Jagatai Khanate

(Chaghatai Khanate), the general name for the Asiatic regions comprising that portion of the Mongol empire inherited by Jagatai and his house when in 1224 his father, Genghis Khan, assigned appanages to each of his sons.

The Jagatai Khanate included Mavrannakhar, Semirech’e, and Kashgaria. The Jagatai khans transferred direct administration of Mavrannakhar to the governors and tax-farmers Mahmud lalavach (1225-38) and his son Masudbek (1238-89), who cruelly exploited and oppressed the local population. After the kuriltai (tribal assembly) of 1251 and the accession of Mongke Khan, most of the adult members of the Jagatai dynasty were executed. The khanate was divided between Möngke and Batu, who received Mavrannakhar. In the 1260’s, Jagataoïs grandson Algu restored the dynasty’s authority in the khanate. Algu’s successors, Mubarek and Borak, desiring closer ties with the population of the settled regions, converted to Islam. The headquarters of the khan and some Mongol families, including the Jalairs and Barlases, were moved to Mavrannakhar from Semirech’e (1266). Attempts by various khans to preserve the unity of the Mongol possessions, particularly the administrative and financial reforms of Kebek Khan (1318-26), were unable to prevent feudal disintegration. By the 1340’s the Jagatai Khanate had, in fact, disintegrated into several feudal possessions. With the formation of Tamerlane’s state, the suzerainty of the Jagatai house in Mavrannakhar came to an end.