Ilkhanates and Hülâgû Khan

The season is fall, winter is waiting behind it. This is how this cycle goes on and on. I have resumed my amateurish writings that smell of History, Philosophy, Sociology and a little bit of psychology. In this new period, my main goal will be to convey information that will enlighten you in your knowledge repertoire. 

We all know that history, philosophy, sociology and psychology are interconnected disciplines. I think that missing one of them is like missing an important spice in a good meal. Lessons should be learned from history, with philosophy; why, why, how questions should be asked and the path of reason should be opened. Today's conditions should be examined with sociology and psychology, and human-oriented solutions should be produced with reason! 

In our perspective on the Turkish world, we need to have the power and accumulation to better understand the Turkish reality in today's conditions by taking lessons from history, examining the position of Turks in the world and why and how they have achieved the place they have acquired, and to produce new solutions so that we can lead a modern life that suits us all. Our ancestors did this in the past, today it is our turn, and if we want a Turkish world that will shape and shape the future, we have to do our part. Because as Great Atatürk said, the power we need is in our noble blood.

We owe this noble stance to our ancestors who founded and ruled many Turkish states in the past and inscribed the Turkish name in golden letters in world history. On the planet we live on today, there are 7 independent Turkish countries and 15 semi-independent Turkish states. 

In the world of the 1200s, there was the Ilkhanids State ruling in the northern Caspian Sea region. Great Khan Mengü, the grandson of Genghis Khan, became the head of the Turko-Mongol empire founded by Genghis Khan. In 1253, he appointed his brother Hülâgû to conquer Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Caucasus and Anatolia and rule them as an "ilhan" (il+han "regional ruler"). Thus, the state, which was established in Iran with Tabriz as its capital (1256) and became fully independent in 1295, was known as the Ilkhanids, reflecting the title of Ilkhan that Hülâgû carried.

When Mengü was chosen as the Khan to rule the Great Khanate (1251), the Mongols had not yet fully dominated the Near East. In sending Hülâgû to the west, Mengü wanted him to do so first. When Hulāgū set out from Karakorum with an army of about 130,000 men, his main conquest plan was to take Alamut Castle, which many rulers, including Sultan Malik Shah and Khwarazmshah Alaeddin Tekish, had failed to take until then, and then to destroy the Abbasid State. 

Hülâgû, who started his campaigns by adhering to this plan, announced to the world that he spread Mongol rule by printing coins in the name of the Great Khan Mengü in the cities he captured (1254, 1255), and after the capture of the famous Alamut Castle in 1256, he had his own name put on the coins he printed and announced to the world that he had established his khanate. In 1258, he captured Baghdad and abolished the Abbasid caliphate. Afterwards, he easily conquered Iraq, Azerbaijan and Syria. He also put Anatolia, which had been under Mongol rule since the Kösedağ War with the Anatolian Seljuks in 1243, under tighter pressure. However, he had to return to Karakorum on the occasion of the death of his brother Mengü. During his absence, the Ilkhanid Army under the command of Ketboğa Noyan was defeated by the Mamluk Sultan Kutuz in the Battle of Aynicâlût with the Mamluks in the Palestine region on September 3, 1260. As a result, the Ilkhanid Army had to retreat until the Euphrates coast. Syria, Palestine and Northern Iraq were evacuated. Hülâgû died on February 8, 1265. At the time of his death, the borders of the Ilkhanid State extended from the Amudarya to the Euphrates and from the Caucasus to Belûjistan. The Anatolian Seljuk Empire and the small Kingdom of Armenia were also among the states under the Ilkhanate.

After Hülâgû's death, his eldest son Abaka was elected by the Ilkhanid Kurultai to succeed him; however, he did not officially take the throne for five years until his khanate was confirmed by the Great Khan Kublai. Although Abaka was a Buddhist like his father, he approached Christians for political purposes and developed relations with European countries; he continued his struggle with Chagatai in the east, the Golden Horde in the west and the allied Mamluk states. Abaka was instrumental in the establishment and development of the Ilkhanid state organization. After the death of Abaka in 1282, who tried to protect the customs and traditions of his ancestors against the rapidly spreading Islam, his brother Teküder succeeded him. 

Two years after his accession to the throne, Teküder was deposed and killed by Abaka's eldest son Argun, who had been struggling for the throne against him since the first day. However, upon Argun's death at a very young age, the assembly reconvened and elected Argun's brother Geyhatu as khan in 1291. Geyhatu sent fresh forces to Anatolia to suppress the uprisings against the Ilkhanid rule in Anatolia and dealt heavy blows to the rebellious Turkmens, especially the Karamanids. However, it was not possible for the Ilkhanids to gain the upper hand in the Ilkhanid-Mamluk struggle. 

When the administrative, financial, military and legal institutions of the Ilkhanid State are analyzed, it is seen that the Turkish state system developed in Turkistan before the Mongols was more dominant in the structure of this state. This system had already been adopted by the Uighur and Khwarizm Turks who had served as teachers and advisors to the Mongols during the reign of Genghis Khan. The state system developed by the Ilkhanids inspired other dynasties that later established states in the Near East and finally the Ottomans. 

Institutions such as the divan, vizierate, regency and beylerbeylik, which formed the basis of the Ilkhanid system of state administration, were kept alive in the Ottomans with partial changes, as they were in the Seljuks. On the ascension of the sovereign to the throne, the hair of the sovereign would be scattered and gratuities would be distributed to princes, commanders and soldiers. For example, when Ahmed Teküder ascended to the throne, each soldier was given a tip of 120 dinars. This practice was continued as a tradition in the Ottomans in the form of "jülûs tip".

The duties and responsibilities of the ruler and the vizier were not strictly separated in the Ilkhanids. The vizier, who was the head of the civil administration, was also responsible for financial affairs. The tradition of organizing and preserving official documents, especially laws, had existed in this Turkish-type state order since Genghis Khan. All documents were authenticated with the monarch's seal. Official writings always began with the phrase "by the power of the infinite God" in accordance with the old Mongolian custom, and after the adoption of Islam with the besmele. In this practice, documents were stamped with different colored stamps according to their characteristics. 

Militarily, the Turkish ten system, which was adopted at the time of Genghis Khan instead of the Mongolian tribal system (küren), was valid. At the head of this system was the Beylerbeyi, flanked by three nation beys. The Beylerbeyi lived in the center and the nation beys lived in their own regions. The regency of the sultanate, as seen in the Anatolian Seljuks, also existed in the Ilkhanids. 

The Ilkhanids, like the Mongol Great Khanate, were not willing to make concessions on taxation and took care to ensure that taxes constituted the main income of the state. Political organizations under Ilkhanid rule, particularly in Anatolia, were robbed by the administrators in charge or the representatives of the Ilkhanid State through "taxation". During the Ilkhanid period, the Seljuk financial and administrative system in Anatolia was completely dissolved, and the deterioration of the land system in particular negatively affected the administrative, financial and military structure. However, in the same period, the Ilkhanid State maintained its land administration in Iran under its rule. 

In the Ilkhanids, in addition to the tribute levied from the countries under their rule, taxes such as kopçur, kılan and tamga constituted the biggest revenue of the state. These taxes retained the same name and characteristics in Karakoyunlu, Akkoyunlu and Ottoman Empire. 

In the Ilkhanids, in order to ensure the fair collection of taxes, heavy penalties were imposed on officials in case of wrongdoing. The Ottoman term "defterdar" is actually an Ilkhanid term. At the beginning, Genghis law was in effect. Islam was accepted as the official religion during the reign of Ghazan Khan. From the time of Ghazan Khan onwards, the religious affairs of the Muslim element were handled by kadis, and the legal, political, administrative, customary and military court affairs were handled by judges selected from among Mongolian princes and emirs. 

Commercial life developed rapidly in the lands under the rule of the Ilkhanids, and transportation and communication between the Near East and the Far East and even Europe became easier. The Ilkhanid State played an important liaison role in trade from the Far East and India. In this way, the country witnessed new developments in the fields of thought, art and trade. 

Italian merchants were seen in Tabriz during this period. European travelers described Tabriz as the richest city of the period in terms of the abundance of commercial goods. Although Anatolia was the center of the east-west and north-south trade routes in this period, Anatolian people could not benefit from this commercial vitality because the Ilkhanids seized the revenues of these routes. The main language of the Ilkhanids was Mongolian, but Turkish and Persian were also used. With the establishment of this state, new Turkish tribes arrived in addition to the Turkish migrations that had been going on since the Xth century, and thus new Turkish tribes were effective in the Turkification of the Near East and especially Anatolia. 

We know that Hülâgû Khan, who founded the Ilkhanid State, was not a Turk. But the majority of his army was composed of Turks. Together with the Golden Horde state founded by the descendants of Genghis Khan, the Ilkhanids contributed positively to the spread of Islam and Turkism in the north, northwest and west of Tabriz (including Anatolia). 

Stay with respectful love.