Ubaidullah Khan
Shaybanid khan of Bukhara
Ubaidullah Khan (Chagatai/Persian: عبیدالله خان; 1487–1539), also Ubaid Khan, was the 4th Shaybanid Khan of Bukhara, who ruled between 1534 and 1539. He was the son of Mahmud and nephew of Muhammad Shaybani, founder of the Shaybanid dynasty.
Biography
After the death of Muhammad Shaybani in 1510, the cities and lands controlled by the Uzbeks were divided among the family members. Bukhara fell to Ubaidullah Khan, which he had to defend against Babur Emir of Kabul and future Mughal Emperor, and against the Safavids of Iran in 1511–1512. Ubaidullah and Jani Beg, the commander-in-chief of the army, proved themselves as capable generals. Babur's defeat at Gadjdivan in 1512 finally secured the Uzbeks' possession of the land between Amu Darya and Syr Darya.
Ubaidullah was not only a military man and politician, but also an amateur scholar, poet and builder. His time saw the construction of the Kalan Mosque in 1514, next to the Kalyan Minaret from the 12th century on the site of an old palace mosque, and the construction of the Mir Arab Madrasa (1535–1536) in Bukhara. The madrasa was financed by Ubaidullah by selling 3,000 captured Shiites into slavery.
However, Ubaidullah failed to defeat Iranian Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1676), as his five offensives in Khorasan were ultimately unsuccessful.
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