Ilkhanate: A Visual History

The Ilkhanate was the Mongol state in Persia, Iraq, the Caucasus and Anatolia founded by Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan, after his sack of Baghdad in 1258. Halted by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut in 1260, it fought them and the Golden Horde for decades and courted the Crusader powers as allies. Ghazan Khan converted to Islam in 1295 and, with his vizier Rashid al-Din, reformed the state; the period saw great Persian illustrated manuscripts and the observatory at Maragha. It disintegrated after the death of Abu Said without an heir in 1335.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ilkhanate. 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.

Ilkhanate territory

Timeline of the Ilkhanate

1. 1256
   Alamut destroyedHulagu ends the Assassins in Persia.
2. 1258
   Sack of Baghdad
3. 1260
   Ain JalutThe Mamluks stop the Mongols.
4. 1262
   War with the Golden Horde
5. 1295
   Ghazan converts to Islam
6. 1304
   OljeituSoltaniyeh built.
7. 1323
   Peace with the Mamluks
8. 1335
   Abu Said diesThe Ilkhanate collapses.

Hulagu

Sent west by his brother Mongke, Hulagu destroyed the Assassins' castle of Alamut in 1256, sacked Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph in 1258, and took Aleppo and Damascus. Mongke's death drew him back east; the force he left in Syria was destroyed by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut in 1260, the first decisive defeat of a Mongol army. Hulagu also went to war with his cousin Berke of the Golden Horde over the Caucasus.

Between faiths

Hulagu's wife was a Nestorian Christian and several early Ilkhans favoured Christians and Buddhists; embassies went to the Pope and the kings of France and England proposing a joint attack on the Mamluks. Ghazan's conversion in 1295 made Islam the state religion; he restored agriculture, coinage and law, and had Rashid al-Din compile the Jami al-Tawarikh, the first world history.

Peak and sudden end

Oljeitu built the great mausoleum at Soltaniyeh; his son Abu Said made peace with the Mamluks in 1323. But Abu Said died in 1335 without a son, apparently poisoned. Rival amirs set up puppet Ilkhans, and within a decade the state had dissolved into the Jalayirid, Chobanid, Muzaffarid and other successor states that Timur later swept away.

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)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Mamluk Sultanate (1250 to 1517)
• Golden Horde (Jochi Khanate) (1242 to 1502)
• Chagatai Khanate (1226 to 1347)
• Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)
• Crusades (1096 to 1291)
• Conquests of Timur (1370 to 1405)

8 surprising things about the Ilkhanate

1. The Ilkhans wrote to Edward I of England and Philip IV of France proposing to divide the Holy Land with the Crusaders after a joint victory over the Mamluks.
2. The Maragha observatory built for Hulagu by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi produced star tables used by Copernicus's predecessors.
3. Rashid al-Din's world history covered China, India, the Franks and the Jews, and its illustrations survive in Edinburgh and London.
4. The Ilkhanate tried paper money in 1294, copying China; merchants revolted and it was withdrawn in two months.
5. The name Ilkhan means 'subordinate khan', acknowledging the Great Khan in China.
6. The Dome of Soltaniyeh, 50 metres high, is the third-largest brick dome in the world.
7. Marco Polo travelled home from China escorting a Mongol princess to marry the Ilkhan Arghun; he found Arghun dead on arrival.
8. The Ilkhanid capital Tabriz was described by travellers as one of the richest cities on earth.

Sources

• Il-Khanid dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ilkhanate Wikipedia
• Ilkhanate World History Encyclopedia
• David Morgan, The Mongols (2007) Blackwell

Back to all empires and wars