ABSTRACT
Among the Mongol chiefs who struggled for mastery in Eastern Russia at the epoch of Tīmūr’s intervention 1 was a descendant of Chingiz, named Kutluk, who rose to fame by defeating Tīmūr’s great rival, Tokhtamish Khān, near Kiev in 1399. 2 His offspring vegetated in obscurity for nearly two centuries in the Khānate of Astrakhan, on the lower reaches of the Volga, and were then driven eastwards by the growing power of the Russian princes. Thus, towards the close of the sixteenth century, the head of this ancient line, Yār Mahammad Khān, sought refuge in Transoxiana, and was received with honour by the Shaybānides, whose pride in their descent from Tīmūr was flattered by the exile’s recognition of their claims to kinship. Iskandar Khān gave his daughter, the sister of ‘Abdullah, greatest of the Shaybānide line, in marriage to the Astrakhan chief’s son, Jāni Khān.
