The political decline of the Timurid states of Mavarannahr and Khorasan coincided with the emergence of a new nomadic grouping in the northern steppe, that of the Uzbeks under Shïbani Khan, a grandson of Abu’l-Khayr (see map No. 22). His given name was Muhammad Shahi Beck (or Sheybek) and his nickname Shah-Bakht, while Shïbani was his pen name, derived from the name of his Jochid ancestor, Shïban; in the sources of the 16th
century the given name and the pen name were frequently combined in one as “Muhammad Shïbani Khan.” (The pen name was later often misunderstood as “Shaybani,” by analogy with the name of a well-known Arab jurist of the 8th century).
After Abu’l-Khayr’s death in 1468 and the ensuing feuds on the steppe, the majority of the Uzbeks gradually recognized the authority of the rulers of the Özbek-Qazaqs (see map No. 22). Shïbani tried, unsuccessfully, to retain in his possession the region of Sïghnaq, but was compelled to leave it, and for two years found refuge in Bukhara, under the protection of a Timurid governor of the city, spending this time in study. Then he returned to the steppe along the middle course of the Sir-Darya, where he lived the life of a freebooter, participating in the wars between the Timurids of Mavarannahr and the Chaghatayids of Moghulistan, and switching his allegiance from one side to another. The first incursion of Shivani Khan into territory under Timurid control took place in 1486, when he raided north-western Khorezm (ruled by Chin Sufi, apparently a descendant of the Sufi dynasty that had ruled there in the 14th century) and briefly captured two towns in that region; from there he raided Astarabad. In 1488 he participated in the campaign of the Timurid ruler of Samarqand, Sultan Ahmad Mirza, against the Chaghatayid Mahmud Khan in Tashkent, when he suddenly switched sides, thus contributing to the crushing defeat of Sultan Ahmad Mirza. Only by 1500 was he able to attract to his side a significant number of Uzbek tribesmen, with whom he could embark upon a systematic conquest of the sedentary areas ruled by the Timurids.