The Ilkhanate, often seen as the most stable
of the Mongolian khanates that emerged after the breakup of the empire, was also
the first to collapse. Previously we have talked about the events that led to the
end of the Mongol rule in China and Russia and in today’s episode in our series
on the fall of the Mongol Empire, we will explain how Chinggisid rule in
the Middle East came to a violent end. They probably should have taken steps to
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description. That’s K-E-E-P-S dot com slash kings. Established in the 1260s by Hülegü, the sacker
of Baghdad, the Ilkhanate is perhaps one of the best understood of the Mongol khanates with a
rich body of surviving primary source material. The greatest is the chronicle of Rashīd al-Dīn,
an Ilkhanid vizier who wrote the immense Jāmi’ al-Tawārīkh, which forms not only one of the
most important sources on the Mongol Empire, but also of the Ilkhanate’s history up to
the early fourteenth century. Generally, Rashīd al-Dīn portrayed the early Ilkhanate
as a period of instability, with khans more interested in hunting, feasting and drinking
rather than governing, allowing greedy viziers and military commanders to have their way.
This was punctuated with succession struggles affected by an increasingly powerful noyad. The
noyad were the descendants of the non-Chinggisid generals who served alongside Hülegü, and had been
granted lands and peoples to support themselves. They took keen interest in khans who were kinder
to their privileges. This was coupled with famines, economic woes from intense corruption
and foolish policies, including a failed attempt to introduce paper money, as well as expensive,
periodic wars with the Ilkhanate’s neighbours. To Rashīd al-Dīn, this instability ended with
the accession of Ghazan as Il-Khan in 1295. Though Rashīd likely exaggerates the previous
instability in order to glorify his patron Ghazan, there seems to be strong support for a redirection
of the Ilkhanate. Aside from the most obvious, which was Ghazan’s conversion of Islam and efforts
to tie the legitimacy of the Ilkhanate to it, Ghazan oversaw economic revitalization. A major
effort was directed to reducing abuses of the empire’s agricultural base and farming population.
From limiting the numbers of officials, clerks and Mongols who sought to provide for themselves
by extraordinary demands on the population, to stamping out bandity with highway patrols.
These were accompanied by monetary reforms and new silver currency, bearing not Mongolian
inscriptions but the shahada and Ghazan’s title of padishah-i islam. Measurements and weights
throughout the Ilkhanate were ordered standardized based on those in Tabriz to facilitate trade
between regions. Canals and underground waterways were built to provide water for cities and
irrigation. He also forbid the practice of enticing young women into prostitution. He
must have had some success, as he soon had the funds for massive new construction projects at
Tabriz, including a magnificent tomb for himself. Along the Ilkhanate’s borders, he concluded a
peace treaty with Toqta Khan of the Golden Horde, and invaded the Mamluk Sultanate, scoring the only
notable victory of the Mongol-Mamluk war near Homs in December 1299 [Wadi al-Khaznadar], though
ultimately withdrew before the onset of summer. In 1304 Ghazan, like all good Mongol princes,
died in his early 30s. During his reign, he had succeeded in killing a great many potential
rivals to the throne, but produced no heirs. His brother Öljeitü [r. 1304-1316] thus succeeded
him, and continued many of Ghazan’s policies; unlike him, he wavered between multiple
faiths and won no victories over the Mamluks, but with the other khanates he recognized the
overlordship of the Great Khan in the great Mongol peace of 1304. So was the pax
mongolica finally, if briefly, instated. Öljeitü’s greatest success compared to his brother
was that he actually had a son to succeed him. When Öljeitü died in 1316, aged 36, his 12 year
old son Abū Sa’īd was raised to the throne under the guidance of the regent, the powerful noyan
Choban. Abū Sa’īd never wavered in his faith; he was the first Ilkhan who was raised, and would
die, a Sunni Muslim, who unlike his father and uncle never showed interest in Shi’ism. Choban,
as described by the great scholar of the Ilkhanate Charles Melville, saw himself as a servant of
the Chinggisid dynasty, albeit an exceptionally powerful one, who combined adherence to the khans
with observing shari’a law. So Choban protected the young Abū Sa’īd and ensured he had a proper
Islamic education, teaching him to read, write and speak Persian and Arabic, while also versing
him in the history and genealogies of the house of Chinggis Khan and the noyad. Abū Sa’īd throughout
his life maintained a love of poetry and music, and after peace was reached with the Mamluks,
exchanges poems with the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. Abū Sa’īd Il-Khan’s early reign was often
tumultuous. Dominated by Choban Noyan, the two fought off Chagatayid and Golden Horde
invasions and internal rebellions, during which the young Abū Sa’īd earned the epithet ba’atar for
his courage after throwing himself into battle. Despite working well together and
achieving peace with the Mamluks, Abū Sa’īd’s desire for Choban’s daughter, the
beautiful Baghdad Khatun, resulted in Abū Sa’īd killing almost all of Choban’s family, including
the great noyan himself. After Choban’s death, Abū Sa’īd’s sole rule was remembered as
a golden age by succeeding generations. It was in this period that the famous traveller
Ibn Battuta passed through the Ilkhanate, remarking that Abū Sa’īd was still a beardless
youth, and the most beautiful of God’s creatures. Yet despite no lack of effort on his part, the
khan failed to produce an heir. When it became clear that no child would form in Baghdad
Khatun’s belly, Abū Sa’īd’s eyes wandered, and fell onto Dilshad Khatun. She was a daughter
of Dimashq Khwājā; Baghdad Khatun’s brother, who Abū Sa’īd had murdered several years prior.
With a new target for his affections, he began to ignore Baghdad Khatun, particularly when Dilshad
Khatun became pregnant with his first child. As Baghdad Khatun’s influence waned, Abū
Sa’īd did not realize the mistake he had made. In November 1335, when Abū Sa’īd was marching
north to confront a Golden Horde attack, Baghdad Khatun is alleged to have made her
move. In the account of Ibn Battuta’s —a man, it should be noted, who greatly enjoyed a good
yarn— after one last bout of sexual intercourse, Baghdad Khatun wiped down Abū Sa’īd with a
poisoned handkerchief. Regardless of the veracity of Battuta’s tale, as this was far from the
only exaggerated story he told of women and sex, Abū Sa’īd was dead, only 30 years old. This is
popularly cited as the end of the Ilkhanate. With Abū Sa’īd’s death, the line of Hülagü became
functionally extinct. Abū Sa’īd’s uncle Ghazan, had pruned the lineage, and alcoholism took care
of much of the rest. The fact that few Il-Khans lived past 35, with fewer and fewer heirs each
generation, has led many to search for underlying causes beyond just alcohol. Scholars such as Anne
Broadbridge have suggested this was a consequence of inbreeding, given the Il-Khans’ preferences for
marrying into the same families over generations. The combined effects of rampant alcohol abuse
among both men and women and the consanguinity may explain the alarming drop off in fertility
of the Ilkhanid elite over the last decades of the thirteenth century. While Hülagü had produced
quite the brood of little Chinggisids—at least 25 sons and daughters— by the end of the century
Ghazan had only a daughter survive childhood, while his brother Öljeitü had numerous children
stillborn or dying young. From his twelve wives, Öljeitü only had three children ever reach
marriageable age; Abū Sa’īd and two daughters, one of whom still predeceased him. Abū Sa’īd himself,
despite considerable efforts, only succeeded in impregnating his widow Dilshad Khatun. There
were no surviving brothers, sons or clear male figure of the line of Hülagü to head the state.
Yet the explanation of Abū Sa’īd’s death without heir directly causing the fall of the Ilkhanate
has been, in the opinion of scholars like Charles Melville, somewhat overstated. The image of the
Ilkhanate falling without a decline —a counter to Edward Gibbon— encourages us to overlook problems
which had developed. Essentially, Melville notes, a gap had widened between the military elite,
the noyad, and the Il-Khan, which accompanied a lack of respect for the Chinggisids. The death
of a monarch with no clear heir was hardly a new issue in the Mongol Empire. The quriltai system
wherein a candidate was confirmed by the princes could supply new khans at need, with a regent
heading things until this could be sorted out. The unified Mongol Empire and other khanates
were ruled in this fashion at times. In the form of Baghdad Khatun the Ilkhanate certainly
had a powerful woman to step into the role. The well-connected Baghdad Khatun was described
as an intimidating, intelligent and proud woman, who openly walked around with a sword strapped to
her waist and greatly influenced matters of state. In the opinion of some, Abū Sa’īd was bossed
around by her. In a more classic Mongolian system, Baghdad Khatun would have been an obvious regent.
But as Melville argues, the actions of the khans from Ghazan onwards had alienated the military
elite. More or less, they must have felt disenfranchised from the government and that the
old Mongolian way of life was being abandoned. Certainly, Islamization was the most obvious
demonstration of this. Ghazan and Öljeitü both abandoned the traditional secret burials of
Mongol Khans in favour of massive, expensive, and very public mausoleums. The quriltai as a
means of choosing the next ruler and affecting major decisions was abandoned, and even the end
of the war with the Mamluks —not by conquest, but by diplomacy— must have felt like a betrayal of
Mongol imperial ideology. By removing their stake in government, and not replacing it with a new
loyalty to adhere to in the replacement system, the Il-Khans had gradually undermined the need of
the noyad to maintain Chinggisid ideology or rule. When Abū Sa’īd came to the throne in 1317, he was
but a 12-year-old boy. The long period of Choban’s regency further reduced the khan’s authority
and increased that of the military elite. Only after Choban’s death in 1327 did Abū Sa’īd
really rule in his own right, and did so for only eight years. His vizier, Ghiyath al-Dīn
Muhammad, the son of the late Rashīd al-Dīn, sought to enforce tax reforms that would have
strengthened the hand of the central government towards the regional princes and their appanages.
It seems to have been an ineffective measure that only angered these military princes. Per
Melville’s theory, the only outcome of such failed measures was only widening the gap
between the Il-khan and the military elite. On Abū Sa’īd’s death in November 1335, it fell
to the vizier Ghiyath al-Dīn Muhammad to try and steer the ship in the face of Özbeg Khan’s
invasion. Only five days later, on December 5th, Ghiyath al-Dīn orchestrated the enthronement
of the new Khan, a man named Arpa Ke’un. Arpa was not a descendant of Hülagü, but of Hülagü’s
younger brother Ariq Böke. Plucked from obscurity by Ghiyath al-Dīn, he was chosen for his ability
to lead the army, for all indication is that Arpa Khan was a man of military background, an
“old school Mongol,” in the words of every secondary source that mentions him. Arpa was given
command of the Ilkhanid army, and in winter 1335 forced Özbeg back to the Golden Horde.
Arpa Khan returned triumphant, and Ghiyath al-Dīn had high hopes for his new protege. Arpa was a
competent commander proven in his defence of the Ilkhanate, a promising figure to rally the Mongols
around. Apparently, he had little taste for court procedure or niceties, and it is unclear if he
was a Muslim. One anonymous Armenian chronicler asserts Arpa was a Christian, and at the very
least he was very proud of the “old ways.” We might wonder if Ghiyath al-Dīn was deliberate here
too, choosing a man who would be more palatable to the noyad due to his distaste of courtly life.
In the opinion of Oleg Grabar and Sheila Blair, it was shortly after Arpa’s ascension that Ghiyath
al-Dīn ordered the commission of a Great Mongol Shahnama, a wonderfully illustrated version of the
Persian national epic by Firdausi. An undertaking of massive expense, given the large and lovingly
detailed artwork, it certainly indicates that the top levels of the Ilkhanid elite did not imagine
they were entering into a crisis anytime soon. But Arpa Khan was not on solid footing. Abū
Sa’īd’s widow, the pregnant Dilshad Khatun, had fled to ‘Ali-Padshah, the governor of Diyarbakir.
‘Ali-Padshah’s sister, Abū Sa’īd’s mother Hajji Khatun, also opposed Arpa’s enthronement.
In an effort to shore up his legitimacy, Arpa Khan was married to Abū Sa’īd’s sister,
Sati Bey; commanders who had been alienated or jailed by Abū Sa’īd were given expensive gifts or
freed from prison. And the blame for Abū Sa’īd’s death was laid squarely on Baghdad Khatun, who
never had the chance to assume the regency. Accused not just of poisoning Abū Sa’īd,
but of treason with the Golden Horde, Baghdad Khatun was executed, supposedly
beaten to death by a Greek slave with a club. Arpa Khan still looked for enemies in the wrong
direction. ‘Ali-Padshah rallied those unhappy with Arpa’s placement as Khan, an energetic
man who might reduce their privileges. Dilshad Khatun had finally given birth to Abū Sa’īd’s only
child, a girl, but this did not stop Ali-Padshah's manoeuvring. At the start of 1336 ‘Ali-Padshah
raised his own candidate, Musa, as Il-Khan. Supposedly a grandson of a former Il-Khan,
Musa was entirely a puppet of ‘Ali-Padshah. In alliance with Hajji Khatun
and Shaykh Hasan Jalayir, who had once been forced to give up
his wife Baghdad Khatun to Abū Sa’īd, ‘Ali-Padshah in the name Musa Il-Khan armed a
revolt against Arpa Il-Khan. In the April of 1336, Arpa’s army was defeated in the field. He and
Ghiyath al-Dīn Muhammad were soon captured and killed. So ended the reign of Arpa Khan, the
final Il-Khan to wield any individual authority. Arpa’s death can be considered the true end of
the Ilkhanate, for it removed any attachment the regional commanders held to the Ilkhanid state.
‘Ali-Padshah’s enthronement of Musa Khan gave all of them the realization that each, too, could rule
through his own puppet Chinggisid, if he happened to have one on hand. From 1335 until 1343, no less
than 8 Il-Khans were declared by these commanders. Most are known only by their names and who
controlled them. The allies who had taken down Arpa Khan immediately fought each other
and appointed their own candidates. By 1338, a grandson of Choban named Hasan-i Küchik - Little
Hasan enthroned his grandfather’s widow Sati Bey, daughter of the late Il-Khan Öljeitü, sister
of Abū Sa’īd and also the widow of Arpa Khan. For the first time, late in 1338,
a Chinggisid woman became Khan. Coins were minted in her name bearing the title of
khan, the khutba was read in her name and she was officially the ruler of the Ilkhanate, such as it
was. But Sati Bey Khan, the only Chinggisid female Khan, held no real power, and largely was a tool
through which Little Hasan maintained his power. By the middle of 1339 she was married off to the
next puppet khan before disappearing in the 1340s. The pretext of an Ilkhanate was maintained until
the 1350s, when the final puppet ruler was deposed in 1353. The new Persianized Turko-Mongolian
Dynasties in northwestern Iran and Iraq, the Chobanids and Jalayirids, claimed descent
and legitimacy from being generals of Il-Khans, but did not take the title themselves. Eastwards,
rule fell to local dynasties and warlords, while westwards new Turkic beyliks,
from the Qara Qoyunlu to the Osmanli, rose. Chinggisid legitimacy as the basis for rule
did not long outlast Abū Sa’īd, and it took a surprising figure to reinstate its legitimacy
in the region; Temür-i-lang, or, Tamerlane. We are planning more videos
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