By the beginning of the fourteenth century the court histories of the Īl-Khānate had begun to lament that 'qarachu' (non-royal) commanders dominated the realm.The same histories report that these qarachu were drawn from the families of the khans' royal guardsmen (kešik,).The fact that these kešik families had come to eclipse, and in some cases threaten, the power of their Chinggisid patrons suggests a much broader transformation of the ĪI-Khān polity from the patrimonial government of the khan's household, which characterised the early Mongol Empire, to a quasi-feudal state, dominated by a powerful military aristocracy.The present study will elucidate how this new aristocracy supported their authority through the hereditary transmission of armies, property and, offices, which entrenched their position at the summit of Īl-Khān polity.
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