Sultan Mahmud Mirza

Sultan Mahmud Mirza (c. 1453 – January 1495) was a Timurid prince from the branch of Transoxiana. He was the son of Abu Sa'id Mirza, the ruler of the Timurid Empire.

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His father gave him the government of Hisar and Termez in 1459 (according to Babur ), but lost them to Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara, who, according Babur, defeated him in two major battles: at Astarabad in 1459, and at Chikman (Sarai) near Andikhud around 1465, after which Mahmud Mirza retreated to Herat. His father restored him in 1466. His father then made an expedition to Azerbaijan in 1468, but was defeated in the winter of 1468 to 1469 and was taken prisoner and was executed on 5 February 1469.

Sultan Mahmud then marched on Herat with the support of Qambar Ali Beg, Governor of Hisar, who had accompanied Abu Sa'id to Iraq and had returned. Mahmud entered that city with an army on 16 March, but when Prince Husayn Baykara of another branch of the Timurids, who had the help of the Uzbeks, approached, he had to withdraw and Baykara proclaimed himself Sultan of Herat on 24 March 1469. Mahmud's brother Sultan Ahmed Mirza, who had been proclaimed ruler of Samarkand, marched from the capital determined to reconquer Herat, but after a discussion with his brother Mahmud, who had arrived in Samarkand, withdrew. Then Amir Khusraw and Qambar Ali Shah, with the consent of Sultan Ahmed Mirza, took Mahmud to Hisar to rule there and after 1497, he dominated the territories south of Quhqa (Quhlugha) from the Kohtin Mountains to the Hindu Kush mountain range, including Termez, Chaghaniyan, Hisan, Khuttalan, Kunduz and Badakhshan.

In 1470, Sultan Mahmud Mirza of Hisar and Umar Shaikh Mirza II of Andijan (Fergana) allied to attack Samarkand but through the mediation of a religious leader they agreed to make peace. 1471 the hakim of Balkh, Ahmad Mushtak (or Mushtaq), known as Khoja Ahrar, revolted against Sultan Husayn Baykara and Mahmud went to support the revolt in Balkh in person. Hussain Baykara besieged Balkh for four months. It is not known when Baykara recovered Balkh.

In 1479 his brother Mirza Abu Bakr died, and he took control of Badakhshan, Kunduz, Khuttalan and Caghaniyan. Upon the death of his other brother Sultan Ahmed Mirza of Samarkand in the middle of July 1494, less than two months after the death of another brother, Umar Shaikh Mirza II of Andijan and Ferghana Valley (8 June 1494), Sultan Mahmud Mirza was presented to Samarkand and proclaimed Sultan, as his brother left no surviving sons. Sultan Mahmud Mirza ruled for six months, dying of disease in January 1495 aged 43. Within eight months, three brothers had died.

According to Babur, he had led two holy wars against Kafiristan, south of Badakhshan, and for this was called Sultan Mahmud Ghazi. The emirs began to dispute power using the princes, the sons of Umar Shaykh (among whom the young famous Babur, later founder of the Mughal Empire) and the sons of Mahmud Mirza.

Sultan Mahmud Mirza died in 1495. His son Baysonqor Mirza, ascended the throne at Samarkand.

• History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volum 4, Unesco
• ʻUbayd Allāh ibn Maḥmūd Aḥrār, The letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his associates
• Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlt, A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia: The Tarikh-I-Rashidi