Chagatai Khanate: A Visual History

The Chagatai Khanate was the Mongol state in Central Asia allotted to Genghis Khan's second son Chagatai. Centred on the steppes north of Transoxiana, it ruled Samarkand, Bukhara and the Tarim Basin, resisted Islam and city life longer than the other khanates, and fought Kublai's Yuan and the Ilkhanate. It split around 1347 into a western half in Transoxiana, where Timur took power in 1370, and an eastern half, Moghulistan, whose khans lasted in various forms until the seventeenth century.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Chagatai Khanate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Chagatai territory

Timeline of the Chagatai Khanate

1. 1226
   Chagatai receives his ulus
2. 1266
   Kaidu's ascendancyWar with Kublai begins.
3. 1301
   Kaidu dies
4. 1318
   Kebek KhanCoinage and capital at Qarshi.
5. 1330
   Tarmashirin converts to Islam
6. 1347
   Khanate splitsMoghulistan and Transoxiana.
7. 1370
   Timur takes power in the west

Chagatai's ulus

Chagatai, guardian of the Yassa law code, received the lands from the Uyghur country to the Oxus. For decades the khanate was subordinate to the Great Khans, its cities administered by Mongol-appointed governors like the Muslim Mahmud Yalavach.

Kaidu and independence

From the 1260s the Ogedeid prince Kaidu dominated the region, using Chagatai khans as allies and puppets in a 30-year war against Kublai Khan. After Kaidu's death in 1301 the Chagatai khan Duwa made peace with the Yuan and asserted independence. Kebek built a capital at Qarshi and minted coins; Tarmashirin converted to Islam around 1330 and was overthrown by conservative nomads.

Split

Around 1347 the khanate divided. In Transoxiana the Turkicised, Islamised amirs ruled through puppet khans until Timur took control in 1370. In the east, Moghulistan (the Ili and Tarim regions) remained nomadic and Buddhist longer, though Tughlugh Timur converted; its khans ruled Kashgar and Turfan into the seventeenth century, when the Dzungars took over.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368)
• Ilkhanate (1256 to 1335)
• Golden Horde (Jochi Khanate) (1242 to 1502)
• Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507)
• Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231)
• Dzungar Khanate (1634 to 1758)

Wars of the same era and region

• Conquests of Timur (1370 to 1405)
• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Chagatai Khanate

1. Chagatai was so strict about the Mongol law that his brother Ogedei once submitted himself to Chagatai's judgement for a breach.
2. The Chagatai khans were the last of the four khanates to convert to Islam, and the conversion caused a coup.
3. The Chagatai Turkic language, named after the khanate, became the literary language of Central Asia and of the Mughal court.
4. Kaidu's daughter Khutulun was a famous wrestler who reportedly won a herd of horses from every suitor she beat.
5. The khanate's nomads deliberately avoided cities; one khan was mocked as 'the townsman' for living in one.
6. Marco Polo travelled through the khanate on his way to China in the 1270s.
7. Babur, founder of the Mughals, was a Chagataid through his mother.
8. The eastern Chagatai khans ruled Turfan until 1680, making the dynasty last over 450 years.

Sources

• Chagatai khanate Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Chagatai Khanate Wikipedia
• Chagatai Khanate World History Encyclopedia
• Michal Biran, Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongol State in Central Asia (1997) Curzon

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