The Political Configuration of Late Ilkhanid Iran: A Case Study of the Chubanid Amirate (738–758/1337–1357)

ABSTRACT The disintegration of the Ilkhanate following the death of its last effective ruler, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan (d. 736/1335), precipitated the emergence of a number of regional dynasties, not least of all the Chubanids who claimed the former Mongolian core territories of Azerbaijan and Mughan in north-western Iran. Between 738/1337 and 758/1357, the Chubanids worked strenuously to reconstitute the Ilkhanid dispensation under their control. This period, which has so far been largely ignored by historians, may therefore offer a great deal of information about the balance of power, both in the late Ilkhan court and the warring states period that prefaced the Timurid dominion of the fifteenth century. The present study will begin the process of demystifying this still largely unexplored chapter of Iran's political history by outlining how the Chubanids supported their claim to power through a coalition of “Turks and Tajiks” drawn from the sedentary and nomadic population of the former Ilkhanate. It will argue that this coalition was wooed to the Chubanids by an eclectic mix of Chinggisid, Islamic, and Persian political symbolism, which speaks to the dynamic imperial culture of the late Ilkhanate.