Ulugh Muhammad

Ulugh Muhammad
Ulugh Muhammad
	Ulugh Muhammad arrives at Murom with an army, miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible
Khan of the Golden Horde
1st reign	1419 – 1423
Predecessor	Hajji Muhammad Khan ibn Oghlan Ali
Successor	Barak Khan
2nd reign	1428 – 1437
Predecessor	Barak Khan
Successor	Sayid Ahmad I
Khan of Kazan
Reign	1438 – 1445
Predecessor	Monarchy established
Successor	Mäxmüd of Kazan
Born	1405
Died	1445; Kazan
Dynasty	Borjigin
Father	Ichkile Hassan
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ulugh Muhammad or Muhammad Khan (1405–1445; Chagatai, Volga Türki, and Persian: الغ محمد‎; Kypchak: محمد خان‎; written as Ulanus by orientalists) was a medieval Tatar statesman, Gengisid, Khan of the Golden Horde (before 1436), ruler of Crimea (1437), and the founder of the Khanate of Kazan, which he ruled from 1438–1445. He was the son of the oglan Ichkile Hassan and the cousin of Tokhtamysh. He received the nickname "Ulugh", meaning older or large, in contrast to Küchük Muhammad, meaning younger or small.

Ulugh Muhammad was Khan of the Golden Horde in 1419–1423, 1426, 1428. In 1428–1432 he waged a stubborn struggle for possession of the Ulug Ulus with the representatives of a minor branch of the Tukaytimurids (one of the branches of the Gengisids). After being defeated, Ulugh Muhammad escaped to Volga Bulgaria vilayet in 1423. With the support Vytautas, Ulugh Muhammad was able to regain the throne of the Golden Horde in 1426. He succeeded in spreading the power of the Horde to Crimea and established friendly relations with the Ottoman Sultan Murad II. Ulugh Muhammad sent an embassy to Egypt in 1428–1429. In 1431 the son and grandson of the ruler of Moscow, Dmitriy Donskoy came to the court to Ulugh Muhammad in order to reach a decision about princely succession. Ulugh Muhammad ruled in favour of the grandson, Vasiliy II .