Mirza Muhammad Taraghay (1394–1449), known by his title Ulugh Beg ("Great Ruler"), was Timur's grandson through Shah Rukh. He governed Samarkand from 1411 and became sole ruler of Transoxiana in 1447.
Unlike his grandfather, Ulugh Beg was a scholar first and a warrior second. His achievements:
- Built the Ulugh Beg Observatory (1424–1428) on Kuhak hill, with a 40-metre Fakhri sextant.
- Produced the Zij-i Sultani (1437) — a star catalogue of 1,018 stars and planetary tables that were the most accurate in the world until Tycho Brahe's work in the 1570s.
- Calculated the tropical year at 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 15 seconds — within 25 seconds of the modern value.
- Built the Ulugh Beg Madrasa at the Registan (1417–1420) with astronomical motifs on the portal.
- Attracted scholars from across the Islamic world: Qadi-zada al-Rumi (Turkish mathematician), Jamshid al-Kashi (Persian calculator of pi to 16 digits), Ali Qushji (who later brought Timurid science to the Ottoman court).
His end was brutal: in 1449 his own son Abdullatif had him assassinated during a pilgrimage trip. The observatory was subsequently destroyed by religious conservatives. Ulugh Beg was buried at Gur-e-Amir beside his grandfather Timur.
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