The four khanates of the Mongol Empire were the major successor states that emerged from the unification of Eurasia under Genghis Khan and his successors. The four khanates — the Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, and the Chagatai Khanate — ruled most of Eurasia in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and they left a deep imprint on the political, cultural, and economic life of the continent.
The four khanates were not equally important or equally long-lasting. The Yuan Dynasty, ruling China and the Mongol heartland, was the wealthiest and most populous, and it survived until 1368. The Ilkhanate, ruling Persia, was the most culturally sophisticated, and it survived until 1335. The Golden Horde, ruling the Russian steppes, was the most militarily powerful, and it survived until 1502. The Chagatai Khanate, ruling Central Asia, was the smallest and most politically unstable, and it was absorbed by the Timurid Empire in the late fourteenth century.
The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)
The Yuan Dynasty was the khanate of the imperial heartland, founded by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, in 1271. Kublai, who had been the victor of the Toluid Civil War of 1260-1264, made his capital at Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) and adopted many features of the Chinese imperial system, including the title of emperor and the apparatus of the Confucian bureaucracy.
The Yuan Dynasty ruled over Mongolia, North China, South China, Korea, Tibet, and parts of Southeast Asia. It was the wealthiest and most populous of the four khanates, and it was the cultural and political center of the Mongol world for most of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The Yuan Dynasty was eventually overthrown by the Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1368, after a long period of internal unrest, and the last Yuan emperor fled to Mongolia, where the Northern Yuan continued to rule until the seventeenth century.
The Ilkhanate (1256-1335)
The Ilkhanate was the khanate of Persia and the Middle East, founded by Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and the conqueror of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 1256. The Ilkhanate ruled over Persia, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, and parts of Anatolia and Central Asia, and it was the westernmost of the four khanates.
The Ilkhanate was initially a Buddhist and shamanist state, but it gradually converted to Islam over the course of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The conversion was largely a political decision, taken in order to win the support of the Muslim majority of the population and to cement alliances with other Muslim states, particularly the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The Ilkhanate collapsed in 1335 after a long succession crisis, and the last Ilkhan, Abu Sa’id, died without a clear heir. The collapse of the Ilkhanate marked the end of Mongol rule in Persia.
The Golden Horde (1242-1502)
The Golden Horde was the khanate of the Russian steppes and the Volga basin, founded by Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, in 1242. The Golden Horde ruled over the Russian principalities, the Volga basin, the Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia, and it was the largest of the four khanates in territorial extent.
The Golden Horde ruled over the Russian principalities for more than two centuries, collecting tribute and intervening periodically in their internal affairs. The Golden Horde gradually converted to Islam over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the city of Sarai, on the lower Volga, became one of the major centers of Islamic learning and culture in the medieval world. The Golden Horde was eventually broken by the rise of the Crimean Khanate and the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Chagatai Khanate (1226-1370)
The Chagatai Khanate was the khanate of Central Asia, founded by Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan, in 1226. The Chagatai Khanate ruled over Transoxiana, Kashgar, and parts of the Tarim Basin, and it was the most conservative of the four khanates.
The Chagatai Khanate was riven by internal divisions from the start, and the khanate split into eastern and western halves in the mid-thirteenth century. The khanate was eventually absorbed by the empire of Timur in the late fourteenth century, and the eastern part of the khanate continued to exist as the Moghulistan until the seventeenth century.
The Relationships Between the Khanates
The four khanates were connected by shared descent, shared customs, and (sometimes) shared armies, but they were increasingly separated by religion, language, and political interest. The Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde fought a long series of wars in the Caucasus in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and the two khanates eventually took opposite sides in the broader politics of the Islamic world. The Yuan Dynasty and the Chagatai Khanate were connected by geography, but the two khanates were often at odds with each other. The four khanates were, in a sense, a family of related states rather than a single political entity, and the family resemblance was more important than any practical political unity.
The Legacy of the Four Khanates
The four khanates of the Mongol world were, in their time, the most powerful states on earth, and they left a deep imprint on the political, cultural, and economic life of Eurasia. The political frameworks established by the khanates continue to shape the modern states of China, Russia, Iran, and the Central Asian republics, and the legacy of the khanates is still visible in the modern world. The names “Iran,” “Hindustan,” and “Crimea” all preserve Mongol-inflected versions of older place names, and the term “khan” is still used as a title in many parts of Central Asia. The four khanates were, in a sense, the political foundations of the modern Eurasian order.
Sources
- David Morgan, The Mongols (2nd ed., Oxford, 2007).
- Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410 (London, 2005).
- Timothy May, The Mongol Conquests in World History (London, 2012).