The decline of the Timurid realm

After Ulugh Beg was killed, Abdullatif also had his brother Abdulaziz and his father’s supporters killed, but within six and a half months he was himself the victim of a plot. Mirza Abdullo became ruler in Samarkand and Abu Said in Bukhara; in 1451 Abu Said defeated Abdullo with the help of Abulkhayr Khan in a battle by the Bulung‘ur canal and took Samarkand, then took Herat in 1457. In early 1469, during a campaign against the Turkmens (the Aq Qoyunlu), he was captured and put to death. On 24 March 1469 Sultan Husayn Bayqara entered Herat: the state split in two again, with Husayn ruling Khorasan (for nearly 40 years) and Abu Said’s sons ruling Transoxiana, first Sultan Ahmad (1469–1494). Under Husayn the economy and culture rose, and the vizier Alisher Navoi (1441–1501) stood behind this too. In Transoxiana fragmentation grew; in 1454 Khoja Ubaydullah Ahrar reconciled the rivals when Abulqasim Babur besieged Samarkand. Using this weakness, Muhammad Shaybani Khan, who came from the Dasht-i Qipchaq, took Bukhara and Samarkand in 1500–1501 and took Herat in 1507, ending Timurid rule.