Editing Shah Rukh (section)

{{Short description|Ruler of the Timurid Empire from 1405 to 1447}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Shah Rukh
| title        = [[Sultan]], [[Padishah]], [[Baghatur|Bahadur]]
| image        = Contemporary portrait of Shah Rukh (1377-1447) commissioned by his son Ibrahim Sultan in the 1436 Zafarnama, showing Shah Rukh entering Samarkand as the new Governor in 1394.jpg
| caption      = Contemporary portrait of Shah Rukh (1377–1447) commissioned by his son [[Ibrahim Sultan (Timurid)|Ibrahim Sultan]] in his ''[[Zafarnama (Yazdi biography)|Zafarnama]]'' of 1436. Shah Rukh is depicted making a triumphal entrance in Samarkand in 1394, after Timur named him Governor of the city.<ref name="Sims">{{cite book |last1=Sims |first1=Eleanor |title=Timurid art and culture: Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth century ("Ibrahim-Sultan’s Illustrated Zafarnama of 1436 and its Impact in the Muslim East") |date=1992 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden Boston |isbn=9789004662551 |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004662551_014 |page=136 |quote=The well-known Freer Gallery painting is actually only the right half of a double-page composition showing the triumphal entry into Samarqand made by Shahrukh in Dhu'I-Hijja 796 (September 1394), after Timur appointed him governor of that city.}}</ref>
| full name    = Sultan Mahmud<ref>{{cite book|last=Binbas|first=İlker Evrim|title=Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran: Sharaf al-Dīn 'Alī Yazdī and the Islamicate Republic of Letters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LsHgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265|year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-05424-0|page=265}}</ref> Moin-ud-din Shah Rukh<ref>{{cite book|first=Karim Najafi|last=Barzegar|title=Mughal-Iranian relations: during sixteenth century|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bQduAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Indian Bibliographies Bureau|isbn=978-81-85004-60-0}}</ref>
| reign        = 20 February 1405 – 13 March 1447
| succession   = Ruler
 of the [[Timurid Empire]]
| predecessor  = [[Timur]]
| successor    = [[Ulugh Beg]]
| spouse       = [[Gawhar Shad]]
| spouse-type  = Consort
| spouses      = {{plainlist|
*[[Malikat Agha]]
*Tuti Agha
*Aq Sultan Agha
*Mihr Nigar Agha
*La'l Takin Agha}}
| spouses-type = Wives
| issue        = {{plainlist|
*[[Ulugh Beg]]
*[[Sultan Ibrahim Mirza|Sultan Ibrahim]]
*[[Baysunghur]]
*Soyurghatmish
*[[Muhammad Juki]]
*''[[Shah Rukh#Personal life|Several others]]''}}
| father       = [[Timur]]
| mother       = Taghay Tarkhan Agha
| religion     = [[Sunni Islam]]
| dynasty      = [[Timurid dynasty|Timurid]]
| birth_date   = {{birth date|df=y|1377|8|20}}
| birth_place  = [[Samarkand]], Timurid Empire
| death_place  = [[Ray, Iran|Rayy]], Timurid Empire
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1447|3|13|1377|8|2}}
| burial_place = [[Gur-e-Amir]], [[Samarkand]], [[Uzbekistan]]
}}

'''Shah Rukh''' or '''Shahrukh Mirza''' ({{langx|fa|شاهرخ}}, ''Šāhrokh'';{{NoteTag|Alternatives: '''Shāhruh''', '''Shāhrokh''' or '''Shāhrukh'''}} 20 August 1377 – 13 March 1447) was the ruler of the [[Timurid Empire]] between 1405 and 1447.

He was the son of the [[Central Asia]]n conqueror [[Timur]] (Tamerlane), who founded the [[Timurid dynasty]] in 1370. However, Shah Rukh ruled only over the eastern portion of the empire established by his father, comprising most of [[Achaemenid Empire|Persia]] and [[Transoxiana]], the western territories having been lost to invaders in the aftermath of Timur's death. In spite of this, Shah Rukh's empire remained a cohesive dominion of considerable extent throughout his reign, as well as a dominant power in [[Asia]].

Shah Rukh controlled the main trade routes between Asia and [[Europe]], including the legendary [[Silk Road]], and became immensely wealthy as a result. He chose to have his capital not in [[Samarqand]] as his father had done, but in [[Herat]]. This was to become the political centre of the Timurid empire and residence of his principal successors, though both cities benefited from the wealth and privilege of Shah Rukh's court.

Shah Rukh was a great patron of the arts and sciences, which flourished under his rule. He spent his reign focusing on the stability of his lands, as well as maintaining political and economic relations with neighbouring kingdoms. In the view of historians [[Thomas W. Lentz]] and [[Glenn D. Lowry]], "unlike his father, Shahrukh ruled the Timurid empire, not as a Turco-Mongol warlord-conqueror, but as an Islamic sultan. In dynastic chronicles he is exalted as a man of great piety, diplomacy, and modesty—a model Islamic ruler who repaired much of the physical and psychological damage caused by his father."<ref name=LentzLowry80>{{cite book|last1=Lentz|first1=Thomas W.|author-link1=Thomas W. Lentz|last2=Lowry|first2=Glenn D.|author-link2=Glenn D. Lowry|title=Timur & Princely Vision|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnbdcvms16YC|year=1989|publisher=Smithsonian|isbn=978-0-87474-706-5|page=80}}</ref>