ABSTRACT
Transoxiana in the Middle of the Fourteenth Century.—The house of Chagatay which ruled Central Asia1 was the least distinguished of the dynasties founded by Chengiz Khan. In the period covered by the preceding chapter an occasional raid into Khorasan constituted all its history so far as Persia was concerned, and during much of the time Transoxiana was in a state of anarchy. In a . h . 746 (1345) Kazan Khan, the Western Chagatay ruler, provoked a rebellion by his cruelty, the nobles uniting under a certain Amir Kazghan to dethrone him, a design in which they were successful the following year. Amir Kazghan after this revolution ruled through puppet Khans until his death in a . h . 759 (1357) and was succeeded by his son Abdulla. Sarai was deserted through the influence of Sali, the new Vizier, and Samarcand again became the capital of an empire. Becoming enamoured of the wife of the puppet Khan, Abdulla put him to death and set up Timur Shah Oghlan in his stead. This act caused a revolt, which was headed by an Amir named Bayan Selduz
and by H aji1 Barlas, of Kesh (the modern Shahr-i-Sabz, to the south of Samarcand), and the united forces of the Amirs defeated Abdulla, who fled across the Oxus and disappeared from the scene. The government was now administered by the victors, but the incapacity of Bayan Selduz, who was a hopeless drunkard, broke up the empire into a number of petty states, and Haji Barlas was not able to do more than maintain himself at Kesh.
