In the 13th century, the Mongol iron horse galloped across the Eurasian continent, and its terrifying combat power made both the East and the West tremble. In particular, after Genghis Khan unified the various departments of Mongolia, Genghis Khan repeatedly invaded and expanded abroad, successively conquering the Western Xia, Western Liao, JinGuo, Huarazimo and other countries, and establishing a vast territory including North China, Northeast China, Western Regions, Central Asia, West Asia, and Eastern Europe. It can be said that in a short period of time, this wave of expansion has brought about great political, cultural and geographical changes in the Middle Ages. It not only greatly affected the historical process of the Mongol nation, but also left a deep imprint on the trajectory of the evolution of human civilization.
At that time, the Mongol Empire had an area of about 33 million square kilometers, making it the most vast land empire in human history. And it was precisely because the territory of the Mongol Empire was extremely vast, which meant that as the geographical distance between the frontier areas and the central government became more and more distant, the central government's control over it was bound to decrease. Eventually, after the rivalry between Ali Bu ge and Kublai Khan for the throne, it gradually split and established several major khanates on the basis of the Mongol Empire.
In 1251, the Mongol Empire launched the Third Western Expedition against the outside world, led by Hulagu, the younger brother of the Great Khan Möngke. At the behest of Möngke Khan, Hulagu led the Mongol army to the Abbasid Dynasty in West Asia, and after four years of bitter fighting, the Mongol Iron Horse finally conquered the entire Iranian plateau and the Two Rivers Valley, and incorporated it into the territory of the Mongol Empire. Just as Hulagu was full of ambition and preparing to attack the Mamluk state in Egypt, Möngke Khan died violently under the Diaoyu City in Sichuan, and upon learning of the bad news, Hulagu had to leave the vanguard timid to continue the conquest, and led the rest of his army back to Persia (present-day Iran).
Möngke's death had a great impact on the world order at that time, and the Third Mongol Expedition under Hulagu was forced to be suspended, and after Möngke's death, a five-year struggle for the khanship between his brother Kublai Khan and Ali Buge broke out. In the eyes of the Mongol royal family, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty who was keen on Han law and credit for Han chen, was not popular, so most of them supported Ali Bu brothers, including the three khanates of Wokoutai, Chagatai and Chincha. In order to gain Hulagu's support, Kublai Khan sent envoys to distribute the Persian territory west of the Amu Darya River to the Border of Egypt and the Mongol military and civilians there under Hulagu rule. Therefore, Hulagu, who had acquired a large territory, called himself Khan on the spot and did not return to Mongolia itself, thus establishing a dynasty, the Ilkhanate.
It was because of Hulagu's blood relationship with Kublai Khan (half-brother) that after the founding of the Ilkhanate, the connection with the Yuan Dynasty was far closer than that of the other three kingdoms of the four great Mongol khanates. Its territory stretched from the present-day Amu Darya River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, from the Caucasus in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. Subsequently, Hulagu took Theraha (present-day Malagh, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran) as its capital, followed the example of the Yuan Dynasty in setting up a prime minister to take charge of national affairs, appointed provincial governors, and ordered his eldest son, Abaha, to lead the khanate of Khorasan and other provinces in the east.
Due to the friendly relations between the two countries, the long-lost Silk Road was smoothed, and China's four major inventions accelerated the speed of westward transmission, and the return cannon, Arabic numerals, and Arabic calendar were also introduced to China. Obviously, the period of Hulagu's reign cannot be ignored in the development of Chinese history, which also makes him an emperor with an important influence in the history of the world. In his later years, Hulagu devoted himself to consolidating his rule in Persia, and through force of coercion or marriage, he purged the separatist forces in Persia and made Persia the core of the Ilkhanate's rule.
In the third year of the Yuan Dynasty (1266 AD), Hulagu died of illness, and his eldest son Abaha was elected Ash Khan by the ministers of the Khanate. However, Abaha was reluctant to ascend the throne, and the assistant minister was very suspicious of the young khan's approach, so he went to ask Abaha why he did not want to ascend the throne, and Abaha said to the ministers in a categorical manner: "The Yuan Dynasty is our suzerainty, Kublai Khan's uncle, as the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, is also the patriarch of the Mongol tribe and the golden family, and I will inherit the throne of my father Khan this time, and if my uncle does not give me the canonization, I will never serve as the Great Khan." ”
It can be seen from this that the Ilkhanate at that time was loyal to the Yuan court, but because the Ilkhanate was relatively far away from the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan's letter of appointment was sent to the Ilkhanate a few years later, appointing Abaha as the Great Khan of the Ilkhanate. Until then, Abha had not ascended the throne, but only as a regent, until he saw this letter of appointment, and it was not until he saw this letter of appointment that he began to declare himself the new monarch of the Ilkhanate. In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also retained the Ilkhans' share of land in Shanxi, Henan and other places, and awarded them annually to show their favor.
Various relationships indicate that the Yuan Dynasty regarded the Ilkhanate as the most important vassal state, gave it a special status, and issued seals specifically to their kings. Remarkably, Kublai Khan's seal to Ilkhan was neither Mongolian nor Persian, nor did it use the Uighur language popular in Central Asia, but exclusively Chinese. The seal was inscribed with the six Chinese characters of "Treasure of the Auxiliary State and the People", and from that moment on, all foreign letters of the Ilkhanate must be stamped with Kublai Khan's jade seal to indicate that the Ilkhanate was a vassal state of the Yuan Dynasty. From this, some people believe that the Ilkhanate is not a truly independent state, but a highly independent vassal state, just like goryeo in the Yuan Dynasty.
Thus, by the mid-twentieth century, a French scholar had discovered in Iran a relic from the Yuan Dynasty, a letter written on parchment that had been written to King Philip IV of France by Aruhun, the fourth monarch of the Ilkhanate. In the letter, Aruhun hoped that Philip IV could send troops with him to attack the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, and Aruhun said in the letter that if Philip IV was willing to send troops to help, he would be willing to give Jerusalem to the church in return. For this reason, Aruhun himself will be baptized and become a Christian.
The French scholar who found the letter did not study much of the Mongolian script in the letter, and he was surprised to find that the letter was printed with six Chinese characters, which were printed by Kublai Khan's jade seal to the Ilkhanate. Moreover, according to other texts, the Ilkhanate has been using it to seal the state book after obtaining the national seal, and the monarch of the Ilkhanate has never called himself the Great Khan to the outside world, but has called himself the Governor of Persia, which is used to indicate the affiliation of the Ilkhanate with the Yuan Empire. Later, the scholar lamented in his book: "It turns out that in the thirteenth century, Persia has always been a province of China, and the Mongol khans of the Ilkhanate have always been loyal to the Mongol emperors of China." ”
Finally, we would like to say that since Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Khanate, the hereditary lineage of the Golden Family has established a series of regimes of varying sizes in Eurasia. In addition to the Mongolian Yuan headquarters, there were four Mongol regimes with great influence, namely the Chincha Khanate, the Chagatai Khanate, the Wokoutai Khanate, and the Ilkhanate. However, among them, only the monarch of the Ilkhanate needed to be sent by the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty to be canonized, and the Yuan court successively issued Chinese seals such as "The Treasure of the Imperial Palace and the People", "The Treasure of the True Emperor and the Treasure of Shunwanyi", as a symbol of the Vassal State of the Yuan Dynasty. It was not until 1388, when the khanate was divided by the kings, that it was destroyed by the Timurid Empire.