Battle of Shiraz (1393)

Battle of Shiraz (1393)
Part of Timur's conquest of Persia

Shah Rukh, at the age of 17, presenting the head of Shah Mansur to Timur at the Battle of Shiraz on 29 March 1393. Zafarnama (1528).[1]
DateEnded 29 March 1393
Location
Shiraz, Fars, Iran
29°35′30″N 52°35′01″E / 29.5918°N 52.5837°E / 29.5918; 52.5837
Result Timurid victory
Belligerents
Timurid Empire Muzaffarid dynasty
Commanders and leaders
Timur (WIA)[2]
Shah Rukh		 Shah Mansur  †
Strength
30,000[3] 4,000[4]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Heavy; exact numbers unknown
Battle of Shiraz (1393) is located in Iran
Battle of Shiraz (1393)
Location within Iran
Battle of Shiraz (1393) is located in West and Central Asia
Battle of Shiraz (1393)
Battle of Shiraz (1393) (West and Central Asia)

The Battle of Shiraz (1393) was a battle between the forces of the Timurid Empire and the forces of the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Mansur in 1393, near the base of the defender in Shiraz in southern Iran. It is part of Timur's five-year long campaign in Iran (1392-1397).

Background

After the death of Shah Shoja Mozaffari in 1384 the Muzaffarid dynasty fragmented and the region of Fars became politically unstable. The Muzaffarids, once a dominant local dynasty in southern Iran, had been weakened by internal rivalries and external pressure from Timur’s expanding empire.

By the early 1390s, Timur launched a major campaign into western and southern Iran to secure control over key cities including Isfahan, Shiraz, and Yazd. Shiraz, as the cultural and administrative center of Fars, became a strategic objective due to its economic importance and symbolic status in Persian governance.

The campaign was to last five years, but Timur started by fighting the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Mansur, who was defying him from his base in Shiraz.[5]. As he advanced, Timur freed the Muzaffarid prince Zain al-'Abidln from imprisonment in Qal'a-yi Safld, and treated him benevolently, promising to punish Shah Mansur.[6]

Siege and capture of Shiraz

In 1393, Timurid forces advanced into Fars and approached Shiraz. Contemporary sources suggest that the city did not mount prolonged resistance compared to other fortified urban centers in Timur’s campaigns.

Facing the overwhelming size and reputation of Timur’s army, the local administration of Shiraz opted for negotiation and submission rather than full-scale urban warfare. As a result, the city was occupied with limited destruction, and Timurid authority was established over the region. Timur’s policy in Shiraz was relatively moderate compared to other sieges, possibly influenced by the city’s economic value and cultural significance.

Following the capture of Shiraz, the city was integrated into the Timurid administrative structure governing Fars. Local governance was reorganized under Timurid-appointed officials, while elements of the existing Persian bureaucratic system were retained.

Unlike other cities that suffered severe destruction under Timur’s campaigns, Shiraz largely preserved its infrastructure and continued to function as an important cultural and literary center. The region remained under Timurid control until later political fragmentation following Timur’s death in 1405.

Death of Shah Mansur

Shah Rukh, at the age of 17, presenting the head of Shah Mansur to Timur at the Battle of Shiraz in 1393. Tarikh e Khandan e Timuriyah (1577-78).[7]

Shah Mansur fought the Timurid forces, but was defeated and decapitated by the forces of prince Shah Rukh on 29 March 1393.[5] Shah Rukh appears to have participated to the Iranian campaigns of Timur when in returned from Transoxonia in 1392.[6] A miniature from the Timurid Zafarnama (Zafarnama (1435-36, Shiraz)) showed Shah-Rukh, at seventeen years of age, vanquishing Shah Mansur in the battle of Shiraz (1393), but this miniature has been lost, without a remaining image.[8] The event also appears in the Zafarnama (1528).[1], and in the later Mughal account of the Timurid campaigns Tarikh e Khandan e Timuriyah.[7]

All remaining Muzaffarids proclaimed submission to Timur, but on May 1393 in Qumisha, south of Isfahan, Timur issued a supreme order for all of them to be executed.[5] Only two Muzaffarids were spared: Zain al-'Abidln and Sultan Shibli, the eldest and the youngest sons of Shah Shoja, who were sent to the Timurid capital of Samarqand.[5] They were reportedly provided with comfortable resources and enjoyed a pleasant life in Samarkand.[9] Numerous men of letters and artists from Fars and Irak also resettled in Samarkand.[9][10]

With the fall of the Muzaffarids, potential opposition on his southwestern flank being resolved, Timur then continued with the conquest of Jalayirid Baghdad in 1393, forcing Sultan Ahmad Jalayir to flee. He then completed the conquest of western Persia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1393-1394, also subjugating Georgia in 1394.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Norouzian, Giti (2011). "A copy of a panegyric biography of Timur, the Zafar-Nama of 936 H, with pictures attributed to Bihzad". The Art of the Islamic World (PDF). Manggha, Polish Institute of World Art Studies. p. 139. Illustration 3 (13) shows us another magnificent painting in the Zafar-Nama of 935. The young Shahrokh brings the head of the Muzaffarid Shah Mansur to his father: Timur's battle with Shah Mansur, nephew of Shah Shoja', in Fars in 795 H/1393 and his slaying by the 17-year-old Prince Sharokh
  2. ↑ Sykes, Percy (1951). A history of Persia, from Original Sources. London Macmillan. p. 206. ISBN 978-0415326780. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  3. ↑ Sykes, Percy (1951). A history of Persia, from Original Sources. London Macmillan. p. 206. ISBN 978-0415326780. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  4. ↑ Sykes, Percy (1951). A history of Persia, from Original Sources. London Macmillan. p. 206. ISBN 978-0415326780. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Cambridge 2008, p. 63.
  6. 1 2 Cambridge 2008, p. 62.
  7. 1 2 Sims, E. (1992). "Ibrahim-Sultan's Illustrated Zafarnama of 1436 and its Impact in the Muslim East". Timurid art and culture: Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth century. Leiden Boston: Brill. p. 136. ISBN 9789004662551. Note 37:In the unique Mughal Tiinkh-i Khiindiin-i Tlmiiriyya, however (see below, nn. 45-47), fols. 53b-54a appear to illustrate precisely this event, Timur's campaign against Shah Mansur, in which the latter is killed and Mirza Shahrukh, then seventeen years old, joins Timur.
  8. ↑ Sims, E. (1992). "Ibrahim-Sultan's Illustrated Zafarnama of 1436 and its Impact in the Muslim East". Timurid art and culture: Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth century. Leiden Boston: Brill. p. 136. ISBN 9789004662551. Finally, the subject of the one painting that has, to the best of my knowledge, never been photographed, catalogued, or reproduced, is also Shahrukh: in battle with the Muzaffarids in 1393, it was Shahrukh, as a youth of seventeen years, who delivered the coup de grace to Shah Mansur Muzaffar.
  9. 1 2 Howorth, Sir Henry Hoyle (1888). History of the Mongols: The Mongols of Persia. Longmans, Green, and Company. p. 714, quoting Sherif ud-din, ii, 203-206. Zain al Abidin, who had been blinded by Shah Mansur, and Shébéli, who had been similarly blinded by Shah Shoja, were sent to Samarkand, and Timur assigned for their subsistence some of the best property in that town, so that they might spend, says Sherif ud din, the rest of their lives in some comfort under the shadow of his clemency. In the simplicity of their retreat, he continues, they enjoyed many pleasures unknown to the ambitious. The men of letters and the best artisans of Fars and of Irak abandoned their country, and went to live at Samarkand.* Note *Sherif ud-din, ii, 203-206
  10. ↑ Sharaf al-Dīn, 'Alī; Pétis de La Croix, François (1722). Histoire de Timur-Bec, connu sous le nom du grand Tamerlan, empereur des Mogols & Tartares: En ... (in French). A. Des Hayes. p. 206.
  11. ↑ Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt (1993). International Military and Defense Encyclopedia. Brassey's (US). p. 2669. ISBN 978-0-02-881011-9.

Sources

  • The Cambridge history of Iran: Vol. 6: Timurid and Safavid periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008. ISBN 9781139054980.
  • Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press.
  • Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the Islamic World. Yale University Press.
  • Roemer, H. R. “The Timurid Dynasty” in The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6.
  • Woods, John E. The Timurid Dynasty in Iran and Central Asia.
  • Subtelny, Maria. Timurids in Transition: Turko-Persian Politics and Acculturation.
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