They had assumed the political name of Uzbegs, or
Ozbegs, in honour of Ozbeg, the ninth ruler of the
house of Djudji, son of Jinghiz Khan ; and when the
Muscovite power was beginning to drive out the
Tartars from Russia, these Uzbegs gradually retired
eastwards under Ebulkhair. Being appealed to for
help, they lent their warlike powers to the successors
of Timur, who were fighting each other, till, under
Sheibani, the grandson of Ebulkhair, Baber, the last
o f the Timurids, was driven from his throne, and the
Uzbegs became masters of Transoxiana. Sheibani
was conquered and killed in 15*0 by Shah Ismail,
after which the Sheibanids reigned for nearly a
century.
The greatest monarch of this line was Abdullah
Khan, born in 1533. It was during his lifetime that
trade relations were proposed by ambassadors sent
in 1552 from Bokhara and Samarkand to John the
Terrible ; and six years later the English merchant,
“ Master Anthony Jenkinson,” landed at Mangishlak on
the Caspian, and having travelled across the Turkoman
desert to Bokhara, returned the following year.
T o Abdullah Khan is attributed' the building of many
caravansaries, bridges, cisterns, and other works of
public utility in Bokhara. T he part of the bazaar at
Bokhara that is now best preserved was built by him
in 1582, so was the bridge at Kermineh, besides the
one I crossed at Karshi. His tomb is near that of
Baha-ud-din, the patron saint of Bokhara, a short
distance out of the town. His reign, Vambery says,
may with truth be called the last ray of the glory
which had at various times surrounded the throne of
T ransoxiana.
T h e succeeding Sheibanids reigned till 1597, and