Khalil Sultan

Khalil Sultan was born at Herat on 24 Jumada II 786 AH (13 August 1384), the son of Miran Shah by his wife Sevin Beg, called Khanzada, and so a grandson of Timur.¹² He enjoyed his grandfather's particular favour, distinguished himself in the Indian campaign, and in 1402 was given rule of the Ferghana Valley.¹

On Timur's death in 1405 Khalil viewed himself as the successor: he gained control of Samarkand and of Timur's treasury, set up the nine-year-old prince Muhammad Jahangir with the puppet title of Khan, struck coinage in his own name, and had the khutba read for himself.¹ His position then weakened. The Samarkand nobility despised his wife Shad Malik Agha and her influence — Woods cautions that this picture derives from a hostile narrative tradition that laid his misjudgements, and the loss of Samarkand, entirely at her door — and famine made him more hated still.¹ On 13 May 1409 Shah Rukh entered Samarkand unopposed; Khalil surrendered to him, received back his captured wife, and was appointed governor of Rayy.¹

Khalil Sultan died at Rayy on 3 November 1411 (Wikidata gives 4 November).¹² Hafiz-i Abru and the Nusakh-i jahan-ara report that he died of an illness, and Woods lists his death as natural causes; Ibn Arabshah claimed he had been poisoned by Shah Rukh — a claim Woods considers unfounded.¹