Biography
Qazan was the son of Yasa'ur, a Chagatayid prince who had revolted in the 1310s. Upon his ascension to the throne, he attempted to increase his power within the ulus. These measures provoked the anger of the nobility, who threw their support behind the Qara'unas Amir Qazaghan. The two went to war in 1345; Qazan defeated Qazaghan in a battle north of the Iron Gates. Defeated and wounded, Qazaghan withdrew, but Qazan decided to spend the winter at his palace at Qarshi, allowing Qazaghan to rebuild his forces. In the next year he again fought Qazan's army and this time defeated it; Qazan was killed during the battle.
Qazan's death marked the end of the effective power of the house of Chagatai within Transoxiana (except for a brief period from 1360 until 1363); the amirs seized control of the ulus and the khans ruled in name only. The next khan, Danishmendji, was a puppet of Qazaghan, who became the effective leader of the ulus.
Read more about this topic: Qazan Khan Ibn Yasaur
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)