This study provides a new interpretation of how political authority was conceived and transmitted in the Early Mongol Empire (1227-1259) and its successor state in the Middle East, the Ikhanate (1258-1335). Authority within the Mongol Empire was intimately tied to the character of its founder, Chinggis Khan, whose reign served as an idealized model for the exercise of legitimate authority amongst his political successors. Yet Chinggis Khan's legacy was interpreted differently by the various factions within his army. In the years after his death, two distinct political traditions emerged within the Mongol Empire, the collegial and the patrimonialist. Each of these streams represented the economic and political interests of different groups within the Mongol Empire, respectively, the military aristocracy and the central government. The supporters of both streams claimed to adhere to the ideal of Chinggisid rule, but their different statuses within the Mongol community led them to hold divergent views of what constituted legitimate political authority. Michael Hope's study details the origin of, and the differences between, these two streams of tradition; analyzing the role that these streams played in the political development of the Mongol Empire and the lkhanate; and assessing the role that ideological tension between the two streams played in the events leading up to the division of the Ilkhanate. Hope demonstrates that the policy and identity of both the Early Mongol Empire and the Ilkhanate were defined by the conflict between these competing streams of Chinggisid authority.

Power, Politics, and Tradition in the Mongol Empire and the Īlkhānate of Iran

This book brings together a series of studies that deal with the impact of the Mongols in the eastern Muslim world. Their focus is the state established around 1260 by HÃ1/4legÃ1/4, grandson of Chinggis Khan, and the subjects covered include: the development of the land-tenure system; the title ilkhan; the use of Arabic sources for the history of the Ilkhanate; the eventual conversion of the Mongols to Islam; and - most prominently - the ongoing war with the Mamluk Sultanate to the west.

The Mongols in the Islamic Lands

"By far the best modern narrative account of the most extensive land empire in the history of the world."—David Morgan, author of The Mongols

The History of the Mongol Conquests

New Approaches to Ilkhanid History examines moves the study of the Ilkhanate beyond the court of the Ilkhan as well as considers new source material.

New Approaches to Ilkhanid History

This book traces the origins, history, and memory of the Jalayirid dynasty, a family that succeeded the Mongol Ilkhans in Iran and Iraq in the 14th and early 15th centuries. The story of how the Jalayirids came to power is illustrative of the political dynamics that shaped much of the Mongol and post-Mongol period in the Middle East. The Jalayirid sultans sought to preserve the social and political order of the Ilkhanate, while claiming that they were the rightful heirs to the rulership of that order. Central to the Jalayirids' claims to the legacy of the Ilkhanate was their attempt to control the Ilkhanid heartland of Azarbayjan and its major city, Tabriz. Control of Azarbayjan meant control of a network of long-distance trade between China and the Latin West, which continued to be a source of economic prosperity through the 8th/14th century. Azarbayjan also represented the center of Ilkhanid court life, whether in the migration of the mobile court-camp of the ruler, or in the complexes of palatial, religious and civic buildings constructed around the city of Tabriz by members of the Ilkhanid royal family, as well as by members of the military and administrative elite.

Jalayirids

This book shows the development of women's status in the Mongol Empire from its original homeland in Mongolia up to the end of the Ilkhanate of Iran in 1335. Taking a thematic approach, the chapters show a coherent progression of this development and contextualise the evolution of the role of women in medieval Mongol society. The arrangement serves as a starting point from where to draw comparison with the status of Mongol women in the later period. Exploring patterns of continuity and transformation in the status of these women in different periods of the Mongol Empire as it expanded westwards into the Islamic world, the book offers a view on the transformation of a nomadic-shamanist society from its original homeland in Mongolia to its settlement in the mostly sedentary-Muslim Iran in the mid-13th century.

Women in Mongol Iran

In the 13th century, under the leadership of Chinggis Khan and his descendants, the Mongols quickly built an empire that stretched from Korea to eastern Europe-the largest continuous area of land ever controlled by one ruling family. The rise of the M

Empire of the Mongols

Komaroff (curator of Islamic Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Carboni (curator of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art) produced this fine catalog to accompany a major show of Ilkhanid (as the Mongol dynasty was called after conversion to Islam) art exhibited at the authors' museums in New York and Los Angeles in 2002-2003. Most of the manuscripts, metalwork, textiles, ceramics, and other finely decorated objects were created in Iran. Many objects are also included from the Yuan Dynasty in China, during which the Mongols ruled. Eight full-length essays are built around the objects of the exhibition and other works, all depicted in color. The essays describe the history, culture, courtly life, artistic exchanges, religious art, arts of the book, and creation of a new visual language. Distributed by Yale U. Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Legacy of Genghis Khan

The Mongol Empire was the mightiest land empire the world has ever seen. At its height it was twice the size of its Roman equivalent. For a remarkable century and a half it commanded a population of 100 million people, while the rule of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan marched undefeated from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. George Lane argues that the Mongols were not only subjugators who swept all before them but one of the great organising forces of world history. His book traces the rise of the Great Khan in 1206 to the dissolution of the empire in 1368 by the Ming Dynasty. He discusses the unification of the Turko-Mongol tribes under Chinggis' leadership; the establishment of a vigorous imperium whose Pax Mongolica held mastery over the Central Asian steppes; imaginative policies of religious pluralism; and the rich legacy of the Toluid Empire of Yuan China and Ilkhanate Iran. Offering a bold and sympathetic understanding of Mongol history, the author shows that commercial expansion, cultural assimilation and dynamic political growth were as crucial to Mongol success as desire for conquest.

A Short History of the Mongols

Following the devastating Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258, the domination of the Abbasids declined leading to successor polities, chiefly among them the Ilkhanate in Greater Iran, Iraq and the Caucasus. Iranian cultural identities were reinstated within the lands that make up today's Iran, including the area of greater Khorasan. The Persian language gained unprecedented currency over Arabic and new buildings and manuscripts were produced for princely patrons with aspirations to don the Iranian crown of kingship. This new volume in “The Idea of Iran” series follows the complexities surrounding the cultural reinvention of Iran after the Mongol invasions, but the book is unique capturing not only the effects of Mongol rule but also the period following the collapse of Mongol-based Ilkhanid rule. By the mid-1330s the Ilkhanate in Iran was succeeded by alternative models of authority and local Iranian dynasties. This led to the proliferation of diverse and competing cultural, religious and political practices but so far scholarship has neglected to produce an analysis of this multifaceted history in any depth. Iran After the Mongols offers new and cutting-edge perspectives on what happened. Analysing the fourteenth century in its own right, Sussan Babaie and her fellow contributors capture the cultural complexity of an era that produced some of the most luminous masterpieces in Persian literature and the most significant new building work in Tabriz, Yazd, Herat and Shiraz. Featuring contributions by leading scholars, this is a wide-ranging treatment of an under-researched period and the volume will be essential reading for scholars of Iranian Studies and Middle Eastern History.

Iran After the Mongols

Since the first millennium BCE, nomads of the Eurasian steppe have played a key role in world history and the development of adjacent sedentary regions, especially China, India, the Middle East, and Eastern and Central Europe. Although their more settled neighbors often saw them as an ongoing threat and imminent danger—“barbarians,” in fact—their impact on sedentary cultures was far more complex than the raiding, pillaging, and devastation with which they have long been associated in the popular imagination. The nomads were also facilitators and catalysts of social, demographic, economic, and cultural change, and nomadic culture had a significant influence on that of sedentary Eurasian civilizations, especially in cases when the nomads conquered and ruled over them. Not simply passive conveyors of ideas, beliefs, technologies, and physical artifacts, nomads were frequently active contributors to the process of cultural exchange and change. Their active choices and initiatives helped set the cultural and intellectual agenda of the lands they ruled and beyond. This volume brings together a distinguished group of scholars from different disciplines and cultural specializations to explore how nomads played the role of “agents of cultural change.” The beginning chapters examine this phenomenon in both east and west Asia in ancient and early medieval times, while the bulk of the book is devoted to the far flung Mongol empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This comparative approach, encompassing both a lengthy time span and a vast region, enables a clearer understanding of the key role that Eurasian pastoral nomads played in the history of the Old World. It conveys a sense of the complex and engaging cultural dynamic that existed between nomads and their agricultural and urban neighbors, and highlights the non-military impact of nomadic culture on Eurasian history. Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change illuminates and complicates nomadic roles as active promoters of cultural exchange within a vast and varied region. It makes available important original scholarship on the new turn in the study of the Mongol empire and on relations between the nomadic and sedentary worlds.

Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change

How the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region’s complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region’s geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

The Mongol Storm

The polymath, Qutb al-Dīn Shīrāzī, operated at the heart of the Ilkhanate state (1258–1335) from its inception under Hulegu. He worked alongside the scientist and political adviser, Nasir al-Dīn Ṭūsī, who had the ear of the Ilkhans and all their chief ministers. The Mongols in Iran provides an annotated, paraphrased translation of a thirteenth-century historical chronicle penned, though not necessarily authored, by Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī. This chronicle, a patchwork of anecdotes, detailed accounts, diary entries and observations, comprises the notes and drafts of a larger, unknown, and probably lost historical work. It is specific, factual, and devoid of the rhetorical hyperbole and verbal arabesques so beloved of other writers of the period. It outlines the early years of the Chinggisid empire, recounts the rule of Hulegu Khan and his son Abaqa, and finally, details the travails and ultimate demise and death of Abaqa’s brother and would be successor, Ahmad Tegudar. Shirazi paints the Mongol khans in a positive light and opens his chronicle with a portrait of Chinggis Khan in almost hallowed terms. Throwing new light on well-known personalities and events from the early Ilkhanate, this book will appeal to anyone studying the Mongol Empire, Medieaval History, and Persian Literature.

The Mongols in Iran

A wide-ranging study of the critical roles that women played in the history of the Mongol conquests and empire.

Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire

The descendents of Čingiz Khān, 'the World Conqueror', founded a number of dynasties from Siberia to the Russian steppes. In 656 AH/1258 AD his grandson Hülegü destroyed the Caliphate in Baghdad and established the Mongol Īlkhānate in Iran with the centres Tabrīz and Marāgheh. To rule over an old Islamic civilization with a city culture and to cope with the Islamic enemy at their western border beyond the Euphrates, became a great challenge for the Mongols. Several changes of politics and their conversion to the majority's creed, the Sunna, and later to the Shia testify to their endeavour to stabilize their rule and find a new identity. Their conversion to Islam had a great, positive impact on Islamic culture and the sciences. This volume casts a light upon the historical events, in search of the reasons for the Īlkhāns' changes of politics and religion.

The Mongol Īlkhāns and Their Vizier Rashīd Al-Dīn

The interaction between Eurasian pastoral nomads and the surrounding sedentary societies is a major theme in world history. This volume explores the mulitfarious nature of nomadic society and its relations with China, Russia and the Middle East from antiquity into the contemporary world with emphasis on the Mongol and Turkish peoples.

Mongols, Turks, and Others

In ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī Between Spiritual Authority and Political Power: A Persian Lord and Intellectual in the Heart of the Ilkhanate, Giovanni Maria Martini investigates the personality of a major figure in the socio-political and cultural landscape of Mongol Iran.

‘Alā’ al-Dawla al-Simnānī Between Spiritual Authority and Political Power: A Persian Lord and Intellectual in the Heart of the Ilkhanate

Starting from Spring 2014, VEKAM has been organizing yearly international symposiums to introduce various cultures that lived in Anatolia and support research in these fields of study. The symposium proceeding volume titled Cultural Encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval Period: Ilkhanids in Anatolia which was held on may 21st-22nd May, 2015 at the premises of VEKAM in Ankara/ Turkey focuses on the fields such as; history, literature, mysticism, art, urban history and architecture during the Ilkhanid Period. In this respect we believe that the Ilkhanids in Anatolia symposium proceedings will fill an important gap and lead up new researches in this field.

The Ilkhanids in Anatolia

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 29. Chapters: Il-Khan emperors, Ghazan, Arghun, Hulagu Khan, Abaqa Khan, Safina-yi Tabriz, Oljaitu, Ergenekon, Togha Temur, Homam-e Tabrizi, Rab'-e Rashidi, Gaykhatu, Soltaniyeh, Abu Sa'id, Sati Beg, Bolad, Arghun Aqa, Baydu, Tekuder, Bilarghu, Hamdollah Mostowfi, Suleiman Khan, Arpa Ke'un, Muhammad Khan, Jahan Temur, Manar Jonban, Anushirwan, Musa. Excerpt: Mahmud Ghazan (1271-1304) (Mongolian: , Chinese: , sometimes referred to as Casanus by Westerners) was the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the son of Arghun and Quthluq Khatun, continuing a line of rulers who were direct descendants of Chinggis Khan. Considered the most prominent of the Ilkhans, he is best known for making a political conversion to Islam in 1295 when he took the throne, marking a turning point for the dominant religion of Mongols in Central Asia. His principal wife was Kokechin, a Mongol princess sent by Kublai Khan, and escorted from the Mongol capital to the Ilkhanate by Marco Polo. Military conflicts during Ghazan's reign included war with the Egyptian Mamluks for control of Syria, and battles with the Mongol Chagatai Khanate. Ghazan also pursued diplomatic contacts with Europe, continuing his predecessors' unsuccessful attempts at forming a Franco-Mongol alliance. A man of high culture, Ghazan spoke multiple languages, had many hobbies, and reformed many elements of the Ilkhanate, especially in the matter of standardizing currency and fiscal policy. At the time of Ghazan's birth, the leader of the Ilkhanate was Abaqa Khan, his grandfather. Ghazan's father Arghun was viceroy (crown prince) in Khorasan for Abaqa. Ghazan was the eldest son of Arghun, and Qutlugh of the Dorben clan, though he was raised in the Ordo (nomadic palace-tent) of his grandfather Abaqa's favorite wife, Buluqhan...

Ilkhanate

The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran offers a collection of academic articles that investigate different aspects of Mongol rule in 13th- and 14th-century Iran, with a particular focus in the Ilkhanate's interactions with its immediate neighbours in the Middle East.

The Mongols' Middle East

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 142. Chapters: Golden Horde, Mongke Khan, Ilkhanate, List of Mongol Khans, Franco-Mongol alliance, Yuan Dynasty, Society of the Mongol Empire, Armeno-Mongol relations, Mongol invasions of Syria, Christianity among the Mongols, Chagatai Khanate, Northern Yuan Dynasty, Kangnido, Mongol elements in Western medieval art, Mongols before Genghis Khan, Borjigin, Hordes of the Jochid Ulus, Destruction under the Mongol Empire, Religion in the Mongol Empire, Political divisions of the Mongol Empire, Jami' al-tawarikh, Mongol invasions of Vietnam, Bayan of the Baarin, Xanadu, Mulay, Karakorum, Ergenekon, Yassa, Timeline of the Mongol Empire, Four Oirats, Battle of the Badger Mouth, Mongol invasion of Java, Tarkhan, List of emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, Chagatai language, Byzantine-Mongol alliance, Jochi Khasar, Qara'unas, Kheshig, List of medieval Mongolian tribes and clans, Kaidu, Samagar, Khamag Mongol, Organization of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan, Kutlushah, Battle of Kose Da, Kokochin, Yam, Aibeg and Serkis, Bolad, Siege of Kiev, Jamal ad-Din, House of Ogedei, Bayan of the Merkid, Rychaldus, Darughachi, Jarliq, Great Horde, Baidar, Aju, Bunchuk, Buri, Paiza, Imperial Seal of Mongolia, Buluqhan Khatun, Yingchang, Kochu, Boroldai, Jinong, Khong Tayiji, Qutlugh Khwaja, Sayyid Baraka, Mahmud Yalavach, Bo'orchu, Khaidu, Qun Quran, Korguz, Chingissid, Mubarak Khwaja, Sasibuqa, Ilbasan, Borokhula, Naqara, Chimtay, Khalakhaljid Sands, Temulin, Muhajir Khwarezm, Mongol invasion of Anatolia.

Mongol Empire

While the Mongol conquests have typically been studied as a subject in military history, the local dimension - what it was like living under Mongol rule - has not received as much scholarly attention up until now. This dissertation explores how the Mongol conquest of the Middle East unfolded from the perspective of the local dynasties located in central and southern Iran. This region included Fars, Kirman, and Yazd and was not conquered by force but rather submitted voluntarily to Mongol rule. The mountainous terrain and hot climate of these parts made them less suited for nomadic armies to traverse. As a result, the Mongol rulers of Iran, the Ilkhanids, retained these vassal dynasties and administered this region indirectly through them. In exchange for contributing taxes, tribute, and sometimes troops for war, these regions enjoyed a semi-autonomous status during the early decades. For the most part, these local dynasties maintained cordial and occasionally close associations with their Mongol overlords through diplomacy, marriages, and mentorship. Patron-client ties formed between the Mongol aristocracy and these local dynasties, and the quality of these ties can bring strategic benefits to local rulers. These local dynasties also had to remit taxes to the Mongol divan. While the tax burden squeezed the local treasury, it was relatively low compared to other parts under Mongol direct rule. Until 1280, the local courts managed to have surplus revenues left after the taxes to patronize culture, scholarship, and architecture. Understanding this might explain the contradiction that despite the high taxes under Mongol rule, the local courts in Iran were able to encourage cultural flourishing and sustain Islamic scholarship during this vacuum. By the late 13th century, many of the most prosperous local dynasties in Fars, Kirman, and Yazd went into decline and came under direct rule. Without these local rulers, the local Persian elites who once had served them were recruited directly into Mongol service and continued to administer these parts. Despite the surface changes, local rule in southern Iran prevails.

Southern Iranian Vassal States Under the Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate was a Persianate breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, which was ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu. It was established in the 13th century and was based primarily in Persia as well as neighboring territories, such as present-day Azerbaijan, and the central and eastern parts of present-day Turkey. The Ilkhanate was based, originally, on Genghis Khan's campaigns in the Khwarezmid Empire in 1219-1224, and was founded by Genghis's grandson, Hulagu. In its fullest extent, the state expanded into Persia which today comprise most of Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and East part of Rum (Asia Minor), as well western Afghanistan and southwestern Pakistan. The Ilkhanate initially embraced many religions, but was particularly sympathetic to Buddhism and Christianity. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, embraced Islam. The emergence of Ilkhanate had an important impact in this region. The Mongol Empire had significantly eased trade and commerce across Asia. The communications between Ilkhanate and the Yuan Dynasty headquartered in China encouraged this development. The Ilkhanate also 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 Chinese influence from the east. This, combined with patronage from his successors, would develop Iran's distinctive excellence in architecture.

Political and Cultural History of Ilkhanate State

The Fall of Amir Chupan and the Decline of the Ilkhanate, 1327-1337

This work traces the transmission of power within the Mongol Empire after the death of Chinggis Khan in 1227, exploring how the military aristocracy and the central government differed in their views of what constituted legitimate political authority, and the impact this had on the Ilkhanate, the Middle Eastern successor state of the Mongol Empire

Power, Politics, and Tradition in the Mongol Empire and the Ilkhanate of Iran

The Qarāūnās in the Historical Materials of the Ilkhanate

The Fall of Amir Chupan and the Decline of the Ilkhanate, 1327-37

The Ilkhanate, a prominent medieval Mongol empire, emerged in the 13th century under the leadership of Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu Khan. This vast realm stretched from Anatolia to Persia and played a pivotal role in shaping the geopolitics of Eurasia. Known for their adoption of Islam, the Ilkhans navigated a complex cultural landscape and fostered intercultural exchanges, contributing to the Silk Road's flourishing trade. Their reign witnessed significant advancements in art, science, and technology, leaving a lasting legacy on the region. Understanding the Ilkhanate's history is essential for comprehending the dynamics of the Middle East during the medieval era and its impact on global history.

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