Akhanateorkhaganate is a type of historic polity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum.[1][2] Khanates were typically nomadic Turkic, Mongol and Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe,[3][4][5] politically equivalent in status to kinship-based chiefdoms and feudalmonarchies. Khanates and khaganates were organised tribally, where leaders gained power on the support and loyalty of their warrior subjects,[3] gaining tribute from subordinates as realm funding.[6] In comparison to a khanate, a khaganate, the realm of a khagan, was a large nomadic state maintaining subjugation over numerous smaller khanates.[7] The title of khagan, translating as "Khan of the Khans", roughly corresponds in status to that of an emperor.[4]
Mongol Empire was the largest steppe nomadic Khaganate as well as second largest empire and the largest contiguous empire[8] in history. After Genghis Khan established appanages for his family in the Mongol Empire during his rule (1206–1227), his sons, daughters, and grandsons inherited separate sections of the empire. The Mongol Empire and Mongolian khanates that emerged from those appanages are listed below.
List of Mongol khanates
Chagatai Khanate (1226–1347), In 1226, the second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai Khan established the Chagatai Khanate. At its height in the late 13th century, the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the defunct Qara Khitai Empire. Initially the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate recognized the supremacy of the Great Khan, but by the reign of Kublai Khan, Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq no longer obeyed the emperor's orders. By 1347 the khanate had splitted into the Moghulistan and West Chagatai Khanate.[9]
Il-Khanate (1252–1335), In 1256, Il-Khanate was established by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan. Its core territory lies in what is now part of the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, part of modern Dagestan, and part of modern Tajikistan. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, converted to Islam. In the 1330s, the Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death. Its last khan Abu Sa'id died in 1335, after which the khanate disintegrated. The Ilkhanid rulers, although of non-Iranian origin, tried to advertise their authority by tying themselves to the Iranian past, and they recruited historians in order to present the Mongols as heirs to the Sasanians (224–651 AD) of pre-Islamic Iran.
Kalmyk Khanate, established c.1630 by the Torghut branch of the Mongol Oirats, settled along the lower Volga River (in modern Russia and Kazakhstan), 1630-1771
Xueyantuo, mentioned in Chinese sources, were a Tiele tribe, related to the earlier Dingling people, who emerged after the disintegration of the Xiongnu confederacy (they were at one point vassals of the Göktürks, later aligning with the Tang dynasty against the Eastern Göktürks).
Early and Late Medieval Turkic khaganates and khanates
First Bulgarian Empire, which started as a Turkic state, also known as Danube Bulgaria (in contrast to Volga Bulgaria, as both were established by members of the same Bulgar TurkicDulo clan), but later became fully Slavicized and a Tsardom.
Khanate of Kashgaria – Kashgaria was founded in 1514 as part of Chagatai Khanate; in the 17th century it was divided into several minor khanates without importance, with real power going to the so-called Khwaja, Arabic Islamic religious leaders. It became the Yarkent Khanate which was annexed by the Dzungar Khanate in the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr in 1680.
Bukey Horde, Bokei or Buqei; also known as the Inner or Interior Horde – This state founded in 1801 by Sultan Bukey under Russian suzerainty, and restyled as the khanate of the Inner Horde in 1812. 5,000–7,500 families of Kazakhs from the Younger Kazakh Zhuz tribe settled between the Volga and Yaik (Ural) rivers. In 1845 the post of khan was abolished, and Russia took over the region.
Old Great Bulgaria
Media related to Khanates at Wikimedia Commons
