Home Region:  Turkestan (Central and Northern Eurasia)

Chagatai Khanate

1227 CE 1402 CE

D G SC WF HS CC PT EQ 2020  uz_chagatai_khanate / UzChagt

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Preceding Entity: Add one more here.
[continuity; Mongolian Empire] [continuity]   Update here
1206 CE 1270 CE Mongol Empire (mn_mongol_emp)    [secession]

Succeeding Entity:
No Polity found. Add one here.

"Under Kebeg’s successor Tarmashirin Khan (1326-1334) the khan’s more conservative and nomadic followers rebelled against his policy of assimilation with the settled population, and deposed the khan. In the disturbances which followed Tarmashirin’s downfall the Chaghadayid khanate split into two parts; the western section, Transoxiana, became known as the Ulus Chaghatay, and the eastern section as Moghulistan.5" [1]

[1]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 82)

General Variables
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Economy Variables (Luxury Goods)
Luxury Goods
Religion Variables Coding in Progress.
Human Sacrifice Coding in Progress.
Crisis Consequences Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions Coding in Progress.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range Chagatai Khanate (uz_chagatai_khanate) was in:
 (1263 CE 1361 CE)   Sogdiana
Home NGA: Sogdiana

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
42 T
[1227, 1402]

Original Name:
Chagatai Khaganate
[1227, 1402]

Capital:
Bukhara
[1227, 1402]

Chagatai khans ruled from Bukhara. [1]

[1]: (Khan 2003, 32) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.


Alternative Name:
Chaghatay
[1227, 1402]

Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1227 CE ➜ 1402 CE]
 

Genghis Khan divided territories of the Mongol conquests into four ulus in 1227 CE. [1]

[1]: (Khan 2003, 31) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.


Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
uz_chagatai_khanate vassalage to mn_mongol_emp
1227 CE 1266 CE

When Genghis Khan died in 1227, his son Chagatai Khan inherited the regions roughly corresponding to the defunct Qara Khitai Empire: Issyk-Kul, Ili River, Chu River, Talas River, Transoxania, and the Tarim Basin. Chagatai was not fully independent in his khanate however and still received orders from Karakorum. [Grousset 2002]

Suprapolity Relations:
uz_chagatai_khanate nominal allegiance to cn_yuan_dyn
[1227, 1402]

While Kublai Khan (r. 1260–1294) claimed the title of Great Khan, other major Mongol ulus (successor states) recognized this claim largely in name but governed themselves autonomously. [Morgan 1991, pp. 136-157]


Supracultural Entity:
Islam
[1227, 1402]

The Chagatai khans who ruled from Bukhara "converted to Islam and adopted a Muslim lifestyle, characterized by a more settled existence. In contrast, the eastern khanate, known as Mughulistan ... maintained ancient nomadic traditions." [1]

[1]: (Khan 2003, 32) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.


Succeeding Entity:
Timurid Empire
[1227, 1402]

Scale of Supracultural Interaction:
11,000,000 km2
[1227, 1402]

km squared.


Relationship to Preceding Entity:
continuity
[1227, 1402]

Preceding Entity:
continuity; Mongolian Empire [continuity]    Update here
 
Preceding Entity:
1206 CE 1270 CE Mongol Empire (mn_mongol_emp)    [secession]  
 

Degree of Centralization:
nominal
[1227, 1402]

"At the time of Temur’s rise to power, politics in the Ulus Chaghatay was controlled by the tribes who made it up. With the decline of central leadership, control over the territory and wealth of the Ulus had fallen to them. They provided most of the military manpower of the Ulus, either from their own tribesmen or from the armies of the regions under their control. No one therefore could either become or remain leader of the Ulus wihout the backing of the tribal leaders. Tribal chiefs naturally were not eager to strengthen the position of a central leader; they were intolerant of claims to sovereignty over them,and if a leader displeased them, they were quick to switch their loyalties to a rival candidate. Under these circumstances, central leadership was often contested, sometimes even after a leader had been acclaimed by the tribes of the Ulus." [1]

[1]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 79-80)


Language
Linguistic Family:
Mongolic
[1227, 1402]

Language:
Middle Mongolian
[1227, 1402]

Religion
Religion Genus:
Mongolian Shamanism
[1227, 1402]

Alternate Religion Genus:
Islam
[1227, 1402]

Alternate Religion Family:
Sunni
[1227, 1402]

Alternate Religion:
Hanafi
[1227, 1402]


Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Polity Territory:
3,500,000 km2
1300 CE

in squared kilometers
1310 CE: 3,500,000; 1320 CE: 2,500,000; 1350 CE: 3,500,000; 1370 CE: 2,500,000; 1390 CE: 0
[1] In the mid-thirteenth century CE: "The Chaghadayid khanate originated as the territory of Chinggis Khan’s second son, Chaghadai, whose lands centered on the Issyk Kul and the Ili river, and included the Muslim territory of Central Asia." [2] After Tarmashirin Khan’s downfall in 1334 CE: "Although the eastern part of the Chaghadayid Khanate was now lost, the Ulus Chaghatay contained large new territories south of the Oxus: northeastern Khorasan and the regions of Qunduz, Baghlān, Kabul and Qandahar. Most of this area was the region of the Qara’unas, a large body of Turco-Mongolian troops (probably three tümens), which had originated as the garrison troops of Qunduz and Baghlān." [3]

[1]: (Chase-Dunn spreadsheet)

[2]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 81)

[3]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 82)


Polity Population:
[1,500,000 to 2,500,000] people
1300 CE

People.
McEvedy and Jones estimated 3 million for Russian Turkestan 1300 CE. [1] Chagatai Khanate included what likely was the most populous region (Zavastan basin) of this area? at this time (after the Mongol genocides).

[1]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978) McEvedy, Colin. Jones, Richard. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. Penguin Books Ltd.


Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
3
[1227, 1402]

levels.
1. Metropolitan centre
2. Town3. Village


Religious Level:
[1 to 2]
[1227, 1402]

levels.
Many religions.


Military Level:
[4 to 6]
1300 CE

levels. typically decimal system used.
1. Khan
2. General of 10,000 soldiers3. (General of 1,000 soldiers?)4. 1005. 106. Individual soldier
"In accordance with Mongol tradition, Kebek Khan divided Transoxania into military-administrative districts, or tümens (in Per- sian orthography, tu ̄ma ̄n), that is, ‘10,000’ (the original meaning being a group of 10,000 fighting men or a territory providing that number of warriors). The holdings of many local landowners became tümens, and the landowners themselves hereditary governors." [1]
"Along with this land Chaghadai was given a portion of the army,including four regiments of a thousand, each led by an important tribal commander.2" [2]
"The early Chaghadayid khans and their followers lived out in the steppe, but in the early fourteenth century the Chaghadayid Khan Kebeg (1318-1326) took up his residence in Transoxiana and began to take a more direct interest in the settled population. Kebeg undertook a number of reforms and is credited with organizing Transoxiana into tümens, regions supporting ten-thousand soldiers, of which seven were in the Samarqand region and nine in Ferghana.3" [2]

[1]: (Ashrafyan 1998, 324)

[2]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 81)


Administrative Level:
[4 to 5]
[1227, 1402]

levels.
1. Kaghan
2. Governors for the settled regions.3. Princes - rulers of provincial districts. Representatives of Mongol power."The Chaghatay ulus was a decentralized state, with governors appointed by the Kaghan (for the settled regions, until 1289) and rulers of provincial districts, i.e. princes assisted by special officials, the darughachi or tammachi, the representatives of Mongol power." [1]
4. darugachi or tammachi5. assistants for darugachi?
4. Head of mint inferred5. Mint worker inferred
Split into Eastern and Western Khanate in mid-14th Century [2]
"The Chagatai khans ruled from the eastern side of the Khanate, an area that had gained the nickname Mughulistan, ’Land of the Mongols’; they had never been able to wield very much power in the western reaches of the kingdom, Transoxania (the lands just east of the Oxus river). There, amirs (local Mongol chiefs) wielded the real power. [3]
"The administrative reform divided the country around Bukhara and Samarkand into tümens, and in Ferghana and East Turkistan into orchins (literally ‘near’, ‘around’, ‘surrounding’), i.e. a region located around the capital. " [1]
"The Chaghatay ulus was a decentralized state, with governors appointed by the Kaghan (for the settled regions, until 1289) and rulers of provincial districts, i.e. princes assisted by special officials, the darughachi or tammachi, the representatives of Mongol power." [1]
"At the time of Temür’s rise to power, politics in the Ulus Chaghatay was controlled by the tribes who made it up. With the decline of central leadership, control over the territory and wealth of the Ulus had fallen to them. They provided most of the military manpower of the Ulus, either from their own tribesmen or from the armies of the regions under their control. No one therefore could either become or remain leader of the Ulus wihout the backing of the tribal leaders. Tribal chiefs naturally were not eager to strengthen the position of a central leader; they were intolerant of claims to sovereignty over them,and if a leader displeased them, they were quick to switch their loyalties to a rival candidate. Under these circumstances, central leadership was often contested, sometimes even after a leader had been acclaimed by the tribes of the Ulus." [4]
"The early Chaghadayid khans and their followers lived out in the steppe, but in the early fourteenth century the Chaghadayid Khan Kebeg (1318-1326) took up his residence in Transoxiana and began to take a more direct interest in the settled population. Kebeg undertook a number of reforms and is credited with organizing Transoxiana into tümens, regions supporting ten-thousand soldiers, of which seven were in the Samarqand region and nine in Ferghana.3" [5]

[1]: (Akhmedov and Sinor 1998, 269)

[2]: (Khan 2003, 32) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.

[3]: (Wise Bauer 2013, 557) Wise Bauer, S. 2013. The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople. W. W. Norton & Company.

[4]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 79)

[5]: (Forbes Manz 1983, 81)


Professions
Professional Soldier:
Present
[1227, 1402]

As with Mongols.


Professional Priesthood:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Full-time specialists. Coexistence of various religions including Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism and shamanism. The presence of Catholic missionaries is attested [1] and several Khans followed Islam. Hence the presence of full-time religious specialists can be inferred.

[1]: (Grousset 1970, 341)


Professional Military Officer:
Present
[1227, 1402]

As with Mongols.


Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Mints.


Merit Promotion:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Full Time Bureaucrat:
Present
[1227, 1402]

darughachi were specialist administrators.
"The Chaghatay ulus was a decentralized state, with governors appointed by the Kaghan (for the settled regions, until 1289) and rulers of provincial districts, i.e. princes assisted by special officials, the darughachi or tammachi, the representatives of Mongol power." [1]

[1]: (Akhmedov and Sinor 1998, 269)


Examination System:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Law
Professional Lawyer:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Judge:
Present
[1227, 1402]

"There is also disagreement about how Mongol customary law and Shari’ia law may have co-existed in Muslim territories. Successful coexistence seems to depend on the particular Khan." [1]

[1]: 1. Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 161.

Judge:
Absent
[1227, 1402]

"There is also disagreement about how Mongol customary law and Shari’ia law may have co-existed in Muslim territories. Successful coexistence seems to depend on the particular Khan." [1]

[1]: 1. Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 161.


Formal Legal Code:
Absent
[1227, 1402]

Chagatai khans observed the yasaq [1] . Hence the same applies as in the Mongol Empire: Morgan argues that the evidence does not support that claim that the Mongols had a written legal code - Chingiz Khan’s ’Great Yasa’. He argues instead that they had "a body of unwritten Mongol customary law" and that Chingis’ maxims or utterances were recorded and used in customary law. [2] There is also disagreement about how Mongol customary law and Shari’ia law may have co-existed in Muslim territories. Successful coexistence seems to depend on the particular Khan. [3]

[1]: (Grousset 1970, 341)

[2]: David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2007), pp.85-87

[3]: 1. Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 161.


Court:
Present
[1227, 1402]

"There is also disagreement about how Mongol customary law and Shari’ia law may have co-existed in Muslim territories. Successful coexistence seems to depend on the particular Khan." [1]

[1]: 1. Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 161.

Court:
Absent
[1227, 1402]

"There is also disagreement about how Mongol customary law and Shari’ia law may have co-existed in Muslim territories. Successful coexistence seems to depend on the particular Khan." [1]

[1]: 1. Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 161.


Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Irrigation System:
Present
[1227, 1402]

much damage to irrigation systems in Mongol conquest but not entirely destroyed.


Food Storage Site:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Transport Infrastructure
Road:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Present in Mongolian Empire.


Port:
Absent
[1227, 1402]

Present in Mongolian Empire, this region landlocked.


Canal:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Present in Mongolian Empire, unknown in this region


Bridge:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Present in Mongolian Empire.


Special-purpose Sites
Mines or Quarry:
Unknown
[1227, 1402]

Information / Writing System
Written Record:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Rich literary corpus.


Script:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Phonetic Alphabetic Writing:
Present
[1227, 1402]

Chinggis Khan had a Mongolian script “adapted from the Uighur variety of Turkish” [1]

[1]: Morgan, David. The Mongols. 2nd ed. The Peoples of Europe. Malden, MA ; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p.9.