Subhan Quli Khan

Subhan Quli Khan (1625-1702) was the sixth khan of Bukhara of the Ashtarkhanid (Janid) dynasty; he ruled Balkh from 1651 to 1680, and when his brother Abdulaziz Khan renounced the throne in his favour in 1681 the khutba was read in his name in the mosques of Bukhara on 2 February 1681, and he ruled the Bukhara Khanate until his death.¹²

During his years at Balkh the khanate suffered repeated plundering raids by the rulers of Khwarazm, Abu al-Ghazi and Anusha Khan, until in 1687 Subhan Quli defeated the Khwarazmian forces and in 1688 placed his own candidate, Shahniyaz, on the throne of Khiva.² With the economy deteriorating, internal contradictions sharpening and the separatism of the Uzbek tribes growing, he held the state together only with great difficulty.¹ He exchanged embassies with the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who in 1685 sent his emir Zabardast Khan with gifts including live elephants, and with the Ottoman sultan Ahmed II, who in 1691 sent his confidant Mustafa Çavuş with Arabian horses, precious stones and fabrics.²

Subhan Quli Khan was himself the author of works on medicine and astrology; he had knowledge of medicine and practised healing himself, and his Ihya at-tibb Subhani, written in Central Asian Turkic, describes diseases, their recognition and their treatment — one manuscript copy is kept in a library in Budapest — while his astronomical treatise concerned the phases of the moon and the choice of fortunate hours.¹² He also composed poetry under the pen name Nishoni.² In his reign madrasas were built in Bukhara and Balkh and the Dor-ush-Shifo hospital in Bukhara.¹

Subhan Quli Khan died at Bukhara — the Russian article gives 14 September 1702 — and was buried near the tomb of Bahauddin Naqshband; his successor was his son Ubaydullah Khan II.² The thinker Ahmad Donish (1827-1897) counted him among the "renovators of the century" by whose reigns he proposed dividing the history of Central Asia into eras.¹