The rise and fall of the Golden Horde, the Mongol state that was founded in Eastern Europe, is understandably well known in our country. We also know the fate of the Mongol Empire proper, also called the Yuan Dynasty in Chinese, quite well: several centuries of persistent attempts to take possession of Southern China, gallant landings in Japan, the unsuccessful invasion of Vietnam — all this is also of great interest. The Ilkhanate or state of Hulaguid, the Middle Eastern power of the Mongols, is famous for fighting with the Mamluks of Egypt, conquering the remnants of the Seljuk Empire, and diplomatic contacts with the Pope.
Modern understanding of Chagatai. Considered the only intellectual among the early Chingizids, he was more inclined to administrative activity
But the ulus that was given to Chagatai, located in Central Asia, attracts attention much less. And in vain: he fought almost on equal terms with Tamerlane, defeating him, such that he was never completely conquered; he made campaigns to India and found the courage to cross the great khans; after all, it was the Chagatai rulers who became the last of the Genghisids, who held real power in their hands, albeit being someone’s vassal. Let us tell you about this interesting country.
After the death of Juchi, the first-born son of Genghis Khan, and then the departure to the other world of the shaker of the universe, Chagatai, his second son, was the oldest of the Genghisids. Therefore, he got the best lands among the already conquered, while the indigenous ulus, that is, Mongolia itself, by tradition should go into the possession of the younger.
At the second kurultai of the Mongol Empire, held in 1229, it was decided to elect Ugedei’s third son as the great khan. Either the princes themselves decided, or the ruler said his weighty word, but the territories of the former khanates of the western lands, i.e., the former possessions of the Karakitai, Merkits and Naimans, were given to Chagatai, although Genghis Khan intended to give them to the Dzhuchids.
If to use modern political geography, then at the peak of the military power Chagatai ulus covered south-eastern and eastern Kazakhstan, all Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the most part of Afghanistan, except for the far south and east, Uzbekistan, except for Khorezm, the west of China (now — Xinjiang) and a little bit of Mongolia. Power came out glorious, the area of 6 million square kilometers. It is approximately equal to the area of the Golden Horde, but the population of the Chagatai clearly exceeded it. Because of the geographical proximity, many of the Mongol tribes had migrated here, and the pulp was made up of Tokharistan and Maverannahr (in antiquity — Bactria and Sogdiana) — important cultural and economic centers.
Local rulers acted autonomously, and yet many of them, until the early 14th century, sat on the throne at the behest of the general Mongol Great Khan. They tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to participate in the Toluid civil war, which resulted in the Yuan Empire being led by Khubilai. The Juchi line managed to intercept possession of a part of Khorezm, though not for long. But then the era of active foreign policy in the khanate ended, and it plunged into internal strife for a long time.
The main problems were the civilizational confrontation between nomads and farmers, as well as Islam and other religions. The Mongols and the sedentary population, mainly Tajiks and Turks, were in permanent political confrontation. The former wanted more gold, carpets and cloth, the latter did not want to give it away. There were several urban uprisings, but in response the horde came from the steppe, which in the style of Genghis Khan simply destroyed all living things.
About the second was much more interesting. The urban and rural population of Maverannahr had long been Islamized by that time. Whereas the nomads clung to their traditional cults, and some of them had adopted the Nestorian branch of Christianity as early as the 11th century. The Merkits, the Naimans, the Karakitai — many of them were baptized. The Roman pope tried to send his commissioner to the khan’s headquarters of Almalyk — now in Chinese territory near the border of Kazakhstan. The first envoy was let under the knife by the Muslims. But the legate Giovanni de Marignoli reached safely, built a church, left the priests and continued his way to Beijing. After him all this remained intact for a short time, but many nomadic clans still stood for Christ.
There were pagans, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists among the khans and khan candidates before Islam finally took hold. Still, the nomadic population resisted it, perceiving religion as a difference between themselves and the settled Iranians and Turks. Only shortly before the collapse of the power in the 1340s did the Muslim religion spread among the nomads. This process went simultaneously with the Turkization of the nomadic Mongols.
Several unsuccessful raids into India, the territory of the Delhi Sultanate, reduced the territory and available military forces. Indian Tajiks and Turks went on the offensive and conquered Afghanistan, and the captured Mongol warriors were thrown under the hooves of their terrible elephants. After this the political disorganization of the Chagatai Khanate began, and it broke up into Moghulistan in the east and into western Maverannahr.
The ruler of the eastern Mongols conquered the lands along the Amu Darya River, and planted his son as a governor there. The latter found a local boy to rule the unruly region — a former brigand attacker, Timur son of Taragai from the Barlas tribe. Tamerlane, and it was he, defeated his rivals in the internecine struggle, and first of all decided to take on the legitimate rulers of the Chagatai Khanate. However, he himself was considered only a steward under the legitimate monarch of Genghis Khan’s family. Of course, the latter had no shadow of power.
Amir Timur made seven campaigns against his most principled opponents. More and more persistently he did not fight against the Indians, or against the Turks, or against the Golden Horde. The Mongols were defeated and fled, but they retained their possessions in the west of what is now China. And when Tamerlane went to ground, they managed to reclaim something. However, in the 15th century they owned only East Turkestan.
At that time, the state began to really fragment. In the Mongolian manner, each region had previously had its own khan, but now the Genghisids turned their own estates into fully independent states. And in the cities began to rule Khoja from the Sufi order Naqshbandi. Ismail Khan expelled one of the prominent spiritual leaders named Appak Khoja, but he fled to Tibet, where he found refuge with Dalai Lama V. The head of Buddhism agreed with the Western Mongols to send an army, and in 1680 the Dzungarian Khanate entered the territory of the Chagatai estates with 120 thousand cavalry. The power of Khoja in the cities was really restored. But in fact, East Turkestan was conquered by the Dzungars for themselves.
In red is Hami County in modern China, the former Kumul Khanate. It’s the size of Greece, but don’t be deceived — just over half a million people live there
Nevertheless, they left small principalities at the disposal of the descendants of the shaker of the universe. One of them was the tiny Khanate of Hami (Kumul) in the eastern part of the present Chinese region of Xinjiang. It was a small oasis with a few thousand tens of population. After the Manchus of China’s Qing Dynasty defeated Dzungaria, Kumul became a vassal of Beijing. It was granted self-government in exchange for more or less nominal tribute. But in 1930, the local governor prevented the young heir, Nasiru, from succeeding to his father’s throne. Instead, the latter was imprisoned, after which the last Mongol khanate under direct rule of the Chinggisids was abolished.