IJEL

 

IJEL, Timurid prince (797-818/1394-1415). The fourth son of Mirānšāh b. Timur, Ijel was born in early 797/late 1394 (Yazdi, p. 561; the birth date 15 Moḥarram 790/25 January 1388 given by the Moʿezz-al-ansāb, fol. 129a, is probably to be rejected as too early) and was named by the conqueror after one of his ancestors (Semenov, 1948, pp. 52-53; Togan, p. 109). Ijel along with other young Timurid princes such as his cousins Uluḡ-Beg and Ebrāhim-Solṭān, the sons of Šāhroḵ, traveled with their grandfather Timur’s train in the last phases of the so-called Seven Years’ Campaign, finally returning to Samarkand in late 806/mid-1404. Shortly thereafter, the youths were given wives by Timur at the imperial diet convened at Kān-e Gol outside the capital (Yazdi, pp. 824, 883, 923, 941). When Timur died in 807/1405, Ijel, aged ten, appears not to have been involved in the ensuing succession struggles, which finally resulted in his uncle Šāhroḵ’s definitive assumption of supreme power in the Timurid family by 821/1418 (Yazdi, pp. 987, 1002). In 817/1414, Šāhroḵ appointed Ijel governor of Ray as part of his political reorganization of the provinces of Persian Iraq and Fars, disputed by the sons of ʿOmar-Šayḵ b. Timur. He held this post only for a short time, for he soon fell ill and died in Mo-ḥarram 8181/March-April 1415. Ray was then given to his brother Eylangir (Ḥāfez-e Abru, foll. 521b-522b; Samarqandi, pp. 307 ff.).

 

Bibliography:

Sources. Anonymous, Moʿezz-al-ansāb, MS Paris, ancien fonds, persan, 67.

Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, Zobdat-al-Tavāriḵ-e Bāysonḡori, MS Istanbul, Fatih 4371/1.

ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Samarqandi, Maṭlaʿ-al-Saʿdeyn, ed. M. Shafi, 2 vols., Lahore, 1941-49.

Studies. A. A. Semenov, “Nadpisi na Nadgrobiyakh Timura i ego Potomkov v Gur-i Emire,” Epigrafika Vostoka 2 1948, pp. 49-62; 3, 1949, pp. 45-54.

A. Zeki Velidi Togan, “Taḥqīq-e nasab-e Amīr Tīmūr,” in Prof. Mohammad Shafi Presentation Volume, Lahore, 1955, pp. 106-13.

Šaraf-al-Din Yazdi, Ẓafar-nāme, ed. A. Urunbayev, Tashkent, 1972.

(John Woods)

Originally Published: December 15, 2004

Last Updated: March 27, 2012

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