Mahmud bin Küchük

Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin Tīmūr Khān (Turki and Persian: محمود بن محمد بن تیمور خان), also known as Mahmud Astrakhani 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