad: "All Muslims are brothers".
One of the authoritative religious figures, a native of Yemen, Emir Sayyid Shams ad-Din Abdallah al-Arabi al-Yamani al Khadramauti (known as Mir-i Arab), enjoyed the patronage of Shaybani Khan, and constantly took part in the meetings of the divan (court) and accompanied the Khan in his campaigns.
Shayibani Khan wrote a prose essay called the Risale-yi maarif-i Shayibani in the Chagatai language in 1507 shortly after his capture of Khorasan and is dedicated to his son, Muhammad Timur (the manuscript is kept in Istanbul).
The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work: "Bahr ul-Khudo", written in the Central Asian Turkic literary language in 1508 is located in London.
The last years of Shaybani Khan were not easy. In the spring of 1509, his mother died. After her funeral in Samarkand, he went to Qarshi, where he held a meeting with relatives and allowed them to disperse to their uluses (small countries). Ubaydullah's nephew went to Bukhara, Muhammad Temur to Samarkand, and Hamza Sultan to Gissar. Shaybani Khan went to Merv (now Mary, Turkmenistan) with a small detachment.
In 1510, Shaybani Khan was in Herat. At this time, Ismail I, the Safavid emperor, having learned about the failures of Shaybani Khan and angered by his staunch support of Sunni Islam, moved against the Uzbeks and invaded western Khorasan, rapidly advancing towards Herat.
Shaybani Khan did not have a strong army at his disposal. During the military campaign against the Hazaras, he lost most of his cavalry. The main army was stationed in Transoxiana, so he, having consulted with his emirs, hastened to hide behind the walls of Merv. Safavid troops captured Astrabad, Mashhad, and Sarakhs. All Shaybani's emirs who were in Khorasan, including Jan Wafa, fled from the Qizilbash soldiers of Safavid Iran and arrived to Merv. Shaybani Khan sent a messenger to Ubaydullah Khan of the Khanate of Bukhara and the Timurids for help. Meanwhile, Ismail surrounded Merv and besieged the city for a whole month, but to no avail. Therefore, to lure the khan out of the city, he resorted to a feigned retreat.