Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur

Who was Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur?

Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur was a khan of the Khanate of Khiva from 1643 to 1663. He spent ten years in Persia before becoming khan, and was very well educated, writing two historical works in the Khiva dialect of the Chagatai language.

He was born in Urgench, Khanate of Khiva, the son of ruler 'Arab Muhammad Khan. He fled to the Safavid court in Isfahan after a power struggle arose among him and his brothers. He lived there in exile from 1629 until 1639 studying Persian and Arabic history. In 1644 or 1645 he acceded to the throne, a position he would hold for twenty years. He died in Khiva in 1663.

Abu al-Ghazi is known as the author of two historical works: "Genealogy of the Turkmen" Shajare-i Tarakime finished in 1661 and "Genealogy of the Türks" Shajare-i Türk finished in 1665. These are important sources for modern knowledge of Central Asian history.

The Shajare-i Türk history of the Türkic people was Abu al-Ghazi opus magnum, its title was variously translated as "Genealogy of the Türks" and "Genealogy of the Tatars", the "Shajare" being Türkic for "genealogy". According to Abu al-Ghazi, in Shajare-i Türk he used the work of Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, and other writers, totaling 18 historical sources, and corrected them in accordance with Turkic oral traditions which he was taught as a Prince. A manuscript of the Shajare-i Türk was purchased in Tobolsk from a Bukhara merchant by Swedish officers detained in Russian captivity in Siberia; using the local literate Tatars, the Swedish officers first translated the book into Russian, and then they retranslated it into various other languages. The French translation of the Shajare-i Türk was first published in Leiden in 1726, the French translation served as an original for a Russian translation published in 1768-1774, in 1780 it was published separately in German and English, and during the 18th century was widely read in Europe.