Najm-e Sani

Amir Yar-Ahmad Khuzani Isfahani (Persian: امیر یاراحمد خوزانی اصفهانی‎‎), better known by his honorific title of Najm-e Sani ("The Second Star") was a Persian^[1] nobleman from the Khuzani family, who was the third person to serve as the vakil (vicegerent) of the Safavid Empire.

Biography

Najm was born during the 15th-century in Isfahan, and belonged to a family which could trace its existence in Isfahan back to the 1440s.^[2] In 1509/10, Najm succeeded Amir Najm al-Din Mas'ud Gilani in the vakil office, and later in 1512, he, along with the Timurid prince Babur attacked the marauding Uzbeks, who had although suffered a heavy defeat in 1510 by Shah Ismail I, kept making incursions into the eastern Safavid province of Khorasan.^[1] It is disputed whether Najm led the attack without approval from Ismail I or not.^[1] After having crossed the Oxus River, Najm seized Qarshi, and had the city sacked and its inhabitants brutally massacred, which resulted in the death of over 1,500 men, and even children and women. A small Sayyid community was also massacred by the army of Najm,^[1] the prominent poet Maulana Binai being one of them.

Najm then attacked Ghazdewan, a town near Bukhara, but was unable to capture the town. Babur then advised Najm to retreat to Qarshi in order to wait for reinforcements. Najm, however, declined, which resulted in the mutiny of several Qizilbash chieftains who had been with him during his campaign.^[1] On November, a battle ensured at Ghazdewan between the Uzbeks and what was left of the army of Najm, which resulted in his defeat and capture. He was shortly executed,^[1][3] and was succeeded by Abd al-Baqi Yazdi in the vakil office.^[4]

References

1. Mazzaoui 2002.
2. Newman 2008, p. 157.
3. Newman 2008, p. 20.
4. Soucek 1982, pp. 105-106.

Sources

• Mazzaoui, Michel M. (2002). "NAJM-E ṮĀNI". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Soucek, P. P. (1982). "ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ YAZDĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 1. pp. 105–106.
• Newman, Andrew J. (2008). Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–281. ISBN 9780857716613.
• Savory, Roger (2007). Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–288. ISBN 0521042518.