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Il-Khanate Empire 1 Il-Khanate Empire 1250s, after the new Great Khan, Möngke (r.1251–1259), sent his brother Hülegü to MICHAL BIRAN expand Mongol territories into western Asia, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel primarily against the Assassins, an extreme Isma‘ilite-Shi‘ite sect specializing in political The Il-Khanate was a Mongol state that ruled murder, and the Abbasid Caliphate. Hülegü in Western Asia c.1256–1335. It was known left Mongolia in 1253. In 1256, he defeated to the Mongols as ulus Hülegü, the people the Assassins at Alamut, next to the Caspian or state of Hülegü (1218–1265), the dynasty’s Sea, adding to his retinue Nasir al-Din al- founder and grandson of Chinggis Khan Tusi, one of the greatest polymaths of the (Genghis Khan). Centered in Iran and Muslim world, who became his astrologer Azerbaijan but ruling also over Iraq, Turkme- and trusted advisor. In 1258, with the help nistan, and parts of Afghanistan, Anatolia, of various Mongol tributaries, including and the southern Caucasus (Georgia, many Muslims, he brutally conquered Bagh- Armenia), the Il-Khanate was a highly cos- dad, eliminating the Abbasid Caliphate that mopolitan empire that had close connections had nominally led the Muslim world for more with China and Western Europe. It also had a than 500 years (750–1258). Hülegü continued composite administration and legacy that into Syria, but withdrew most of his troops combined Mongol, Iranian, and Muslim after hearing of Möngke’s death (1259). The elements, and produced some outstanding defeat of the remnants of his troops by the cultural achievements. The name, a Western Mamluks at ‘Ayn Jalut (in northern Palestine) construction, is derived from the title ilkhan in 1260 put an end to Mongol advance into (submissive khan or ruler of a polity), West Asia and opened a 60-year war between adopted by Hülegü and used to some degree the Il-Khans and the Mamluks. by all members of the dynasty. The limits of Hülegü’s mandate are still debated, but apparently Möngke intended him to return to Mongolia – where his chief POLITICAL HISTORY wife and sons remained – following the cam- paign. However, with Möngke’s death and the Mongol rule in what later became the Il- subsequent succession struggle between the Khanate began under the united Mongol brothers, Hülegü seized the opportunity to Empire. Chinggis Khan’s bloody invasion of carve out his own state. He supported his the 1220s reached up to Khurasan (today’s brother Kubilai (Kublai), thereby securing northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, his victory, in return for the latter’s acknowl- and Turkmenistan) and the Caucasus. Under edgment of Hülegü’s position in West Asia. his son Ögedei (r.1229–1241), Mongol gover- The title ilkhan, by then adopted by Hülegü, nors and garrisons were stationed in north- stressed the distinctiveness of ulus Hülegü, eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and, after 1243, whose territory, unlike that of the other Mon- also in Anatolia, and many Muslim polities gol branches, was not assigned by Chinggis in Iran and Iraq became tributaries. The Khan but by Kubilai. Indeed, the Golden birth of the Il-Khanate, however, was in the Horde, which saw parts of the Il-Khanate The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe362 2 territories, especially Azerbaijan, as their own, at Homs (northern Syria) in 1281, and he died opposed the new polity. In 1262 Golden while planning a campaign of retaliation. Horde forces attacked Hülegü’s; although Despite this, his reign marked a period of they were repulsed, tension between the two consolidation and prosperity, as the conflicts polities continued. The Golden Horde also were limited to the borders. collaborated with the Mamluks, thereby The next decade (1284–1295) was marred encouraging Hülegü to find allies in Western by relative instability that affected the econ- Europe and its Crusader clients. Hülegü omy. Abaqa was succeeded by his brother, established the orientation of the Il-Khanate’s Ahmad Tegüder (r.1282–1284), who rose to foreign policy from then on: close political, the throne as a Muslim. His religion and its economic, and cultural cooperation with implications – the preference for Muslim Yuan China; diplomatic – albeit futile – mystics (Sufis) over Mongol commanders attempts to cooperate with Western Christi- and attempts to conciliate the unimpressed anity; and continued hostility toward the Mamluks – together with his general incom- Mamluks and its Mongol neighbors, the petence and continued strife with Abaqa’s son Golden Horde in the Caucasus and the Cha- Arghun, eventually led to Ahmad’s murder by ghadaids in Central Asia. Inside his realm, Mongol rebels, who enthroned Arghun in Hülegü worked for reconciliation. Despite his place. his sympathy for Buddhism and Christianity, Arghun’s reign (1284–1291) saw a rapid he patronized and closely cooperated with succession of ministers: upon his rise he local Muslim bureaucrats and scholars, nota- deposed the Juwayni brothers, executing bly the Juwayni brothers, a Khurasani family Shams al-Din and replacing him with the who had served in various Muslim adminis- Mongol Boqa. Three years later, Boqa shared trations for centuries, and Tusi. Shams al- Shams al-Din’s fate, and Arghun appointed Din Juwayni became Hülegü’s chief minister Sa’d al-Dawla (d.1291), whose financial effi- (sahib diwan), while his brother ‘Ala’ al-Din, ciency and Jewish religion aroused much a notable historian of the Mongols, governed opposition, eventually costing him his life. Baghdad. Tusi established for Hülegü the Arghun did not launch any attack against observatory in Maragha, which became a mag- the Mamluks, but sent four embassies to the net for international scholars, and was also West in a vain attempt to cement an alliance appointed as inspector of endowments (awqaf). against them. (A famous Syriac record of one All three retained their prominence under such embassy describes the experience of Hülegü’s son and heir Abaqa (r.1265–1280), Rabban Sawma, a Nestorian Onggut born in whose descendants became the dominant Beijing, who in 1289 served as Arghun’s rulers of the Il-Khanate. envoy to Western Europe, visiting, among Abaqa managed to repel a Golden Horde others, Rome and Paris.) From 1288 Arghun threat (1265–1267), and a more serious Cha- was preoccupied by invasions of the Golden ghadaid invasion of Khurasan (1270). This Horde and the Chaghadaids, and from 1289 eastern threat, however, undermined Abaqa’s his commander in Khurasan, the Muslim attempts to cooperate with Prince Edward of Mongol Nowruz, rebelled, joining forces with England in his 1271 Crusade. Four embassies the latter. to the West proved to be equally unsuccessful. The turmoil continued under Arghun’s The Mamluk advance into Anatolia (1277) brother and heir, Geikhatu (r.1291–1295), led Abaqa to launch a full-scale offensive on infamous for his disastrous attempt to employ Syria, but the Mamluks defeated his troops paper currency (chao) in Iran. While this 3 medium worked well in Yuan China, in the Il- success is hard to estimate, but they certainly Khanate commerce simply stopped and the resulted in at least a modest increase in the court had to abolish the experiment, thus state’s revenue and in public order. hampering the Il-Khanid economy, which Ghazan died childless at age 33. He was was damaged further by the Il-Khan’s extrav- succeeded by his brother Öljeitü, who was agance. Arghun’s nephew, Baidu, thus in a uniquely favorable position, unthreat- deposed Geikhatu in early 1295, but was him- ened by princes and commanders, enjoying self dethroned only a few months later by the continued service of Rashid al-Din, and Arghun’s son Ghazan (r.1295–1304). benefiting from the general Mongol peace Ghazan’s reign is considered the apex of concluded in 1304. Öljeitü tried to ally the Il-Khanate, partly because the greatest with Europe in a major attack against the Il-Khanid historian, Rashid al-Din (d.1318), Mamluks, but when this came to naught, served as Ghazan’s vizier and commemorated he attacked them himself in 1312, only to him as an ideal ruler, a fact facilitated by Gha- acknowledge his inability to defeat them. zan’s conversion to Islam. Ghazan, formerly He managed, however, to repulse a Chagha- the governor of Khurasan, converted before daid threat in 1316. Öljeitü had more success his accession, partly under the influence of with his domestic policies, subjecting Gilan, Nowruz, with whom he had become recon- Kirman, and Anatolia to direct Il-Khanid rule ciled. Under Ghazan, Islam became the state (at the expense of local dynasties), encourag- religion of the Il-Khanate. But while Ghazan ing trade with China and India, and in general appropriated Islamic trappings and policies – overseeing a period of prosperity. He is also persecuting Buddhists, reinstating the jizya famous for adopting Shi‘ism, a fact that (the tax paid by Jews and Christians under might have triggered his anti-Mamluk poli- Muslim rule), and patronizing Islamic cies, and building a new capital, Sultaniyya monuments – he did not renounce his Mon- in northwestern Iran, where his mausoleum gol legacy or change his foreign policy, conti- still stands. nuing relations with China and Europe and Öljeitü was succeeded by his son, Abu Sa‘id attacking the Mamluks with new vigor and (r.1316–35), who acceded to the throne at the now, also, Islamic justifications. In 1299 Gha- age of 12. Real power lay with his Mongol zan’s forces won the only decisive Il-Khanid guardian, the chief commander and devout victory against the Mamluks, which led to a Muslim Chopan, who orchestrated the execu- hundred days’ conquest of Damascus.
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