Shams al-Din Muhammad was the
Mihrabanid
The Mihrabanid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty that ruled Sistan (or Nimruz) from 1236 until the mid-16th century. It was the third indigenous Muslim dynasty of Sistan, having been preceded by the Saffarid and Nasrid dynasties.
Overview
Most of wh ...
malik
Malik, Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, or Melekh ( phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤊; ar, ملك; he, מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic duri ...
of
Sistan
Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan (N ...
from 1480 until around the end of the 15th century. He was the eldest son of
Nizam al-Din Yahya Nizam al-Din Yahya (c. 1417 – October 1480) was the Mihrabanid malik of Sistan from 1438/1439 until his death. He was the son of Shams al-Din 'Ali ibn Qutb al-Din, Shams al-Din 'Ali.
Biography
Nizam al-Din gained the throne of Sistan after his fa ...
.
Biography
In the last years of Nizam al-Din's reign, the Mihrabanids had lost control of the greater part of Sistan to the
Timurids
The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Turco-Mongol empire ...
under
Badi' al-Zaman. The Mihrabanids were confined to the remote northern lands of
Makran
Makran ( fa, مكران), mentioned in some sources as Mecran and Mokrān, is the coastal region of Baluchistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in Balochistan, in Pakistan and Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It extends westwards, ...
bordering Sistan, where Nizam al-Din died in 1480. Following this, his military commanders met and agreed to recognize Shams al-Din as his successor.
In 1481 Shams al-Din received a request from the people of Zirih to come to attempt to take control of Sistan. Deciding not to go personally, he instead sent an army under the command of his brothers
Sultan Mahmud Shah 'Ali. Badi' al-Zaman, however, was able to raise a numerically superior force which crushed the Mihrabanid army. Shams al-Din's authority thus continued to be restricted to the northern fringes of Makran, although his ineffectiveness as a ruler quickly led to Sultan Mahmud taking over the practical administration of the government.
Badi' al-Zaman was eventually recalled by his father,
Husayn Bayqarah
Sultan Husayn Bayqara Mirza ( fa, حسین بایقرا / ''Husayn Bāyqarā''; June/July 1438 – 4 May 1506) was the Timurid dynasty, Timurid ruler of Herat from 1469 until May 4, 1506, with a brief interruption in 1470.
A skilled statesma ...
, to
Herat
Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...
; in his place a Timurid commander was left as governor of Sistan. This, combined with the death of the local magnate Mir Sayyid Ahmad and his two eldest sons, significantly weakened the strength of the anti-Mihrabanid force in Sistan. Several local leaders expressed their support for a return by Shams al-Din and Sultan Mahmud, who eventually returned with their army, in c. 1485. The Timurid governor fled without offering battle, allowing the Mihrabanids to take control of
Shahr-i Sistan.
Several years after this, Shams al-Din's weakness as malik led the leaders of Sistan to overthrow him in favor of Sultan Mahmud, who had already been de facto ruler for several years now. Shams al-Din made his way to
Quhistan
Quhistan ( fa, قهستان) or Kohistan (, "mountainous land") was a region of medieval Persia, essentially the southern part of Khurasan. Its boundaries appear to have been south of Khorasan to north, Yazd to West, Sistan to South, Afghanistan to ...
, where he acquired several estates. He spent the rest of the life there, while staying on friendly terms with Sultan Mahmud.
[Bosworth, p. 466]
Notes
References
*Bosworth, C.E. ''The History of the Saffarids of Sistan and the Maliks of Nimruz (247/861 to 949/1542-3)''. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1994.
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Mihrabanids
15th-century Iranian people