Battle of Ghazdewan

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Ghazdewan
partof=Mughal conquests


caption=
date= 1512
place=Ghazdewan,Uzbekistan
result=Decisive Uzbek victory
territory=Mughals Retreat to Kabul;
Uzbeks reconquer Mawarannahr (Transoxiana)
combatant1=
combatant2=Uzbek Confederates
commander1=Amir Najm SaniKIA
Zahir ud-Din Muhammad Babur
Biram Khan Karamanlu
commander2=Ubaydullah Sultan
Sheikhein MirzaKIA
Timur Sultan
Jani Beg Sultan
Kuchum Khan
Siunjek
strength1=60,000A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun By William Erskine;Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,1854; Public Domain]
strength2=<30,000
casualties1=High
casualties2=High

After the defeat of Babur at the Battle of Kul Malek he applied for assistance to Biram Khan Karamanlu who commanded for the Safavid Persian Shah Ismail I at Balkh and who sent a detachment to support him, on the arrival of which the Uzbeks withdrew from the country of Hissar. But Babur after the signal defeat which he had suffered at Kul Malek had sent directly to Shah Ismail I himself to solicit an effective force by which he might be enabled to expel the Uzbeks finally from Mawarannahr (Transoxiana). The Shah accordingly gave instructions to Amir Najm Sani his minister of finance whom he had entrusted with the settlement of Khurasan to render assistance to Babur in recovering the dominions he had lately possessed. On reaching Balkh, Amir Najm resolved to march in person into Mawarannahr and taking with him the governor of Herat the Amirs of Khurasan and Biram Khan of Balkh he passed the Amu Darya and was soon joined by Babur when the combined army is said to have amounted to 60,000 men.

Battle

Early in the autumn the army advanced to Khozar which was taken. It next proceeded on to Karshi which had been strongly fortified and garrisoned by Ubaydullah Sultan the chief of Bukhara who was in reality at the head of the Uzbeks though Kuchum was the nominal khan. It was proposed to leave it behind as had been done with success in the preceding campaign but Mir Najm saying that it was Ubaydullah Sultan's lair declared that it must be taken. It was accordingly besieged and carried by storm when Sheikhein Mirza the governor with all in the place whether Uzbeks or inhabitants to the number of 15,000 were put to the sword without respect to age or sex or sanctity. The circumstances of this massacre disgusted Babur who found that he was condemned to play a subordinate part in an army professedly acting under his authority. He had ardently desired to save the inhabitants who were Chaghatai Turks of his own race and sect and he had earnestly besought Najm Sani to comply with his wishes. But the unrelenting Persian, deaf to his entreaties, had let loose all the fury of war on the devoted city Maulana Binai the poet, one of the most eminent minds of his time who happened to be in the town fell in the indiscriminate slaughter with many Syeds and holy men and from that time forward, Amir Najm prospered in none of his undertakings.

The Uzbek chiefs after the massacre at Karshi appear for some time to have retired and fortified themselves in their strongholds. Amir Najm seems to have passed on to attack Ghazdewan on the border of the desert without having taken Bukhara. The Uzbek sultans had now had time to assemble and under the command of Ubaydullah who was joined by Timur Sultan from Samarkand; they threw themselves into the fort the very night that Babur and Amir Najm had taken their ground before it and were preparing their engines and ladders for an assault. The Uzbeks in the morning drew out their army which took up a position among the houses and gardens in the suburbs of the town. The confederates advanced to meet them. The Uzbeks who were protected by the broken ground and by the walls of the enclosures and houses had posted in every corner archers on foot who poured a shower of arrows on the Qizilbashes as they approached Biram Khan who had the chief military command of their troops wounded and fallen from his horse, the main body of the army fell into disorder. In the course of an hour the invaders were routed and most of them fell in the field and the arrows of Ghazdewan revenged the saber of Karshi. Babur routed and discomfited fled back to Hissar. It is said that the Qizilbash chiefs disgusted with the haughtiness and insolence of Amir Najm did not use their utmost endeavors to assist him so that he was taken prisoner and put to death. Many of the Persian chiefs who fled from the battle crossed the Amu Darya at Kirki and entered Khurasan.

Aftermath

The Uzbeks now not only recovered the country which they had lost in Transoxiana but made incursions into Khurasan ravaging the northern part of the province Shah Ismail I on hearing of this disaster resolved to return On his approach the Uzbeks retreated in alarm. He caused several of the officers who had escaped from the battle to be seized and some of them to be capitally punished for deserting their commander. Certain inhabitants of the province being accused of having shown attachment to the Uzbeks and their creed and of having vexed the Shias were consumed in the fire of his wrath. The fatal battle of Ghazdewan, the destruction of Babur's Persian allies and the numbers and power of the Uzbeks seemed to leave him no hopes of again ascending the throne of Samarkand and Bukhara. Babur had now resigned all hopes of recovering Fergana, and although he dreaded an invasion from the Uzbeks to his West, his attention increasingly turned towards India and its lands in the East.

References

"A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun" By William Erskine;Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,1854 [http://books.google.com/books?id=V2QBAAAAQAAJ]

Notes