After nearly two more decades of Oirat-Khalkha conflict, another Oirat chieftain, Dayan Khan, assumes central leadership in 1466 and reunites most of Mongolia.

By the end of the fifteenth century, he has restored peace and has established a new confederation comprising a vast region of north-central Asia, between the Ural Mountains and Lake Baykal.

He now extends his control eastward to include the remainder of Khalkha Mongolia.

The Oirat are surrounded by the Turkic descendants of the Chagatai Monols who occupy the lowlands to the east and west, in the three independent khanates of Yarkand (modern Xinjiang south of the Tian Shan Mountains), Ferghana, and Khwarezm.

Early in the sixteenth century, these three khanates are overwhelmed, however, by the Uzbeks, who earlier had broken loose from Mongol authority.

The Uzbeks consolidates their control over Bukhara (Bokhara), Samarkand, Khwarezm, and Herat.

During Dayan Khan's rule, quasi-feudalistic administration is reestablished, and tribes become more settled, with more specified grazing areas.

What little government exists is exercised by noble descendants of Chinggis (including Dayan), but it meets with great resistance.

Central Asia (1396–1539 CE): Timurid Courts, Steppe Confederations, and Silk Road Crossroads

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Central Asia includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Anchors span the Kazakh steppe, the Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts, the irrigated Syr Darya and Amu Darya valleys, the oases of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Merv, and the mountain arcs of the Tien Shan, Pamirs, and Altai. From the Caspian littoral through desert basins to alpine pasture, this zone mediated caravans, horse herds, and riverine oasis farming.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

During the Little Ice Age, winters were longer and colder, especially on the steppe and in the Tien Shan. Summer droughts recurred in desert–steppe transition zones, stressing pasture. Irrigated oases endured occasional river avulsions and silting, but canal upkeep stabilized yields. Pastoralists shifted herds in response to snowpack and spring pasture flush, while mountain communities relied on glacier-fed water for valley fields.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Nomadic steppe peoples (Turko-Mongol, Kazakh ancestors, Uzbeks): Herded horses, sheep, camels, and cattle; mobile yurts clustered in seasonal camps; fermented mare’s milk (kumis) and herded dairy/meat supplied staples.

• Oasis farmers: Along Syr Darya, Zarafshan, Kashkadarya, and Amu Darya—irrigated wheat, barley, melons, vines, cotton, and fruit orchards; gardens surrounded mudbrick cities.

• Mountain valleys (Tien Shan, Pamirs): Mixed herding and terrace farming; barley, pulses, and fruit; yak and sheep flocks on summer pastures.

• Desert fringes: Salt and caravan waystations; qanats and wells supported date palms and cereals in Khwarezm and Merv.

Technology & Material Culture

• Steppe toolkit: Felt yurts, composite bows, sabers, lances, lamellar armor; saddles, stirrups, and horse trappings.

• Oasis craft: Brick madrasas, mosques, and domes; glazed tiles, calligraphy, miniature painting. Irrigation canals, norias, and qanats; workshops for metalwork, silk weaving, and ceramics.

• Timurid arts: Samarkand and Herat flourished with monumental madrasas, observatories, and illustrated manuscripts under Timurid patronage.

• Caravan equipment: Bactrian camels, pack horses, and covered carts; waystations with wells and caravanserais.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Silk Road arteries: From Samarkand and Bukhara west to Persia and the Caspian; eastward into Moghulistan and China; south into Khorasan and India.

• Steppe corridors: Mounted nomads raided and traded across Kazakh steppe into Russia, Siberia, and Xinjiang.

• Timurid campaigns: Controlled Transoxiana (Samarkand, Bukhara, Herat) and exerted influence into Persia and India.

• Uzbek migrations: In early 16th century, Uzbek tribes under Muhammad Shaybani moved into Transoxiana, supplanting Timurids.

• Kazakh khanates: Emerged on the steppe, consolidating power and pastoral networks.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Timurid culture: Samarkand, under Ulugh Beg, hosted observatories and schools; poetry in Persian and Turkic flourished; Herat became a Persianate cultural capital.

• Islamic institutions: Mosques, Sufi lodges, and shrines structured spiritual life; Naqshbandi order spread widely across Bukhara and Ferghana.

• Nomadic traditions: Oral epics, heroic genealogies, and shamanic vestiges persisted; feasting, horse games, and clan rites structured politics.

• Syncretism: Steppe rituals coexisted with Islamic law in khanates; Sufi saints’ shrines became pilgrimage foci for both nomads and townspeople.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Nomads: Rotated pastures seasonally; diversified herds (horses for war, camels for caravans, sheep/goats for daily needs); moved camps to avoid dzud (winter livestock die-offs).

• Farmers: Maintained irrigation, rotated cereals with pulses and cotton, preserved surpluses in granaries.

• Caravan systems: Used redundancy—multiple routes to avoid banditry, salt desert hazards, or snowbound passes.

• Communal practices: Clan and guild structures buffered shocks; Sufi networks provided charity in lean years.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Timurid decline: After Timur’s death (1405), successors held Samarkand and Herat but fragmented by mid-15th century.

• Ulugh Beg (1394–1449): Promoted science and architecture; assassinated in dynastic struggle.

• Uzbek conquest (1500s): Muhammad Shaybani Khan took Samarkand and Bukhara (1500–1501), ending Timurid control; later fell to Shah Ismail of the Safavids (1510), but Uzbeks reestablished in Transoxiana.

• Babur (1483–1530): Timurid prince displaced by Uzbeks; turned to Kabul and in 1526 founded the Mughal dynasty in India after Panipat.

• Kazakh Khanate: Formed c. 1460s on the steppe, challenging Uzbek and Nogai neighbors.

• Turkmen confederations: Managed Karakum–Caspian corridors, raiding and trading with Persia.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Central Asia had shifted from Timurid florescence to Uzbek ascendancy. Samarkand and Bukhara remained centers of Islamic scholarship and trade, but Babur had already carried Timurid legacy into India. Steppe khanates (Kazakh, Uzbek) jostled over grazing and caravan control. Sufi networks, irrigated oases, and nomadic camps coexisted in a region poised between Persian, Russian, Chinese, and Indian spheres of influence.

The most powerful of the states established by the Uzbeks, the Khanate of Bukhara, centers on the city of Bukhara.

The khanate controls Mawarannahr, especially the region of Tashkent, the Fergana Valley in the east, and northern Afghanistan.

A second Uzbek state is established in the oasis of Khwarezm at the mouth of the Amu Darya.

Timur, who also invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of China in 1405, initiated the last flowering of Mawarannahr by gathering in his capital, Samarkand, numerous artisans and scholars from the lands he had conquered.

By supporting such people, Timur had imbued his empire with a very rich culture.

A wide range of religious and palatial construction projects are undertaken in Samarkand and other population centers during Timur's reign and the reigns of his immediate descendants.
Timur also patronizes scientists and artists; his grandson Ulugh Beg is one of the world's first great astronomers.

It is during the Timurid dynasty that Turkish, in the form of the Chaghatai dialect, becomes a literary language in its own right in Mawarannahr—although the Timurids also patronize writing in Persian.

Until this time only Persian had been used in the region.

The greatest Chaghataid writer, Ali Shir Nava'i, is active in the city of Herat, now in northwestern Afghanistan, in the second half of the fifteenth century.

The Timurid state quickly breaks into two halves after the death of Timur.

The chronic internal fighting of the Timurids attracts the attention of the Uzbek nomadic tribes living to the north of the Aral Sea, who begin a wholesale invasion of Mawarannahr in 1501.

The Uzbeks complete their conquest of Central Asia by 1510, including the territory of the present-day Uzbekistan.

The ruling structure of the Golden Horde had split by the early fifteenth century into several large groups known as khanates, including the Nogai Horde and the Uzbek Khanate.

The present-day Kazaks become a recognizable group in the mid-fifteenth century, when clan leaders break away from the Uzbeks to seek their own territory in the lands of Semirech'ye, between the Chu and Talas rivers in present-day southeastern Kazakstan.

The first Kazak leader is Khan Qasym (r. 1511-23), who unites the Kazak tribes into one people.

Babur, after his defeat at the Battle of Kul Malek, had applied for assistance from Biram Khan Karamanlu, the commander serving the Safavid Persian Shah Ismail I at Balkh.

With additional support from Biram's detachment, Babur eventually causes the Uzbeks to withdraw from the country of Hissar.

After this victory, and in response to his defeat at Kul Malek, Babur personally visits Shah Ismail I to solicit an additional force that he can use to finally defeat the Uzbeks in Mawarannahr (Transoxiana).

The Shah accordingly calls on Najm-e Sani, his minister of finance, whom he has entrusted with the settlement of Khurasan.

Ismail gives him instructions to render assistance to Babur in recovering the dominions he had previously possessed.

On reaching Balkh, Najm resolves to march in person into Mawarannahr, taking with him the governor of Herat, the Amirs of Greater Khorasan, and Biram Khan of Balkh.

Najm passes the Amu Darya during his journey and is soon joined by Babur, creating an army that is said to have been sixty thousand strong.

Early in the autumn, the army advances to Khozar, ultimately seizing the city.

They now proceeded to Qarshi, which has been strongly fortified and garrisoned by Sultan Ubaydullah Sultan, the chief of Bukhara.

It is proposed to leave Qarshi behind as had been done with success in preceding campaigns, but Najm, believing it is Sultan Ubaydullah Sultan's lair, declares that it must be taken.

The city is therefore besieged and carried by storm with all inhabitants, Uzbek or not, being put to the sword regardless of age, sex, or sanctity.

The circumstances of this massacre disgust Babur, who finds himself playing a subordinate role in an army that is ostensibly acting under his authority.

In his desire to save the inhabitants, who are Chaghatai Turks of his own race and sect, he earnestly beseeches Najm to comply with his wishes, but the unrelenting Persian, deaf to his entreaties, looses the fury of war on the devoted city.

Among the casualties of the indiscriminate slaughter, along with many Syeds and holy men, is the poet Maulana Binai, one of the most eminent minds of his time, who happens to be in the town when it falls From this time forward, Najm will fail to prosper in any more of his undertakings.

The Uzbek chiefs, after the massacre at Karshi, appear for some time to have retired and fortified themselves in their strongholds.

Najm eventually moves on to attack Ghazdewan, on the border of the desert, without having taken Bukhara.

The Uzbek sultans now have time to assemble under the command of Ubaydullah Sultan.

Joined by Timur Sultan from Samarkand, they throw themselves into the fort the very night that Babur and Najm had taken their ground before it, preparing their engines and ladders for an assault.

In the morning, the Uzbeks draw out their army and take up a position among the houses and gardens in the suburbs of the town, with the confederates advancing to meet them.

The Uzbeks, who are protected by the broken ground and by the walls of the enclosures and houses, have posted archers in every corner to pour a shower of arrows on the Qizilbashes as they approach.

Once Biram Khan, the chief military command of the Qizilbash troops falls off his horse and is wounded, the main body of the army falls into disorder.

In the course of an hour, the invaders are routed, with most of them falling in the field.

This defeat puts an end to Safavid expansion and influence in Transoxania and leaves the northeastern frontiers of the kingdom vulnerable to nomad invasions.

Babur, routed and discomfited, flees back to Hissar.

It is said that the Qizilbash chiefs, disgusted with the haughtiness and insolence of Najm, did not use their utmost efforts to assist him: he is eventually taken prisoner and put to death.

Many of the Persian chiefs who flees from the battle cross the Amu Darya at Kirki and enter Greater Khorasan.

The Uzbeks now not only recover the country that they had lost in Transoxiana, but also make incursions into Greater Khorasan, ravaging the northern part of the province.

Shah Ismail I, on hearing of this disaster, resolves to return.

On his approach, the Uzbeks retreat in alarm.

He causes several of the officers who had escaped from the battle to be seized and some of them to be executed for deserting their commander.

Certain inhabitants of the province, accused of having shown attachment to the Uzbeks and their creed and of having vexed the Shias, are consumed in the fire of his wrath.

The death of Najm-e Sani during the clash with the Uzbeks causes Ismail to appoint Abd al-Baqi Yazdi as the new vakil of the empire.

Ismail’s proclamation of the Shi'i sect of Islam as the established religion of Iran and its dependencies provokes the Ottoman Turks.

The process of conversion is facilitated by the fact that much of the population considers him a Muslim saint as well as shah.

The fatal battle of Ghazdewan, the destruction of Babur's Persian allies, and the numbers and power of the Uzbeks seem to leave him no hopes of again ascending the throne of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Babur has now resigned all hopes of recovering Fergana, and although he dreads an invasion from the Uzbeks to his West, his attention increasingly turns towards India and its lands in the East.

Selim I, after struggling successfully against his brothers for the throne of the Ottoman Empire, is free to turn his attention to the internal unrest he believed was stirred up by the Shia Qizilbash, who have sided with other members of the dynasty against him and had been semi-officially supported by Bayezid II.

Selim now fears that they will incite the population against his rule in favor of Shah Ismail, leader of the Shia Safavids, and by some of his supporters believed to be family of the Prophet.

Selim secures a jurist opinion that describes Ismail and the Qizilbash as "unbelievers and heretics" enabling him to undertake extreme measures on his way eastward to pacify the country.

In response, Shah Ismail accuses Sultan Selim of aggression against fellow Muslims, violating religious sexual rules and shedding innocent blood.