The principality was established following the death of Abu Sa'id Mirza and the division of his empire among his sons. Umar Shaikh's line ruled the principality for more than three decades from 1469 to 1504.
History
Umar Shaikh
Abu Sa'id Mirza had re-united the Timurid Empire with the help of the Uzbek chief Abu'l-Khayr Khan, following its first division in 1449. However, he was killed by the White Sheep Turkomen and the Timurid Empire was divided once again in 1469.
Umar Shaikh received Fergana upon the division of the Timurid Empire in 1469. Umar Shaikh died in a freak accident in Aksi fort, North Fergana, on 10 June 1494. It occurred when he was in his dovecote, which was built at the edge of the building, collapsed, thus making eleven-year-old Babur the ruler of Fergana.[1]
Babur
In 1494, eleven-year-old Babur became the ruler of Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan, after Umar Sheikh Mirza died "while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled into the ravine below the palace".[2] During this time, two of his uncles from the neighbouring kingdoms, who were hostile to his father, and a group of nobles who wanted his younger brother Jahangir to be the ruler, threatened his succession to the throne.[3] His uncles were relentless in their attempts to dislodge him from this position as well as from many of his other territorial possessions to come.[4] Babur was able to secure his throne mainly because of help from his maternal grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begum, although there was also some luck involved.[3]
Most territories around his kingdom were ruled by his relatives, who were descendants of either Timur or Genghis Khan, and were constantly in conflict.[3] At that time, rival princes were fighting over the city of Samarkand to the west. In 1497, he besieged Samarkand for seven months before eventually gaining control over it.[5] He was fifteen years old and for him the campaign was a huge achievement.[3] Babur was able to hold the city despite desertions in his army, but he later fell seriously ill.
Jahangir
Meanwhile, a rebellion back home, approximately 350 kilometres (220 mi) away, amongst nobles who favoured his brother, made Jahangir Mirza II the ruler of Fergana.[5] As Babur was marching to recover it, he lost Samarkand to a rival prince, leaving him with neither.[3] He tried to reclaim Fergana, but lost the battle there and, escaping with a small band of followers, he wandered the mountains of central Asia and took refuge with hill tribes. By 1502, he had resigned all hopes of recovering Fergana; he was left with nothing and was forced to try his luck elsewhere.[6][7] The principality was lost to the Uzbeks in 1504.
^Lal, Ruby (2005). Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World. Cambridge University Press. p. 69. ISBN0-521-85022-3. It was over these possessions, provinces controlled by uncles, or cousins of varying degrees, that Babur fought with close and distant relatives for much of his life.
^ abEwans, Martin (2002). Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics. HarperCollins. pp. 26–27. ISBN0-06-050508-7. Babur, while still in his teens, conceived the ambition of conquering Samarkand. In 1497, after a seven months' siege, he took the city, but his supporters gradually deserted him and Ferghana was taken from him in his absence. Within a few months he was compelled to retire from Samarkand ... Eventually he retook Samarkand, but was again forced out, this time by an Usbek leader, Shaibani Khan ... Babur decided in 1504 to trek over the Hindu Kush to Kabul, where the current ruler promptly retreated to Kandahar and left him in undisputed control of the city.
^Mahajan, V.D. (2007). History of medieval India (10th ed.). New Delhi: S Chand. pp. 428–29. ISBN978-81-219-0364-6.
