Muhammad Shaybanikhan and His Role in the Literary Process of the 16th Century

In the history of Uzbek statehood, many individuals have shown remarkable artistic, scientific, and leadership skills, reflecting our ancestors’ high intellect and talent. Muhammad Shaybanikhan (1451–1510), the founder of the Shaybanids state, was a skilled military and political leader and a talented poet. Unfortunately, during the Soviet regime, our history was misrepresented, and Muhammad Shaybanikhan’s contributions were downplayed. However, historical sources unanimously portray him as a great ruler who unified the country during internal conflicts, a successful military leader, and a poet and scientist with a unique creative direction.
Under Muhammad Shaybanikhan, a circle of creative individuals and a literary-scientific environment were established, following the pattern of many Eastern rulers. Talented poets and historians such as Kamoliddin Binai, Muhammad Salih, Fazlullah ibn Rozbehan Isfahani, and Mulla Shadi worked under Muhammad Shaybanikhan’s patronage for a certain period. Hasankhoja Nisari’s “Muzakkiri Ahbob” (1566) contains information about 288 poets, and Mutribiy Samarkandi’s “Tazkirat ush-shuaro” (1604–1605) provides details about more than 320 writers and scientists who lived and worked in the 16th century. Examples from their works confirm that cultural life, literature, and science thrived during the rule of the Shaybanids.
The article examines the creativity and enlightening activities of Muhammad Shaybanikhan, a ruler and poet, in the context of Uzbek literature during the 15th-16th centuries. Muhammad Shaybanikhan’s attitude towards artistic creativity and creative individuals, as well as his focus on science, is analyzed based on historical and literary works, including Hasankhoja Nisari’s poems in “Muzakkiri ahbob” and “Divan”. Furthermore, the analysis of his verses about creative personalities of that time, such as Kamoliddin Binai and Muhammad Salih, reveals that Muhammad Shaybanikhan had a certain influence on the lives and creativity of these two poets, either through his poems addressed directly to them or through his general impact on their work.