Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur
Abu'l Ghazi Bahadur (* 1603, † 1663 ) was a Khan of Khiva (reigned from 1643 to 1663, abdicated ), and a historian.
Family disputes, exile
His father was Arab Muhammed (reigned 1602-1621 ), who in a rebellion of his sons Ilbars and Habash defeated in 1621, caught and was assassinated a year later. Abu'l Ghazi assisted his father military and barely escaped to Samarkand.
The family disputes sat down under Abu'l Ghazi's older brother Izfendiar (r. 1622-1643 ) continued the Ilbars Habash and finally played out and came to the throne in Khiva. They were apparently fueled by the tensions between the Sart, Turkomans and Uzbeks in the population. Izfendiar ordered mass executions at that time under the Uzbeks, and Abu'l Ghazi was arrested in Khiva, as he had placed himself apparently on the side of the Uzbeks. He rebelled with his brother Muhammed Sherif against Khan but Izfendiars Turkomans were found to be greatly outnumbered, and Urgench offered by the running change in the Amudarya no power base. Therefore, the Uzbeks about 1628 scattered in neighboring countries and Abu'l Ghazi initially fled to the Kasachenkhan Yesim, then to Imam Quli Khan of Bukhara, while Muhammed Sherif soon with the Khan reconciled. When the failed attempt to return Abu'l Ghazi was apparently captured and delivered to the Safawidenschah I. Safi (reigned 1629-1642 ).
The next ten years (1630-1640) he spent with a good pension in exile in Isfahan and Hamadan where he studied Persian and Arab history with fondness. Finally, he managed to escape into the territories east of the Caspian Sea, where he among other things, one years was stopped at the Kalmyks. Six months after his return to Urgench died Izfendiar so that Abu'l Ghazi was charged by the Usbekenclans for Khan.
As Khan
First, he had to turn off the opposition of the Turkomans. The Turkomans supported the sons Izfendiars and called Nadir Muhammad of Bukhara (r. 1640/2-1645, weaned) to aid the military under his grandson Kassim sent. Abu'l Ghazi marched against Khiva, but was unable to take the city until the Bukhara due to the overthrow of Mohammed Nadir escape taken (1644 /5). Then Abu'l Ghazi granted the volatile Turkoman clans Pardon, but broke his word and massacred them, inter alia, at a meeting in Hazarasp. In these years, the Khanate of Khiva was politically meaningless, because its rulers were only able to muster a few hundred soldiers each.
In the following years Abu'l Ghazi struck out two attacks by the Kalmyks ( Choschuten 1648 Torgot 1652/3 ) successfully returned, went once more to the Turkomans (1651 /52) before and pulled against the Usbekenkhan Abd al- Aziz (reigned 1645 -1678 ) twice to the vicinity of Bukhara (1653 /4 and 1661). In the campaigns against Abd al- Aziz, he could at least muster 15,000 men, a sign of the renewed power of his Khanate. Furthermore, his sixteen year old son Muhammed Anusha proven as military, as the Bukhara from a plundering expedition returning troops Abu'l Ghazi attacked and brought in dire straits (1654 /5). Finally, he concluded (supposedly due to religious concerns ) peace with Abd al - Aziz and handed over the government to Anusha ( 1663 ).
As a historian
Abu'l Ghazi, leaving the history book " Shajara -i terakime " on the Turko - Mongols and the Dschingisiden (1659 ) and the " Shajara -i turk " (ie Turkish pedigree), which, however, only completed by his son Anusha. The Khan wrote on Tschagataisch and focused on the Shelbanides because he wanted to show his family history since the time Arabsahs (ca. 1378 ) and found no one whom he could entrust with this task. His behavior was not uncommon, for example, left his contemporary Quli Khan of Bukhara Subhan a treatise on medicine. For his work used Abu'l Ghazi in his own words the work of Rashid ed Din and seventeen other " Djenghiz - Nameh ", ie Mongols stories.