A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

The Shaybanids 151
The inevitable clash occurred by the end of the decade near Merv;
the Uzbeks lost, and their khan fell on the battlefield.Over the next few
years the shah of Persia tried to press the newly gained advantage
against Muhammad’s successor Köchkunju (ruled 1512–31), but
without avail.The confrontation ended in a lasting stalemate, pitting
schismatic Iran against orthodox Central Asia for 300 years, right down
to the latter’s conquest by Russia in the nineteenth century.Besides
having intrinsically harmful effects (especially on the cultural plane), this
antagonism – although mitigated by periods of peaceful contacts and
even pragmatic cooperation – isolated Central Asia from Turkey and the
Arab lands of the Near East: for hostile and powerful Iran, unified by
the dynamic ideology of Shii Islam, to a considerable degree blocked
direct communications of merchants, pilgrims, and scholars between
the eastern and western parts of the Muslim world.
Shah Ismail was less lucky in the war against his other Sunni adversary,
the Ottoman sultan Selim I, who in 1514 defeated him at
Chaldiran, a locality in eastern Anatolia.The Turkish victory owed
much to powerful artillery, a new weapon that was revolutionizing
warfare in Europe at a time when most Muslim rulers still ignored or
shunned this innovation.
Besides Selim, another exception was Babur, but only after he had left
Central Asia and launched his conquest of India; there, thanks to his
qualities as a leader and to the devotion of his troops, but also to occasional
use of artillery, he defeated larger armies of rajas and sultans supported
by elephants.There are indications that the Timurid – or Mughal
– conqueror acquired this innovation through master armorers who
came from the Ottoman empire.Nevertheless, much as we may find
Babur’s conquest of Hindustan captivating and important, that alone
would not secure him the special place which he occupies among
history’s great figures.He stands out because of the Baburname, an autobiography
compiled partly on the basis of a diary he had kept.Written
in his mother tongue, Turki, it is one of the most original and engaging
prose works of pre-modern Muslim literature, for Babur vividly and
faithfully portrays life as he saw and experienced it, his own and that of
the world around him, whether human or natural.And since it was a
rich life in many ways, the Baburname is also a priceless document for our
study of the period’s society: its natural setting, social customs, political
events, noteworthy personalities, literary and artistic pursuits, not counting
Babur’s own military campaigns and the adventures he encountered
in the process.He himself emerges as a vigorous but compassionate