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Timurid succession disputes of the 1470s

Type Event Region Asia Time 1470–1479

After Abu Sa'id's death in battle at Karabakh in 1469, the Timurid Empire rapidly fragmented: Husayn Bayqara seized Herat and became the de facto mas…

Timeline

  1. 1469–1470Karabakh · AzerbaijanTimurid Sultan Abu Sa'id campaigned against Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu and was defeated and killed at Karabakh. The empire's supreme authority collapsed; his sons, in-laws, and generals each seized territory, and Samarqand, Herat, Bukhara, and other cities fell into a power vacuum.
  2. 1470–1472Herat · AfghanistanHusayn Bayqara took control of Herat with the support of the emirs, becoming the most powerful Timurid descendant in eastern Iran. He gradually integrated Khorasan, but remained in long-term confrontation with rivals in Transoxiana and Samarqand; the empire's unity existed in name only.
  3. 1472–1479Samarqand · UzbekistanAbu Sa'id's sons Sultan Ali, Ahmad, and others, along with local forces, repeatedly exchanged control of Samarqand and Bukhara. In the 1470s the Timurid regime in Transoxiana was weak and divided, with lax frontier defenses, creating conditions for the infiltration of northern nomadic powers.

Sources