Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate or Il Khanate (Mongolian: Ил Хан улс Il Khan uls; Persian: سلسله ایلخانی), was a Mongol khanate established in Persia in the 13th century, considered one of four descendant empires of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan, embraced Islam, the religion professed by most of the people living in its territories which included present-day Iran, most of Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and western Pakistan. The Ilkhanate was based, originally, on Genghis Khan's campaigns in the Khwarezmid Empire in 1219-1224, and founded by Genghis's grandson, Hulagu Khan.

Ил хаадын улс
سلسله ایلخانی
Ilkhanate
1256 – 1335
Location of Ilkhanate
Ilkhanate at its greatest extent
Capital Maragheh, Tabriz, and Soltaniyeh
Language(s) Mongol, Persian
Religion Buddhism, and later Islam
Government Monarchy
Ruler
 - 1256-1265 Hulagu Khan
 - 1316-1335 Abu Sa'id
History
 - Established 1256
 - Disestablished 1335
History of Mongolia
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Before Genghis Khan
Mongol Empire
Khanates
- Chagatai Khanate
- Golden Horde
- Ilkhanate
- Yuan Dynasty
Timurid Empire
Mughal Empire
Crimean Khanate
Khanate of Sibir
Dzungar
Qing Dynasty (Mongolia during Qing)
Republic of China
Mongolian People's Republic (Outer Mongolia)
Modern Mongolia
Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia)
People's Republic of China (Inner Mongolia)
Buryat Mongolia
Kalmyk Mongolia
Hazara Mongols
Aimak Mongols
Timeline
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Contents

Hulagu

After the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, the Mongols occupied Anatolia, and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm became a vassal of what would later become the Ilkhanate Mongols.

The founder of the Ilkhanate dynasty was Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of both Möngke Khan and Kublai Khan. Taking over from Baiju in 1255 or 1256, he had been charged with subduing the Muslim kingdoms to the west "as far as the borders of Egypt." This occupation led the Turkmens to move west into Anatolia to escape from the Mongolian tribes. He established his dynasty over the southwestern part of the Mongol Empire that stretched from Transaxonia to Syria.

Great khan Mongke's death forced Hulagu to return from the Persian heartland for the preparation of Khuriltai. His expedition towards Egypt, however, was halted in Palestine in 1260 by a major defeat at the Battle of Ain Jalut at the hands of the Mamluks of Egypt.

Early Ilkhanate

Hulagu Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson and founder of the Ilkhanate

The term il-Khan means "subordinate khan" and refers to their initial deference to Möngke Khan as Great Khan and ultimate sovereign of the entire empire. Hulagu's descendants ruled Persia for the next eighty years, beginning as Shamanists, then Buddhists and ultimately converting to Islam. However, the Ilkhans remained opposed to the Mamluks (who had defeated both Mongol invaders and crusaders), but were never able to gain significant ground against them, eventually being forced to give up their plans to conquer Syria, and their stranglehold over their vassals the Sultanate of Rum and the Armenian kingdom in Cilicia. This was due to the hostility of the khanates to the north and east – the Chagatai Khanate in Moghulistan and the Golden Horde of Berke threatened the Ilkhanate in the Caucasus and Transoxiana, preventing expansion westward. Even under Hülagü's reign, the Ilkhanate was engaged in open warfare in the Caucasus with the Mongols in the Russian steppes.

Hulagu with his Christian queen Doquz Khatun.

Franco-Mongol alliance

Main article: Franco-Mongol alliance

Many attempts towards the formation of a Franco-Mongol alliance were made between the courts of Western Europe and the Mongols (primarily the Ilkhanate) in the 13th and 14th centuries, starting from around the time of the Seventh Crusade. United in their opposition to the Muslims (mainly the Mamluks), the Ilkhanate and the Europeans were still never able to satisfactorily combine their forces against their common enemy.[1]

Conversion to Islam

Circular piece of silk, Iran or Iraq, early 14th century

In the period after Hulagu, the Ilkhans increasingly adopted Tibetan Buddhism. Christian powers were encouraged by what appeared to be a favoring of Nestorian Christianity but this probably went no deeper than their traditional evenhandedness.[2] Thus the Ilkhans were markedly out of step with the Muslim majority they ruled. Ghazan, shortly before he overthrew Baydu, converted to Islam and his official favoring of Islam coincided with a marked attempt to bring the regime closer to the non-Mongol majority. Christian and Jewish subjects lost their equal status with Muslims and again had to pay the poll tax. Buddhists had the starker choice of conversion or expulsion[3].

In foreign relations, the conversion to Islam had little to no effect and Ghazan continued to fight the Mamluks for control of Syria. But the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, which was the Mongols' only major victory over the Mamluks disproved his control over Syria, which lasted but a few months. For the most part, Ghazan's policies continued under his brother Öljeitü despite suggestions that he might begin to favor the Shi'a brand of Islam after he came under the influence of Shi'a theologians Al-Hilli and Maitham Al Bahrani.[4] Öljeitü succeeded in conquering Gilan on the Caspian coast and his magnificent tomb in Soltaniyeh remains the best known monument of Ilkhanid rule in Persia.

Disintegration

The mausoleum of Öljaitü in Soltaniyeh.

After Abu Sa'id's death in 1335, the khanate began to disintegrate rapidly, and split up into several rival successor states, most prominently the Jalayirids. Khasar's descendant Togha Temür who was the last of the obscure Ilkhan pretenders was assassinated by Sarbadars in 1353. Timur later carved a state from the Jalayirids, ostensibly to restore the old khanate.The historian Rashid al-Din wrote a universal history for the khans around 1315 which provides much material for their history.

Legacy

The Ilkhanate State helped to pave the way for the later Safavid dynastic state, and ultimately the modern country of Iran. Hulagu's conquests had also opened Iran to both European influence from the west and Chinese influence from the east. This, combined with patronage from his successors, would develop Iran's distinctive excellence in architecture. Under the Il Khans, Iranian historians also moved from writing in Arabic, to writing in Persian.[5]

Ilkhanid Dynasty rulers

Post-Ilkhanate rulers

Map showing the political situation in southwest Asia in 1345, ten years after the death of Abu Sa'id. The Jalayirids, Chobanids, Muzaffarids, Injuids, Sarbadars and Kartids took the Ilkhanate's place as the major powers in Iran.

After the Ilkhanate, the regional states established during the disintegration of the Ilkhanate raised their own candidates as claimants.

Claimants from eastern Persia (Khurasan):

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam". Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p. 583, "Western Europe and the Mongol Empire"
  2. ↑ Medieval Persia 1040-1797, David Morgan p64
  3. ↑ Medieval Persia 1040-1797, David Morgan p72
  4. ↑ Ali Al Oraibi, Rationalism in the school of Bahrain: a historical perspective, in Shīʻite Heritage: Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions By Lynda Clarke, Global Academic Publishing 2001 p336
  5. ↑ Francis Robinson, The Mughal Emperors And The Islamic Dynasties of India,Iran and Central Asia, Pages 19 and 36

References

External links