Mahmud bin Küchük

Mahmud bin Küchük
Khan of the Great Horde
Reign	1459–1465
Predecessor	Küchük Muhammad
Successor	Ahmed Khan bin Küchük
Khan of the Tatar Astrakhan Khanate
Reign	1465–1466
Predecessor	none
Successor	Qasim I of Astrakhan
Born	unknown
Died	1466
Dynasty	Borjigin
Religion	Sunni Islam

Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin Tīmūr Khān (Turki and Persian: محمود بن محمد بن تیمور خان), also known as Mahmud Astrakhani (Tatar: Ästerxannıñ Mäxmüd) was one of Küchük Muhammad's sons and a Khan who founded the Khanate of Astrakhan in the 1460s.

Life

After years of struggle for the throne of the Great Horde against Akhmat Khan, he escaped to the town of Hajji Tarkhan (or Xacitarxan), establishing the independent Khanate of Astrakhan there. Mahmud Astrakhani maintained friendly relations with his powerful neighbors—the Nogay Horde and the Great Horde and coined his own money.

His letter to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (as dispatched on April 10, 1466) is a curious example of diplomatic epistles written in Persian or in the 15th-century Old Tatar language. The content is a necessity of establishment of diplomatic relations between Ottoman Empire and Astrakhan, and sending ambassadors to Istanbul.

For uncertainties and additional information see the second part of List of Astrakhan khans.

His son Janibeg briefly ruled Crimea in the winter of 1476/77 until he was driven out by the legitimate ruler Nur Devlet.

Genealogy

• Genghis Khan
• Jochi
• Orda Khan
• Sartaqtay
• Köchü
• Bayan
• Sasibuqa
• Ilbasan
• Chimtay
• Urus
• Temur-Malik
• Temür Qutlugh
• Temur ibn Temur Qutlugh
• Küchük Muhammad
• Mahmud bin Küchük