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. 's ''
Jami' al-tawarikh'', early 14th century 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
Ismaili 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
Greater 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 , founder of the Ilkhanate, with his Christian queen
Doquz Khatun horse archer of the 13th century
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. of Hulegu minted in
Urmia, with the title Qa'an al-'Azam (Greatest Khagan). Before the reign of
Ghazan, Ilkhans referred to the great Mongol khans in the coin inscriptions and official documents. In 1262, Hulegu gave
Greater 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) , studying the
Qur'an '', left
frontispiece, 1341, probably
Isfahan. 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". 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.
Disintegration (1316–1357) 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.
Öljaitü's son, the last ilkhan,
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, was enthroned in 1316. He was faced with rebellion in 1318 by the Chagatayids and Qara'unas in Khorasan, and an invasion by the Golden Horde at the same time. An Anatolian emir,
Irenchin, also rebelled. Irenchin was crushed by
Chupan of the
Taichiud in the Battle of Zanjan-Rud on 13 July 1319. Under the influence of Chupan, the Ilkhanate made peace with the Chagatais, who helped them crush the Chagatayid revolt, and the Mamluks. In 1327, Abu-Sai'd replaced Chupan with "Big" Hasan. Hasan was accused of attempting to assassinate the khan and exiled to Anatolia in 1332. The non-Mongol emirs Sharaf-ud-Din Mahmud-Shah and Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad were given unprecedented military authority, which irked the Mongol emirs. In the 1330s, outbreaks of the
Black Death ravaged the Ilkhanate and both Abu-Sai'd and his sons were killed by 1335 by the plague. Ghiyas-ud-Din put a descendant of
Ariq Böke,
Arpa Ke'un, on the throne, triggering a succession of short-lived khans until "Little" Hasan took Azerbaijan in 1338. In 1357,
Jani Beg of the Golden Horde conquered Chupanid-held Tabriz for a year, putting an end to the Ilkhanate remnant. ==The title Ilkhan==