Abdullah Mirza

Abdullah was born on 19 March 1433 in Shiraz to the Timurid prince Ibrahim Sultan. His father was a grandson of Timur, a son of Shah Rukh and a younger brother of Ulugh Beg, which made Ulugh Beg his uncle.

When Ibrahim Sultan died in 1435, Shah Rukh gave Fars to the young boy, though regents ran the province in practice. During Abdullah's governorship (1435–1447) Shiraz was one of the main centres of the art of the book: copies of the Shahnama (1437, 1441, 1444), Nizami's Khamsa and other manuscripts were produced and illuminated there. After complaints from the amirs of Shiraz he was removed from office twice and reappointed in 1441–42 and in 1446.

In the autumn of 1446 his cousin Sultan Muhammad besieged Shiraz but withdrew when Shah Rukh's army approached. After Shah Rukh died in 1447 and the Timurid princes began to fight for the throne, Sultan Muhammad took Fars and Abdullah went over to Ulugh Beg.

In 1449 Ulugh Beg's son Abd al-Latif defeated his father, and Abdullah fell into his hands and was imprisoned. When Abd al-Latif was killed in May 1450, the amirs of Samarkand freed Abdullah and raised him to the throne. To keep the army's loyalty he had to spend heavily, and outside Transoxiana his rule was not recognised.

Abu Sa'id Mirza, who had been set up as ruler in Bukhara, rose against him. In 1450 Abdullah managed to fend off Abu Sa'id's troops once, after which Abu Sa'id took the frontier town of Yasi (Turkestan). The next year Abu'l-Khayr Khan of the nomadic Uzbeks came to Abu Sa'id's aid: on 22 June 1451, in a battle at the village of Shiraz near Samarkand, Abdullah's army was beaten and he was captured and put to death.

According to the sources, Ulugh Beg's body was buried in the Gur-e Amir mausoleum in Samarkand during Abdullah's reign. Abu Sa'id took the throne, and Abu'l-Khayr, richly rewarded, married Ulugh Beg's daughter Rabia Sultan Begum.