Michael Hope

Abstract This study provides a new interpretation of how political authority was conceived and transmitted in the Early Mongol Empire (1227–59) and its successor state in Iran, the Īlkhānate (1258–1335). Authority within the Mongol Empire was intimately tied to the character of its founder, Chinggis Khan, whose reign served as an idealized model for the exercise of legitimate authority amongst his political successors. After Chinggis Khan's death in 1227 two distinct political traditions emerged

Abstract By the beginning of the fourteenth century the court histories of the Īl-Khānate had begun to lament that ‘ qarachu ’ (non-royal) commanders dominated the realm. The same histories report that these qarachu were drawn from the families of the khans’ royal guardsmen ( kešik ). The fact that these kešik families had come to eclipse, and in some cases threaten, the power of their Chinggisid patrons suggests a much broader transformation of the Īl-Khān polity from the patrimonial government

W. B. HOPE, M.R.C.S. (ENG.), L.R.C.P (LOND.), HERBERT FRENCH, M.D. (OXON.), F.R.C.P. (LOND.); PERSISTENT HEREDITARY OEDEMA OF THE LEGS WITH ACUTE EXACERBAT

Abstract In 688/1289 Nawrūz Aqa, a leading Mongol magnate, began a rebellion in Khurasan to resist the Ilkhan Arghun's attempts to centralize power and loosen the Mongol aristocracy's grip on provincial government. The rebellion of Nawrūz was significantly different from any Mongol uprising that had occurred in the Ilkhanate to that date: it was distinguished by the successful fusion of Chinggisid and Islamic traditions of political and spiritual authority to support Nawrūz's challenge against t

The disintegration of the Ilkhanate following the death of its last effective ruler, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan (d. 736/1335), precipitated the emergence of a number of regional dynasties, not least of all the Chubanids who claimed the former Mongolian core territories of Azerbaijan and Mughan in north-western Iran. Between 738/1337 and 758/1357, the Chubanids worked strenuously to reconstitute the Ilkhanid dispensation under their control. This period, which has so far been largely ignored by histo

This reflection on the social and political role of revenge in the Mongol empire, with a focus on the Īl-Khānate (1258–1335), uses revenge as a means of analyzing the relationship between the khān, his commanders, local officials, the ulema, and the subject population of the Īl-Khānate. It documents the limitations on royal authority and begins a new conversation about the way that juridical power was conceived and practiced in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This study will contri

Abstract Research on the Mongol conquest of Iran and the Transcaucasus has focused most heavily on the campaigns of Chinggis Khan and his nephew Hülegü, in 1219–1224 and 1256–1260 respectively. Significantly less attention has been given to the nearly four decades that separate these two invasions, during which Mongol control was consolidated by a tamma (garrison) army numbering roughly 30,000 soldiers. This garrison occupied a liminal position on the frontier of the Mongol empire, linking the g

The Mongol Empire presents historians with a number of fascinating candidates for biographical research. There are numerous monographs on the life and career of Chinggis Khān, followed closely by his illustrious grandson Qubilai, yet there is no parallel biographical tradition for the Mongol successor state in the West, the Ilkhanate (1258–1335). Indeed, when we search for the figure who exerted the most influence over the history of the Ilkhanate, it is clear that none of the khans or their com

Abstract In Muharram ah 617/March 1220 ce Chinggis Khan led his armies to Bukhara as part of a larger campaign against the Khwārazmshāh Empire (616–621/1220–1225). The city quickly surrendered and was rapidly integrated into the growing Mongol Empire. In the subsequent decades, Bukhara enjoyed a speedy recovery under the stewardship of a series of Mongol officials, who patronized religious institutions, repaired the damage caused by the invasion, and mitigated some of the excesses of the Mongol

It hardly bears saying that the history of Islamization is a topic as complex as the civilizations it touched, stretching historians to employ a wide array of innovative approaches to tease information out of an equally diverse body of source material. Andrew Peacock’s most recent book, Islam, Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia, contributes greatly to the tools and methodology available to historians working in this field and will no doubt serve as a template for future research. His expo

Abstract Following the regicide of Aḥmad Tegüder, the senior Īlkhān commanders nominated Abaqa’s son, Arghun, as their new khan. This chapter analyses how Arghun gradually curtailed the power of his military aristocracy and sought to reinstate the patrimonial government of his great-uncle, Möngke. During his reign the Īlkhānate was treated as the hereditary property of the khan, who ruled as a Prophet-King. This chapter also documents the continuation of patrimonial rule under Arghun’s son and h

The middle of the thirteenth century was a pivotal moment in the historiography of the Mongol Empire. Having seized the throne in 1251, Möngke Khan also took control of its past, commissioning a number of new court histories. It is now widely believed that Möngke initiated the compilation of the history of Chinggis Khan (r. 1206–1227) and his successor Ögödei (r. 1229–1241), known as The Secret History of the Mongols. Drawing on earlier genealogies, proclamations, and correspondence, the Secret

This study provides a new interpretation of how political authority was conceived and transmitted by the ruling elite of the Early Mongol Empire (1227-1259) and its successor state in Iran, the Ilkhanate (1258-1335). Authority within the Mongol Empire was intimately tied to the character of its founder, Chinggis Qan, whose reign served as an idealized model for the exercise of legitimate authority amongst his political successors. After Chinggis Qan's death in 1227 two distinct political traditi