The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (Persian: ایلخانان, romanized: Īlkhānān), and was known to the Mongols as Hülegü Ulus (lit. 'people / state of Hülegü'). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known as the Land of Iran (Irānzamin) or simply Iran. It was established after Hülegü, the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan, inherited the West Asian and Central Asian part of the Mongol Empire after his brother Möngke Khan died in 1259.
The Ilkhanate's core territory was situated in what are now the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Dagestan (Russia). Later Ilkhanid rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, converted to Islam. In the 1330s, the Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death. The last ilkhan, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, died in 1335, after which the Ilkhanate disintegrated.
The State of the Ilkhanate was known as the Ulus of Hülegü to the Mongols during that time, as their territory was derived from one of uluses allocated to Genghis (Chinggis) Khan's descendants. The Ilkhanid rulers, although of non-Iranian origin, tried to advertise their authority by tying themselves to the Iranian past, and they recruited historians to present the Mongols as heirs to the Sasanian Empire (224–651). Native intellectuals interested in their own history interpreted the unification by the Mongols as a revival of their long-lost dynastic tradition, and the concept of "Land of Iran" (Irān-zamin) was considered an important ideology, which was further developed by the later Safavid Empire (1501–1736). Similarly to the development in China under the Yuan dynasty, the revival of the concept of territorial unity, although not intended by the Mongols, became a lasting legacy of Mongol rule in Iran.
History
Origin
When Muhammad II of Khwarazm ordered a contingent of merchants, dispatched by the Mongols, to be killed, Genghis Khan declared war on the Anushtegin dynasty in 1219. The Mongols overran the empire, occupying the major cities and population centers between 1219 and 1221. Iran was ravaged by the Mongol detachment under Jebe and Subutai, who left the area in ruin. Transoxiana also came under Mongol control after the invasion.
Muhammad II's son Jalal al-Din Mangburni returned to Iran in c. 1224 after fleeing to India. The rival Turkic states, which were all that remained of his father's empire, quickly declared their allegiance to Jalal. He repulsed the first Mongol attempt to take Central Persia. However, Jalal al-Din was overwhelmed and crushed by Chormaqan's army sent by the Great Khan Ögedei in 1231. During the Mongol expedition, Azerbaijan and the southern Persian dynasties in Fars and Kerman voluntarily submitted to the Mongols and agreed to pay tribute.
To the west, Hamadan and the rest of Persia was secured by Chormaqan. The Mongols invaded Armenia and Georgia in 1234 or 1236, completing the conquest of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1238. They began to attack the western parts of Bagratid Armenia, which was under the Seljuks, the following year. By 1237 the Mongol Empire had subjugated most of Persia (including modern-day Azerbaijan), Armenia, Georgia (excluding Abbasid Iraq and Isma'ili strongholds), as well as all of Afghanistan and Kashmir. After the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, the Mongols under Baiju occupied Anatolia, while the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm and the Empire of Trebizond became vassals of the Mongols.
In 1236 Ögedei commanded Khorasan to be restored and the city of Herat repopulated. The Mongol military governors mostly made camp in the Mughan plain in what is now Azerbaijan. Realizing the danger posed by the Mongols, the rulers of Mosul and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia submitted to the Great Khan. Chormaqan divided Transcaucasia into three districts based on the Mongol military hierarchy. In Georgia, the population was temporarily divided into eight tumens. In 1244, Güyük Khan stopped raising of revenue from districts in Persia as well and offered tax exemptions to others. In accordance with a complaint by the governor Arghun Aqa, Möngke Khan prohibited ortogh-merchants (Mongol-contracted Muslim traders) and nobles from abusing relay stations and civilians in 1251. He ordered a new census and decreed that each man in the Mongol-ruled West Asia must pay in proportion to his property. Persia was divided between four districts under Arghun. Möngke Khan granted the Kartids authority over Herat, Jam, Pushang (Fushanj), Ghor, Khaysar, Firuz-Kuh, Gharjistan, Farah, Sistan, Kabul, Tirah, and Afghanistan.
Hulegu Khan
Hulegu Khan, third son of Tolui, grandson of Genghis Khan, and brother of both Möngke Khan and Kublai Khan, was the first khan of the Ilkhanate. Immediately after his brother Möngke's accession as Great Khan in 1251, Hulegu was appointed as administrator of North China, however in the following year, North China was assigned to Kublai and Hulegu tasked with conquering the Abbasid Caliphate. He was given a fifth of the entire Mongol army for the campaign and he took his sons Abaqa and Yoshmut along with him. Hulegu also took with him many Chinese scholars and astronomers, from whom the famous Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi learned about the mode of the Chinese calculating tables. An observatory was built on a hill of Maragheh. Taking over from Baiju in 1255, Hulegu established Mongol rule from Transoxiana to Syria. He destroyed the Nizari Ismaili state and the Abbasid Caliphate in 1256 and 1258 respectively. In 1258, Hulegu proclaimed himself ilkhan (subordinate khan). After that he advanced as far as Gaza, briefly conquering Ayyubid Syria and Aleppo in 1260. Möngke's death forced Hulegu to return to Mongolia to attend the kuriltai for the next Great Khan. He left a small force of around 10,000 behind in Palestine that was defeated at the Battle of Ain Jalut by the Mamluks of Egypt.
Due to the suspicious deaths of three Jochid princes in Hulegu's service, Berke of the Golden Horde declared war on Hulegu in 1262. According to Mamluk historians, Hulegu might have massacred Berke's troops and refused to share his war booty with Berke. Berke sought a joint attack with Baybars and forged an alliance with the Mamluks against Hulegu. The Golden Horde dispatched the young prince Nogai to invade the Ilkhanate but Hulegu forced him back in 1262. The Ilkhanid army then crossed the Terek River, capturing an empty Jochid encampment, only to be routed in a surprise attack by Nogai's forces. Many of them were drowned as the ice broke on the frozen Terek River.
In 1262, Hulegu gave Khorasan and Mazandaran to Abaqa and northern Azerbaijan to Yoshmut. Hulegu himself spent his time living as a nomad in southern Azerbaijan and Armenia. During his early rule, the Ilkhanate experienced mass revolts by its subjects, with the exception of the Seljukids and Artuqids in Anatolia and Mardin. It was not until Shams al-Din Juvayni was appointed as vizier after 1262 that things started calming down and a more sustainable administration was implemented.
Hulegu fell ill in February 1265 after several days of banquets and hunting. He died on 8 February and his son Abaqa succeeded him in the summer.
Middle period (1265–1291)
Upon Abaqa's accession, he immediately faced an invasion by Berke of the Golden Horde, which ended with Berke's death in Tiflis. In 1270, Abaqa defeated an invasion by Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq of the Chagatai Khanate. Abaqa's brother Tekuder sacked Bukhara in retaliation. In 1277, the Mamluks invaded Anatolia and defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Elbistan. Stung by the defeat, Abaqa executed the local regent Mu'in al-Din Parwana and replaced him with the Mongol prince Qongqortai. In 1281, Abaqa sent Mongke Temur against the Mamluks, but he too was defeated at Homs.
Abaqa's death in 1282 triggered a succession struggle between his son Arghun, supported by the Qara'unas, and his brother Tekuder, supported by the Chinggisid aristocracy. Tekuder was elected khan by the Chinggisids. Tekuder was the first Muslim ruler of the Ilkhanate but he made no active attempt to proselytize or convert his realm. However he did try to replace Mongol political traditions with Islamic ones, resulting in a loss of support from the army. Arghun used his religion against him by appealing to non-Muslims for support. When Tekuder realized this, he executed several of Arghun's supporters, and captured Arghun. Tekuder's foster son, Buaq, freed Arghun and overthrew Tekuder. Arghun was confirmed as ilkhan by Kublai Khan in February 1286.
During Arghun's reign, he actively sought to combat Muslim influence, and fought against both the Mamluks and the Muslim Mongol emir Nawruz in Khorasan. To fund his campaigns, Arghun allowed his viziers Buqa and Sa'd-ud-dawla to centralize expenditures, but this was highly unpopular and caused his former supporters to turn against him. Both viziers were killed and Arghun was murdered in 1291.
Religious shift (1291–1316)
The Ilkhanate started crumbling under the reign of Arghun's brother, Gaykhatu. The majority of Mongols converted to Islam while the Mongol court remained Buddhist. Gaykhatu had to buy the support of his followers and as a result, ruined the realm's finances. His vizir Sadr-ud-Din Zanjani tried to bolster the state finances by adopting paper money from the Yuan dynasty, which remained largely unsuccessful. Gaykhatu also alienated the Mongol old guard with his alleged sexual relations with a boy. Gaykhatu was overthrown in 1295 and replaced with his cousin Baydu. Baydu reigned for less than a year before he was overthrown by Gaykhatu's officer, Ghazan.
Hulegu's descendants ruled Persia for the next eighty years, tolerating multiple religions, including Shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity, and ultimately adopting Islam as a state religion in 1295. However, despite this conversion, the Ilkhanids remained opposed to the Mamluks, who had defeated both Mongol invaders and Crusaders. The Ilkhanids launched several invasions of Syria, but were never able to gain and keep significant ground against the Mamluks, eventually being forced to give up their plans to conquer Syria, along with their stranglehold over their vassals the Sultanate of Rum and the Armenian kingdom in Cilicia. This was in large part due to civil war in the Mongol Empire and the hostility of the khanates to the north and east. The Chagatai Khanate in Moghulistan and the Golden Horde threatened the Ilkhanate in the Caucasus and Transoxiana, preventing expansion westward. Even under Hulegu's reign, the Ilkhanate was engaged in open warfare in the Caucasus with the Mongols in the Russian steppes. On the other hand, the China-based Yuan dynasty was an ally of the Ilkhanate and also held nominal suzerainty over the latter (the Emperor being also Great Khan) for many decades.
Ghazan converted to Islam under influence of Nawrūz and made Islam the official state religion. Christian and Jewish subjects lost their equal status and had to pay the jizya (minority religion tax). Ghazan gave Buddhists the starker choice of conversion or expulsion and ordered their temples to be destroyed; though he later relaxed this severity. After Nawrūz was deposed and killed in 1297, Ghazan made religious intolerance punishable and attempted to restore relations with non-Muslims.
In terms of foreign relations, the Ilkhanids' conversion to Islam had little to no effect on its hostility towards other Muslim states, and conflict with the Mamluks for control of Syria continued. The Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar, also known as the Third Battle of Homs, was the only major victory by the Mongols over the Mamluk Sultanate, ended the latter's control over Syria for a few months.
For the most part, Ghazan's policies continued under his brother Öljaitü despite suggestions that he might begin to favor Twelver Shi'ism after he came under the influence of the theologians al-Allama al-Hilli and al-Bahrani.
Öljeitü, who had been baptised in Christianity as an infant and had flirted with Buddhism, eventually became a Hanafi Sunni, though he still retained some residual shamanism. In 1309–10, he became a Shi'ite Muslim. An Armenian scribe in 1304 noted the death of "benevolent and just" Ghazan, who was succeeded by Khar-Banda Öljeitü, "who too, exhibits good will to everyone." A colophon from 1306 reports the conversion of Mongols to Islam and "they coerce everyone into converting to their vain and false hope. They persecute, they molest, and torment," including "insulting the cross and the church". Some of the Buddhists who survived Ghazan's assaults made an unsuccessful attempt to bring Öljeitü back into Buddhism, showing they were active in the realm for more than 50 years.
The conversion of Mongols was initially a fairly superficial affair. The process of establishment of Islam did not happen suddenly. Öljeitü's historian Qāshāni records that Kutlushah, after losing patience with a dispute between Hanafi and Shafi'i Sunnis, expressed his view that Islam should be abandoned and Mongols should return to the ways of Genghis Khan. Qāshani also stated that Öljeitü had reverted for a brief period. As Muslims, Mongols showed a marked preference for Sufism, with masters like Safi-ad-Din Ardabili often treated with respect and favour.