Muhammad Khan ibn Pulad

Born: Unknown Died: c. 1358 Reigned: 1346-1358 Khanate: Chagatai Khanate (western) Title: Khan of the Chagatai Khanate

Overview

Muhammad Khan ibn Pulad was a nominal ruler of the western portion of the Chagatai Khanate who held the title for over a decade while the real power in Transoxiana remained in the hands of regional commanders. His reign coincided with the rise of the Barlas chief Hajji Barlas and with the growing influence of the young Timur, who would eventually conquer and reorganize the entire region. Muhammad Khan is essentially invisible in the historical record of the period, overshadowed entirely by the warlords who used him as a legitimizing symbol.

Rise to Power

Muhammad Khan came to the western Chagatai throne around 1346, succeeding Ali Sultan Khan. Like his predecessor, he was selected or installed by the regional commanders who preferred a pliant Chingisid figurehead to no nominal khan at all. His lineage through Pulad gave him the necessary dynastic credentials.

Rule and Achievements

Muhammad Khan's twelve-year reign as nominal ruler produced no independent achievements:

• He governed in name only, with real authority exercised by the Barlas, Jalayir, and other Mongol commanders of Transoxiana
• His period coincided with the growing influence of Timur, who was rising through the ranks of Transoxianian military-political life
• The eastern portion of the former Chagatai Khanate was now firmly in the hands of Moghulistan under Tughlugh Timur
• The western territories were effectively a patchwork of competing warlord fiefdoms beneath a fictional Chagatai authority

His death around 1358 was likely unremarkable, succeeded by the last nominal Chagatai rulers before Timur's reorganization of the region.

Legacy

Muhammad Khan ibn Pulad is the longest-serving of the late western Chagatai puppet khans, his twelve years of nominal rule spanning the full early career of Timur. He represents the final generation of Chagatai figureheads before Timur imposed his own order on Transoxiana, using a nominal Chagatai khan as a legal cover for his conquests in the traditional Mongol fashion. Muhammad Khan's existence as a figurehead illustrates the remarkable persistence of Chingisid legitimacy long after actual Chingisid power had evaporated.