Abu l-Khayr Khan

Abu l-Khayr Khan was ruler of the Uzbeks and founder of the power of this descendant of Shayban, a branch of the house of Juchi. The unsigned Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry gives his birth in the year of the dragon (1412) and says that the Hijri year 816/1413-4 given elsewhere is an error. ¹

At first he served another descendant of Shayban, Jamaduk Khan. When Jamaduk died in a revolt, Abu l-Khayr was taken prisoner, but was released and soon proclaimed khan in the territory of Tura (Siberia) at the age of seventeen, in the year of the ape (1428). After a victory over another khan of the house of Juchi, most of the Qipchaq submitted to him. In 834/1430-1 he conquered Khwarazm and its capital Urgandi, which he plundered, but soon gave back. ¹

His biographers say that he later defeated two more princes, Mahmud Khan and Ahmad Khan, took Urdu-Bazar, and held the throne of Sayin Khan (Batu) for a short time. Shortly before the death of Shahrukh (850/1447) he established himself by taking the fortresses of Sighnak, Arkuk, Suzak, Ak-Kurghan and Uzkand on the Syr Darya, which the article calls the most significant event of his reign for the later history of the Uzbeks. Sighnak became his capital from then on. ¹