17 Facts About Miran Shah

Mirza Jalal-ud-din Miran Shah Beg, commonly known as Miran Shah, was a son of the Central Asian conqueror Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire.

Miran Shah was later killed whilst battling against the Timurid's traditional rivals, the Qara Qoyunlu.

Miran Shah was born in 1366, the third of Timur's four sons.

Miran Shah's mother was a concubine, Mengli Khatun, daughter of Hayut of the Jauni Qurban tribe.

Miran Shah quickly crushed the rebellion and annexed the Kartid capital of Herat, which he made his viceregal seat.

Chroniclers Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi and Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi record Miran Shah as having laughed whilst decapitating the prince; they note that he later explained his actions as being due to excessive drinking.

Miran Shah was commanded to avenge this defeat and routed the enemy force, pursuing the fleeing soldiers as far as Derbent, the frontier of the Golden Horde.

Miran Shah was instructed to arrest the founder of the movement Fazlallah Astarabadi al-Hurufi who was, according to legend, executed by the prince himself.

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, the Castilian ambassador to Timur's court, claimed that the prince had ancient buildings destroyed, supposedly so that it would be known that "Miran Shah did nothing himself, but he ordered the finest works in the world to be demolished".

The biographer Dawlatshah reported that Miran Shah ordered the tomb of the historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani be dismantled and for his bones to be re-interred in a Jewish cemetery.

Miran Shah placed Alinja under siege, catching Prince Tahir, son of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir inside.

Miran Shah had alluded in letters about his father's increasing age and doubts about Timur's continued capabilities of ruling.

In 1399, Timur sent a detachment of troops under his nephew Sulaiman Miran Shah to investigate his concerns.

Miran Shah, without posing any difficulties, returned with them to face his father, who had by this point arrived in Soltaniyeh to confront him.

Miran Shah was Timur's eldest living son by this point, but was not considered an active contender to the throne and was passed over in favour of his own son, Khalil Sultan.

Sultan Husayn Tayichiud, a maternal grandson of Timur as well as Miran Shah's son-in-law, made a bid for the throne before aligning himself with Khalil Sultan.

Miran Shah was buried alongside his father in the Gur-e-Amir in Samarqand.