Tanka - Timur with Mahmud Khan Astrabad mint

These tankas were struck during the years Timur held Mahmud Khan — the last Chaghatayid khan of Moghulistan — as a legitimizing figurehead, placing his name on coinage while retaining all real authority himself. The arrangement was nakedly political: Timur lacked Chinggisid blood, which remained an indispensable qualification for sovereignty across the eastern Islamic world, so a puppet khan provided the dynastic cover his rule required. Astrabad, on the Caspian's southeastern edge, served as a staging point for Timur's campaigns into Persia and the Caucasus throughout this period.