Osh. In the Composition of Moghulistan
In the early 15th century, Osh is mentioned in eastern chronicles in connection with the campaign of Timur's grandson — Ulugh Beg against the Ferghana ruler Ahmed.
Driven out of Ferghana by Ulugh Beg, Emir Ahmed returned with an army obtained from the Mongols and, after Ulugh Beg left with his main forces, defeated the troops he had left behind at Osh. Later mentions of the city can be found in "Tarikh-i Rashidi" — the chronicle of Rashid's history by Mirza Muhammad Haidar, which describes the feudal strife in the region, when each of the Mongol and Timurid dignitaries — rulers of Osh and its surroundings — sought to turn the position and land granted to him into hereditary. However, such attempts were rarely successful. Failures also befell the grandfather of Muhammad Haidar — one of the close associates of the Moghulistan's Veys Khan, and the author of the "Rashid's History" himself — a feudal lord from the noble Turkic-Mongol Duglat clan. Under his rule, for a long time, the southern part of Kyrgyzstan was among other lands.
Equally scarce are the details about the economic development of Osh during this period. Copper coins found on Suleiman Mountain in Osh and published by D. G. Masson testify to the close trade and economic ties in the 15th century between the cities of Eastern Turkestan and Central Asia, which was experiencing a brief period of economic revival. It also becomes evident that Osh played a quite noticeable role in Central Asian-Kashgar trade. In the markets of Osh in the third quarter of the 15th century, copper coins of Timurid and Kashgar mint were in circulation. Notably, in the Osh hoard discovered in 1953, the majority of coins were minted in Bukhara, Kashgar, and Eastern Turkestan, with coins also minted in Ordu, Shiraz, Herat, Khuttalan, and Samarkand. The overstruck coins also mention the cities of Samarkand, Karshi, Termez, and Shahrukhia. This, most likely, was the circle of trade connections of Osh by the end of the 15th century, when commodity-money trade in Central Asia reached its peak.
From the good decorative stone with white and red veins found on Suleiman Mountain, skilled Osh craftsmen made handles for scabbards, buckles for belts, and other everyday items. From the red-barked wood of the tabulgu tree, which grew in the surrounding mountains, the townspeople crafted cages for songbirds (quails), quivers for arrows for warriors and nomads, and walking sticks for pilgrims.
In the second half of the 15th century, Osh, along with other urban centers of Ferghana, came under the control of one of the feudal rulers of the Timurids, Omar Sheikh (ruled 1462–1494) — the father of Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur — who would later become the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, Osh became a bone of contention and sometimes served as a payment for loyalty or services to the weakened Timurids from representatives of the military-feudal nobility or Mongol khans. During the feudal strife, the surroundings of Osh with the estates of townspeople and villages, as well as the urban suburbs, were repeatedly subjected to attacks by warring factions. Zahir al-Din Babur specifically mentioned the raids of Ibrahim Begchik — one of Omar Sheikh's opponents — on the outskirts of Osh in his "Baburnama." Fearing an attack from his rival on Andijan, Omar Sheikh summoned his ally Yunus Khan with the Mongols to Ferghana, previously promising him Osh.
As Muhammad Haidar reported in "Tarikh-i Rashidi," at the end of the 15th century, Osh briefly became the residence of one of the Mongol khans.
During the period of inter-feudal strife, the ruler of Moghulistan, Yunus Khan, was called for help by the ruler of Ferghana, Omar Sheikh, for which the latter "met the khan with due honor and respect and handed over the vilayet of Osh to him." The khan remained to winter in the city, while sending his close associates back to Moghulistan. The Osh vilayet was given by Yunus Khan to Muhammad Haidar Mirza — a namesake of the author of the work. Thus, settling in the city, Yunus Khan did not wish to leave it afterward, and when he departed for Moghulistan, he left his deputy there. When the Mongols left Osh, Omar Sheikh expelled Muhammad Haidar from the city (1484) and again sent his deputy (darughah) to the city.
This narrative draws attention to the interesting fact that the history of medieval Osh is, to some extent, connected with the names of the parents of the author of the famous work on the history of Central Asia "Tarikh-i Rashidi," Muhammad Haidar, and the author of "Baburnama," Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur. Omar Sheikh was a Timurid, the son of Abu Said Mirza, and the father of Babur; he was born in 860 AH (1455/56) and died on the 4th of Ramadan 899 AH (June 8, 1494). Muhammad Haidar Mirza was a Duglat, the father of the author of "Tarikh-i Rashidi."
As can be judged from the aforementioned works, both authors visited Osh, and Babur left the most beautiful description of it.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the fortress city of Osh played a certain role in the fierce struggle for power among the military-feudal factions of Maverannahr and Moghulistan. Their leaders — the Timurids and Shaybanids — dragged the townspeople of Osh and peasants from its surroundings into bloody feuds, bringing devastation and tax oppression to ordinary workers.
