Monarch,
poet (B. June 1438, Herat – D. May 4th,
1506, Baba İlahi / Herat).
His nickname was Ebu’l-Gazi, his
full name was Hüseyin bin Gıyaseddin
Mansur bin Baykara, he was the grandson of Timur Khan, the son of
Muizzüddin Ömer Sheikh. During the long reign of the throne passed with
quarrels and wars, great progress was made in science, arts and literature.
Hüseyin Baykara, who was from the Tamerlane dynasty and Cengiz Khan’s roots from
his mother and father's side, lived in the palace called Devlethane in Herat
until he was fourteen years old and took a good education there. In 1452, he
entered the service of Ebu’l Kasım Babür, who ruled Herat,
and went to Samarkand
in 1454. There, his close relative Ebu Sait Mirza took him under his
protection. Then he went next to the Muizeddin Sencer, who was the ruler of
Merv, and married his daughter Bike Sultan here. After the death of Ebu’l Kasım
Babür (1457), taking the throne of Khorasan, he reigned in Khorasan and
Transoxiana for many years.
Baykara
showed his power by defeating the ruler of Herat, Ebu Sait Mirza’s army of three
thousand people commended by Muhammet Ali Bahşi with his very small army. Then,
he seized Esterabad by winning the battle he made with Sogdlu Sait bin Hüseyin
Türmen. He took the state of Esterabad under his sovereignty by defeating
Mahmut Mirza in the whole region of Esterabad in 1461. He defeated Emir
Muhammet Ali Yahşi in the Turşiz region in 1464 and captured Khorasan completely in the same year. He was
greatly relieved when Ebu Sait Mirza got defeated by the ruler of Akkoyunlu,
Uzun Hasan near Karabağ in 1468 and when he died shortly after this incident
and he ascended the throne of Herat
in 1469. When he heard that Yadigâr Muhammet Mirza was walking on Esterabat
with a great force established of Turkmen, he confronted and defeated him in
Derbend-i Şahan. In 1470, he dominated the regions of Khorasan, Sistan, Balkh and Harezm by eliminating Mirzâ Yâdigâr
Muhammed the grandson of Baysungur, the son of Şahruh who walked on Heart by
gathering force again. Thus, he put an end to the throne fights between the
descendants of Timur. He made Herat
the capital city.
In the
following years he gave priority to strengthening the fortresses in the Ceyhun
(Amu Darya) Tribe. However his sons’
increasing attitude towards independency began to shake his sovereignty. Even
though he managed to suppress the rebellion that had started in 1490 by his son
Bediüzzaman Mirza, who was the governor of Belh, the tension between them
lasted for many years. He died in 1506 in an expedition he took with a strong
army upon the raids of Uzbeks who dominated Turkestan, organized on Herat by going beyond
Ceyhun around Harezm after 1500.
In the era
of Hüseyin Baykara, peace and tranquility reigned dominantly and the capital
city of Herat
had become a cultural center and its fame spread across the world. Even, the
civilization of Samarkand that had faded away
upon the death of Ulugh Beg left its place to the civilization of Herat. The number of
students studying in Herat
reached twelve thousand during his era. Hüseyin Baykara, who gave very much
importance to science and art, always had scholars and poets in his palace.
Thus, he gave place to scientific, fun and cheerful meetings referred to as
“The Baykara Councils” in the history. It is also a fact that Hüseyin Baykara,
who was referred to as “the Sultan of
Iran, the king of the universal kings, custodian of the well-behaved, the
guards of the eloquent, the sultan of the Persian”, was respected by the
Ottoman Sultan and his contemporaries Sultan Bayezid II. Even the collection of the Ottoman
bibliographies recorded that the poet Behişti was forgiven by Bayezid II Khan
upon the request of Hüseyin Baykara.
The greatest
service of Hüseyin Baykara was the protection of Turkish language and culture.
The Chagatai Turkish literature lived its golden age during his era and the
reputation of Turkish increased. There was a great service of Hüseyin Baykara
in the development and maturation of the Chagatai Turkish literature. The Poet
Sultan Baykara, who had a Turkish divan, used the Hüseynî pseudonym in his
poems, worked for Turkish to make it the language of the state and literature
with his childhood and school friend Ali Şir Nevâi, with whom he grew up together
since their childhood, and he enacted the order of writing in Turkish. Furthermore,
he experienced the literary taste of his nation by being familiar with the
folklore and different Turkish dialects, despite the heavy and complicated
events of his era. Ali Şir Nevaî was glad to show him among the ones who knew
the Turkish accents the best.
Hüseyin
Baykara was a scholar and a valuable poet, a music lover and a distinguished
calligrapher. The lyricism (fluency and enthusiasm) was dominant in his poems. All
of the odes in the Divan was written
with the remel measure and thus had different characteristics in the Turkish
literature. It has exciting, attractive expressions, depicting beauty, a lively
discourse. He used the language very nicely and used quite a few foreign words
in his poems. Even though it is said that he was the author of a biographical
work in Persian named as Mecâlisü’l-Uşşâk
other than his Turkish Divan (prepared
by Ali Asgar Hikmet Bakû in 1926), this is a doubtful situation. Sultan
Hüseyin Baykara, who committed
himself to science and culture and had written poems also in Persian, reigned for
over thirty six years and died in 1506. He lies in the Kubbe-i Âliyye where he
had prepared in his health in Herat.
Hüseyin
Baykara, who was the last great ruler of the Timurid lineage, played an
important role in achieving a level of gloss in Turkish culture by
internalizing the effects of China,
North Asia and Indian. He rendered his palace
in Herat as a science center and took the leading
thinkers and artists of the period under protection and gained their proximity.
The scholars, artists and poets such as the Poet Cami, famous miniaturist Behzat,
grandfather and grandson historians Mirhant and Handemir, Hilalî, Hatifi, the
author of “Tezkiretü’ş-Şuara” Devletşah,
at the same time Ali Şir Nevai who was the childhood friend of Hüseyin Baykara,
the owner of the bibliographies Devletşah and even Sultan Ali were the artists
who brought an academy of science characteristic to the Devlethane (T.N. State
House) in Herat. The Turkish poems written by Hüseyin Baykara, who wrote
Turkish and Persian poems with the Hüseyni pseudonym were published with the
title “Divan-ı Sultan Hüseyin Mirza
Baykara”. A part of his poetry was compiled in 1987 by Kemal Eraslan with
the title “Hüseyn-i Baykara Divanı’ndan
Seçmeler”. The Topkapı copy of Divan was
published by İsmail Hikmet Ertaylan (1946), the last copy was made in Kabul (Muhammed Yâkub
Vahidî Cüzcânî, 1967). A copy of his work Risâle-i Hüseyn Baykara is in İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri Kütüphanesi
(T.N. the Istanbul Archaeological Museums Library) with the title Şükürnâme. The original copy of this autobiographical
work was done by İ. Hakkı Ertaylan in 1945 in Istanbul.
