The
Shaybanids are the patrilineal descendants of
Shayban , the fifth son of
Jochi and grandson of
Genghis Khan. Until the mid-14th century, they acknowledged the authority of the descendants of
Batu Khan and
Orda Khan, such as
Uzbeg Khan. The Shaybanid horde was converted to
Islam in 1282 and gradually assumed the name of
Uzbeks.
As the
lineages of Batu and Orda died out in the course of the great civil wars of the 14th century, the Shaybanids under
Abu'l-Khayr Khan declared themselves the only legitimate successors to Jochi and put forward claims to the whole of his enormous
ulus, which included parts of
Siberia and
Kazakhstan. Their rivals were the
Timurids, who claimed descent from Jochi's thirteenth son by a concubine. Several decades of strife left the
Timurids in control of the
Great Horde and its successor states in Europe, namely, the Khanates of
Kazan,
Astrakhan, and
Crimea.
Shaybanid Dynasty
Under
Abu'l-Khayr Khan (who led the Shaybanids from 1428 to 1468) began consolidating disparate Uzbek tribes, first in the area around
Tyumen and the
Tura River and then down into the
Syr Darya region. His grandson
Muhammad Shaybani (ruled 1500-10), who gave his name to the Shaybanid dynasty, wrested
Samarkand,
Herat (for a time) and
Bukhara from
Babur's control and established the short-lived Shaybanid Empire. After his death at the hands of
Shah Ismail I, he was followed successively by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother, whose Shaybanid descendants would rule the
Khanate of......
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