Pir Muhammad Khan I

Pir Muhammad Khan belonged to the Shaybanid dynasty: he was a descendant of Abu’l-Khayr Khan, the founder of the Uzbek Khanate, and the eldest son of Jani Beg Sultan. His birth is usually placed in 1511; sources give neither an exact date nor a place. His brother Iskandar Khan later took the throne of Bukhara, and his nephew Abdullah Khan II became the strongest Shaybanid ruler.

He came to power in Balkh on 13 April 1546. Under him the khanate of Balkh grew stronger and became independent of the rulers of Bukhara; the Merv region, Abiward and Termez were added to it and placed under his sons and grandsons. Relations with the Safavid state were peaceful and friendly.

In the struggle among the Baburids he backed Kamran against Humayun: in 1547 he received Kamran with honour in Balkh and helped him seize most of Badakhshan. Humayun then marched on Balkh; sources describe the course of this campaign differently, but Humayun returned to Kabul.

After the death of Abd al-Aziz Khan in 1550, Pir Muhammad came to Bukhara on the pretext of offering condolences and tried to take supreme power. Most of the nobility and the head of the clergy did not support him, and after about a year, in the summer of 1551, he left the city. In the following years he defended the lands of Jani Beg’s sons in Transoxiana, and in Balkh he sheltered the family of Iskandar Khan and his nephew Abdullah Khan II, who had fled from Nawruz Ahmad Khan.

After Nawruz Ahmad Khan died on 24 September 1556, Abdullah Khan II took Bukhara, and on 13 June 1557 the khutba was read in his uncle’s name in the Friday mosque of Bukhara. Until April 1561 Pir Muhammad was regarded as supreme khan of all the Uzbeks, but he stayed in Balkh, held there by the struggle with Sulayman Shah of Badakhshan and by the revolt of his son Din Muhammad Sultan. The state was in fact run by Abdullah Khan II. In 1560 the two khans defeated Sulayman Shah’s army, which had invaded Balkh, near Sar-i Pul.

In spring 1561 Pir Muhammad proposed exchanging Bukhara for Balkh. A treaty was signed but not carried out: the revolt of Din Muhammad Sultan and the objection of the Juybari shaykh Khwaja Muhammad Islam stood in the way. Abdullah Khan II then placed his own father, Iskandar Khan, on the throne, and Pir Muhammad’s name was struck from the khutba.

The date of his death is given differently. Encyclopedic articles citing B. Akhmedov name 12 March 1567; some reference works give 1561, but that is the year he lost supreme power. After him Balkh was ruled by his son Din Muhammad.