Baysunghur
Baysunghur (1397–1433) was a Timurid prince, the son of Shah Rukh and the wife Gawhar Shad, and a grandson of Timur. He was a celebrated patron of the arts and architecture, especially famous for supporting Persian miniature painting and calligraphy. He commissioned the Baysunghur Shahnameh and other works, and he was also a skilled patron of historians.
Modern historians often see him as a better statesman than his elder brother Ulugh Beg, who inherited the throne. Baysunghur spoke Persian, Arabic, and Chagatai. By 1417 he governed Herat. In 1421, with his father Shah Rukh, he briefly took Tabriz from the Qara Qoyunlu and brought back Tabrizi artists and calligraphers to Herat, merging Shiraz and Tabriz styles into Iran’s leading school of art. He supported historians such as Hafiz-i Abru, who dedicated his work to him.
He was married to Katayun Khatun and had several children, including Ala al-Dawla Mirza, Sultan Muhammad, and Abul-Qasim Babur. Baysunghur died on 20 December 1433 at the Bagh-e Safid palace in Herat and was buried in the Gawhar Shad Mausoleum, Herat.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:10 (CET).