The Muʿizz al-ansāb and the Tawārīḫ-i guzīdah-i nuṣrat-nāmah give his descent as follows: Chinggis Khan - Jochi - Shiban - Bahadur - Jochi-Buqa - Bādāqūl - Ming-Tīmūr - Pūlād - ʿArab Shāh.

[2] When Īl Beg seized control of Sarai in 1374, he left his nephew ʿArab Shāh in charge of his original power base at Saray-Jük on the lower Ural.

While ʿArab Shāh advanced on the Russian princes, however, a rival Mongol leader, the beglerbeg Mamai stole a march on his army, surprising and defeating the forces of Dmitrij Konstantinovič at the P'jana river, and sacking and burning Nižnij Novgorod in 1377.

[4] ʿArab Shāh pressed on, unwilling to waste his efforts and give up the prospect of chastisement and plunder, or to allow Mamai to re-establish his own dominance over the Russian princes.

[5] Flushed with success, ʿArab Shāh now induced his cousin Qāghān Beg to abdicate the throne of Sarai in his favor, in the autumn of 1377.

Rejecting Dmitrij Konstantinovič's offer of a ransom, ʿArab Shāh took and burned Nižnij Novgorod, which had suffered the same fate at the hands of Mamai a year earlier.

[7] According to the Čingīz-Nāmah, before his assumption of the throne, ʿArab Shāh had demonstrated favor and generosity to the refugee Tuqa-Timurid prince Tokhtamysh, who had fled from his hostile cousin, Urus Khan.

Subsequently, assisted by his protector Timur (Tamerlane), Tokhtamysh overthrew Urus Khan's heirs and made himself ruler of the former Ulus of Orda in 1379.